Palabras de alta frecuencia/High Frequency Words

One of the best things about teaching literacy in Spanish is its lovely decodable-ness.  Okay, so maybe that's not a word but it is nice to work with a language that doesn't cause constant confusion with all of its exceptions.  

While we don't have to worry about SIGHT WORDS in Spanish, we can help young learners become fluent readers more quickly by teaching high-frequency words in Spanish.  

Here is my list of 100 high frequency words in Spanish based on several research-based lists.  You can download it for free here.

Last week, I was in a Kindergarten classroom in Stephenville and saw this teacher's great way of keeping track of the high frequency words that students are learning.  Each week, the teacher gives the students a card with the new word(s) of the week and those are kept on a ring.  Students can practice reading their words and refer to them during writing.

 I snapped the picture below in a first grade classroom in Mesquite.  The teacher had made his own version of this game and was using it as one of his center activities.  The students would walk around the room to the other students and ask them to read the word they were wearing.  They were so quiet and loved it!

Here is another fun and simple activity to practice with students in small groups so they can later play on their own in pairs.

Flashcards Activity-My Pile, Your Pile in Spanish from Mesquite ISD on Vimeo.

While it is important for students to be able to read the words in isolation, the real purpose of studying these words is to be able to read them in context.  Even students that don't know all of their letters and sounds can begin to read simple, repetitive texts.  

Hubbard's Cupboard has quite a few printable books in Spanish with high frequency words (scroll down and look for "Black and White Student Booklets" in Spanish).

The Rigby Colección PM Básicos readers are perfect for practicing words in context.  

What are your favorite ways for helping your students practice high frequency Spanish words in isolation and in context?  I love hearing your ideas!

Literacy Centers - Rodar una palabra

While budget cuts have reduced the number of conferences they get to attend and a long to-do list keeps them out of the teacher's lounge, Pinterest allows teachers to still share the amazingly creative things they are doing in the classroom. I recently visited Stephenville ISD where a fabulous Kindergarten bilingual teacher has been researching Pinterest and adapting the ideas she finds to work for her bilingual students. This idea, for example, became this literacy center:

The kids loved it and got in some great practice reading and writing their high-frequency words!

Explicit and Tiered Vocabulary Instruction - What, Why and How? - Part IV

I received a lot of positive feedback and great questions from several teachers that are extremely excited to learn more about vocabulary instruction, so I am answering these three crucial questions:

1. What does explicit vocabulary instruction really mean?

While I was explicitly teaching vocabulary, I quickly learned that it is important to make the distinction between oral vocabulary and reading vocabulary.  

Oral vocabulary can be further divided into listening vocabulary (receptive vocabulary) and speaking vocabulary (expressive vocabulary).   

Reading vocabulary is encountered in text and it is more complex than our speaking vocabulary.

2. Why is explicit vocabulary teaching so important?

Vocabulary is a strong predictor of reading comprehension. For our students to understand the text, they must know what most of the words mean before they can comprehend what they are reading. Children with well-developed vocabularies can recognize a new word in text faster and easier, if the word has an identity in their mind. 

 3. How do you choose which words to teach directly?

Isabel Beck and her colleagues have developed a really nice framework for choosing the most important words that should be targeted for instruction.  She divides words into three “tiers”.

Tier I words are the most common words. Examples: come, see, happy, table

Tier II words are high-frequency words. Examples: hilarious, endure, despise, arrange, compare, contrast. Examples: hilarious, endure, despise, arrange, compare, contrast

Tier III words are typically specialized words.   Examples: atom, molecule, metamorphic, sedimentary, continent. 

* She recommends identifying and teaching Tier II words as they occur and can be used across contexts.

Great resources

Book: Bringing Words to Life (Isabel L Beck)

Vocabulary Videos

Explicit Instruction

STAAR Guide to Success (STAAR Guide to Success (Essential Assessed Content Vocabulary in English and Spanish)

Building Automaticity: Carrera de palabras/Word Race

Don't forget about our giveaway of Blooming Writers/El escritor floreciente! You can submit comments until noon CST tomorrow (Friday, February 24th)!

There is a lot of emphasis on fluency these days.  If a student is struggling with fluency in reading, we first identify what type of fluency work needs to be done.  Does the student first need to develop automaticity with decoding and calling words?  Or, if automaticity is already in place, does he need work with prosody to make his reading sound like talking?  

Word Race is an excellent game for those students that fall in the first category of needing automaticity with individual word reading.  More games/activities for the second category to come soon!

To make the Word Race game, print three copies of the word race game board.  Glue one copy into the file folder.  Glue the other copies onto two different colors of construction paper and cut out individual cards.  Place cards in a plastic bag or envelope attached to the file folder along with two counters that match the colors of the cards.

Word Race is played in pairs of students.  With younger students in grades K-2, I will often have them play in groups of three so that the third student can be available to assist with reading and make sure no one "accidentally" cheats.  

Both students put their color counters at START or COMIENZO.  They begin reading each of the cards in their pile EN VOZ ALTA.  Yes, I did just code-switch because this is super-important  Each word must be read out loud.  When a student reads aloud a card that matches the next word on the game board, he moves his counter to that word and makes a mental note of what word he will be watching for next.  One more important thing...word cards must be moved from front to back of the stack.  For the little ones that can't hold all of the cards in their small hands, you can have them place the cards in a pile on the table or floor.  Students are NOT allowed to shuffle through the cards looking for the next word.  

This game works on automaticity because the students will read one set of 10-20 words (depending on the gameboard) over and over and over AND they think it is fun.  Another thing I love about this game is that winning the game is mostly based on luck and not necessarily because of skill.  This is a good thing for the struggling student that is easily discouraged.

If after all of this explanation, you are still totally confused, that is completely normal.  This is a game that is harder to explain to teachers than it is to students.  With students, I just model it once with a partner and they get it.  Here is a video of two third-graders that had just learned how to play the game minutes before.  Note that the girl started forgetting to read aloud the words at the end of the video.  When I stopped the camera and mentioned it to her, she started reading again with a louder voice.

Are you ready for some Word Race/Carrera de palabrasin your life?  Go here to find my free printable gameboards for high-frequency words in Spanish.  Seriously, this is a flashcard game that is actually fun to play.  You might just find yourself playing it with your family on Saturday night!