Guided Reading in Spanish

Dual language programs across the board can be very different from school to school, district to district and state to state. Some dual language programs don't have guided reading groups in the Spanish classroom for grades as young as Kindergarten, however, I believe that both classrooms should run very similarly in the sense of the routines and the activities that the students engage in. I believe that both languages should have equal emphasis and importance, so as to not devalue or demote the significance of one language or culture over another. Furthermore, I think it's important to make sure that we are always stimulating and pushing our students forward, especially when there are such varying linguistic levels in a classroom (as is often seen in dual language settings!). Thus, in the dual language program we are building at Gator Run, we have guided reading center rotations during our learning centers. There are many different activities related to reading (and writing of course!) that happen during this 20 minute center, but I believe that time has been so instrumental in helping children gain linguistic confidence in their Spanish abilities as well as push students towards being able to read words, phrases and even sentences in Spanish. 

Here is my guided reading/teacher center table/area:

I painted my one table with Dry Erase paint so that students could write (and be able to see it better) when they came to me for this rotation - and the kids love it! Students come and begin by tracing their name (practicing handwriting) and/or sight words/sentences with dry erase markers while I make sure that the other groups are set and ready to begin! I also put out their book basket so that they can read the book if they finish tracing.

Here students are using whisper phones while reading their syllable words for the week during our guided reading groups. Students love these phones! They can hear themselves reading, which helps them recognize how it sounds when they read the word and it also allows me to lean in by each child and hear them read the text. Those books featured in the pictures are books from Venezuela, that I actually used also when I learned to read in Spanish back in the day! These books feature syllables and then words with those syllables and then some simple sentences at the bottom of each page. The book is simple, but that's how one learns to read in Spanish - by learning to read syllabically! We sound out the words syllable by syllable and then children practice reading the words themselves.

Here students are writing in their Spanish notebook during guided reading. I started Spanish notebooks around the middle of October. We use this notebook to respond to stories, work on our syllable words and to write words that we hear (sounding them out). This is an interactive notebook also, so sometimes, I might have something for the students to work on and then glue in their notebook that is related to our syllables/word work. I decided to use a Spanish notebook so that students can work on these skills (as well as handwriting!) hand in hand with reading since both are so closely related. The Spanish notebook is also differentiated by each reading group. That's another reason I decided to use the notebook, because I thought it could be a great differentiation tool and really work on the reading/writing skills each group needs and to document that progress throughout the year. 

 

During guided reading we also practice our sight words (palabras de uso frecuente)! Here, I was saying a word out loud and I had them write the word how they heard it (sounding it out). Then, I show the students the word so that they can see how the wrote it. The students enjoy writing the words and then waiting to see the "real" word on a star that I have them on and get so excited when they see that they've written it correctly or very close!

Guided reading in Kindergarten can include many different goals and activities to help children become readers and writers and it is no different in a dual language program on the side of the target language!