Tag: biliterate

August 30, 2018

Bilingual Children and intelligence

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2018-08-bilingual-children-native-language-home.html

July 20, 2018

How you will start teaching your child to read

https://www.anaelisamiranda.com/literacy/how-you-will-start-teaching-your-child-to-read

How you will start teaching your child to read

22/12/2017

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Picture your children immersed in a wonderful book. They can’t put it down. They read before bed, in the car, in the dentist’s waiting room. They talk about the coolest things they’ve read. They quote their favorite character. They max out their library card every week.

If that seems like a distant dream, know this: all that starts with the very basic elements of the words they’ll be reading: the letters and the sounds they make.

That’s it. That’s how your children will learn to read and have a whole new world open up to them. One letter-sound at a time. Just start.

★ The first skill to be learned is to listen.
Can your children rhyme?
Can they identify the first sound of words?
Can they tell you words that begin with /…/?
Can they tell you what new word you get if you change a sound in it? For example: “What do I get if I drop the /c/ in cat and put a /h/ instead?” They should easily answer “Hat”. (It’s important to use the sounds and not the letter names here.)

You can learn all this by playing games, reading a lot together and talking about how words are built.

You can read more about skills children need before learning to read here and here.

I also wrote a post on how you can support literacy even before your child starts to read.

There is no right age to start learning to read. In some countries, schools start reading instruction at Reception (4 to 5 year-olds) while in other countries they only start at 7. Your multilingual home is unique and only you can decide when you’re ready.

These are the next steps of the journey:

★ Your child needs to know the letters and what sounds they make. Teach them the sounds and not the letter names. One at a time. Talk about things that begin with that sound, draw pictures, play “I Spy”, ask your child to find that letter-sound whenever you’re reading together. If you’re not sure how to pronounce the sounds in isolation, here is a video.

★ When your child has already learned a few sounds, s/he can start reading words straight away. Sounding out and blending should become automatic with time. Make word lists or flashcards. Ask them to read words you know they are able to from a page you’ve been reading together. Stock up on decodable readers! Phonic books (like Bob Books) might seem uninteresting but they will build the child’s confidence. After all, they are reading a book all by themselves!

★ At the same time, teach them to form letters correctly. Yes, you can print out a worksheet. But you can also make it creative and fun: write on sand, write with their magic fingers/noses/toes in the air, make an art project, use Lego, sandpaper, you get the picture.

★ Finally, there are words in English that can’t be decoded. They are called sight wordsand need to be learned. Start with the most frequent ones like the, he, she, we, me, are, go, do, no, said and introduce only a couple at a time.

These are the mechanics of reading, which should lead to the ultimate goal: comprehension. When reading, discuss the pictures, ask what they think is going to happen next, why a character acted in a particular way, how the characters are feeling and why and if they have ever been in a similar situation. Ask them to retell you the story in their own words. If you’re reading non-fiction, ask them if they know anything else about the topic or if they would like to learn more about it.

Teaching and learning to read is a job that requires a lot of patience. Make sure it’s enjoyable for everyone and find what works best for your family.

July 4, 2018

Bilingual, biliterate and culturally aware children

https://www.anaelisamiranda.com/literacy

Becky Morales is an ESL and Spanish teacher. She’s an American mother of five bilingual and multicultural children and the founder of Kid World Citizen. She lives in Mexico with her family and loves connecting with teachers and parents on Facebook and Twitter.

Tell us a little about yourself and your family.
I am from the US and my husband is from Mexico. We met when we were both studying at the University of Illinois – Champaign, when they matched us up to be buddies (he was an exchange student at the time, and I was supposed to “show him around.”) We lived in London for a few years when we first married, and then lived in the US for many years. We moved to Mexico a year ago to improve our kids’ Spanish. Toño works in consulting and I am a teacher (ESL and Spanish). My kids (through birth and adoption) have roots in Mexico, the US, China, and Ethiopia.

What benefits does knowing different cultures and languages bring to your children?
I think the biggest advantage to being raised culturally aware is that they are more open to new experiences, they do not judge others, and they have a lot of empathy for people, accepting their different perspectives.How do you incorporate minority-language literacy in your daily lives?
When we are in the US, I make sure I have plenty of books in Spanish around- both that I can read to them, and that they can read on their own.Staying consistent in raising multilingual kids is tough. How do you and your kids stay motivated and focused on the goal?
It is really hard because when I am in a rush, I easily slip into English. We need to speak Spanish at home because my husband works long hours, and he doesn’t see them as much as I would (so OPOL wouldn’t work for us). We mess up a lot, and just start over and try harder 🙂

Have you encountered any literacy difficulties? How have you dealt with them?
One of my children is dyslexic, but it hasn’t hindered him in reading in Spanish any more than it has reading in English. Our difficulties have been more that the kids thought it was “harder” to read in their second language, and so they are resistant. As I keep encouraging them and as they get more comfortable, I see way less resistance. In fact, my daughter just read her first (very long!) novel in Spanish and LOVED it.

What would you tell parents who are hesitating about teaching their kids to read in multiple languages?
They definitely won’t get confused. The best part of reading in another language is that you transfer all of your literacy knowledge (like sounding out the words, chunks of letters that have meaning, etc) to both languages. Just keep reading to them, and they will begin to transfer their skills into the new language!

Tell us about how you started Kid World Citizen.
I started Kid World Citizen as a way to share cultural activities with transracial and transcultural adoptive parents, to help cultivate pride in their children for their heritage culture. I expanded it to include global learning from all corners of the world as I realized that many parents and teachers were interested in incorporating these activities with their children and students. My goal is to help this generation become responsible, empathetic, and culturally aware global citizens. Our world is so interconnected, that these 21st century skills will inevitably help our children not only succeed, but make the world a better place.