Fallis, Guadalupe Valdes. (1975). Teaching spanish to the spanish-speaking: classroom strategies. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED097806.pdf.
Database: ERIC
Summary:
The basic summary of this book deals with aiding native Spanish speakers in becoming literate in their reading and writing skills in the Spanish language. We often think that these students do not need any extra guidance from the teacher because they already know how to speak the language. Unfortunately, although many students are able to speak and understand Spanish, they are illiterate when it comes to writing or reading in that same language. What this book suggests are several strategies to improve the reading and writing skills of these native Spanish speakers so that they can be literate bilinguals. Most native speakers know many more words than they are actually capable of writing. When the spoken words are written the problem lies within the spelling. There are several irregularities in the native speakers writing. The first is that they write in incomplete forms. Their writing can seem unusual to the reader that is accustomed to standard Spanish and many errors are caused by interferences of English spelling conventions. These native speakers need to be taught the sound and orthographic symbols of both vowels and consonants. First, the vowel phonemes need to be introduced and simple sentences should be written using those phonemes. Next, the students need to be introduced to the concept of dipthongs and list and give examples. Just like vowel phonemes, students need to be drilled over consonant phonemes. Lastly, the students should be taught about the rules for syllabic stresses and accent marks within the written language. Integrating these four steps into the instruction will go a long way in improving the written work of our native Spanish speaking students. Native speakers also need to be taught how to read in Spanish. The goal of teaching reading is for the student to acquire ease and confidence in their ability to read Spanish.Students need to read for understanding and should take their best guess of words they are unsure of. We do not want these students to confuse reading aloud and "sounding good" with understanding what they are reading. Comprehension is the most important goal. There are several ways to begin implementing and then progressing through teaching reading to native Spanish speakers. Students need to be given daily reading assignments. They should review the sounds learned previously in class, should be presented to new sounds, practice writing new sounds from dictation, complete listening exercises, prepare short narrations to present to classmates, and discuss previously assigned readings in class. By providing our native speakers with in their own dialect, they will begin to see how being bilingual is an asset and a very marketable quality.
Assessment Strategies:
Based upon my reading of this book I have come up with several suggestions for how to accurately assess these "special needs" students. Each week that a new step is added to the writing and reading process the students need to demonstrate that they understand the phonemes and readings gone over in class. This can be done simply be asking students to list words with simple vowel symbols as opposed to dipthongs. A more formative assessment could consist of giving the student a list of words and asking them to label the vowels as either a simple vowel or a dipthong. I could make flashcards for the students of the vowel and consonant sounds and ask them to give me a word that uses those sounds when the flashcard is shown. After going over the rules for syllabication, the students could complete a worksheet in which they have to separate each word by syllables and underline the stressed syllable within each word. All of these are good ways to assess whether or not the student is grasping the new concepts and ideas being presented to them. As far as reading goes, it is most important that the student understand what they read. It makes most sense to start off with short paragraphs or stories and then ask the student to summarize the main points of the reading. This would be a good way to assess reading comprehension. This could be done on a day to day basis in the classroom or could be done on a formative assessment in which the student had to read and answer comprehension questions. Students could also be assessed on their reading of selected portions to the class.
Database: ERIC
Summary:
The basic summary of this book deals with aiding native Spanish speakers in becoming literate in their reading and writing skills in the Spanish language. We often think that these students do not need any extra guidance from the teacher because they already know how to speak the language. Unfortunately, although many students are able to speak and understand Spanish, they are illiterate when it comes to writing or reading in that same language. What this book suggests are several strategies to improve the reading and writing skills of these native Spanish speakers so that they can be literate bilinguals. Most native speakers know many more words than they are actually capable of writing. When the spoken words are written the problem lies within the spelling. There are several irregularities in the native speakers writing. The first is that they write in incomplete forms. Their writing can seem unusual to the reader that is accustomed to standard Spanish and many errors are caused by interferences of English spelling conventions. These native speakers need to be taught the sound and orthographic symbols of both vowels and consonants. First, the vowel phonemes need to be introduced and simple sentences should be written using those phonemes. Next, the students need to be introduced to the concept of dipthongs and list and give examples. Just like vowel phonemes, students need to be drilled over consonant phonemes. Lastly, the students should be taught about the rules for syllabic stresses and accent marks within the written language. Integrating these four steps into the instruction will go a long way in improving the written work of our native Spanish speaking students. Native speakers also need to be taught how to read in Spanish. The goal of teaching reading is for the student to acquire ease and confidence in their ability to read Spanish.Students need to read for understanding and should take their best guess of words they are unsure of. We do not want these students to confuse reading aloud and "sounding good" with understanding what they are reading. Comprehension is the most important goal. There are several ways to begin implementing and then progressing through teaching reading to native Spanish speakers. Students need to be given daily reading assignments. They should review the sounds learned previously in class, should be presented to new sounds, practice writing new sounds from dictation, complete listening exercises, prepare short narrations to present to classmates, and discuss previously assigned readings in class. By providing our native speakers with in their own dialect, they will begin to see how being bilingual is an asset and a very marketable quality.
Assessment Strategies:
Based upon my reading of this book I have come up with several suggestions for how to accurately assess these "special needs" students. Each week that a new step is added to the writing and reading process the students need to demonstrate that they understand the phonemes and readings gone over in class. This can be done simply be asking students to list words with simple vowel symbols as opposed to dipthongs. A more formative assessment could consist of giving the student a list of words and asking them to label the vowels as either a simple vowel or a dipthong. I could make flashcards for the students of the vowel and consonant sounds and ask them to give me a word that uses those sounds when the flashcard is shown. After going over the rules for syllabication, the students could complete a worksheet in which they have to separate each word by syllables and underline the stressed syllable within each word. All of these are good ways to assess whether or not the student is grasping the new concepts and ideas being presented to them. As far as reading goes, it is most important that the student understand what they read. It makes most sense to start off with short paragraphs or stories and then ask the student to summarize the main points of the reading. This would be a good way to assess reading comprehension. This could be done on a day to day basis in the classroom or could be done on a formative assessment in which the student had to read and answer comprehension questions. Students could also be assessed on their reading of selected portions to the class.