Literacy Activities for Spanish-English Bilingual ChildrenAuthor(s): Manuela González-BuenoSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Oct., 2003), pp. 189-192Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205338 .

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(Series). New York: Author. Scholastic. (1994b). More Bob Books for Young Readers/Set 2.

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, iteracy activities for

MANUELA GONZ?LEZ-BUENO "Wen

In spite of an increasing number of bilingual stu

dents in U.S. schools and the growing interest in

the teaching of foreign languages to young chil

dren, it is still difficult to find commercially pub lished K-12 English-Spanish bilingual materials. An

alternative is for teachers to make their own. With a

little imagination, a computer equipped with a good

clip-art program, and a printer (or, alternatively,

magazines and a pair of scissors), teachers can create

a wealth of educative tools to teach reading in

Spanish and in English to their students. In some in

dividual cases, children could help in deciding what

to include. Besides saving the high cost of published

materials, you can also adapt self-made materials in

content and format to the individual interests of chil

dren. Following are some examples of bilingual and

Spanish materials that can be prepared in the class

room. All of them are based on current practical the

ories on the teaching of literacy.

Bilingual alphabet If children are beginning to recognize letters,

they should be given the opportunity to see them

represented in both English and Spanish words.

Although there is disagreement on approaches as to

whether bilingual children should be taught to read

in both languages simultaneously or consecutively, it

TEACHING TIPS 189

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is clear that teachers should take advantage of the

first-language background that bilingual children

bring to the classroom to facilitate the journey to

ward literacy (Morrow, 2001; P?rez & Torres

Guzm?n, 2002; Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2001). Use words that begin with the same letter in

Spanish and in English, making sure that the letter

represents the same sound in both languages (at this point we are teaching the letter-sound corre

spondence, not the name of the letter). For exam

ple, use elefante [elef9 ante]/elephant ['eliafant], rather than em? [tm'u]/emu [6i:mju:].

The words should be known to the child and

represent concrete realities so that it is easy to find

an image that illustrates them (e.g., astronauta/

astronaut, barco/boat, coche/car, dragon/dragon). For n and y, try nido/nest, yema/yolk. Next, look for

an illustration of the words and write the Spanish version above and the English underneath the

drawing or vice versa.

Letters that exist in only one alphabet but not in

both Spanish and English alphabets should also be included, but they will be represented by only one

word in the language that uses it. For example, for

Spanish ?, I used the Spanish word ni?o and capi talized the ? (ni?o) since there are not many

Spanish words beginning with ?. If you know that

your Spanish-speaking learner will recognize some

of these words (e.g., ?ame, ?and?, ?o?o), go ahead

and use them. Similarly, the Spanish letter rr does

not appear in initial position, therefore it should be

represented by a word such as buRRo or peRRo. It is almost impossible to find English letters not

used in the Spanish alphabet, because many English loans have made their way into Spanish over time.

Therefore, when choosing a word that begins with w

look for one that is as common in Spanish as it is in

English. Then write the word above and also under

neath the image, indicating that the word, spelled in

an identical way, exists in both languages. An

example is the use of Washington (with the image of the U.S. Capitol building).

Sound alphabet An effective way to help little ones connect

sound and letter is the use of onomatopoeia: words

that imitate the sounds they represent, such as meow

or cock-a-doodle-doo (Morrow, 2001; P?rez &

Torres-Guzm?n, 2002; Torres-Quintero, 1973). An

advantage of this method is that the ethnic culture is

taught at the same time. The use of onomatopoeia is

not universal, although evidently a certain similari

ty between examples of onomatopoeia exists in dif

ferent languages. Nevertheless, Hispanic roosters

do not say "cock-a-doodle-doo," but "kikiriki"

Examples of onomatopoeia are not limited to ani

mal sounds. Any sound that can be represented

graphically will do. For example, if falling sounds

like cataplum in the children's home culture, that

can be the word to illustrate the sound of the c. If

children prefer the word pom to represent the sound

of a fall, then use this word to illustrate the sound

of p. Here are some examples:

A (patient opening her mouth for a doctor: aaaaaa)

B (a lamb bleating: beeeee)

C (a hen clucking: co, co, co, cd)

D (the sound of a doorbell: din-don).

If the goal is to promote biliteracy in the bilin

gual learner, two different versions of the sound

alphabet should be used: one using Spanish sounds

(such as ?ay! ?kikiriki! or ?p?o, p?o!) when work

ing on Spanish literacy, and the other one using

English sounds (ouch! cock-a-doodle-doo! or

tweet, tweet!) when working on English literacy.

Environmental alphabet Use of environmental print is another alterna

tive to promote literacy (Morrow, 2001 ; Neuman &

Roskos, 1997). Environmental print includes trade

names and advertising posters that can be seen in

the street (the "environment"). This alphabet also

allows for a great adaptability and personalization, because the teacher can choose brand names that

appear frequently in the area where children live

and that are widely represented in their everyday life. Care should be taken so that the choices are

not biased toward any particular social status. This

is a good reason for having children make their

own choices. For example, if the school is in

Kansas City, the logotype of the local baseball

team, the Royals, can be chosen to illustrate r. For

the letters s and h, Sprint and Hallmark, which re

fer to corporate offices in the local area, could be

used. A newspaper ad or a brochure can be used to

190 The Reading Teacher Vol. 57, No. 2 October 2003

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T1PS TEACHI?0 Tl

obtain the image or logotype of the name at issue.

The following interactive format is suggested:

< logotype >

< commercial name > is the brand name of < product or service >

that we use for (personalization of the product or service)

< image illustrating an example of the product or service >

Do you know other names that begin with < target letter >?

It is preferable to use logotypes that contain the

initial of the name or the complete name, because

the goal is to call the child's attention to the let

ters. The logotype of a company that uses graphics and no letters would not help much.

Reverse alphabet One task that has a great impact on the phone

mic and phonological awareness of children is the

manipulation of units within the word: morphemes,

syllables, or phonemes (Clemente Linuesa, 2001;

Morrow, 2001). This technique forces the learner to

pay attention not only to the beginning of the word

but also to the middle and the ending. Strategies such as word sorts and word building with onsets

and rimes allow children to recognize patterns in

unknown words (Morrow, 2001). Thus, an alterna

tive to the traditional formula of "abeja begins with

a, elefante begins with e" is to use the word end

ings (suffixes) as a common thread. For example, in English the words saw, claw, draw, law, raw, and so forth belong to the same family because

they share the same ending or rime. In Spanish, the

words trabajador, aparador, and saltador also be

long to the same family. This strategy is particu

larly useful in Spanish to teach affixes that change the meaning of a base word. Skillfully arranged so

the word endings are emphasized and accompanied with corresponding images, the result looks some

thing like this:

trabaj- ador < here the corresponding ?mage >

apar- ador < here the corresponding image >

salt- ador < here the corresponding image >

s- aw < here the corresponding image >

cl- aw < here the corresponding image >

dr- aw < here the corresponding image >

I- aw < here the corresponding image >

Once children are familiar with these words, teachers can create activities to encourage manip

ulation of the units within them. Morrow (2001) of

fered several classroom activities based on the

manipulation of units within the word, such as a

word wheel to build words or a slider to create

words. Both activities involve the manipulation of

words with the same ending (rime) but different be

ginnings (onset). The Diccionario inverso de la

lengua espa?ola (Reverse Dictionary of the

Spanish Language) (Bosque & P?rez Fern?ndez,

1987) may prove a useful resource for finding ap

propriate words?that is, words that share the same

interchangeable units?so manipulation can be

possible. For an English version of the reverse

alphabet, Muthmann's Reverse English Dictionary: Based on Phonological and Morphological

Principles (1999) can be used.

Illustrated songbook Children use illustrations in books to recognize

that words have meaning and to decode written

words (Morrow, 2001). If we combine these help ful illustrations with any of the books of songs on

the market (accompanied by corresponding audio

cassette) in which each song represents a letter of

the alphabet, the teaching effect is doubled. The

songbook Abecedario de los animales (Ada &

Escriv?, 1990) by Alma Flor Ada, with illustrations

by Viv? Escriv? and music by Suny Paz, is a good

example. The design of the material consists of typ

ing the lyrics of the songs, which normally include

an endless number of words that begin with the let

ter at issue, and superimposing an image on these

words. This way, the children, who are already fa

miliar with the song from listening to the cassette,

get used to seeing the image of the object at the

same time that they see the word that represents that image. Later, children might be presented with

the lyrics of the song only (no images) and asked to

place cutouts of the images (or stickers) over the

corresponding words. This will force learners to

sight-read the target words. The same procedure can be followed with songbooks in English.

TEACHING TIPS 191

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Promoting biliteracy All these materials can be bound in a booklet

form and placed in the classroom library. They do

not have to be used in a consistent manner, as if

they were lessons to learn. Instead, they should be

available to the children whenever they feel like

looking at them, as other books are. Or they might be used at the teacher's discretion, whenever inte

gration with a lesson might seem appropriate. Effectiveness aside, children are proud of products that were made exclusively for their use and in

whose design they participated. Most important, teachers will have access to inexpensive bilingual

materials that will help them promote biliteracy

among their bilingual students.

Gonz?lez-Bueno teaches in the School of Education at the University of Kansas (424 J.R. Pearson Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA). E-mail mgbueno@ku.edu.

References

Ada, A.F., & Escriv?, V. (1990). Abecedario de los animales.

Madrid: Espasa Calpe.

Bosque, I., & P?rez Fern?ndez, M. (1987). Diccionario inverso

de la lengua espa?ola. Madrid: Gredos.

Clemente Linuesa, M. (2001). Ense?ar a leer. Madrid: Ediciones

Pir?mide.

Morrow, L.M. (2001). Literacy development (4th ed.). Needham

Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Muthmann, G. (1999). Reverse English dictionary: Based on

phonological and morphological principles. New York:

Mouton de Gruyter. Neuman, S.B., & Roskos, K. (1997). Knowledge in practice:

Contexts of participation for young writers and readers.

Reading Research Quarterly 32,10-32.

P?rez, B., & Torres-Guzm?n, M. (2002). Learning in two worlds

(3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2001). Raising multilingual children.

Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Torres-Quintero, T. (1973). Gu?a del m?todo onomatop?yico.

M?xico, DF: Editorial Patria.

create a Travetfng

Liter*Cy ^

ROBIN WRIGHT FROMHERZ

Take an old cardboard box, an idea, a lesson

plan based on U.S. literacy standards, one

eager room of children, and a teacher who

enjoys sharing; put them all together and you have

a Traveling Literacy Trunk.

The concept developed from work completed

by teachers of a young writers' camp sponsored by the Oregon Writing Project in Salem, Oregon,

USA. The Oregon Writing Project uses Atwell's

text In the Middle (1998) as a resource for its sum

mer institutes. Atwell's belief that "a context that

invites and supports writing and reading" (p. 90) is necessary for students to act as writers was the

theoretical basis for the creation of Traveling

Literacy Trunks. Solving the need for time, mate

rials, texts, space, and ways to monitor children's

work as described by Atwell was the overriding

goal for the trunks. Oregon is a large state with

many small school districts scattered miles apart.

Reaching the rural children and teachers with sup

port for writing has become a major priority for

the Oregon Writing Project. Rural districts in the

state are often low on professional development

funding, and teachers may not be able to travel to

state-sponsored inservice meetings. The concept of

Traveling Literacy Trunks was designed to reach

all corners of the state with compelling, student

centered, developmentally appropriate writing ac

tivities that could be shared with teaching

professionals.

Basing the trunks on a theme allowed for or

ganization and structure that helped create commu

nities of learners throughout the state (Fredericks,

1994). The thematic units became frameworks for

organizing learning experiences around common

elements that encourage active student participation

192 The Reading Teacher Vol. 57, No. 2 October 2003

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