Bilingual Reading Intervention

As I get to know each child, I consider their unique traits as well as the stage of development in which they are.  These two things help me never lose sight of who they are as individuals as well as the needs they may have given what we know about child development.  I have a strong background in Montessori education that influences how I approach each child.

-I am reading intervention teacher in a public school.

-Other roles I have had as an educator include: general classroom teacher, bilingual curriculum specialist, assistant principal in a middle school and high school, and principal of a dual language Montessori school.

$40.00 per hour

Agenda for the hour:

5 minutes: learning environment set-up

5-10 minutes: interpersonal connecting activity

10-15 minutes: lesson with clear learning objective

10-15 minutes: guided practice of concept with feedback to child to support connections of concept

10 minutes: checking for understanding of concept and extensions to help child apply concept in other settings

 5 minutes: optimistic closure and connection to what we will learn next

I began my career in education as a bilingual teacher.  I've taught grades 1-3.  Having grown up in a bilingual household, I have been a passionate advocate for multilingualism.  When one speaks multiple languages, we are able to connect with more cultures.  

As a general classroom teacher, I witnessed how students who struggled with reading, quickly lost their confidence as a learner. Besides having each student become bilingual in English and Spanish, I became equally passionate about helping those struggling readers.  It became my mission to engage them in social studies and science content as a means to motivate and engage them as learners first.  I then helped them break down the reading process into sequential steps that they could internalize.

-3 year-olds to college students

-Multilingual learners

-Students with 504 plans

-Students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs)

-Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 

-8 year-old student new to our country with little formal schooling came to me with little confidence in himself as a reader.  With a systematic and engaging approach to his daily instruction, workin within two weeks, he is making connections to letters and sounds.  He now initiates his learning and well, his smile and pride in his work tells me that he is on his way to becoming a reader.  

-4 year-old child, whose dominant language is English and has been immersed in a Spanish language program, needed more practice at home given that both her parents are monolingual English speakers and cannot support her.   They have her watch videos and movies in Spanish but they don't feel it's enough.  They are worried that she might get behind academically is continues to attend this dual language school.

After we make a personal connection, she understands that I am a Spanish speaker.  She begins to tells me about her new baby brother with the Spanish language vocabulary she knows.  She described how she helps him mixing in words in English and Spanish.  I understand that she's excited to share and instead of correcting her mistakes, I listen intently; this opportunity helps me assess her skills and I know what instruction to provide.  I immediately help her expand her Spanish-vocabulary using this real-world situation in her life.  

At this stage of development, she is absorbing language subconsciously.  Because I know that her mind in most atune to words that rhyme, I taught her a song that she could sing to her brother in Spanish...which she LOVED!   With consistent opportunities to practice Spanish at home, she is becoming more confident speaking Spanish at school.   We have started playing with letters and sounds so that she can not just be bilingual, but also biliterate.

Raising bilingual children who are fluent readers, was my dream as a parent.  I can attest to the difficulties and challenges we face as parents who strive for this richness in our children's lives.  

Advice: set up the conditions for your child to learn at least two languages before puberty.  Before this stage, it is more likely that they will speak the second language with less of an accent.  By the time they reach adolescence, they will be praised for their bilingual skills.  This positive feedback helps them internalize their bilingual skills as part of their identity.  From then on, both languages become meaningful parts of who they are for life...at least that's what has happened to me personally (both as a bilingual person myself and now as a parent of two bilingual and biliterate adolescents.)