Thank you Susan for the excellent resource for nursery rhymes in Spanish.  I believe there are many ways to educate ourselves and others.  Intercultural inclusion as well as learning about one's adopted country provides a rich context to build interest and life-long engagement in learning.  As we engage parents in helping their children be successful in the American school systems, it is important that children (as well as adults) build on prior knowledge.  Rhyming and alliteration are two of the areas in which we assess preschool children for school readiness.  Both of these can be taught in any language as these are transferable skills.  It would seem that helping non native speakers to use all the resources available to them including stories, poetry, and nursery rhymes in their native language helps to promote emergent literacy for their young children.  There is extensive research that supports that "the richness in vocabulary must come from words, rhymes, and environmental print with which they are familiar".   The families with whom we work with are educationally very similar to Ms Perez's students, and though they are anxious to learn more about their new home, they are also most eager to support their children's educational success.  Building literacy skills for the whole family is the goal of our programs, the context revolves around what is meaningful to the students and the content of the instruction is driven by the interests of the class.

Terry Kinzel
Director of MEES and Even Start Programs
Big Bend Community College
Moses Lake, WA
509.793.2302


From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Susan Perez
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 9:46 AM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1538] Re: Last Day With Guest Moderators

The families with whom I work do not read and write Spanish or English and speak a Mayan language which is unwritten. They do speak some Spanish and know some of the rhymes "by heart" in Spanish. We work on helping them learn these rhymes in English.  While they learn the rhymes in English, the parents are able to better pronounce the rhymes in Spanish which helps their child to hear rhyme more distinctly.

I have nothing against learning Nursery Rhymes in English , just not as a first step in transitioning from Spanish to English.  I believe that children need to hear their parents adding a more rich vocabulary to everyday life and as our parents are not able to read and write in Spanish or English, the richness in vocabulary must come from words, rhymes, and environmental print with which they are familiar.

I would not have a problem using Nursery Rhymes for more advanced learners and take the opportunity to explain some of the history and symbolism of the rhymes.

I guess that I look at a book such as "Arroz con Leche" as a transition from and one which the families find a familiarity and comfort.

Books change life for the better-ReadOn!

Susan L. Perez
Early Literacy Specialist
Center for Reading & Literacy
Martin County Library System

Office: 772-221-1401
Cell: 772- 263-0480

The Blake Library
2351 SE Monterey Road
Stuart, FL 34996

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of ktgm4 at aim.com
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 11:13 AM
To: familyliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1537] Re: Last Day With Guest Moderators


But isn't that part of it - learning about the country they are now living in?  Learninf their customs and history, adding to their world knowledge.  what in the world is wrong with that?
katie m,
-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Perez <sperez at martin.fl.us>
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List <familyliteracy at nifl.gov>
Sent: Fri, Aug 14, 2009 4:15 pm
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1537] Re: Last Day With Guest Moderators
I have used a children's book of Latin American nursery rhymes, "Arroz con Leche" with all rhymes in English and Spanish.  The families like them because the pictures are from countries where the rhymes originated and many remember the rhymes from their own childhood. They do want to learn the English for the rhymes.  Also, the pictures depict people and scenery more familiar than the typical English (U.K.) nursery rhymes originally and may not make sense to ELLs, even if they can read all the words.  There is also the notion that the people and places in those pictures are quite foreign to them.

I agree that the Big Dreams booklet is quite good. I do wish that it had been translated into a low reading level in Spanish.  I find it difficult to find such high quality materials for our low literacy Spanish speaking parents. They do not read Spanish at a high enough level to find the typical brochures helpful.

~~~slp~~~
Books and libraries change life for the better-ReadOn!

Susan L. Perez
Early Childhood Literacy Specialist
Center for Reading and Literacy
Martin County Library System
Teaching parents and providers to help their children to love reading

Office:   (772) 221-1401
Mobile:  (772) 263-0480
Fax:       (772) 219-4959

2351 SE Monterey Road
Stuart, FL 34996


________________________________
From: carroche at optimum.net<mailto:carroche at optimum.net>
Sent: Fri 8/14/2009 4:26 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1535] Re: Last Day With Guest Moderators
Having joined the list in preparation for initiating a family literacy program at a nursery school in Asbury Park, NJ this September, I have found the discussion worthwhile.  The program will be a joint venture between the Literacy Volunteers and the Acelero Learning Head Start Program of Monmouth County, NJ.  Right now, we are working on a curriculum for the program.

As a retired school administrator (K-12), I am familiar with early childhood literacy training, and, used (and liked)  "Put Reading First" as part of a professional development program for teachers about seven or eight years ago. Since retiring, I have been a literacy volunteer teaching skills to limited English speakers.  Family literacy is a perfect blend of both interests, or more aptly, passions.

Some comments:

I don't think it's helpful to be overly technical about what's truly authentic or not.  What is more important is the relevance of the topic to the learner's life or interests.  Discovering that several of my adult learners from Mexico were working either as landscapers or farmhands at a nearby racetrack, we spent several lessons on words related to both topics. They enjoyed these lessons (the challenge for me was finding pictures to do with horses, gardening, etc.)  I have also found language experience charts to be effective.

I loved the suggestion of using nursery rhymes, songs, and simple, classic fairytales and wonder if anyone can suggest specific materials containing this content at a very easy reading level.  I would like to be able to distribute some of this material to the parents to take home, to share with their children, and to begin to build a home library.

Finally, as to the Shining Stars materials, I think they are excellent parent education resources for parents who already read. Even teachers would appreciated the Checklists in them. Big Dreams is the only one that I can forsee using with the parents in our program.

Thanks to the person on the list who suggested the parent handouts from the Illinois State BOE.  I plan to use them as ideas for activities.


Carol Roche




----- Original Message -----
From: Gail Price
Date: Friday, August 14, 2009 8:02 am
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1527] Last Day With Guest Moderators
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List


> Today is our last day with our guest moderators, Dianna Baycich and

> Barbara Van Horn. I appreciate their giving up their valuable

> time to

> monitor posts to our list. If you have further questions,

> comments or

> concerns about the use of authentic materials or the definition of

> authentic materials, please voice them today.

>

>

>

> Thanks to all.

>

>

>

> Gail J. Price

>

> Multimedia Specialist

>

> National Center for Family Literacy

>

> 325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

>

> Louisville, KY 40202

>

> gprice at famlit.org<mailto:gprice at famlit.org>

>

> 502 584-1133, ext. 112

>

>

>

>


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