Supporting My Child's Biliteracy Development: What Can I Do at home?

Teaching reading and writing to young learners is a rewarding process for both students and teachers. In a dual language classroom this is referred as biliteracy instruction focusing on the development of reading and writing in both English and the target language (Spanish, Mandarin, French etc.). From the teacher perspective, this takes place across the entire instructional day and is often integrated across the content taught. Of course, each educator infuses their own personality as well as knowledge of research into this process. Educators spend many hours of professional development to build on their knowledge of how to develop these skills. This can happen through campus or district created training that is built to support and guide educators. As a teacher, I personally received many hours of professional development on teaching both reading and writing along with modeled lessons and guidance from other professionals. I always felt that this knowledge should not end with me so I constantly made sure to take bits and pieces to pass on to the parents of my students as a bridge to the school-home collaboration.

During my years as a bilingual & dual language teacher, the question that always circled around parent conferences as well as one-on-one discussions was -¿como puedo ayudar a mi hijo en casa- (how can I support my child from home)? Even parents whose children returned to school with their homework in its original state, unmarked, and forgotten in their backpacks posed this question, rendering me to confusion at what I considered an ironic plea. I soon realized that those homework assignments were not a rebellion against my novice expectations. It was a simple act of a failed attempt and misunderstanding for a curriculum that is ever changing. I needed to adapt my home-support and homework expectations and transcend it to my students and their families' realities. Family support in the academic setting can and will look different from child to child. A homework packet does not govern the care and devotion that parents have for their kids and and their learning. I changed my approach on how my students could receive support at home from their parents, regardless of parents or caregivers' language or literacy levels.

I have since taken a different role, as a parent, I am now sitting on the other side of the table taking on a supportive role while my children's teachers take on the main role in my child’s biliteracy development. I feel lucky at being able to pick up at home and further along my child’s reading and writing abilities due in large to the knowledge that I developed as a teacher and feel blessed to be bilingual, allowing me to support them in both languages. As I talk to other parents, I realize that others are not as lucky and encounter roadblocks that make them feel limited on how to support their own children from home. I think back to those parents who always asked for ideas of how they could support their children academically and their concerns at not being able to provide support in both languages. With this in mind, I decided to put together this post, hoping to provide guidance to parents of both English and Spanish speaking students on what kind of things they can do from home to support their children’s reading and writing development.

The daily trickle of to-do lists, late-night meetings, jobs that leave us exhausted, and the dinner routine impose on our efforts to support our children’s education. I personally feel overwhelmed with their homework and the amount of time that it takes to complete. I have been tempted on more than one occasion to toss it out the window but have managed to keep myself grounded. After all, I understand the importance of backing up my children’s learning from home. One of the things that I have devoted myself to accomplish throughout my kids’ educational journey is to support their reading and writing in both languages. Let’s not get this confused with holding them accountable for reading and writing, but instead, making sure that they comprehend what they read and write and what I can do to help them further these skills along. It sounds daunting, but we don’t have to be certified teachers to provide this type of support.

It is important to note that we do not have to be speakers of two languages to be able to support our kid’s biliteracy development from home. Dr. Jim Cummins’ research has shown through the interdependence hypothesis that bilinguals have language proficiencies that are common across languages. What this means is that whatever a person learns in one language will transfer to the second language without the need of explicit teaching of that same concept. For example, if a person learns the meaning and function of a summary in English, they too will know what the function of a summary is in Spanish (or the target language) without having to reteach the concept. With this in mind, if we work on identifying the characters of a story with our children, we don’t have to target both languages to reinforce the concept of characters. The kids will know that characters are the people or things in the story regardless of the language that the story takes place.

One of the simplest things that we can do is to set aside a few minutes a day and simply listen to our little ones read. Talk about what they read. Discuss vocabulary words from the text they just read. Ask simple questions about the characters in the book, the problem and/or solution. Discuss your favorite part of the book and ask them what their favorite part was. If your kids are pre-school age and not yet reading, grab a book and read to them! Another way to support literacy is to play vocabulary games. You can use words from a text they have read and use those words to make up sentences, as well was finding alternate words to replace the ones selected, even if they end up with silly sentences! One of my personal favorite things to do with my children is sharing stories orally. I love this because I do not need access to a physical book and am able to pass on the stories that my parents shared with me when I was young. My kids also love oral stories because we get to make up some stories, change the characters, alter the endings, and sometimes, they too become part of the story. I enjoy hearing how my kids’ oral language expands with new vocabulary as well as their ability to manipulate sentence structure to make sense and meaning.

There are so many things that we can do to support our children’s biliteracy development at home. I have put together a collection of websites that contain documents, research and videos that I have found useful for gathering ideas as well as information on how to support young readers at home. I also personally reached out to experts in the field of dual language and asked them to share at least one strategy that parents can do at home with their child. Remember, don’t get overwhelmed if your child is in a dual language class and you yourself do not speak the target language. Practice the strategies in your native language. Keep in mind that these skills, once mastered in the first language, will transfer over to that second language! Most important, spend quality time and make it fun! Enjoy!

Expert Advice (consejos de los expertos)

A word from Dr. José Medina to parents of children in dual language classrooms.

(video language: English & Spanish)

Mr. McMinn-Reyna provides strategies to parents during a parent conference on how to support their children at home. (video language: English & Spanish)

Ms. Muñoz talks about onomatopoeia and writing. (video language: English & Spanish)

Amanda Noriega, Executive Director of Instruction, REAL Journeys Academy, shares reading strategies. (video language: English & Spanish)

Nayelli Ramos, Assistant Professor of Practice, College of Education, University of Texas, Austin, discusses the importance of building vocabulary with your child.

(video language: English & Spanish)

Helpful Links

Supporting My Child's Biliteracy Development

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

What Can I Do at home?

The National Center on Improving Literacy:

Colorín Colorado:

Online Books

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