love for spanish

In our last blog entry, we defined what an authentic book in Spanish is and we offered some alternatives to find these books in the US. Now, an authentic book is not synonymous with a great book. Even though it’s wonderful that it was written in Spanish first, we still have to evaluate its quality and determine its place in our classrooms.

Some authentic books in Spanish are fantastic, necessary and unforgettable while others are… average. As teachers, we take a glance at a book and in less than a minute we have an almost visceral and assertive assessment about how good it is. However, the following questions can really help us fine tune our critical eye and determine what place we give to each book in our classroom and in our heart:

It the book relevant to our content? Often our bookshelves resemble our closets! Just as we have lots of clothes on hangers and somehow “nothing to wear,” we also have lots of books and “nothing to read to our kids” relevant to the content we are teaching them. It’s such a success when we find an authentic book in Spanish that is at the heart of a teaching point.
Is the language and message of the story aligned with my school’s social-emotional culture? Authentic books are like windows for our students to peek through and see the colors and flavors of hispanic cultures. However, there are some authentic books that can be considered “edgy” in our school contexts. Such as, for example, the Mexican bestseller La peor señora del mundo by Francisco Hinojosa. As a rule of thumb, if we are shocked by the content of a book or have doubts about its place in our classrooms, we should at least take it to our school’s administration and request their take/approval on the title.
How much “front loading” should I employ for my students to access the vocabulary and/or context of this book? Some authentic books are extremely tied to their regional or local contexts, as is the case of La calle es libre or Imágenes de Barquisimeto; books that we can personally adore, but whose stories are born from local contexts. These types of books can have a place in our classrooms but they need to be very well contextualized for our students to gain significant meaning from them.
And lastly, am I emotionally connected with this book? Even if a title passes the previous three questions, we may still not feel emotionally tied to it and write it off. In this case, remember that our kids’ reading tastes are diverse and it is possible that this title may still find its way into a student’s heart. On the other hand, if we love a book, we can work hard to find connections with our instruction. Reading a book that we love to our kids is magical!

As we can see, determining the quality of an authentic book and finding its ideal spot in our classrooms is hard work. That is why America Reads Spanish (ARS), an initiative aimed to increase the use and reading of our language in the US, is supporting this effort. In collaboration with Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez – specialists in Hispanic literature – ARS has created an essential guide to Spanish reading for children and young adults. This list includes: the title, ISBN code, publishing house, reader’s age and summary of over 400 titles!

Here is the guide, enjoy!

Lastly, we’d like to share some of OUR favorite authentic books in Spanish! These classics have accompanied us for years, elevating the status of Spanish in our primary classrooms and creating a strong Hispanic cultural connection.

In general, when evaluating an authentic book in Spanish, consider all you know about your students, the questions above and your educator’s gut. And remember, you already have an excellent critical eye! So tell us, what are your favorite authentic books in Spanish?!

Con cariño,

“In my classroom, most kids can talk in Spanish…. but they don’t like to. I talk to them in Spanish always and their first instinct is to reply in English.”

“It’s shocking to see students that talk Spanish at home, talking to each other in English… the power of English is incredible”

“In the mornings before coming into the classroom, sometimes I hear them complaining about having a Spanish day and… it hurts.”

Does this sound familiar? Well, you are not alone.

These quotes are excerpts of our conversations with in-Spanish teachers from different parts of the US. Their voices describe our ongoing battle against language inequity in most dual language programs. We face this reality every day, yet the question remains: How do we solve this inequity?

For many years, Dr. Julie Sugarman (co-author of the book Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education) has studied this inequity. Sugarman has discovered that Spanish faces four inequity challenges:

Motivation
English-only assessments
Shortage of Spanish resources
Lack of authentic texts in Spanish

In this blog entry we will discuss our students’ motivation for speaking, reading and writing in Spanish. In upcoming posts, we will dissect the other challenges.

In an exclusive interview for the Acento community, Dr. Sugarman addressed this lack of motivation.

A: Acento

JS: Dra. Julie Sugarman

A – We’ve talked to in-Spanish teachers from different parts of the country and they all report a lack of motivation in their students towards Spanish. What is the cause of this?

JS – There are a number of reasons why students might not be motivated to learn Spanish, often having to do with students’ sense of identity and with the status of Spanish as compared to English in the United States. But in some cases, a critical factor is students’ lack of experience with Spanish as a true language of communication. I know one classroom where the teacher said that her third graders had never had a chance to read authentic Spanish texts, so they came to the conclusion that “people don’t write in Spanish.” I can really sympathize with those students. So far, all they’ve seen of Spanish is that it’s just one extra hurdle for them to jump over to engage with academic content in Spanish, and they don’t encounter Spanish being spoken or written with an authentic purpose.

A – Can you speak more about this lack of authentic purpose?

JS – Well, our students can communicate in English and they don’t understand why they have to do it in Spanish. As a result, they may not see Spanish as a language that’s used for meaningful communication. It would be like being in a class where I had to write with mittens on and the kids in another class didn’t have to. I’d wonder, if there was no real-world purpose to learning to write with mittens on, why are our teachers making us do this extra hard thing for no good reason when we can write perfectly well without mittens on?

A – Right, so it’s about making these reasons meaningful to our students; which can be a real challenge. How could we accomplish this?

JS – Unlike English in the U.S., which students are strongly motivated to learn, Spanish dual language teachers sometimes have to create opportunities for students to experience authentic written and spoken Spanish in a variety of settings, even if they have native Spanish speakers in their classrooms.

A – Let’s talk about native Spanish speakers for a minute. What’s happening with them and this lack of motivation?

JS – Well , unfortunately, we know that even in two-way programs where you do have native Spanish speakers, by the second or third year of the program, even the native Spanish speakers often choose to speak English outside of instructional conversations (and sometimes even during instructional conversations). I think we need to remember that even native speakers need to have some extra encouragement to see Spanish as a vital and living language, that’s not just for academic purposes and spoken by those unhip parents and grandparents in their house.

A – Can you give us some specific examples of how this encouragement might look in the classroom?

JS – Yes, gladly. For example:

Having pen pals or video-conferencing with students from a Spanish-speaking country.
Reading authentic children’s literature (with appropriate background-building so that American-born students can understand the cultural nuances).
Listening to stories told by students’ parents or grandparents.
Older students might even compare a translated piece of writing to an authentic piece and discuss how the authentic piece sounds different (in terms of vocabulary, rhetorical style, etc.)

And again, these strategies have to have a clear and convincing purpose for students to engage. Otherwise, they won’t help our cause.

A – Agreed. With some strategic planning, ideas like these sound doable. So, how can the rest of the school support these initiatives?

JS – Well, a critical aspect of students seeing Spanish as a language for real communication is how the language is used throughout the classroom and the school. As a dual language practitioner, I’d want to ask myself the following questions:

How do adults use Spanish with each other and with students outside of the classroom? Does Spanish have a visual presence outside the classroom?
Do the adults in the school and the community act like Spanish is important to know?
Does the school invest time and resources into Spanish at least equivalent to what they have for English (if not, more so)?
Are students held accountable for expressing themselves appropriately in Spanish during content time?

A – These are great self-assessment questions for any dual language teacher, prompting us to reflect and begin with leading by example.

JS – Right. In authentic activities, students see the use of Spanish as integral to the activity itself, not just an activity that could be done in any language that happens to be done in Spanish. We want to maximize opportunities for students to use Spanish to engage in meaningful conversation, reading, and writing, not solely as a medium through which to complete academic tasks. So, Spanish being regarded by our students as a language of meaningful communication is incredibly important.

A – Yes, that sounds like the first step!

Hopefully, Dr. Sugarman’s insights can spark conversations in your school about even more ways to increase students’ motivation to use Spanish.

During the month of February, we invite you join us in a “Love for Spanish” campaign, creating experiences for students in support of Spanish as a language of meaningful communication. And, we want to hear from you! Please share your ideas and experiences with the rest of the Acento community in our comment box below.

¡Que viva nuestro amor por el español!

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High-Quality & Authentic Spanish Books