NLP+Recommendations+submitted+by+Espy+Barba

** Submitted By: Esperanza Lopez-Barba  ** The results of several studies of children from different first-language backgrounds and educational settings, conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel, suggest that first-language phonological processing skills are closely related to the development of word reading skills in English. Thus, having phonological awareness in the first-language enables children to transfer these skills to English. As an experienced bilingual teacher and the parent of bilingual children, I have seen first hand the importance of a solid phonological awareness in the first language. When children understand the concept in one language it becomes easier to transfer that to the second language. One of the most difficult skills my students have encountered is identifying rhyming words. Year after year, I have seen how many of my students fail when attempting to identify or make a rhyming word. I have found that by making rhyming words a fun game my own children, as young as two years old, have been able to produce rhyming words. So, I have tried to get the parents of my students involved in helping their own children at home, in the car, when out for a walk, at a restaurant or wherever they may be. When I meet with parents for the initial parent conference, I immediately tell them about our kindergarten goals for the end of the school year. I teach them a few activities that they can do with their children even in their first language, which the majority of the time is Spanish. The skill I focus more on is rhyming. I explain to parents that if they can listen to and identify rhymes in Spanish, they will be able to do it in English with the proper transitioning, which is where I come in. Rhyming is very popular in many Hispanic cultures too. There are many rhymes, songs, chants and poems in Spanish that contain easy rhyming words. Many parents know some of these rhymes and can teach them to their children, if not I refer them to websites, as the links below, where they can find these or give them hard copies to keep at home. ** A Rhyming Lesson in My Classroom  ** From day one in my classroom we sing songs, recite poems, rhymes, and chants. So by the time I give direct instruction on rhyming words, we have a whole repertoire of rhymes, poems, songs, and chants to choose from. It doesn’t feel like it’s something totally new. I begin by choosing the rhyme “I’m a Little Teapot.” We recite the rhyme and explain that rhyming words are words that have the same ending part. The only difference is the beginning sound. A pre-requisite to this lesson is for students to understand the difference between beginning and ending sounds. Once the students have repeated to me what rhyming words are, we recite the rhyme line by line and listen for any words that sound the same. I usually put more emphasis on the two words that rhyme just to make it more obvious, such as “**stout**” and “**spout**” and “**shout**” and “**out**.” After repeating the rhyme several times and allowing students to identify the rhyming words, I now tell them we will make our own rhyming words. I tell the students that the part that rhymes in all the words we identified is “**out.**” So, now we will add a new beginning sound to this part and make new rhyming words. I begin with the **/b/** sound and add it to “out” making the word “**bout**.” I have students say /b/ with me and extend one hand out. Then say “out” and extend the other hand. Last, we put the sounds together as we clap and say “bout.” Next, we say /k/ and extend one hand out. Then say “out” and extend the other hand out. Last, we put the sounds together as we clap and say “kout.” We repeat this several times until some of the students feel comfortable with the task and then I’ll take volunteers who would like to try making a rhyming word on their own (with a little guidance from me). We repeat this lesson three times a week for 15-20 minutes. Pretty soon everyone is making rhyming words all day long! __ Websites and Resources for Teachers and Parents:  __ These two websites have songs and rhymes in Spanish for parents to help students at home. http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/projects/ninos/songsrhymes.html#chocolate http://www.colorincolorado.org/ These websites offer teachers and parent’s activities and lesson plans on a variety of phonological awareness skills. http://www.instructorweb.com/lesson/rhymetime.asp http://www.readingrockets.org/helping http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/phoemic.p.k12.4.html http://www.starfall.com/ http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/search/?q=English+Language+Learners http://www.education.com/activity/all-grades/all-grades/reading/?cid=57000.000002&s_kwcid=ContentNetwork|1451074375 http://www.esl4kids.net/ http://www.sitesforteachers.com/index.html http://es.wikibooks.org/wiki/Portada
 * Chapter 8: NLP Recommendation **