From: Susan Daugherty <kdaugherty>
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 11:25:54 -0600

As a school librarian working with more and more Latino children, I think there are pros and cons to both kinds of books: dual text and 2 different books, which you can use side by side. For a book with little text, the problem of space for the text can be worked out. Needless to say, with the budget problems that we have, we would prefer to buy one book instead of two! But I do buy books which are just in Spanish. I don't think that the problem of kids picking up English words from the Spanish is a valid problem. In fact, I think that for a kid to see the two words side by side
(when they match, which they don't all the time) is very helpful. Picture cues can be helpful also, but making those word connections is so important! I am speaking as a beginning Spanish learner myself. The theory currently is that Spanish speakers (for example) are helped by learning to read in Spanish and then more easily transfer these skills to learning to read English. The reality is that I want to bombard these kids with all different kinds of books, so that each child's learning style is somehow matched. I doubt if I do it totally successfully with the resources I can put into it, and the books that get published. But at least I am trying and am sensitive to their needs. The only group of ESL students we have any hope of helping this way is the Spanish-speaking group. There is nothing virtually in Hmong (our second biggest group), Thai, and Cambodian. Our numbers of Chinese students (2) don't justify my putting much money into Chinese books, and the same for Russian and the Scandinavian languages.

I just got a shipment of Spanish books for the book fair, so Scholastic is aware of the need for this, Mr. Levine, for which I am grateful.

Susan


At 03:21 PM 3/18/00 00, you wrote: Susan Daugherty Librarian Franklin Elementary School Madison, WI 53705
Received on Mon 20 Mar 2000 11:25:54 AM CST