Last week we introduced the idea of a book talk to the third-grade bilingual students here in Colombia. The teacher and I modeled the process of introducing a book, highlighting the key components, but not giving away the ending. Then, we explained why we recommended that book, and the students had a choice of whether or not they wanted to have it as a read aloud in the afternoon. The modeling went well and some students picked it up easily, but we knew some language scaffolds would be particularly helpful for others. We introduced a simple anchor chart that I have used many times that also includes transitional words to help support academic language development while situating it in a social and engaging context of recommending a book to a friend.
One of my favorite book talks was about the fairy tale, The Turnip (by the Grimm Brothers). It was a fascinating window into and reminder of all of the ways bilingual students use strategies and processes to perservere and make meaning of texts, even with challenging and unknown vocabulary. It was also a reminder that students can manage, comprehend, and enjoy texts by using context clues and inferencing when they come to unknown words. The student giving the book talk clearly enjoyed the book and gave a retell with excitement and accuracy. However, she did not know the word turnip...she called it “toorpin.” After the book talk, I asked her to talk to me about what a turnip was and pointed to the cover and the title. She said, “I don’t know the word. I have never seen it, but it is like a vegetable, but maybe not one we have in Colombia.”
This was also a reminder for me about the importance of really considering miscues and student background...if I would have been assessing her using the typical protocol of many IRIs while reading this book, her “accuracy” would have been below independent level. Yet, as a strategic bilingual student, her sophisticated understanding of the text indicates this was a perfect, self-selected book for her to read and enjoy independently. It was actually her favorite reading of the week, and the one she selected to recommend to her friends who asked to borrow it for the next week.
If we want to support readers, we have to always consider purpose and audience. No one wants to write a book report for a teacher, but readers do want to talk about, share, and recommend texts they enjoy to their friends. We can support bilingual students’ reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening by creating language supported opportunities where students get to engage with a purpose and an audience of friends. We have to build more spaces and occasions where bilingual students participate in joyful literate experiences that will hopefully become part of their on-going readerly life beyond the classroom.