Marzano’s Six Step Process Posters in Spanish

When I first started teaching third grade bilingual students, I thought that in order for them to pass the state test, which in Texas is called the STAAR, they needed to acquire a lot of vocabulary. Why did I think this? First of all, they do not practice their language, Spanish, at home and if they do, it’s not the proper Castilian Spanish that’s tested on the standard test. The majority of my students come from families whose parents were in some cases illiterate and in others too busy trying to make ends meet and just did not have the time to work with their children at home.

So I taught vocabulary as much as I could. We read a story, we learned the vocabulary, we wrote sentences, we discussed the words, we had a Q&A session, you get the picture. I had read some spelling/vocabulary gurus like Marzano, Alana Morris, Debbi Diller and others. They recommend that children be exposed to a lot of vocabulary and a lot of reading. Well, that got me in trouble with my principal. Even though she was a curriculum person, she thought that children in third grade needed to be exposed to more reading to improve their reading abilities and skills. I disagreed with her and got written up for doing so. But don’t worry, it had a happy ending.

Of course, my students did super well on the test that first year, they scored 90% in the district and we were all very proud of them, but my attitude of setting my own goals with my students I think helped them to do well. See, I told you it had a happy ending!

My students background in Spanish is very poor related to the rigor of the standard test. Learning all they have to in third grade plus vocabulary is a hard task to our third grade teachers out there in the bilingual/dual schools. The speak Spanish fairly well, but their vocabulary is limited to day to day words and not those that are used in the reading and language tests of the STAAR. These are students that are not exposed to a lot of reading, conversations with adults and sometimes not even attention from their parents.

That brings me to an article I just read in Education.com about words. The article “30,000 Words: Is Your Child Getting Enough!” talks about enriching your child’s vocabulary by talking to them. All of us parents know that reading to our kids, some even say while in their mother’s womb, is a great idea. We buy excellent books, complex educational toys. But to make your child completely successful words is all they need! 30,000 is the magic number according to the article. WOW! How do you accomplish that? Reading stories and interacting with your kids. Just talking is what the article says.

According to this article, talking to the kids is the magic wand here. That verbal interaction between you and your kid is the key to make successful students in school and later on in college. Great news! The research done by Betty Hart, PhD and Todd Risely, Ph.D. from the University of Kansas found that professional parents interact and carry on more in conversations than blue collar workers or those parents on welfare. Nevertheless, the good news are that children of low income families whose parents conversed with them accomplished a great in their academic success. Most of us in the education profession have always thought that there’s a relation with economic status and academic success. This article gives us a new view on other areas we need to focus to make those students successful. At least is good to know that we can work with them in the classroom and help make them successful students.

This article is an eye opener and gives you hope and offers resources that can be used in the classroom: Words, speak to your students, make them draw those words, whatever it takes to make them successful!

The Marzano’s Six Step Process in Spanish is a great tool to help your students learn the Third Grade High Frequency Words. It’s based in Marzano’s idea on vocabulary and how to use those ideas in the classroom. Follow the steps and instructions that are so easy to implement and help your students succeed in vocabulary and reading. If a child can recognize words, understand them and write them, then all you need to do next is teach reading skills and he/she will be a very successful reader.

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