First Grade - Spanish Language Arts

First-grade students in SFUSD Spanish Biliteracy and Dual Immersion Pathways Programs engage in 125 minutes of daily literacy instruction. Students immerse in a variety of instructional contexts to build solid foundational skills in reading and writing. 

During the literacy instruction time, students are engaged in a 30-minute foundational skills block that includes phonological awareness, and explicit and systematic phonics instruction focusing on decoding skills. Foundational skills instruction is anchored in continuous text following the syllabic approach and the lectoescritura framework.

There is an 80-minute reading and writing block that includes reading, writing, and differentiated small-group instruction. Students practice reading independently and participate in shared reading, interactive read-aloud, and literacy centers. Students develop their writing skills by using a combination of drawings, dictating, and writing letters, syllables, and words to share information, ideas, and feelings.

Additionally, there is a 15-minute cross-linguistic transfer time, where the teacher provides explicit cross-linguistic transfer instruction and gives students the opportunity to make explicit connections between both languages. 

Demuestran comprensión de la organización y características básicas de los materiales impresos.

Demuestran comprensión de las palabras pronunciadas oralmente, las sílabas y los sonidos (fonemas).

Conocen y aplican la fonética y las destrezas de análisis de palabras al nivel de grado, en la decodificación de palabras.

These routines provide predictable structures for students to internalize strategies and skills that facilitate their learning.

Phonics instruction is delivered daily to ensure all students become independent readers and writers.  The methodology includes systematic and explicit instruction that supports research-based approaches to teaching Spanish phonics. 
Children progress at a much faster rate in phonics when the bulk of instructional time is spent on applying the skills to authentic reading and writing experiences, rather than on isolated skill and drill work. 

Adding dictation as a routine builds students’ writing automaticity. This culturally relevant strategy can be used as a formative assessment to collect information on student progress. It supports students' independence through the process of self-correction. Dictation helps tighten the relationship between sounds and graphemes. If you can say it, you can write it.

Decodable texts give students the opportunity to practice, connect, and make sense of what they are learning in phonics in the context of reading. Decodable texts encourage students to blend and not guess unfamiliar words.

Literacy centers provide students with the opportunity to practice previously taught literacy skills. 
Literacy centers motivate students to become independent learners by developing a desire to initiate, sustain, and direct one’s activity.

Strategic and targeted small group instruction based on analysis of student data (both formal and informal). 

During independent reading practice and learning centers, the teacher gathers a group of students with similar strengths and needs and instructs them on a skill or strategy. 

Small group instruction lessons are designed to provide scaffolds for students to apply the skill or strategy in their own independent work.  

Grouping remains flexible throughout the school year to accommodate student needs

Explicit cross-linguistic transfer instruction is key in supporting students in making connections between languages. Students engage in contrastive analysis to observe similarities and differences between both languages.
Additionally, students are able to devote more cognitive processing time toward the more complex orthography and morphology systems of English that require more time than the more transparent systems of Spanish.

During the writing block, students engage in creating writing pieces from the Common Core State Standards that follow the writing process. This includes lessons that provide direct, explicit instruction and guided practice in skills and strategies connected to the genre.  

Grammar lessons are embedded in the writing curriculum. Grammar instruction provides students with tools to learn how to clearly and intentionally communicate through the use of shapes, sketches, print conventions, symbols, letter sequences, syllables, words, sentences, capital letters, punctuation marks, etc. 

These assessments should be used at least three times during the school year. As a diagnostic evaluation at the beginning of the year, and as a measure of progress for mid and end of year.