Resources for Struggling Immersion Learners

Chapter 7

Key Questions

• In your program, are there any services available for struggling students in the early primary grades?
  
  
• If so, what are they and how do students qualify for these services?
  
  
• If no, does this impact your program’s pre-referral process in any way?

Below are selected online and print resources that pertain to issues discussed in this chapter.

1. Descubriendo La Lectura: An Application of Reading Recovery in Spanish.
   K. Escamilla, 1992
   
   This English to Spanish translation (with Spanish to English back translation) of Reading Recovery Materials includes:
   
   •   Descubriendo la Lectura lesson format
   •   List of Spanish literature books for Descubriendo la Lectura Program
   •   Observation tasks
   •   Data collection forms
   
   
2. Preventing Reading Problems: Factors Common to Successful Early Intervention Programs
   John J. Pikulski, 1997
   
   Based on research findings carried out with students acquiring literacy in L1, Pikulski reviews several successful early intervention programs and synthesizes the characteristics these programs share.
   
   
3. Peer Tutoring Literacy Program™
   Canadian Parents for French
   
   The Canadians Parent for French (CPF) website includes information about thePeer Tutoring Literacy Program™ for French Immersion Schools: A Parent-Teacher Collaborative Approach™ on their website. They address the following questions:
   
   •   What is the Peer Tutoring Literacy Program™ (PTLP)?
   •   How does the PTLP work?
   •   Who runs the Peer Tutoring Literacy Program?
   •   What are the benefits of the Peer Tutoring Literacy Program?
   •   How do I know the Peer Tutoring Literacy Program will help my child?
   •   How do I get a copy of the Peer Tutoring Literacy Program?
   
   
4. The Peer Tutoring Literacy Program™: Achieving reading fluency and developing self- esteem in elementary school students
   Mary Chipman and Nicole Roy, 2006
   
   This ACIE Newsletter BRIDGE Insert provides readers with some issues to consider when implementing a Peer Tutoring Literacy Program™. It also reviews the benefits for participants in this program in one Canadian elementary school.
   
   
5. Supporting Literacy Learning for Children with Autism
   Stanley L. Swartz
   
   This study investigates two methods that support literacy learning: Reading Recovery (Clay, 1979; 1985) used as an individual intervention, and Guided Reading (Swartz, Shook, & Klein, 2003) used both in individual and small group applications. Findings suggest that both methods were helpful for six children with autism and may be worth implementing.
   
   
6. Signing Strategies: A Reading Tool in the Spanish Immersion Classroom
   St. Louis Park Public Schools
   
   Kindergarten teachers at Park Spanish Immersion School use video to present the signs they use when creating sound-symbol associations during literacy instruction in their classrooms, adapted from Tucker (2001). There is also a video of students using the reading signs to decode words.
   To get to this link, first go to the school’s homepage:
   
   Next, click on the “Students” tab, and then the “K” link, and the “actividades para leer” link. Once on the “actividades para leer” page, you will find a final link to the Tucker Signing Links on the left-hand menu list. Click on this link and you can view videos of Park Spanish immersion teachers using the signing strategies adapted for Spanish immersion students.
   
   
7. Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading (English)
   B. Tucker, 2006
   
   This on-line resource provides links to Tucker’s (2001) instructional manual, Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading, as well as research on the effectiveness of this approach to reading instruction.
   
   
8. Raconte—Moi Les Sons (Tell Me the Sounds)
   Josée Laplante, October 2001
   
   In this innovative approach to teaching the correspondence of sounds to letters in French, Laplante associates sounds to gestures to facilitate decoding abilities for early readers. This color-illustrated book contains all the little stories on the spellings and the corresponding sounds and visual cues associated with them. This publication has earned the author Josée Laplante the Germaine Huot 2002 awarded by the College of Pathologists and Audiologists of Quebec.
   
   To order:
   Title: Raconte—moi les sons (Tell me the sounds)
   Author: Josée Laplante
   Publisher: SEPTEMBER
   Subject: READ-WRITE-LANGUAGE
   ISBN: 9782894711361 (28947113611)
   Reference Renaud-Bray: 290041397
   
   
9. Brille, La Chenille (Brille, the Caterpillar)
   Nathalie Paquin, Nathalie Lagroix-Othmer, 2002
   Published by Ottawa, ON: Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques (CFORP)
   
   This educational resource book serves as a phonological awareness teaching guide for the French language.