Language Lizard is excited to announce its newest offering, Squirrel Monkey, a thoughtful tale about acceptance and the power of mindfulness.
Continue reading Bilingual Book Supports Mindfulness And Stress Reduction
Language Lizard is excited to announce its newest offering, Squirrel Monkey, a thoughtful tale about acceptance and the power of mindfulness.
Continue reading Bilingual Book Supports Mindfulness And Stress Reduction
Check out our new bilingual offering for older language learners, perfect for the new school year!
Continue reading Bilingual Book Sets for Older Language Learners
Today we feature the Kinyarwanda language! We have gathered some background information and interesting facts about the language. We also have information on our newest bilingual children’s books now available in Kinyarwanda.
Continue reading Kinyarwanda Language: Interesting Facts & Resources
Let’s learn about Ukrainian! We’ve gathered some background information and interesting facts about the language. Check out our newest bilingual children’s books available in Ukrainian.
Continue reading UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE: INTERESTING FACTS & RESOURCES
Language Lizard is excited to announce its newest book, Amazing Sports from Around the World, which explores unusual and fascinating sports from diverse cultures and locations, you guessed it, from around the world!
Continue reading New Multicultural Book Celebrates Amazing Sports from Around the World!
Language Lizard is excited to announce that our Living in Harmony books are now available in Ukrainian. We are raising funds for refugees with book set purchases of this series in any language!
Today we feature the Tagalog language! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about the language. We also have information on our newest children’s books available in Tagalog. Continue reading Tagalog Language: Interesting Facts & Resources
Today the spotlight is on Tirgrinya! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about the language. You can also check out our newest children’s books available in Tigrinya. Continue reading Tigrinya Language: Interesting Facts & Resources
Today’s spotlight language is on Dari and Pashto! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about these two languages. You can also find information on our newest bilingual Dari and Pashto children’s books.
Continue reading Dari and Pashto: Afghan Languages Fun Facts & Books
photo credit: KOMUnews @flickr.com
“[Here] is what reading is all about: yes, it will make kids smarter and give them a better start in life than non-readers, but for me that’s not the point. The point is that reading is fun…”
This is a quote from a recent article in British newspaper The Guardian by Charlie Higson, author of a variety of YA fiction including the Young James Bond series. Sure, as a writer he might have a vested interest in promoting reading, but there is no denying the inherent truth of what he is saying. To get kids to read, and keep reading, particularly over the long summer months, it must be a pleasurable experience. This is definitely the point that we need to get across to children now that the sound of the school bell has faded and it seems like forever before the leaves start to turn and they’re back at their desks. Summer is for having fun, and that includes reading!
Many families, teachers, and librarians worry about the summer learning slide, and with good reason. A study done by Reading Rockets found that for “116 first, second, and third graders in a school in a middle class neighborhood …the decoding skills of nearly 45% of the participants and the fluency skills of 25% declined between May and September.” Attention clearly needs to paid to reading over summer vacation if we are to combat this trend.
For families who want to renew their children’s enthusiasm for reading, bilingual books can add a new dimension. For families who speak a language other than English at home, bilingual books can be a comforting way to read in their home language while simultaneously building their English skills over the summer.
Here are some tips to help your children and students use bilingual books for having fun and improving their reading skills before September:
There are also a variety of folktales and stories from around the world available in bilingual editions (English and another language text on the same page), so children who speak a different home language can also find stories that are familiar to them. A group of parents who want to encourage their children to become bilingual readers could find a set of books to swap throughout the summer, so no-one gets bored!
At school, children are used to discussing books. The question-and-answer structure will be familiar to them and therefore allow them to feel more comfortable and take more risks speaking their new language. Simple discussions about feelings and plot are great tools to help embed new vocabulary: “How does the explorer feel about the animals at the end of the book? What has changed?” “What were your favorite plants that you saw in the drawings?” See if you can get your children to answer in both languages. They’ll feel more involved in what they’ve read and excited to continue their literary journey!
Are you a librarian? For you, summer is a great time to reach out to the community and welcome ELLs into your stacks. As Robertson writes, many families are unaware of the great summer reading programs and bilingual resources you offer – so get some flyers translated and start sticking them up around town!
…And here’s a list of other great ways librarians are improving literacy for ELLs all over the country: http://www.languagelizard.com/newsarticle8.htm
Summer is such a perfect opportunity to show kids how much fun bilingual reading can be. How are you planning to use bilingual books to prepare your kids for the exciting year ahead at school?
For more ideas about summer literacy, check out the following Language Lizard blogs:
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Bilingual Books for Summertime Reading