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✍ Brief Summary:
"Spanish is the Language of My Family" is a heartwarming book that celebrates the cultural heritage of Hispanic-American families. It draws inspiration from generations of Latinx people who faced punishment for speaking Spanish in schools across the U.S. and highlights how new generations are working to reevaluate, rejuvenate, and reintegrate the language into their lives.
The story orbits around a young boy who shares a strong bond with his beloved grandmother, united by their love for Spanish. As he prepares for an upcoming spelling bee, he seeks her help with words he struggles to spell. During their study sessions, his grandmother shares stories about her childhood, a time when only English was permitted in schools. Her experiences motivate him to study harder and take pride in his family's heritage.
This narrative is based on the stories that the author’s mother shared with him during his own childhood, making it a personal and relatable tale.
📚 Here is how the book aligned and supported our program's goals:
The book Spanish is the Language of My Family by Michael Genhart aligns and supports the goals of our NYC District 13 Title III Educational Program by fostering Bilingual and Bicultural Development, promoting cultural pride, facilitating family and community engagement, supporting social-emotional learning, integrating academic skills, and enhancing academic achievement among Multilingual Learners. Here’s how the book supports explicitly these goals:
- Supports Bilingual and Bicultural Development:
- Bilingual Text. The book is written in English and Spanish, providing a rich linguistic experience for MLLs. The integration of Spanish words and phrases within the English text supports vocabulary acquisition and comprehension.
- The narrative centers around a Spanish spelling bee, offering opportunities to practice spelling, pronunciation, and language structures in a meaningful context.
- Promotes Cultural Pride and Identity:
- Representation of Heritage: The story highlights the importance of Spanish language in the protagonists’s family, fostering pride and connection to cultural roots. This aligns with our Title III’s emphasis on affirming students’ cultural identities
- Historical Context:
- The book addresses the historical suppression of the Spanish language in schools, providing a platform for discussion on linguistic diversity and resilience.
- Enhances Academic Achievement:
- Integration of Language skills. Weaving together reading, writing, speaking activities related to the spelling bee, the book supports comprehensive language development.
- Cognitive engagement: The narrative encourages critical thinking and problem-solving as the protagonist navigates the challenges of the spelling bee, promoting cognitive skills essential for academic success.
- Facilitates Family and Community Engagement:
- Intergenerational Bonding. The relationship between the protagonist and his “abuela” underscores the importance of family involvement in education, a key component of our Title III Program.
- Community Connections: The book serves as a springboard for community events such as cultural heritage celebrations, strengthening school-community ties.
- Supports Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
- Empathy and Understanding: The story’s exploration of language discrimination and the protagonist’s determination to honor his heritage fosters empathy and resilience among students.
- Identity Affirmation:
- By celebrating linguistic diversity, the book helps students afform their identities, contributing to positive self-esteem and emotional well-being.
🧩 Activity of Integration: “My Family Language Poster”
- Objectives: To celebrate multilingualism and family heritage.
To build critical thinking and historical awareness.
- Process:
- Students create posters about the languages spoken in their families. They include the name of the language, who speaks it, a few words/phrases, and why it is special. The teachers display the work of students in a “Languages of Our Class” gallery.
- Discuss how attitudes toward bilingualism have changed or remain the same. Students use a Venn diagram to compare the grandmother’s experience with Spanish at school (“then”) to the main character’s (“now”)
🗣 Speaking, Listening, and Writing Sentence Frames:
- My Native Language is _______________. I am a ______________ person.”
- “Then, Spanish was ___________________.”
- “Now, Spanish is ______________________.”
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