As part of the basic special education curriculum of the Department of Public Instruction of Puerto Rico, this teacher's guide, presents, in Spanish, a basic curriculum for writing skills for students with disabilities. Skills for handwriting (the production of writing) and composition are included. Although the student with disabilities needs…

The fact that a writer's culture influences the composing style is undeniable. Spanish speakers writing in English often allow their points to "leap around," perhaps constituting a pattern the instructor does not see. In "Beyond Culture," Edward Hall explains that cultures operate under either "monochronic" or…

This curriculum guide is the third of a four-volume set that is intended to improve career and vocational guidance services to Spanish-speaking students in grades 9 through 12. The first section outlines the goal and objectives of the materials. The remaining four sections consist of English and Spanish translations of activities and handouts on…

Described in this paper is a writing strategy used in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classes for Spanish-speaking adult immigrants in a Washington, D.C. center that goes beyond the standard ESL textbook reading/writing exercises to involve students in the writing process. The teacher wrote a brief text in the first person on a topic of…

Songs and poems with origins in Hispanic-American cultures are presented for the classroom use of Spanish teachers. Some information about the selections, their characteristics and idiosyncracies, and their specific uses in instruction is provided. (MSE)

This English-Spanish language report includes the rationale for creating an assessment model for Spanish writing, offering an overview of the components of high quality assessment for any subject area, particularly Spanish writing. It presents the characteristics of effective Spanish writing, rubrics for scoring student performance based on the…

This instructional video is designed for schools, teachers, community groups, and others, as a tool for use in communicating to refugee and immigrant parents. The video serves as a brief overview to the many facets of school which might be new or different for refugee or immigrant parents, including suggestions of what parents might do at home to…

The Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA) is New Jersey's test for fourth graders. It is designed to give the school information about how well students are achieving in the areas required by New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards. This guide offers parents, students, and teachers information about the ESPA. The parent…

An interactive, multimedia program designed to teach writing in Spanish as a second language is described and its instructional features are discussed. In it, students must interpret ambiguous scenes and communicative interactions in Spanish to create a fictional account. An oral component also requires students to speak the language. (MSE)

The Foreign Language Standards of Learning identify essential content, processes, and skills for each level of language learning in Virginia's secondary schools. Included are specific standards for levels I through IV of French, German, Spanish, and Latin, as well as generic standards adaptable for levels I through IV of other modern languages,…

This study presents direct observation of a 7-year-old, native Spanish-speaking female learning English in a mainstreamed first and second split classroom. Subject is described in the school setting, and it is shown how she worked, what she did during the mornings, how she responded to commands and directions, and how and with whom she…

This guide provides an overview of the naturalization process and what it means to Hispanic immigrants, describes techniques for integrating English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and civics/history content in multilevel classes, offers directions for filling out the naturalization forms and completing the legal steps to naturalization, and provides…

This digest explains how functional language instruction can be made useful for persons with moderate to severe disabilities who are also culturally and linguistically different. It further explains how vocabulary and cultural information of the Spanish-speaking student can be included in functional language instruction for students who are from…

This guide to the use of computer software in Spanish second language instruction contains a series of lesson plans based in part on software content. The topics covered by the lesson plans are common to Spanish level 1 and 2 courses, and are intended not as a sequential course but as a reference for teachers. All lessons involve computer use and…

A study investigated the role of metacognitive skills and the conception of reading in the reading comprehension of adult native speakers of Spanish and English. The study differed from others in its examination of reading conceptions and comprehension in both the first and second languages. Results suggest that both first language reading ability…