Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 to October 15, 2024
Conference Opportunity
The Association for Migrant Education is hosting their annual statewide conference on November 20-22, 2024, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Parents, families, students, and educators will learn about important topics related to migrant families and hear from inspiring keynote speakers. Visit the AMET website for more information!
2024-25 T3 Series Event for Parents and Families
Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. CDT
This engagement series of virtual events offers opportunities for parents to learn about services and assessments for emergent bilingual students and supports for the family. Register Today!
Parents of emergent bilingual students may be curious about the benefits of bilingualism, so we include information in each newsletter to increase awareness of those benefits. The diagram below outlines seven of these benefits included in the Texas Dual Language Immersion Framework (TxEDLIF). This quarter, we are focusing on increased graduation rates. “Why Dual Language Works for Everyone,” by Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas explains that students who participate in dual language programs and maintain their home language typically outscore their monolingual peers on all tests and have dramatically higher graduation rates. More importantly, dual language students are happier, more engaged with instruction, and more confident.
Share these benefits with your child to encourage confidence in becoming bilingual. Even if your child does not have the opportunity to participate in a dual language program, you can encourage continued use of your home language to help your child stay on the path to bilingualism.
Target: FREE online Books
Recommended Grade Levels: All
Bookbot offers a selection of free books with audio to be read at home.When it’s time to read and your child doesn’t have a book, go to Bookbot to find a free one.
Go to Bookbotkids.com and click “Free Books.”
Scroll down and have your child select a Category.
Have your child click “Read Now” under the book of their choice and begin reading.
Click the arrows to move pages.
When finished with the book, be sure to talk about it with your child. Ask “What happened in the beginning, middle, and end?”, “Who are the main characters?”, and “What is the setting?”
You can download the app, so you can take reading anywhere you go, or download the PDF if you want to save the books for later.
Target Skills: Vocabulary and Spelling
Recommended Grade Levels: K-12
This is a spelling game that allows the player to select a difficulty level and score points based on the words created on a game board.
The easiest way to use this resource is to:
Open Outspell and click the Play button.
Select your difficulty level or Practice Play.
Drag the letter tiles to the game board to build a word, then click Submit.
Your digital opponent will add their word, then you play again until the board is full.
This is a fun spelling game that can improve vocabulary and spelling skills. Your child can use it on a phone or computer.
Target Skills: Grammar Check
Recommended Grade Levels: 4-12
Have your paper checked for grammar using this free online tool.
Whether your child is writing for class or not, a grammar check can help point out errors that can easily be fixed.
Open EasyBib and click “Check my Paper.”
Type or upload your paragraph or page then click “Check my paper.”
Review the suggestions and decide which changes you want to accept.
This is an easy way to check for capitalization, spelling, and punctuation before the teacher sees it!
Don’t forget to visit txel.org/SupportingChild for more interactive educational websites.
Reading Buddies
“10 Minutes of Reading a Night Can Change Your Child’s Life,” is an article that explains that the more a child reads the better he or she will be at reading. One way to make reading more enjoyable is to have your child select a favorite stuffed animal to read with. While your child reads aloud, listen for words they might struggle with. You can add a flashlight to make nightly reading fun for your child, too!
Sort Leaves
An easy way to practice using spoken language to describe items and groups is to have your child collect a pile of leaves and sort them into groups. Show them one way to sort, like by size to get them started and describe the groups for them: “These are sorted by size with one group of small leaves and one group of large leaves.” After you have shown them an example, have them sort them. Once they sort them, have your child describe the sort. (for example, I sorted mine into two piles: a yellow pile and a brown pile). This can be repeated as many times as time permits using different characteristics, like size. This simple activity will help your child develop skills that will be useful in reading, writing, math, and science.
Write a Lesson
Emergent bilingual students are asked to describe, write and compare things for the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). Ask your child to explain one thing they learn weekly to help build writing skills. The practice of doing this will help them become comfortable writing. Have them read it to you and you can check for clarity.
Fall must-dos for high school students
Fastweb offers suggestions for each grade level to keep your child on track for college. Look at the list below and visit the Fastweb website to learn more.
Freshman:
Work hard and stay attentive in class.
Experiment with extracurricular activities and join one you're interested in.
Sophomore:
Continue to work hard in class and keep committed to extracurricular activities.
Get ready for the PSAT. Find out when it's scheduled and look for resources to practice.
Junior:
Focus on the SAT and ACT. Take practice tests and read literary classics for examples to draw from in your writing prompts.
Compile a list of colleges you're interested in. Be sure to include a variety--those that you will definitely be accepted to and those that are more challenging.
Senior:
Perform better than ever in classes and lead extracurricular activities. Make campus visits and show them your high level of interest by sitting in on a class. Get applications organized and make sure you don't miss deadlines. They start as early as October.
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Supporting Emergent Bilingual Students in Texas
TXEL.org is a web portal that provides information and resources that are relevant, accessible, and impactful to support educational leaders, teachers, parents and families, and community partners to ensure the academic success of the State’s emergent bilingual students.
Contact us at: https://www.txel.org/contact/
Email: EmergentBilingualSupport@tea.texas.gov
Visit: www.tea.texas.gov