Spanish Leveled Readers for Young Students

[EndOfOrdinary]

There have been many threads about what to do when you have a small person who has gone through a lot of vocabulary, simple grammar, and yet is not ready for textbook approach.  We were rather stuck after watching all of Salsa! three times through and doing a lot of around the house conversational work.

 

Then our library got a giant grant for Spanish Leveled Readers.  These are the exact same thing that you find in English which start with Beginning to Read, Emergent, and then I Can Read!  There are stacks of various companies, but basically controlled grammar and simple sentences with lots of picture clues and high interest.  The books go from a few words on a page to more and more until the student is in the last level reading simple paragraphs with fewer pictures.

 

The Spanish Leveled Readers do this exact thing only they have the English translation on the page as well.  It allows for the students to either learn English with the Spanish or Spanish with the English.  I cover up the Spanish and my son asks "¿Qué significa?" when he does not know a word so we can uncover it.  Though the books are expensive to purchase for the individual family, they are something that I thought many people might be able to get a small stack of in InterLibrary Loan or ask their library to purchase.

 

Here is a link to all of the bilingual readers that the publisher puts out.  I'm sure there are more publishers, but this is a start.  As more show up I can put them on the list as well.  If you know of any Spanish leveled readers please let me know!

[Renai]

It's great there are so many translations out there these days, but there is an issue with them. A leveled reader in English does not always make it leveled in Spanish. There are words that are translated from English to Spanish that you may not find in a true leveled Spanish reader. Then again, Spanish is leveled a different way. English is leveled based on sight words, whereas Spanish is not. Since Spanish is syllabic, "readers" will be leveled based on the order in which letters/syllables are introduced. Thus, the most basic reader that is introduced to a student that knows the vowels and the m syllables would read, "Mi mama. Mi mama me ama. Mi mama me ama a mi..." Which you wouldn't find in English, "My mom. My mom loves me. My mom really loves me." Most of those are sight words in English, but considered decodable in Spanish.

 

Anyway, if the child is already reading in English, the skill transfers to Spanish so this is probably a moot point. I just get bugged about translated Spanish readers. Scholastic sells a set of Spanish readers through their book club Club Leo called Cuentos Foneticos. There are 36 books in the set, but it's $66. I got mine using points, lol. Both Santillana USA and Hampton Brown have leveled readers (not translated), but like you said, publisher ordering is expensive. The translated readers are better than nothing (so you can just ignore everything I've said previously), but just realize they are not truly leveled for Spanish.

 

If you want really really simple, head over to Hubbards Cupboard. Many of her (free) sight word booklets are translated into Spanish (and French, German, and Portuguese!). http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/sight_words.html

 

free on kindle http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Perros-Spanish-English-Learning-ebook/dp/B00TYZK2P0/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1425114779&sr=1-2&keywords=spanish+readers

 

free on kndle, http://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Around-House-Spanish-Learning-ebook/dp/B00TWUV3YQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1425114779&sr=1-3&keywords=spanish+readers

 

High school beginner level (Spanish as foreign language) reader, free on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/First-Spanish-Reader-ebook/dp/B004TQYXPY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1425114455&sr=8-2&keywords=spanish+readers

 

 

Other translations available:

 

Reading A-Z, need subscription but can download however many you want. Free trial is available. Out of everything listed, besides Scholastic and Hubbard's Cupboard, this is the only other site I've used (besides native materials). Over 27 levels, around 700 books. http://www.readinga-z.com/translations/spanish/leveled-books/

 

And another two expensive  your library may be willing to get. Never used them:

 

https://www.mheonline.com/program/view/1/1/159/0076236110/

 

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/guidedreading/espanol.htm

 

Santillana USA is a Spanish publisher with a lot of materials available, but the site is so convoluted. It's another good place to find readers for a library to get though.

 

Del Sol Books carries a lot of simple storybooks (not necessarily readers) written by Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, and others - the same authors that wrote many of the above publishers' Spanish curriculum. They are quality stories the library may be willing to purchase (ours has).

 

 

On a completely different note: if you were nearby, I would so hit you up to tutor my daughter in math, and I would supply you with readers to your heart's delight. :)

 

 

[sweetstitches]

I just found this resource and I'm excited about it, because it will read to you so that you know you are using the correct pronunciation.

 

http://www.booklingual.com

 

There is a new Cathy Duffy review for it, linked on the homeschool buyers co-op page.