Benchmark Education Helps Teachers Accelerate Students’ Spanish Language Learning with New Fonética y gramática Program

NEW ROCHELLE, NY, Dec. 4, 2017—Literacy and language publisher Benchmark Education Company (BEC) released Fonética y gramática, a new early elementary program that helps students quickly learn to read and write in Spanish. Through the use of engaging instruction, enjoyable reading materials, and meaningful hands-on practice, students can thoroughly master Spanish literacy. Designed for Spanish, dual language, and bilingual classes, Fonética y gramática for grades K–2, provides the right resources to engage students and teach initial Spanish literacy skills. Authentic Spanish poems, stories, and nonfiction are linked to instructional materials and support. Flexible purchase options allow customers to purchase the program either as print only or print with online access. The combination of print with online access provides teachers with Spanish literacy resources in digital format to extend student learning outside of the classroom.

The program’s systematic, explicit instruction is organized into three levels, ¡Comienza! (Kindergarten), ¡Sigue! (Grade 1), and ¡Avanza! (Grade 2). Each level includes 10 three-week units and utilizes instructional resources, manipulatives, and authentic texts, including posters, teacher lap books, and decodable readers. Explicit, systematic instruction matches the traditional Spanish phonics instructional sequence. Students progress to learning and working with essential types of words and grammar lessons that enable them to read and write complete sentences.

“It is important for educators to have early elementary solutions that support students’ Spanish literacy,” said Tom Reycraft, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Benchmark Education. “As the leading publisher of literacy and language solutions, Benchmark Education’s Fonética y gramática provides the foundational materials educators need to achieve Spanish literacy goals. We are pleased to provide this solution to educators of K–2 students.”

This innovative program builds on foundational Spanish literacy skills with students moving through three levels. In ¡Comienza!, students are introduced to the phonetic elements and authentic Spanish literature through engaging posters and decodable readers. In ¡Sigue!, the decodable readers build upon that introduction by enabling students to engage with richer texts, providing meaningful contexts for practicing phonics skills. The decodable readers are used to reinforce the skills taught with other components of the program and link stimulating visuals with written text through the process of presenting, demonstrating, and practicing.

In ¡Avanza!, decodables are replaced with an anthology of passages called “Mis lecturas.” In this resource, students access longer text for meaningful practice with language and grammar in context. Associated lessons become increasingly complex as the students transition from phonics to grammar. Writing analysis activities allow teachers to gauge their students’ understanding of the transfer from oral to written language.

Sound-Spelling Cards, Frieze Cards, Picture Cards, Syllable Cards, Letter Cards, and Work Mats are also available to provide meaningful, hands-on practice and instruction. The Sound-Spelling Cards, in addition to the Frieze Cards, Picture Cards, Syllable Cards, and Letter Cards, reinforce students’ familiarity and automaticity with phonetic elements as they apply their learning to the authentic texts in this program.

Activity and Assessment Books provide additional language practice opportunities and ways for teachers to monitor student progress. The program’s detailed Teacher’s Resource System is an invaluable tool for educators, providing explicit instruction at each grade for the optimal use of the components, as well as lesson plans, skills overviews, tips, and suggestions for each unit.

Every component of Fonética y gramática is available in digital format, which provides an enhanced interactive learning experience for both teachers and students. Students can engage with the materials again and again and play games to reinforce what they are learning. A digital ePocket Chart enables teachers to demonstrate how to combine letters and syllables to form words and sentences on whiteboards and other devices.

Features

Modules are comprised of efficient 3-week units, all 100 percent digital, including interactive ebooks, videos, e-Planner, take-home letters and activities, and STAAR-formatted assessments. Single-topic units within Reader’s Workshop focus on genres and on a cluster of TEKS and ELPS skills, with targeted whole-group mini-lessons and small-group reading instruction supported with tools for one-on-one conferring. Ongoing assessment includes STAAR-formatted digital and print assessments, as well as observational assessments to inform instructional decisions.

Responsiveness to the needs of each individual reader is a chief goal of instruction in Texas Benchmark Workshop and Texas Benchmark Taller, and a central element of Reader’s Workshop is a robust Responsive Teaching Toolkit. The Toolkit provides the resources needed to support student-centered teaching and learning during the whole-group, small-group, and independent parts of the daily workshop, including professional guides to best practices, flip charts with visual cues to support transfer, prompting cards with gradual-release strategies to scaffold students, and tips for productive reading conferences.

The Phonics & Word Study Workshop offers explicit, systematic instruction with authentic reading and writing application. At the foundation of instruction is a purposeful scope and sequence that moves students from exposure to mastery to transfer into reading and writing opportunities. Reteaching and reinforcement are emphasized as students move from whole group to small group.

Availability

Fonética y gramática is a complete grades K–2 system available as print only or print with online access. The suggested price for the full set grades K–2, print only is $5,095 and print plus online is $5,995. For information about Fonética y gramática or to purchase this and other Benchmark Education products, visit www.BenchmarkEducation.com or call 877-236-2465.

ABOUT BENCHMARK EDUCATION COMPANY

Headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, Benchmark Education Company is a leading publisher of PreK-12 core, supplemental, and intervention literacy resources in English and Spanish. These resources are supported by instructional technology solutions as well as onsite and online customized professional development training for teachers and administrators. Benchmark Education’s print and online resources are research-based and differentiated to support all learners in a wide variety of instructional settings. In addition to extensive educational use in the USA, Benchmark Education resources are also used in schools and training centers in Europe, the Middle East, Canada, South America, and Asia.