The Freire-UDL Spanish Literacy Program

This research-based Teacher’s Guide is the result of an academic endeavor whose primary purpose is providing nonliterate Spanish-speaking SIFE teachers with an effective new literacy-instruction model. Because reading is language-based, nonliterate students will achieve literacy in English most efficiently by learning to read in their native language, L1, and then transferring that skill to reading in English, L2. (August & Shanahan, 2006). It is well documented that students’ literacy skills in the native language are fundamental for their English literacy acquisition and school success (Bigelow & Tarone, 2004; Collier, 1989, 1995; Cummins, 1981, 2000, 2001; Freeman & Freeman, 2000, 2002; Garrison-Fletcher et al., 2008; Goldenberg, 2008; Klein & Martohardjono, 2015; Menken, Kleyn, & Chae, 2012; Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007; Thomas & Collier, 2002).

The Freire-UDL Literacy-Alfabetización Model provides an alternative solution to the traditional approach of instruction in how to read that has focused on the relationship between letters and sounds, rhyming words, and word classes, leading to students’ decoding skills. In contrast, the Freire-UDL Literacy-Alfabetización Model is based on the teaching/learning of phonics and spelling through 17 generative words that are emotionally relevant, for they come from students’ vocabulary universe. Through a respectful dialogue between teacher and students, teachers lead students through critical inquiry and high-reasoning questions to analyze their social context, reflect on it, and gain agency to change it—a process to which Freire refers as conscientización. 

The other foundational idea this model addresses is the variability of learners. The model opposes looking at students as if they have to fit a typical learning mold. Traditionally, curriculum has been designed for the “average” student and, if a student’s way of learning does not conform to the “average” norms, he is considered disabled. As a result of new research in neuroscience, we now can say with confidence that it is the curriculum that is disabled, instead of the student (Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). Everyone’s brain is composed of brain networks that operate in learning environments in different ways. Therefore, information must also be presented to students in different ways.