Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish

The 3rd edition of "Practical Advice" is a collection of 37 essays written by classroom teachers who educate heritage learners of Spanish. The essays are organized into 8 "Are Heritage Learners Different", "Essential Goals", "First Steps", "Several Different Approaches to an HL Course", "Heritage and non-Heritage Learners Together", "An Organized Reading Program is Powerful", "Confronting Culture", and "Activities, Projects, Lessons, Events". We outline approaches that respect the unique needs of heritage learners. Topics the differences between heritage and native speakers of Spanish, a surprisingly essay about the differences between native-speaking and non-native speaking teachers, reflections on appropriate goals to structure a school year, home-school communication and issues particular to working with non-English speaking families, how to develop an independent reading program and how to structure a class with extremely heterogeneous reading levels, working within school cultures that may inadvertently undermine the needs of heritage learners, and a host of activities that work well in heritage learner classes. There are four essays outlining entirely different approaches to the school one that modifies a traditional thematic approach including descriptions for monthly units, a second approach based on pleasure reading designed to develop a love of reading even among low-level readers, a language arts approach designed to work in tandem with teachers in the ELA program, and an identity-based approach explicitly designed to strengthen the connections between home, school and community. In addition, there are three essays detailing different approaches to leading mixed classes, with both heritage and non-heritage learners. The third edition offers a strong approach to reading, offering big picture advice on developing a pleasure reading program as well as concrete, day to day activities that are easy to follow.