Spanish Immersion LLC

Requirements for Participation

1. For K-2nd, need to be determined by the classroom teacher, LLC teacher, and parent
2. For grades 3rd and up, completion of a formal, battery of tests, including academic and achievement testing- Full Educational Diagnostic Battery of testing
3. For 3rd and up, qualifying neurodiverse diagnosis
4. Students must have a functional limitation (there is an educational need for accommodations and support).

Goals of the Esperanza Program

The goal of the Esperanza program is to provide a reading intervention program that uses a multisensory, sequential, systematic, and structured literacy approach to achieve Spanish literacy.  Esperanza focuses on early language and literacy skills, which include components such as phonological awareness, the alphabet, phonics, early reading and writing skills, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.  Our reading intervention program systematically and cumulatively develops a strong knowledge of the structure of the Spanish Language so that students can read, write, and spell in Spanish.  The instruction is direct and systematic, meaning concepts are taught daily, students build upon their previous learning and thus lessons are cumulative.  Students also practice new concepts through daily reading, writing, and spelling activities.  We also teach phonological awareness and phonics skills by reviewing sounds of the language, symbol-to-sound correspondences, segmenting, blending, or manipulating sounds, syllables, words, and sentences.  We teach decoding strategies and facilitate fluency-building activities.  We use different modalities so the student can learn in his or her own learning style, which includes auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile learning styles.  To ensure that our students are progressing with academic gains, we assess our students using screeners that measure and provide placement for the program as well as provide progress monitoring tools that are administered after every 10 completed lessons. Esperanza has been a great resource and support for our students in the Spanish Immersion program (Elsa Cardenas-Hagan, Ed.D).