Traditional ABC examples, “A is for APPLE/manzana,” do not work for Latino kindergartners from Spanish speaking homes, it could be perceived as “A is for manzana.” Continuing to use these examples and expecting Latino literacy rates to improve is insanity! We need to change things up!
Let’s bring Cognates into our kindergarten classrooms. “A is for AIRPLANE/avion”; “B is for BOAT/barco”; “C is for CAMERA/camera”. Let’s re-imagine how we look at the ABC’s. These user-friendly Cognate examples work in BOTH English and Spanish and can help keep our Latino ABC literacy on track.
