September 18, 2025
Thursday Edition
Empowering Dual Language Immersion educators with best practices, relevant research, classroom tips, and fun ideas that will inspire you into, through and beyond your teaching week.
Sociocultural competence refers to the ability to effectively interact and communicate with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, understanding their norms, values, and perspectives
Sociocultural Competence, one of the foundational pillars of DLI programs, includes creating a classroom environment where everyone is welcome. Our programs calls for the inclusion of all students, from all backgrounds, creating diverse classroom composition where students learn about and with each other. Creating an environment where acceptance and inclusion are central to work of becoming bilingual and biliterate is an integral component of DLI programs.
How and when do I include lessons about culture?
In addition to creating an inclusive environment, DLI programs strive to include learning activities where students learn about the culture of the target language. Our time is limited across grades in DLI to add extra lessons, but you may consider selecting read aloud books that can facilitate a discussion about the country and culture that the story represents. For the weeks ahead and throughout the school year, I will highlight books that represent different Spanish speaking countries written by Latine/x writers.
What is the heritage of your students?
Our Spanish speaking students may represent various Spanish speaking countries. Find titles that represent where your students are from and include their experiences and knowledge about their heritage in the discussions. Or begin with countries celebrating their independence such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua on September 15, México on September 16, and Chile on September 18. Hispanic Heritage month lasts 30 days, but in a DLI program, we have all year to include texts and lessons that tie language and culture. Take your time and have fun with your students they explore the language and culture of Spanish.
Language & Culture & the Read-Aloud
I'm a big fan of teachers reading aloud to students at all grade levels. When a teacher reads aloud they are modeling language, and in some classrooms we are the only Spanish model which makes the read-aloud an important time of the instructional day. This article lists 7 benefits to reading aloud including the development of listening, comprehension and oral language skills. Read HERE on how to make Read-alouds fun for all ages. You don't need to dedicate a long block of time. You can spend as little as 5 to 10 minutes and read the whole book or part of a book depending on what time allows. The benefits of having a consistent read aloud time is worth every minute.
Interactive Read Alouds
Interactive Read Aloud texts provide an opportunity for both
oral language and vocabulary development.
Celebrando la cultura Mexicana
Los mariachis de Adela
Bookshop Spanish English
Amazon Spanish English
Mamiachi y yo
Bookshop Spanish English
Amazon Spanish English
For more titles visit my shop at Bookshop Shop/Viva ser bilingüe.
Bookshop.org is offering 20% off during Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month
México
For TK-2
For 3rd and up
Latinx Kidlit Book Festival
Fostering a love of story and contuining to uplift Latinx kidlit authors, the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival is back. Click HERE for the 2025 schedule and HERE for the Festival-at-a glance
DLI Resources
The César Chávez Foundation is offering free K-8 Lessons for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Click HERE to sign up for the lessons.
Did you know that the César Chávez Foundation offers summer school, after school programs? To learn more about their educational programs click HERE.
Discovering Español TPT store offers several lessons for Hispanic Heritage Month including country specific lessons.
@weareteachers shared a list of activities for HHM.
Noticas de música
This type of content usually goes in the Sunday Edition,
but since this is happening this Saturday....
Bad Bunny is adding one more concert to the residency he just wrapped up in Puerto Rico. Tickets will be sold for Puerto Rican residents only, however the concert will also be livestreamed. You can catch the show this Saturday, September 20 at 8:30 EST on Prime Video , Amazon Music app & Twitch. Read more HERE.
Upcoming Conferences & DLI PD
Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE) - Allen,Texas - October 22-25, 2025
Learn more HERE
Washington Association for Bilingual Education (WABE) - Tacoma, WA - October 24-25, 2025
Learn more HERE
La Cosecha Dual Language Conference - Alburquerque New Mexico - November 11-15, 2025
Learn more HERE.
Call for proposals for Association of Two-Way and Dual Language Educators (ATDLE) - Sand Diego, CA June 17-19, 2026 Learn more HERE
Directory of Dual Language Programs in the U.S.
Dual Language Schools.org counts 4894 Dual Language programs across the United States. Check the link above to see if your school is on the list.
¡Viva ser bilingüe! Newsletter is published by Multilingual Learning Network.
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