Hi Rossana,
It sounds like you are having a great time writing with your bilingual kindergartners. Young writers need to know there are two kinds of words: High-frequency words they need to know “by heart” and words they need to listen, stretch out, and write the sounds for. How exciting that your students are getting fluent in this phonics-based writing. When children are growing in their use of phonics-based spelling in a comprehensive writing workshop model, we do not expect those words to be “adult spelling.” We encourage risk-taking! However, hopefully simultaneously you also are introducing those first 16 high-frequency “heart words” and sentences. After those have been introduced and practiced (Sing, Sign, Spell, and Read!), we expect the children to write those correctly “by heart.” These words include mom, dad, cat, dog, you, see, I, love, like, the… Consider reviewing Online Seminar #3 to understand the importance of introducing the high-frequency “heart word” sentences that children write daily for fluency practice. Again, it is exciting that your kids are already writers! Young writers need to build fluency and confidence with both types of words.
Smiles, Nellie Edge
