Teaching Cognates/Cognados Through Picture Books (Resources for Fostering Spanish-English Vocabulary Connections)

There are more than 20,000 Spanish–English cognates—words that are similar in spelling and meaning in both languages. Because many of these cognates are essential for comprehending school texts, systematic cognate instruction can help young bilingual learners master the vocabulary words and literacy skills they need for academic success.

This is the first comprehensive, practical guidebook on seamlessly working cognate instruction into existing lesson plans using high-quality picture books. Developed by respected researchers with first-hand classroom experience, this book is a great resource for bilingual educators and specialists as well as monolingual English-speaking teachers who want to support their bilingual learners. Elementary school educators (K-6) will discover how to

• introduce students to cognates
• conduct engaging picture book read-alouds to incorporate cognates into vocabulary lessons
• use effective methods and activities for teaching cognate prefixes, suffixes, root words, and spelling patterns
• design customized cognate lesson plans using the included template and step-by-step guide
• plan successful content-area thematic units that include cognate words and activities

To help teachers quickly integrate cognate instruction into their curriculum, they’ll also get access to the Cognate Companion website, a database organized around more than three thousand award-winning picture books in Spanish, English, or both. Teachers can search the website by title, author, and reading level to find appropriate picture books and all their cognates. The website also includes 250+ quick, ready-to-use cognate lesson plans for select picture books—easy add-ons any teacher can start using tomorrow.