My name is Margarita Ramirez Rios. I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but was raised in Florida up until 7th grade. I attended GVSU to complete my bachelor's in education and integrated sciences. I did my teacher apprenticeship in North Godwin and my student teaching in Park Elementary. I am a proud Latina who is passionate about teaching and helping students feel a sense of belonging and proud of who they are.

Email: Magidarios@gmail.com

My job for them is to encourage as much Spanish as I can and learn as much as I can about other Spanish-speaking countries and the people.

What multilingual students are doing is hard, and for me to ask of them, no English in the classroom is me shutting them down. We want to make it a positive learning environment for them in which they feel confident enough to speak in Spanish, write in Spanish, and read in Spanish, because most of them don't have someone at home to help them with it. They already come in knowing so much English, and we want to use that knowledge to then transfer it into Spanish because a lot of the skills they need, they already have.

Oral language and talk are key in K-2 classrooms, especially if they're learning another language. (Manning, & Martell, J. (2016). This is why building classroom community with morning meetings, show-and-tell, having a student of the week, and talking about birthdays and parties is super beneficial to their learning and expanding their vocabulary. Not only do we learn about each other, but we are also providing them the opportunity to showcase what they know and express their ideas.

Today, I get to share my love for my language, and I can be more vocal about using it in public spaces. I know that in one of the readings it mentioned that your language matches the people that you are surrounded with, and I can say that is definitely true, and something I didn't quite notice, I do. As a teacher, now I don't shame them for not knowing a word in Spanish. I cheer for the words that they could say in Spanish, and they are using all of their tools to communicate. I hear lots of Spanglish during my day at school, and I am happy with the progress that they make in first grade because of so much vocabulary being thrown at them and used in the classroom, especially with our curriculum, Caminos.

In my classroom, I want to encourage students to think about the things that they already know how to do first and build on that to aid in other areas that still need work. For reading, I use fluency ladders. We talk about high-frequency words and whether they're consonants or vowels, or have digraphs or blends and the syllables in the words. After we talk about that certain word, we write it down in our journal, and it goes up on the word wall for them to reference. For writing, I have found it really beneficial to make detailed drawings, labeling, and using sentence stems for them. It takes the load off of the students having to think of something to start their thought or idea. To organize their thoughts, we do a variety of graphic organizers. 

Espinosa, C. M., & Ascenzi-Moreno, L. (2021). Rooted in strength. Scholastic.

In the classroom, when we are talking about new subjects, those multilingual learners will need more than just the repetition of the word for them to really grasp the word's meaning. “When teaching academic vocabulary, Baker et al. (2014) recommend using student-friendly definitions, examples and nonexamples, and concrete representations to support students in gaining an in-depth understanding of the new words.(Fenner et al. 2024)”.We can help them by providing different modes to make connections with that word. In the conocimiento, I have made a KIM model for my students in which we will be drawing a picture, making a definition, and something that will help them remember what the word means. In  This is a quick and easy way to have students engage in the disciplinary vocabulary that is being read to them. A lot of times, we will also add movements to a word or two that are key to understanding the topic, and this way, they will listen more actively for that word. We can have the word and the picture displayed somewhere in the room for them to reference for the unit. 

Something that also stood out to me is that I just started reading The Math Pact by By: Karen S. Karp, Barbara J. Dougherty, Sarah B. Bush, which is talking about the disciplinary language for math. It is saying that we need to use correct and consistent language as a school to keep it the same throughout each grade level, so students don't feel like they're learning something new every single time (Karp et al., 2020). I've read in a book that they need to hear a word at least 12 times for them to really know and understand what the word really means. This way, we can ensure that students are truly understanding what we're talking about.

Through email, I like to send a weekly newsletter on topics that we have been talking about that week. We also have a digital platform called TESAW in which I post pictures and videos of things that we might be doing at school. I also like to send a PDF of the chapters that we have read from our reader so they can have time and practice at home. I also send the unit overview home with them, which has what we are going to cover and even questions that they can ask their child to probe their thinking on something that may have gone on in school.

Assessments are there to provide us with the information in which students may be struggling with some things or will prove that they already know it. In my classroom, assessments are not the only thing that matters. Especially because my students are learning in a second language, I know that they know a lot more than what they did on the test. Because of this, I usually go with them after we take the test and after I've graded it. I give them a second chance to either work with me or my parapro to explain how they got their answer, or they can correct it right away.I feel like this gives me a more concrete idea of what they know versus what they don't know. Doing math tests this way specifically is more authentic because a lot of the time there are lots of words that they don't quite understand, and the way that the question is worded can sometimes be a little tricky. They do know how to do it if I just reword it. 

I will read the questions to them and will repeat if a student needs me to repeat the question.I always tell them to take their time, and if they need more time, that's fine. We can finish it later. 

In first grade, we focus a lot on test-taking skills and how we can find the answer if they are comprehension questions. For the most part, they are formative assessments in which I am doing observations and listening to what they have to say. We can do questions on Seesaw in which they can record their voice and explain how they got the answer. We can do true and false on there as well, and they can go at their own pace and listen and re-listen to the question if need be. We can use different modes to truly grasp what kids know. Also accepting their response in their home language if they can't explain in the other, this should not be controversial and should be accepted. (Viesca & Commins, 2026)

In my redesign, I incorporated a model, a speaking portion, and a true and false based on the readings for the unit.