during Phase 1; they are sliding doors during Phase 4, when children are encouraged to engage in transformative action.
Knowing that children had an opportunity to explore oak trees, acorns, and pine trees and to observe squirrels, nests, and other organisms that live in trees, Ms. Gutiérrez selected Who Lives in a Tree?, by Susan Canizares and Daniel Moreton, to read to the children. This book connected to their prior knowledge while allowing them to make extensions to related ideas.
writing and reading about their experiences. Because these words were relevant to the conversation, she wrote them in Spanish and placed them at eye level.
Reading About the Experience
In many early childhood settings, a learning cycle begins with a read aloud. However, background knowledge is essential for reading comprehension( Arreguín et al. 2023). As children listen to a text, they must be able to create a mental representation of the information being read to them, a task that is virtually impossible when they are unable to make inferences or connect to that information in any meaningful way( Kaefer et al. 2015). This is particularly important with emergent bilingual children, who are more likely to maintain their emotional and cognitive investment in a read aloud when it is a continuation of something they have experienced( Alanís et al. 2021; Arreguín et al. 2023).
As Bishop( 1990) suggests, books are mirrors with which to connect physically, emotionally, or culturally; they are windows into perspectives and experiences that differ from our own; they are sliding glass doors that inspire action( Johnson et al. 2018). Books as mirrors and as sliding glass doors are particularly relevant to the nature-based, interdisciplinary biliteracy sequence: They serve as mirrors when they closely reflect the experiences children have
“ Let’ s listen to the title,” she said, as children gathered and sat next to their partners.“ Who Lives in a Tree? Tell your partner what you know about this topic. Make sure to use a complete sentence. For example:‘ One animal that lives in a tree is. I know because.’” Immediately, discussions began.“ The squirrels live in the tree,” Carlos said to his partner, Albert.“ We saw them!”
Ms. Gutiérrez selected this book because it presented information and concepts that children were familiar with and could relate to. A week later, she read A Tree Is Nice, by Janice May Udry and illustrated by Marc Simont, with the goal of embarking on caring actions, such as planting and tending to a tree.
Because Phase 3 is often conducted in children’ s second language, educators must approach each read aloud as an opportunity to identify cognates, or words that are similar in both languages( such as plant in English and planta in Spanish). They also must identify new, challenging vocabulary that requires more discussion. For example, A Tree Is Nice includes the word limb, which prompted Ms. Gutiérrez to create an illustration showing how both animals and trees have limbs, or extremities, as shown in the book. As Phase 3 came to an end, Ms. Gutiérrez reviewed new vocabulary that was added to the word wall and reminded children that the words could help summarize their learning.
Caring Actions
Reflecting on their study of trees, Ms. Gutiérrez and Ms. Anna lead the children as they think about ways that they can have a meaningful impact. Together, they center their discussions around the question“ What can we do to help trees?” and create the following list:
12 Young Children
Summer 2025