beginning reading and writing Spanish strand TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.
Both decoding and encoding skills are needed to build a foundation in reading. Decoding is the process of translating written speech into verbal speech sounds by applying knowledge of letter-sound correspondences. It is the ability to recognize letters, apply their associated sounds, and blend sounds to form words. Encoding is the process of using letter-sound knowledge to write or spell words. Students must understand the various spelling patterns and rules of the Spanish language to correctly construct words in their written products. It is important that students demonstrate their knowledge by applying these rules consistently instead of using invented spelling because they may unknowingly write a real word they did not intend, causing reader confusion.