Comprehension

During our Focus Instruction Group (FIG) started in October I have been reading with a group of mostly girls that speak Spanish at home that have been asked to read and comprehend in English all day long for the last couple of years. I decided that I'd read stories that they already read in English, in Spanish, talk through what I am thinking, how I am relating it to my own prior knowledge, having to suspend my disbelief, wondering about author's purpose, looking for metaphor and simile, personification, alliteration and other literary elements. I can do this fairly quickly and bilingually because most of the literary elements are cognates that they have to learn anyway.