Esperanza is a Spanish multisensory, structured language approach for reading, writing and spelling. The Esperanza program addresses the five components of effective reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel’s Research: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension.

• Phonemic Awareness – following established procedures for explicitly teaching speech sound identification, discrimination, manipulation, and omission
• Phonics – providing a systematic approach for single word decoding
• Fluency – using research-proven directed practice in repeated reading of words, phrases and passages to help students read newly encountered text more fluently
• Vocabulary – featuring multiple word learning strategies (contextual, structural, definitional) and explicit teaching techniques for application in text
• Reading Comprehension – teaching students to explicitly use and articulate multiple comprehension strategies (i.e., cooperative learning, story structure, question answering and generation, summarization and comprehension monitoring).

Level 1 is called “Lenguaje y Lectura” and it is appropriate for kindergarten.

Level 2 is Esperanza, and it is designed for students in 1st-2nd grade or for those students who are at that level of reading.

Once the Esperanza program is completed you may incorporate the WELLS (Working with English Language Learners) program, which is the Esperanza transition program in English that can later be introduced so that the student can then apply his or her knowledge of phonology, phonics, vocabulary, and the rules of one language for the acquisition of the second language.