Acuarela Decodable Texts

The first decodable text set built on a bilingual scope and sequence.

Acuarela’s Fiction Text Sets feature gorgeous, original texts in Spanish and English, crafted by expert bilingual educators from across the US and illustrated by award-winning illustrators from across Latin America.

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Each text includes:

Focus Warm-Up: A calentamiento of key skills readers will need to tackle the text
Language Sparks: Crosslinguistic teaching notes designed to help educators support language learners in making sense of key vocabulary and developing their metalinguistic awareness as they read (in Spanish and English!)
Discussion Questions and Vocab to Deepen the Discussion: Retell, inference, and text-connection questions to get your readers thinking and talking more deeply about what they’ve read, and a juicy vocabulary word for each text to extend the conversation and enrich oral language.
Dictado: Carefully crafted “Write Without Looking!” practice to support encoding and cement their learning.
Playful Illustrated Map: Each series features a different part of the globe, to support learners in beginning to build world knowledge and develop global perspective as they connect beloved characters to the world around them

Our stories are written in series of 4 books each, so that young readers get to go deeper into each character’s world, sparking the authentic joy and anticipation of readers approaching each new story with the excitement of seeing a familiar friend again. Each series includes 2 original Spanish stories and 2 original English stories (not translation!), creating a sense of coherence and connection across instruction in both languages, aligned to our uniquely bilingüe Scope y Secuencia, which purposefully maps the simultaneous, coordinated development of Foundational Biliteracy Skills in Spanish and English.

Testimonials

“I just had his conference yesterday; he is a different student. He has come such a long way — just the behavior, the discipline — just to see that change, that transformation. Three of them went from sounds to reading full words, ‘sílaba por sílaba’. I could see the confidence building from one book to the next. They would look at the pictures; they would talk so much.”

“It really builds their confidence. They feel like, ‘I am a reader.’ I’m excited about that.”

-- From an interventionist in Washington State

“I used the Spanish Acuarela decodables in my classroom last year. As a teacher with 20 years of experience, I can say that they are the most engaging, well written decodables that I have ever used. The students loved getting to know the characters in the series and made connections to the text. The before and after reading prompts helped guide my instruction and focus our short time together. The kids also loved learning about characters in places all around the world, and if we had extra time, we often talked about the map on the back of each book! The books offered windows and mirrors to my students, and I am so excited to use them next year.”

--  90/10 Kindergarten teacher

They are designed around the following core principles:

Scoped for Biliteracy:

Our team of expert bilingual educators drew upon research in Spanish, English, and reading development for multilingual learners to develop the first bilingual scope and sequence, tailored to the unique features of both languages while optimizing for transfer across them.
Mirrors, Windows, and Whimsy:

Our texts reflect students' experiences across the US and the rich diversity of Latin America, while offering windows to the entire globe — with some silly, goofy, imaginative worlds mixed in for good measure! Our characters cross fluidly from Spanish to English and back, just like our students.
Meaningful and Effective:

Our stories are written to be coherent narratives — rather than lists of words with a target letter squeezed into a series of disconnected sentences. This means each text features a core of high-utility words with the target skill that readers will be able to actually learn. It also means there’s a real plot line in every story, a real purpose to every text.
Easy to Use:

Dual language doesn’t have to be so difficult! Our books come with simple, routine-based lesson plans — and with the key lesson elements embedded in the books, you’ll be able to grab texts for your readers and go.
Every Lesson is a Language Lesson

All Acuarela materials are created with a multilingual learner lens from the start.
Acuarela’s decodables are layered with purposeful supports to develop readers’ language as they crack the code: Language Sparks (at-a-glance notes to support adults in elevating key language features, like morphemes and multiple meaning words), a core of high-leverage discussion questions, and juicy vocabulary to enrich and extend oral language through text-centered discourse.