The People Behind Authentic Spanish Literacy Program Design

Every program on our shelf started as a conversation. For Mosaico: Lectoescritura por i-Ready our K–6 Spanish core literacy program, those conversations happened in focus groups with teachers, video calls with editors on three continents, and debates over a single word for popcorn.

I sat down with my colleagues who built Mosaico: Lectoescritura from the ground up: Vice President of Universal Access, Gabriel Salzman; Spanish Language Arts Product Director, Meriwynn Mansori; Senior Design Director, Raquel Hernandez; Content Manager, Maria Francisca “Pancha” Mayobre; and Senior Director, Bilingual Editorial, Nathalie Beullens-Maoui. What I heard from each of them was that authentic Spanish literacy program design starts with listening, not translating.

Built from a Gap Educators Named

According to Gabriel, bilingual and dual-language educators had been asking for something that simply didn’t exist: a Spanish program with the same depth, rigor, and richness as English-language literacy products. “It was a real goal of ours to develop a program that represents true parity with our core English program, Magnetic Literacy.”

As a former ESL teacher, Meriwynn remembers eighth graders who had lived in the U.S. for years but were still classified as English Learners because school never let them build on the language they already had. “When you allow students to maintain their home language and develop academic knowledge in their home language, that unlocks the world to them,” she said. To echo the Association of Two-Way & Dual Language Education (ATDLE), “No child should have to lose a language to learn a language.”

 

More than a Translation

One idea carried through each of my conversations: Mosaico: Lectoescritura's strengths stem largely from its rich, engaging text sets, which reflect how Spanish is actually taught, read, and lived.

 

That’s the heart of authentic Spanish literacy program design.

 

Gabriel explains: “Any instructional or student-facing elements that are leveraged from English are transadapted and not simply translated. This means we consider the cultural and linguistic specificities of the Spanish language.” The end result? A program, mostly written from scratch, that shares much of the same DNA as Magnetic Literacy, without being an exact replica. That distinction even shaped the program’s name. “Literally translating the name Magnetic would send a message that the program is a translation of the English program, which it isn’t,” Gabriel said. “We wanted a program with its own identity, so we chose Mosaico.”

 

Nathalie, who leads editorial for the Spanish program, described the process as building a puzzle with pieces that must fit two languages at once. “Teaching Spanish in the U.S. is completely different from teaching Spanish in any other country. In the U.S. there are 20+ Spanish-speaking countries represented, and each come with their own regionalisms, traditions, and culture. We had to keep in mind that certain words can have different meanings, or can be called different things, like popcorn. There are about ten ways of saying popcorn in Spanish, depending on where you’re from, so we gave teachers a glossary of Spanish words.

 

Choosing Texts to Include

Long before a story reaches a classroom, someone must select it. A longtime publisher in Venezuela and Spain with deep knowledge of the Spanish-language publishing industry, Pancha began her search at her local library in Brooklyn. “Selecting texts is always a big challenge, because it’s not always what you want, or what your personal preferences are,” she said. “You have to consider if the text is age-appropriate; if it builds knowledge; if it’s well-written; if it represents many cultures.”

 

Students and teachers in the U.S. often come from different Spanish-speaking backgrounds and cultures. That’s why we are lucky enough to have editors from a wide range of Spanish-speaking countries, including Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, and beyond, who bring their unique regionalisms and perspectives to the program. “When students see themselves represented in the literature, it pulls them into reading,” Pancha said.

 

For Pancha, who grew up in Venezuela and spent a few years in the U.S. as a child, the search for Mosaico: Lectoescritura texts was rooted in memory, as well as in her knowledge of contemporary Spanish-language publishing and children’s and YA literature. Reading authors like Judy Blume when she was a student was an effort to belong, but she missed seeing her own home reflected on the page. “When you come into a classroom and you don't speak the language or know the culture, you feel like you’ve landed on another planet.” In Mosaico: Lectoescritura students might recognize a mamá making tacos for dinner or familiar families and neighbors in a community filled with colorful street murals. These authentic details can help bridge their worlds.

 

Designing so Students See Themselves

Raquel led the visual side of Mosaico: Lectoescritura, and for her, too, the work was personal. She remembers reaching for books as a child that showed white picket fences that looked nothing like her own neighborhood. “I found it so hard,” she said. “Even when my teachers were including Spanish programs, they only represented one culture of the Latino community, not all.”

 

That memory shaped how her team approached every cover and illustration. They worked with more than 80 illustrators from across the Spanish-speaking world, more than half of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino, to get small details right—down to how a Peruvian marinera dance is held or how a güiro is played in some Puerto Rican music. “It’s really important for teachers to know that if we get it right in English, we’ll get it right in Spanish,” Raquel said.

 

The Work Everyone Kept Coming Back to

Ask anyone on the team what they’re most proud of, and the answer is always the thoughtfulness behind the product. “I’m super proud of the cross-cultural makeup of our team, and how that is manifested in the product itself,” Gabriel said.

 

For Meriwynn, the proof comes from the field. “I’m most proud of hearing stories about educators who are moved by the product, because they feel heard and valued.”

 

And for Raquel, it comes down to a single image she keeps returning to. “When teachers look at these covers before they even open the book, I want them to think, I really want to teach this.”

 

Behind every page of Mosaico: Lectoescritura is someone who remembers what it felt like to be an outsider, and who spent years making sure the next student won’t have that same experience. That starts with listening, and it’s what authentic Spanish literacy program design looks like from the inside out.

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More Resources for You:

Embracing Oracy: A Foundational Skill for Multilingual Learners

Creating Cross-Linguistic Connections to Strengthen Biliteracy

Dual-Language Classrooms: Bridging Content and Academic Language