Hispanic literature lesson plan

Poetry and Culture

Primary text: Cool Salsa, edited by Lori M. Carlson.
Supplementary texts: Stories That Must Not Die, by Juan Sauvageau; The Making of a Poem, by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland.
Objectives: use poems by Hispanic authors to investigate poetic forms, symbolism, metaphor, and various other poetic conventions. Use poems by Hispanic authors as well as Hispanic folk tales to investigate the Hispanic experience in the U.S.A. and Hispanic culture, as well as how Hispanic culture and history affect the immigrant experience and how that experience affects and is affected by experiences outside the primary culture. Excerpts from The Making of a Poem will be used to define and give more examples of poetic forms.
Michigan E.L.A. High School Content Expectations met (throughout unit): 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.3.3, 1.3.7, 1.5.1, 1.5.4, 2.1.1, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.1.5, 2.1.7, 2.1.11, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.6, 2.3.8, 3.1.1, 3.1.3, 3.1.4, 3.1.5, 3.1.6, 3.1.7, 3.1.8, 3.1.9, 3.1.10, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.3.2, 3.3.3, 3.3.4, 3.3.5, 4.1.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.5.
Grade level: any high school class, though some work may be modified for lower grades.

Overview

I'd like to begin this lesson by having students do a mini research paper (just a couple paragraphs of information gleaned from Google searches completed in a class period in the school library or computer lab) on an author of choice. Cool Salsa is the product of many poets (Gina Valdes, E.J. Vega, Sandra Cisneros, Johanna Vega, Alberto Ambroggio, Sandra M. Castillo, Cristina Moreno, Abelardo B. Delgado, and many more) and I'd like each student to choose an author (to the exent that all authors are represented) and then take just a couple minutes to introduce that author to the class. Paragraphs will be turned in for points.

The unit will treated primarily like a traditional poetry unit. Students will be introduced to form poems (including free verse) and we'll discuss how the forms and words work together, we'll discuss symbolism, metaphor, allusion, and other poetic conventions, we'll work on discussing meaning and how it is created through words and line breaks and punctuation (explication). Assessments will be done periodically to ensure that students can identify forms (given a poem, identify the form from one on a list) and will ask students to share what they think a poem means and why. As homework, students may be asked to rewrite a free verse poem as a form poem while preserving meaning and using the author's words and tone.

The unit will also be used to discuss how poetry conveys experience. Cool Salsa includes poems about family, revolution, and tradition. These themes will be coupled with stories from Stories That Must Not Die so we can discuss how the authors' history and experiences have affected how they view and write about their experiences and how the immigrant experience is affected by the home culture. Both Cool Salsa and Stories That Must Not Die are presented in English and in Spanish. This will allow students to discuss translation (Spanish speakers can help this conversation by sharing alternate translations of some words). Some poems have Spanish words peppered in. Students can use context to decipher the meaning of these words. The book also includes a glossary and appendix to help students gain meaning.

Day plan: As part of the culminating activity, students will read and the class will discuss George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From" and will craft their own poems guided by the discussions we've had about inserting culture and using poetic conventions in poems. Extra credit will be given for presenting the poem in a form.

Materials: projector and tools to write on transparency or paper, copy of "Where I'm From" for each student, students need pen/pencil and paper.

Introduction (10-minutes): place poem on projector and read it aloud, then read it again while students read it silently. Ask students to share first thoughts.

Explication (10- to 15-minutes): discuss with students the language used and what some of the images mean, how is the speaker "from" these things?

Brainstorming (5-minutes): have students, individually or in pairs, brainstorm three things or places that they are "from." Ask volunteers to share a thing/place with the class (this will help others come up with ideas).

Examples (10-minutes): share with the class examples of student "Where I'm From" poems (if you don't have any from previous classes, many are available Online). Sharing your own poem may be extra beneficial, especially if you take a few extra minutes to begin crafting it in front of the class.

Getting started (remainder of class period): students begin writing their own "Where I'm From" poems (individually or in groups). Keep examples available for students to look at during this process.

Homework: complete poem. Extra credit should be given for poems written in a form instead of free verse.

Assessment: a minimum number of stanzas should be set (four may be sufficient), though this may have to be "forgiven" for some forms. Students can be required to include specific conventions (simile, metaphor, imagery, rhyme scheme, meter) or to include a certain number of conventions (i.e., any combination, but at least three). Students can be required to include a cultural reference (a way that a certain holiday or event is celebrated (some cultures celebrate at funerals or wear white at funerals), perhaps a loved one was involved in a war or revolution, some students themselves may have lived in and have memories of war zones that took civilian prisoners (concentration camps from Bosnia)).

Presentation: teacher should compile the class poems into a chapbook (the cover can be construction paper and poems can be copied or typed and stapled in) and volunteers (though preferably all students) should orally share their poems with the class.

My heritage

It's really difficult for me talk about my heritage. My family comes from all over the world. The short list includes Swiss, English, Danish, French Canadian, and Native American ancestry. While that's not an exhaustive list, it covers the most recent branches of the family tree.

Really, there haven't been any traditions passed down that I consider of a particular culture. What I mean is, I share most traditions and holidays with most other people whose families have spent multiple generations in the United States. There's no ethnically specific food (lots of comfort food, though - goulash, etc.), no religion stemming from a particular geographic ancestry, no special Christmas ritual that's not shared by most of the citizens of this country. And I don't really mind that.

I have a very small family (me, Mom, Grandma) and I feel as if that's where my culture lies. The three of us have crafted traditions that span almost three decades. Sometimes my grandma's brother and his family show up for Christmas dinner, sometimes my grandma's friends, the Gonzaleses, come over, sometimes we visit my mom's coworkers Han and Vahn, but usually it's just the three of us, and we're pretty close.

I also feel as if part of my culture is crafted by the microcosm in which exists my skydiving family. I've spent the last six years with these people. We are together for 48 hours a week (every weekend) from April through the end of October, often with additional time during the week. Sometimes we vacation together or go to skydiving events for days to weeks at a time together. We try to gather at least once a week in the winter. We are responsible for each other's lives. Literally. We teach each other how to stay alive, we help each other inspect gear for safety, we share weddings, funerals, birthdays, engagements, injuries, babysitting duties, personal triumphs and tragedies. The circle consists of lawyers, cops, military personnel, construction workers, store owners, hospital lab technicians, factory workers, phlebotomists, teachers, nurses, hippies, entrepreneurs, you name it. The circle crosses state lines and oceans.

I know that when we talk about culture and heritage we talk about experiences and ways of believing or doing rooted in a history associated with a place. But I feel as if my history exists, in some senses, outside of place.

Sure, I've acquired the general U.S. amalgamation of seemingly heterogeneous "cultural" traits. But what comes from my small biological family - independence, confidence, lack of concern for what others think about what I do, loyalty, speaking out for/against a thing - as well as from that larger family of people I've come to be a part of - a family that gives me unending new lenses through which to view the world, that has shown me compassion, taught me hard lessons, shared its pain and happiness and love with me - are crafted traditions, deeply held values, and the roots from which I will draw a geographically mute sense of place to pass along.

"Panel" post

Our panel, which ended up being one man, was great. I loved that he could speak from classroom experience not just about the language aspect of an immersion program, but about how students, Hispanic and nonHispanic, learned various subjects and learned about each other's cultures.

I also really liked that he shared with our class how his teaching experience in the immersion classroom at El Sol changed his views on some things (books with Spanish and English instead of two separate copies of the same book, one in each language). Sometimes I think that people want so badly to not be "wrong" that they won't even admit to themselves that their opinion has changed, but I think that gaining new information and adjusting your position based upon it is what lifelong learning is all about - it's how we grow.

I want to get an ESL certification myself. While I don't plan to teach in an immersion setting, I feel that an ESL certification will help me be a more effective teacher and some of the practices and experiences our guest described have really helped me think about how to best help all of my students. What an invaluable day in class!

Book Choice

For my final project for this unit I've chosen to use Cool Salsa by Lori Marie Carlson and Stories That Must Not Die by Juan Sauvageau.

I know that the assignment was to choose one book, but I think these two will go nicely together.

I chose Cool Salsa because I love poetry and because a book like this is an opportunity for students to see things from multiple perspectives. The book features many authors who write on many themes, including racism, revolution, family, and life in general. Also, poems are presented in Spanish and English. This helps English language learners (native Spanish speakers who may not be totally comfortable or fluent in English) fully understand the text (and may allow them to be the experts at explaining the differences in translation or bringing out some of the emotion that may be lost in translation), it helps students learning Spanish to practice, it allows students to share the poems with relatives who may not speak English, and it gives non-Spanish speaking students a look at the text in another language.

I chose Stories That Must Not Die because I think it provides a wonderful cultural tie in to the poetry. Again, it is presented in both Spanish and English, and it presents folktales. One Amazon reviewer said that the book even contained stories her grandmother had told her when she was a child. There is available a version of the book that contains discussion questions, and it could be used to get kids to start thinking about their own folklore (stories they remember, stories from their own lives - self, family, friend, community, school).

Perhaps we'll see the stories influencing the poems, or at least catch glimpses of a recognized history in each.

"Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Using Latino Children’s Literature in Teacher Education," Kathy Escamilla and Sally Nathenson-Meija

For the most part, I enjoyed this article and found it worthwhile.

I thought that some of the teacher candidate (T.C.) responses were sort of misguided.

For instance, multiple T.C.s expressed concern over the religious holidays presented in the books they were asked to read. Maybe some laws are different in Colorado (one T.C. mentioned a music teacher who could only use religious songs at a time other than that in which the holiday was occurring), but I wonder if these T.C.s would've expressed the same reservation at using books that dealt with Christmas or Thanksgiving (which isn't religious, I know) or Easter. (Or books in which these holidays take place. What about A Christmas Carol?) And do they plan on avoiding books like Night, which certainly deals with religion? Or Lord of the Flies, which has tons of Christian themes?

One T.C. commented that she wouldn't teach a book because death was not portrayed as a somber event, but as a time for gathering and celebrating life. The T.C. thought this would scare students (even though over half of the students are Hispanic). Doesn't s/he realize that this celebration is part of her students' lives? Doesn't s/he realize that part of the purpose of reading these books is to learn about other cultures? This T.C.'s own upbringing and ideas kept him/her from appreciating the culutral differences and seeing them as a way of understanding another group, as a way of understanding his/her students.

_The House On Mango Street_, Sandra Cisneros

I'm not really certain what to say about this book. I really enjoyed The House On Mango Street and think I would have a great time teaching it. Cisneros's language is often poetic (she is a poet) and always understandable.

Part of what I find appealing about this book has to do with its understandability. The book is great for many reading levels, but it doesn't skim on content to accomplish that goal. Students of all levels will be engaged and able to take home lessons from the story. I also like that the book looks appealing to students. What I mean is that the book is short, has many brief chapters, chapters begin just over half way down the page. Physically, the book is inviting, not intimidating.

One worry I have is that men are portrayed somewhat negatively in the book. Most of the men in the book are portrayed just as characters that come and go - Esperanza's family, Geraldo (?), neighborhood boys, friends' cousins, the shop keeper, etc.. But some men, even boys, in The House On Mango Street are abusive (even sexually so) - one of Esperanza's coworkers, the boys who assault her, a friend's father, a young friend's husband, a neighbor - or think poorly of women. While not all males are portrayed this way, several memorable ones are.

Overall, though, I try to look at this as a representation of the things a young girl notices. While it may seem harsh to show numerous bad men, sometimes that's how things are. While Esperanza is considerably too young for her older coworker to try to kiss (not that his trick would be O.K. if she were older), it's not uncommon even in the dominant culture here for men to ogle teenage girls and it's certainly not unheard of that one partner becomes overly protective/jealous of the other to the point that it becomes abuse. And the sexual assault of a young girl is something that may be good to discuss in the classroom.

I can see how some men may be turned off by the book's presentation of some male characters, but I don't think Cisneros set out to villify men.

There are many themes to explore in Cisneros's The House On Mango Street and I hope we get to talk about some more in class. I'm particularly interested in how others viewed Esperanza's desire to make a "better life" for herself away from Mango Street while recognizing that it will always be a part of her. (Is this assimilation, or is the the desire for more or "better" universal? What about when Esperanza says she wants to live like a man?)

"Appreciating Ethnic Diversity with _When I Was Puerto Rican_," Colleen A. Ruggieri

I really enjoyed this article. I liked that Ruggieri addressed not only Hispanic students but all minority students, that she gives great activity and discussion suggestions, that she suggests many texts, that she quotes and explains the pertinence of When I Was Puerto Rican, and that she even points to Antonio Novello as a person to bring up to and discuss with students.

Ruggieri's observations are often keen and she packs tons of information and ideas into a short article without losing sight of her thesis. I think one of the most important things she addresses is the idea of assimilation. Is there such a thing as too much assimilation? I remember Ruggieri's discussion of Negi (When I Was Puerto Rican's protagonist) and her feelings of guilt about enjoying pizza and "American life," as well as her opening discussion of a Puerto Rican student's wish that his parents had taught him Spanish instead of wanting him to "'be more American.'"

There are so many good ideas in this article, and I think many of them can be applied not only to English classes, but also to social science and history classes, especially the parts that deal with assimilation, the melting pot theory, immigration in general, and the immigrant experience regarding work, school, language, and prejudice.

Ruggieri's activity and discussion recommendations allow teachers to offer their students an avenue to express and share with other students their personal experiences and help them see the prejudices with which minorities are faced and the social choices they must make. There is a great balancing act taking place for many of our students and allowing them to share those experiences not only teaches whole student populations (and teachers, too), it provides the opportunity for immigrant students (or children of immigrants) to see that they are not alone and that they can, indeed, be successful both personally and professionally.