This post is called Frida on the fly…… It’s that time of year, and we are all super busy. However, I wanted to share three activities that I created and used with some success for chapters 2, 3 and 4. I apologize in advance if these are ideas from other people. I am a scavenger and avid reader of other blogs. Sometimes those ideas spark my ideas. I created the following activities, but they may be based on the idea of someone else!!
Chapter 2 Dos Familias
My kids last year ( my first year with the book) found chapter 2 with the two families a bit confusing. This year I created a family tree document to help them as we read. It’s not much, and certainly could be added to, but it’s a start. I had students fill it out with names, birth order/deaths as we were reading. We also drew additional details (like a Smash doodle) that made the chapter more comprehensible and memorable (the night of the death of María and the visit of Wilhelm/Guillermo to Matilde; daughters sent to convent; photography; best friend Cristina, etc.) Chap 2 Family tree of Wilehlm
Chapter 3 Monstruos
This is the chapter in which Frida gets polio. I looked at using some infographics for polio but decided to take a more “physical” approach to helping students to understand what polio is/was. (Sidenote: Carrie Toth has a SUPERB activity for the outbreak of polio on her blog!) I took basic information about polio and separated it into individual incomplete sentences. I printed them on cardstock and posted them in random places around my room. I had the students find a partner and gave them a paper that had the missing information from the individual sentences. Once they had all come up with a complete paper, we checked their responses together in class and I had them complete Part II of their paper. When done correctly, the answer spelled out Pata de Palo, which is the title of Chapter 4! We then immediately discussed what pata de palo is, where they have seen it (movies), and read the chapter! Chap 3 polio search 2017 spells pata de palo
Chapter 2, 3, 4
Somewhere, in the blog world, I read this idea and do NOT remember where. Please let me know if it was you and I will credit you! I took key words/events from chapters 2, 3 and 4, printed them on colorful card stock and gave one to each student. The student had to think about the word/phrase and the connection to those chapters in the novel. They shared the sentence with a partner, listened to their partner’s sentence and exchanged cards and moved to a new partner. I did allow them to refer to the book when necessary. It did not appear that the book was frequently used. In two classes, I used Inner/Outer Circles and in the third class I just let them move around freely. It was a great activity to “refresh” our story after Thanksgiving break. Once we had worked with partners, we shared some sentences as I randomly held up one of the cards. Chap 3 and 4 output information sentences
This is now my fourth time using La Llorona de Mazatlán by Katie Baker with my Spanish IV classes. While there are standard activities and creations that I use with all of our novels each year, I never do anything the same way twice. This year has been made a bit more complicated since I decided that we would start the year with both FVR and El Internado once a week (as opposed to just second semester), effectively eliminating one day of the week. However, I still want to cover the same amount of material and novels as last year, so I have to really consider how much more I add to each novel! It actually has worked out well, as I have had the students read about half of the novel on their own, and half with the whole class and therefore still been able to add in all the little “extras”. This past week we finished chapters 9 and 10 (the fracturing of the friendship of Laney and Desi and the gift of la pulsera from Luis to Laney). We also have begun our readings of other legends (El Sombrerón, El Cucuy, El Chupacabras) as well as the first versions of La Llorona (thanks to Bryce Hedstrom!). The first part of Chapter 11 is the huge argument between Laney and Desi, when Laney lies about the giver of the gift. My students certainly know the nouns “mentiroso/a” and “mentira” but I did not feel that they were as familiar with the verb “mentir.” With oral assesments coming up, I really want them to be comfortable when talking about the people who lied: Laney and Luis. In addition to that, the lyrics tie in beautifully with the book and the legend of La Llorona: You came into my life to teach me; with eyes closed I followed you; you’re not the person that I thought you were; you hurt me; I’m better off without you. Last year, AFTER the chapter, I used the terrific song Mientes by Camila, and they really enjoyed it. However, I made a note to use it BEFORE the chapter this year, and it worked really well. Note: I did not use the video at any point in time; it is not appropriate and absolutely not needed. Here is the order of what I did.
Quickly went over present and past tense of mentir, with some PQA
Shared some memes and images
Had some discussion about famous liars (I gave them a few, they added more).
Had some discussion about our own lies, and why we lie
Talked about consequences of lying; this was deliberate to incorporate some unfamiliar words in the song Mientes: hace daño, conseguiste, quedan ganas
After listening to it twice, checking the words that they filled in, and making sure that meaning had been established, most of them were begging to sing it. One of my classes had to sing it three times and we have decided that this week they will come up with gestures for the song.
Read the first two pages of Chapter 11 (the fight) and was delighted when so many of them started yelling: Mientes, Laney, mientes!
This upcoming week
Review the song again, singing with all classes, adding gestures with at least one of those classes
If you are a follower of this blog, you know that I teach with music all of the time. I recently started teaching the Narcoviolencia unit for the fifth time. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Kara Jacobs and Cristina Zimmerman for everything that they have shared with me in the past and this year. The second half of the school year with Spanish IV has been transformed in the last two years with the addition of the novel Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha. That has consequently changed the way I enter the Narcoviolencia unit. We went from dreams and goals (right after the Christmas break) to the dreams and goals in El Salvador, via a study of their Civil War, the movie Voces Inocentes and then the novel. This was followed, very logically, by a unit on immigration, which now leads into Narcoviolencia. The unit this year was enhanced dramatically by two incredibly moving songs that were released in the last year and a half: La Patria Madrina (Lila Downs and Juanes) and Lágrimas (Camila). Kara and Cristina have created a spectacular study of La Patria Madrina (which is the second song in this unit). I am going to share how I have used Lágrimas, one of the most powerful, haunting songs I have experienced in Spanish, to make the transition from Immigration to Narcoviolencia.
This was the objective:
Students will identify the viewpoint and the perspectives in the lyrics and the video. Students will continue to add to and to refine their knowledge of immigration issues, roots, causes and impact while beginning to understand the depth of the violence in México and how it impacts the people of México and the United States.
These were the steps that I used:
I made a Lágrimas with the images from the official video and inserted just the instrumental version of the song. They did not know the title of the song. I had students watch and listen to it just once and had them react in small groups to what they had seen and how they felt. We then shared as a class. Disclaimer: the images are NOT MINE. They are taken directly from the official video released by Camila.
We reviewed their charts. Working with a partner, they wrote a brief response to the question “¿Qué está sucediendo en esta presentación?” I also asked them to create a title for the song. The results were powerful and impressive: Corazón roto, Quiero quedarme pero voy a huir, Amor traicionado, Involucrado, No hay nada que decir, Dolor que me mata, Tristeza sin palabras, etc.
I intended for the next step to be a “free write”, but with a partner, using the images to create sentence fragments, poetry, or a smash doodle, to express what they saw and felt. However, the discussion over what was happening in the video, and the naming of the song with the resulting discussion, just took more time than I anticipated. 5. We then watched the official video.
We completed the first cloze (Lágrimas Cloze 1 and Cloze 2) for the song. Working with a partner or two, each group created their own translation of the lyrics.
The emotional impact of this song was enormous. Most of my students absolutely loved the haunting melody, and told me that once it was in their heads, they couldn’t get it out. The imagery from the video and the discussions that we had made Lágrimas, for us, a very fitting, somber way to enter this unit.