La Guerra Sucia - 2 graphic organizers

Last week my Spanish 4 students read the last few chapters of La Guerra Sucia. I wanted to make sure they fully understood the plot in chapters 10 and 11, because my plans were for them to read the last chapter completely on their own.  

I experimented with a different technique while reading.  I projected the sketches to the left on the board and then I read the chapter to the students.  When they saw a sketch that matched the action in the text, they raised their hand and told me the letter of the sketch and I placed an X over the sketch.  

To be honest, I won't repeat this in the same manner the next time I read this book with the students.  The next time, I'll have the students read the chapter quietly to themselves and THEN, I'll read the chapter to them and they'll let me know the letter of a sketch that was described as I read it.  Since it was the first time we read the chapter, when the students stopped me to identify the sketches, it was too many interruptions and weakened the flow of reading. This will give an extra repetition of the chapter along with a purpose for reading it a second time.

After we discussed the chapter, I gave the students the paper to the right to match the sketches to the sentences.  The sketches are shown and numbered in the correct order of the events in the chapter.

Finally, I wanted to see if the students could both order the events and retell the story without any support.  To do that, the students formed groups of 3, and I gave them a copy of the paper shown at the beginning of the post. They retold the story alternating turns after describing a sketch.  I asked one member of each group to rotate to the next group and they repeated the activity.  

The students then read chapter 11 in their small groups, and they answered a few comprehension questions while reading.

For the last chapter, I asked them to read the chapter silently and complete the graphic organizer to the right.  I collected their papers and the following day we discussed the last chapter.  

This is the second time I've read this book with a Spanish 4 class, but this time it was part of a unit of Argentina and La Guerra Sucia.
Several people unknowingly helped me to accomplish this through the materials they shared on their blogs. They include:
- Kristy Placido's blog post  she shares ideas for stations to introduce the unit, including songs, short videos, and other materials
- Sharon Birch's blog post and materials on Argentina

and for assessment ideas:
- Carrie Toth's blog post on a culminating project 
- a google doc which I'm fairly certain was created by Kristy Placido. (I didn't include the link since I'm not certain who shared the google doc with me, because I'm not sure if I have permission to make the link public and share it on my blog.)
- Martina Bex's activity for Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo and the lyrics and activity for Mana's song, Desapariciones from TeachersPayTeachers  

In addition, I have many Mary Glasglow magazine articles on Argentina, and that's just from this school year. Since I am a subscriber, I also have access to their videos on Argentina.  FYI - If you have some money in your department budget, I recommend that you look into these magazines.  They're informative, colorful, and are available at three different levels.

A few last notes:
1. If you are interested in downloading any of the above graphic organizers they can be found here 
- Sketches of ch10 - La Guerra Sucia  HERE
- Matching for ch10 - La Guerra Sucia  HERE
- Graphic organizer for ch12 - La Guerra Sucia  HERE
2. The book is fiction but it includes information of events that happened in that time period.  It would have been better to have sketches that were more serious, not cartoon type sketches, but unfortunately, that is beyond my artistic abilities.
3. We also watched the video "Cautiva". The story was captivating and helped emphasize the tragedies that occurred in Argentina during that time period.
4.  Now I want to go to Argentina even more than I did before starting the unit.  Wanderlust  - again....