Morir Soñando, Felipe Alou, & Béisbol - A Culture-packed Friday

Think back to your high school Spanish class and answer this question, "What were 3 of your best memories from that class?"

Are any of your answers related to food? 

Food would probably be part of my students' answers. I enjoy including teaching about the culinary aspect of Spanish countries, but it's not always possible (at least to the extent that I would like it to be) when I have classes of 30 students and no easy access to a refrigerator and other kitchen appliances. 

However, making drinks from a Spanish country is less of a challenge because ingredients can be kept chilled in coolers and the appliances needed are small and portable.

My students and I are reading Felipe Alou, a TPRS Publishing Inc. novel about a Major League Baseball player and manager, and his journey from a small town in the Dominican Republic to the United States, and the obstacles he overcame to achieve his dream.

The Teacher's Guide is packed with resources for discussions related to segregation and discrimination in the US in the 1950s and 60s, about the DR's past of discrimination towards the Haitians, about the homes in the DR, and other cultural topics related to the DR.

In addition to the sources in the Teacher's Guide, we read A-Z Reading's Spanish book on Rosa Parks and the article "Diez pruebas de la segregación racial en los Estados Unidos en los 50 y 60". After tackling these tough subjects, I was ready to change focus toward the food in the DR. 

My friend, Nelsi, is from the Dominican Republic and a few years ago she made the drink "Morir Soñando" for me when I was at her house. It's delicious and easy to make so I made a list and students signed up to bring the ingredients and the paper supplies to class. 

I used to tables for workstations for the students to extract the juice, measure the milk and sugar and ice, blend the ingredients, and serve it in cups. All of us enjoyed a refreshing cup of Morir Soñando and even had several cups extra that students asked to deliver to teachers in the building.

Our class is split by lunch, (35 minutes of class, then lunch, then 35 minutes of class).  In the second half of Friday's class, we played the Beísbol game (shown on the right). We used the questions that came with the game, but I think the next time we play, I'll use questions specific to the novel, Felipe Alou. (There were 3 different levels of questions: easy questions the person scored a Single; average questions the person scored a Double; and difficult questions the person scored a Triple.  If the previous player scored a Single and the following player scored a Double the first player will then be on 3rd and the second player will be on 2nd. Outs occur when the person asked the question does not know the answer.) It was the first time I've used this game even though it's been in my storage cabinet since my first day at this school.

Making the drinks and playing Béisbol was a relaxing, but cultural-filled class period and fun way to end the week. I'm adding the Morir Soñando and Beísbol activities to the curriculum for next year.

Now... if I could only figure out how to convince administration that I need (let's be clear, it's not a want IMO, it's a need) a classroom equipped with an oven, stove, refrigerator, microwave, and sink, I can e-x-p-a-n-d on this and immerse the students even deeper into the culture of different countries.    

Novels for Spanish 1 through Spanish 5

At my school district, we stress the importance of reading in the target language with our students.  In each level of Spanish, from the introductory course at the middle school, to level 5 at the high school, we read novels with our students. In Spanish 1 through Spanish 5, we read a minimum of 2 novels.  In levels 4 and 5, students are also required to read a novel on their own (outside the class time) per marking period, for a total of 2 additional books per level.

Several teachers have asked what novels others read with their students.  The purpose of this post is to share what we've found to work at our school.  As we constantly review our curriculum and our students' needs, we sometimes need to make changes and adjustments at which level the books are read.  Also, with the growing number of writers publishing new books, the choices are even greater and sometimes we find a new book is a better fit with our curriculum. In order words, our curriculum is a living, changing documents; an aspect I appreciate!

Also, please note that there is a variety of authors represented in the books.  I believe the students benefit from the different writing styles of each author and I look forward to even more new authors publishing books in the future. (Ahem - maybe that will be YOU!)

We are working on updating our Spanish 1 curriculum and during that process we will decide which two books ALL Spanish 1 teachers will read with their students.

Under the photos of the Spanish 2 books, I listed (some of) the major themes in each book.  Our "units" are built around the books and the themes/subjects. 

 

 

There may be changes in level 3 when we update our curriculum.

Last year I read Esperanza with my Spanish 4 class. The publisher of "Esperanza" lists the book as a level 1 book, but it also easily fits into higher levels because:

1) It can be very beneficial for students to read a book that is "below their level". I like to begin the semester with a book that all students feel successful when reading it.

2) This book deals with immigration and Spanish 4 students are better equipped linguistically to hold meaningful discussions in Spanish regarding this issue.

We did not read La Hija del Sastre in Spanish 4 last year, but we will be reading it in both Sp4 and Sp5 this school year.

Last year I had a mixed Spanish 4 and Spanish 5 class. Since the Spanish 5 students had already read the Spanish 4 novels, I read La Guerra Sucia which we usually read in Spanish 5, and added Felipe Alou and La Calaca Alegre.  

This year, some of the students now in Spanish 5 that were in the mixed Spanish 4/5 class last year, have already the Spanish 5 novels, but since I piloted a book last year in Spanish 5, we didn't read La Hija del Sastre (as we usually do in Spanish 4).  My plan is for the Spanish 5 students to read La Hija del Sastre and La Llorona, along with other legends and short stories, (i.e. Chac Mool, La Conciencia, Cartas de amor traicionado),  so as not to repeat the books they have read before.  

The above books and teacher's guides can be purchased at the following:

- Fluency Fast Language Classes

- Mira Canion

- TPRS Publshing, Inc.

I recommend visiting these sites to discover other books available to use with your students. 

There are so many great books not listed above that I would love to read with my students, but the limited time does not allow me to do that.  My dream is to have a Spanish reading club, but...somehow I doubt that would attract a crowd. :-)

Please note: In my school district, each Spanish level consists of 90 days of 70 minute classes.  Final exam days, interruptions and short or missed classes due to state testing, weather delays, and assemblies, are included in those 90 days.  The reason I mention that is to make you aware that when students complete Spanish 5, they actually have LESS hours of instruction in the classroom than most students, at other schools that finish Spanish 4, with 4x4 block schedules or the traditional schedules.  In reality, our level 5 is level 4, our level 4 is level 3, etc. Our level 5 is NOT an AP class.

Resources working together - love when that happens!

MLK Jr. book from A-Z Reading

I've mentioned A-Z Reading in earlier posts (here, for example), but it's quite a good resource that it's worthy of another mention.  My class is currently reading Felipe Alou: Desde las valles a las montañas by TPRS Publishing, Inc.  It's the first time I've read this with my students and I am relying heavily on the Teacher's Guide, written by Kristy Placido.  One of my favorite things to find in a Teacher's Guide is additional readings in the TL on related topics and this teacher's guide delivers that.

Even better is when one resource (the Felipe Alou Teacher's Guide) relates well to another resource (A-Z Reading). 

Felipe Alou Teacher's Guide: Reading on Rosa Parks
A-Z Reading: Story on Martin Luther King. It mentions Rosa Parks and Martin's role in helping to organize the bus boicott after Rosa's arrest for not giving up her seat to a white male.

I highly recommend both resources.
1. Felipe Alou: A true story. Students improve their language skills WHILE learning about America's past in relation to segregation and the obstacles facing Felipe and others during this period in America's history.

book from A-Z Reading - great site

2. A-Z Reading: This resource has children's books in English, with a huge selection of those books also available in Spanish, and some available in French.  It has both fiction and non-fiction, (and we all know how important it is to include non-fiction in our teaching).  The yearly subscription is $95 (I think that is correct).  With that subscription you have access to HUNDREDS of books that you can project or download to make copies.  Imagine how quickly your class library can grow with this resource!

I am somewhat biased toward the Felipe Alou novel because the story begins in the Dominican Republic, a country that I've traveled to 3 times, and each time I go I find it a little bit harder to leave than the previous time.  The people of the Dominican Republic have huge hearts,  beautiful smiles, and a welcoming spirit.  I look forward to returning there some day.

Another interesting tidbit:  last week one of my students in the class that is reading Felipe Alou, came into class and told me that his baseball coach, the baseball coach at our high school, was coached by Felipe Alou when he (our coach) was a player in the minor leagues.  I verified that today from a good friend of his.  How cool is that - to be reading a book about Felipe Alou and find out your high school coach knew him at one point in time? Very cool.

My Pinterest board on Felipe Alou, the Dominican Republic, and schools/education in general, can be found HERE.

Classrooms around the World - broadening our perspective

My school visit in Haiti

This semester I have a combined class of Sp4 and Sp5, 28 students total.  Realistically, I know it is impossible to teach two different curricula in one 70-minute period that other years were separated into different classes.  After a great deal of thought, I decided the best plan of action is to teach a completely new curriculum; one that includes the main grammar structures introduced in Sp4 (i.e. negative commands, the subjunctive) but in a fresh way so the Sp5 students also benefit.  For some it will feel like a review, for others that haven't mastered those concepts, it will prove to be quite beneficial. Above everything, I want all students at the end of the semester to see growth in their abilities.

This hybrid curriculum requires me to find reading materials that students have not read before.  Typically, I choose a book below the students' level as a way to review (some haven't had Spanish since the first semester in fall 2012), and to build up their confidence.  

The first book we are reading in the combined class is "Felipe Alou" by Carol Gaab.  For the first chapter we discussed what students already knew about The Dominican Republic, completed the wordle activity by Kristy Placido on the Teacher's Guide CD (I highly recommend this TG), completed a cross-out activity with the new vocabulary in Ch1, and shared our thoughts on the discussion and comprehension questions. 

Chapter 2 of Felipe Alou describes his family life and his childhood and teenage years.  Two sentences that caught my attention in particular were, "También insistían que sus hijos recibieran una educación excelente. ¡La educación de sus hijos era muy importante." I take every opportunity to stress to my students the importance of education so those two lines set the stage perfectly.  Below are the activities I used to draw out discussion from the students and stress the importance of education throughout the world.

1. Kenya to Kabul: 15 Classrooms around the World.  Students compared and contrasted the classrooms pictured to schools in Pennsylvania. Easy way to elicit discussion. 

2. Frontline: By the Numbers: Dropping out of High School   I made a powerpoint in Spanish with multiple choice questions to share the statistics related to high school dropouts.

3. House Construction with Plastic Bottles by Samarpan Foundation. This 3-minute video shows the construction of a house by using plastic bottles filled with mud. There is no dialogue, but rather subtitles (in English).  When the building is completed, it is actually a school which ties into the discussion theme above. 

4. The Big Picture: Schools Around the World. Another website with beautiful photos of schools around the world and school children traveling to those schools can be found.  This can be used to replace #1 above or in addition. The photos are absolutely wonderful!

At times students will share about their family trips to beautiful vacation destinations, but they have little to no experience in seeing the real culture of a country, away from the tourist spots.  These websites and video provided the students with a glimpse of the world, far away from their small corner of Pennsylvania, and encouraged discussion in the TL.