Become a more confident language teacher.
You know a novel is great when you can’t escape it on the Internet. Whether you read my blog, Kristy Placido’s blog, Sharon Birch’s blog, Profe Hanson’s blog, you’ve surely heard of Esperanza. Written by Carol Gaab, it is the real-life story of a woman who flees Guatemala with her family to escape political persecution. They immigrate to…
Read MoreTo begin, students made predictions as to how the novel would end. They wrote them on scrap slips of paper and turned them in, and I shared them with the class. We discussed the before-reading discussion questions from the Teacher’s Guide. I read the chapter aloud to my students, and they followed along in their…
Read MoreWe began with the Immigrant Archive Project activity from the Teacher’s Guide. The activity is AWESOME, and my students loved exploring more biographies on their own. Just beware that the site has changed since the guide was published, and there is now a search feature AND Augusto Francisco’s biography is no longer on the site.…
Read MoreDiscuss the before-reading discussion questions in the Teacher’s Guide Read the story aloud as students listen. As they listen, have them draw murals to map out the action and locations in this chapter. Next, have them put their murals aside and read the chapter in a small group. With their small group, have students complete…
Read MoreIf you haven’t already, now is a great time to use MovieTalk with the music video “A las tres” by los Enanitos. I made a reusable set of the “¿Quién lo dijo o lo hizo?” cards from the Teacher’s Guide, along with a set of character names for each set of cards. Students completed the…
Read MoreWOh me oh my I’ve gotten behind on my blogging! Here are the plans that I used for Esperanza Chapters 4-6: Esperanza, Chapter 4 Family trees We interpreted these two examples of Esperanza’s family tree and my own family tree as an expansion of the pre-reading activity found in the Teacher’s Guide. Students create their own family…
Read MoreHere is an outline of my lesson plans for Chapter 3 of Esperanza: Read the article about strikes from the Teacher’s Guide, and discuss it and justice using the questions provided. We did not do the protest poster activity outlined in the Guide. We listened to “La llamada” by Selena and completed the activity described…
Read MoreThe only two terms that my kiddos needed to learn to read Chapter 2 of Esperanza were “regresa” (we had learned “vuelve”) and “espera”, so we spent our time yesterday with personalized discussion (here is the activity that I used to get them talking). I typed up a quick reading based on their answers to…
Read MoreToday was our second day spent on Chapter 1 of Esperanza, by Carol Gaab. Here is how we spent it: Although today was not our “most fun” day in class (any ideas to spice things up are very welcome!), the discussion about unions was great. We ended up talking about injustices in our school and…
Read MoreWe began reading Esperanza, by Carol Gaab, in my Spanish 1b classes today. It. is. awesome. At just $5.00 a pop (for 25+ novels), it is an excellent investment for your Spanish program. Add in the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide for a few extra dollars, and you have ready-made, highly engaging lessons for several weeks. End…
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