Borikén~1493 - Reading, Learning, Applying what we learn. Chapters 1,2,3, and 4.

Just a few weeks ago, my students and I started reading a historical fiction story titled Borikén~1493, a story about the old world and the indigenous world before Christopher Columbus and his men arrived in what we know as Puerto Rico.

Reading a text in Spanish can be an intimidating task for students, BUT, it does not have to be this way. In fact it can be a fabulous and rewarding learning experience where students are immersed in receiving copious amounts of interesting, relatable, and easy to understand input. Let's face it, a book or a novel is not just one page nor is it one paragraph. This is why more than ever, we need to present it to our students in a way that helps them connect the text to their present lives.

Here is what we have done so far:

1. Map talk - a strategy I learned from Benjamin Tinsley and Twitter. Borikén~1493 is set in two worlds, 1493 and 2022. We started our journey by looking at a map of the Caribbean. We talked about the islands, Venezuela, the lesser Antilles, the greater Antilles, Spain, and the four voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Indies. We talked about how the indigenous tribes travelled, what they used to build their transportation, and many other topics related to travel and living back in the day. We used a map [handout] and traced the voyages. We also traced the travel from Venezuela to Puerto Rico, because the indigenous tribes came from what is now known as Venezuela. We talked about the variety of languages that are currently used in the islands.

2. Students worked on a concept map to summarize all the points discussed orally during the map talk. They included many details, including labeling the islands and their respective flags. Students were asked to compare the themes to their present lives: housing, transportation, chores, what they do for fun, languages they speak, etc. The images they illustrated on the map served as the venue to summarize the Taíno's story in written form, in Spanish. The concept map presented the following information: Who were the Taínos, Place of origin, What they use to travel, What they encountered in their travels, where they settled, their family roles and responsibilities, their homes and neighborhoods, languages spoken in these islands today.

3. We read the text in Spanish and English, giving us one more opportunity to make the text and lesson comprehensible.

4. Our second major step and to "pre-teach" the topics we would read in the first four chapters, we started class by reading a "tablero". Consider it like their "do now". This has been the perfect way to introduce and summarize each chapter we read. See an example below. These tableros are created using Canva and uploaded to my LMS as well as Instagram with the hashtag #leeenELE

5. Once we read chapter four, students worked with a short story based on the lyrics of a song by the late Tony Croatto, Madre Tierra. Students discussed and illustrated the meaning for each stanza. They also worked with two listening and reading tasks uploaded to a fabulous site called Textivate. Here are the links to the activities:

https://www.textivate.com/sequence-twxmn1 - Short story about the Taínos

https://www.textivate.com/sequence-ovxmn1 - Listening task based on the song

6. In an effort to tie in the grammar structures I have to teach, past tense conditional tense, students worked on completing a listening/reading task with a short version of the song, written reflect the use of the past tense.

In the early chapters of the book, the main character points out that her ideal day is to spent hanging out with her friends at Playa Santa, in Guánica, Puerto Rico. This simple sentence and point of view was our starting point to have a casual conversation about what our ideal day would be like. In the coming weeks, students will choose a Spanish speaking country destination as their ideal place to visit. More on this project on a later post.

As you can see, there are so many wonderful activities that you can do to extend and make a connection to your life. Most of the activities at this point are focused on students receiving input in Spanish. #leeenELE

Bendición,

Enid