Ekeko - Day 12

Today was another absolutely gorgeous day, and the kids begged to go back outside to read, so we did.

We started out inside, where I read aloud the first two pages of Chapter 7, where Paco finds his new shoes. I circled these pages with comprehension questions and also asked about the connection to Chapter 6. We briefly "acted out" this section with TPR (Dibuja los zapatos, duerme, levanta la cabeza, ve los zapatos, toca los zapatos, salta emocionadamente).

Next, I passed out the scripts for the Chapter 7 Reader's Theatre provided in the Teacher's Guide and we practiced the pronunciation of some of the longer words:
Compraste
Robaste
Encontraste
Zapatitos
Reacciono
 We also guessed what the first three might mean, based on our knowledge of verbs.

After that, we trooped outside. Students read and acted out the play in groups of 4 a few times, and then read the now-familiar Chapter 7 in groups of 2 or 4.

I worked with a group that frequently struggles with reading, and came to a realization I should have made before - cognates are HARD for students that struggle with reading in English. This is a lesson I've learned previously, but it surprises me every time when I find out that 8th graders don't know the meaning of the words: sufficient, divide (outside of math class), encounter, and preoccupied. I will be on the lookout for these in the coming chapters and will make a special effort to pre-teach them. At least I can feel good about helping to build their English vocabularies!

Another lesson learned: I wish I had seen Martina Bex's Bolivia curriculum before! This would be a great introduction to the region and companion to the book: Un Escape con Abuela (a Breakout EDU activity about Bolivia) and Possessive Adjectives and Bolivia. I will try to work those in BEFORE we start reading next year, but I might go ahead and do the Breakout activity after spring break even though we'll be done with the novel.