Ekeko - Day 9

Since it is Friday and I wasn't confident that 100% of the students understood the letter section of Chapter 5, we went back today as a class and Smash-doodled our way through the text. I presented the middle of Chapter 5 (the letter and the explanation of Alasitas) with a Power Point so that we could study just a few sentences at a time and to give students a visual to further aid in understanding.

As I read, students doodled and labeled their doodles. Some of them hate drawing with a passion, so I also provided an option to color my doodles and label them. Here is my Smash Doodle coloring page (not beautiful, but usable). Students had to doodle at least 5 things and write at least 30 words in Spanish, but the main point was slowing down and carefully reading the text.

I also had students "re-enact" the blockade of La Paz (in a very simplified way). It went a little like this:

"Hay un grupo de personas. Son los indios. Son las personas nativas de Bolivia. Son bolivianos. Los indios están contentos. Trabajan, comen, juegan y bailan. Viven contentos en las montañas. Pero hay un problema. Hay otro grupo de personas. Son los españoles. Los españoles son de España. Quieren dinero y poder. Van hacia Bolivia y toman las montañas de los indios. Construyen la ciudad de La Paz. En La Paz, los españoles tienen el dinero y el poder. Ellos viven contentos, pero los indios están tristes porque los españoles toman la tierra de Bolivia. Los bolivianos trabajan, pero los españoles tienen el poder y el dinero. Un boliviano, Tupac Katari, tiene una idea. Tiene un plan. Su idea es bloquear la ciudad de La Paz. Los indios van y bloquean las calles por las montañas. Ahora los españoles no tienen comida. No pueden escapar. Tienen hambre."

Hearing the story and seeing student actors re-enact the historical events seemed to make the light go on in several students eyes. As I looked over the doodle pages, it was clear that students were acquiring new words and understanding the story better now.

The last section of text talked about modern Ekekos, so we looked at a few pictures of those. This sparked yet another controversy - El Ekeko smokes! And we would NEVER celebrate anything like that, right? Except, several bright students pointed out, for Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman, two children's characters who are consistently seen smoking. We did, however, chant the mantra "FUMAR. ES. MALO." several times.

Ekeko - Day 8

Today we played a reading game that I heard about on the Facebook group. I copied the text of the post, but I can't remember who the author was! If anyone remembers, please let me know!

"Sometimes I play a reading game that I think I invented. It goes like this: divide class into teams of 3-5 players. Give everyone the same reading. As a team they have to read and make sure everyone understands the reading. Then at the front of the room I have 1 chair for each team with a whiteboard. One member of each team comes up, (so there's 6 or so representatives up front, and I'll ask them a question in Spanish about the reading. They all write their answer on the board, and they show me when I count to three. Everyone who is correct is eligible for points- now the fun part: I have a deck of cards, and each person with a right answer gets to draw a card which represents their points (ace=1 point, every thing else is worth card's value, and any face cards= 10 pts) then all the representatives return to their team with their card, another rep goes up front and we begin again with the next question. This game is great for a few reasons: I ask questions in order of the text, so kids are re-reading before their turn to try to predict my question, no one really knows how many points the other teams have, so no one gives up."

I gave students a set of comprehension/discussion questions for Chapter 5, pages 31-35, and told them to read extra carefully, because we were going to play a game and they'd need to know the text really well.

This worked like a charm. Students worked extra hard in their groups to read and re-read the text and make sure everyone was understanding. Several groups even went back and reviewed the other chapters to make sure they were clear on those, too.

One problem arose - a few groups really struggled with the text of this chapter. A lot of the issue was lack of background knowledge. Some groups sailed through with no problem, but other groups didn't know:
1) How a letter works - whose name goes at the top and whose goes at the bottom.
2) The meaning of English words like "generosity" "abundance" "good fortune" and "ceramic"
3) Why the native Bolivians might have had a conflict with the Spaniards (I know they learned about the Spanish conquistadors and colonization in their world civilization class, but apparently it didn't stick).

Those groups needed a lot of help. Do you guys assign mixed-ability groups so that some kids can help others, or do you let them choose their own?

The game was a lot of fun. We played for about 20 minutes. I changed just a couple of things - I made aces worth 15, mostly because I couldn't remember if they were supposed to be high or low. I also named the game "Silla caliente" to make it seem more like a real game show. Other than that, I used the rules from the Facebook post, and it was great! The luck aspect really kept everyone engaged and trying to study up between rounds, because they knew they had a chance to catch up. It was also an excellent way to judge their comprehension, which was by and large very strong. The one exception was my 8th period, so we're going to go at the text a different way tomorrow. One last note - make sure you have at least two decks of cards available.

Ekeko - Day 7

Today was my birthday AND I was sick, but our district has basically run out of subs, so I went in to work anyway. However, I wanted the students to be very independent so I wouldn't have to talk too much.

So, asked students to re-read the section with the witch and the ending of the chapter (pages 26-30) in Spanish and translate the main ideas into English with a partner. They had to write a short summary of the chapter (2-4 sentences in Spanish) into their note packet.

After they finished, the students had a set of pictures from the text of Chapters 1-4 that I printed onto card stock so they would last better as a class set. With their partner, students had to go through and retell the story from beginning to end. I scaffolded this activity by having students work with 3 different partners.

1. With the first partner, describe the pictures.
2. With the second partner, describe the pictures AND tell anything else you remember about that scene, such as how characters are feeling or where they are.
3. With a third partner, give as much detail as you did in the first two groups AND add in the connector words we know (which at this point in the year includes: primero, segundo, tercero, entonces, despues, de repente y por fin) to make your story flow better.

It was a good review! And I didn't have to do the talking. :-)

Ekeko - Day 6

Today we moved on to Chapter 4 with a focus on the witches' market. We read the first part of the chapter with pictures so the kids could see what the witches' market is like. The students voted whether the ladies in the market were real witches or if it was just a legend. They liked the bright colors of the textiles and the kiosks with the talismans (talismen?). They DID NOT like the llama fetuses. I had a feeling they wouldn't, but it sparked what I think was a good discussion.

Yes, we broke into English for 5-8 minutes. However, I think that learning not to react so strongly and so negatively to cultural differences is perhaps an even more essential skill than vocabulary acquisition. If my students can learn to accept other cultures and not judge them, I know they'll learn more vocabulary later because they'll be able to have real conversations with native speakers. I think this is especially important with my particular population; many of my students are planning to become missionaries, and I don't want them to judge other cultures harshly.

So, again, I posed the question, "But we would never do anything like THAT, right?"

One student pointed out that dying Easter egg is kind of like using a baby animal for decoration. Another pointed out that many people eat lamb and veal, which are baby animals. Still, students pushed back, saying that they personally do not eat veal. Then, a student pointed out that all the students dissected lambs' brains in science this year, and that they're likely to dissect fetal pigs in high school. Bingo. Suddenly, what had seemed so bizarre felt much closer to home.

Looks a lot like Standard 4.2 (Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the culture studied and their own).

After reading and discussing for about 20-25 minutes, I passed out a play of the dialogue from Chapter 4. Students had a ball imitating Nicolas's bully voice and the witch's old lady voice. I think the repetition of reading the play 3-4 times helped cement this part of the chapter in their minds.

Ekeko - Day 5

As a fun starter to today, we learned a bit about Bolivian clothing. I reviewed the clothing words the students know with TPR, and then showed a few slides from the Power Point of pictures from the Teacher's Guide. To make things a bit more interactive, I showed this super-short video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9satYjoN0JQ of a Bolivian mother wrapping up her baby in an aguayo, and then we practiced. Using my aguayo plus a tablecloth and a couple of blankets I brought from home, students wrapped up old baby dolls cholita style.

A few students were shocked by the way the mother swung the baby up on her back, so I brought out my classic question: "But we would never do something like that, right?" When phrased like that, the students quickly saw the similarities between the aguayo and a baby sling, and between the mother swinging her baby and a U.S. parent tossing a kid up in the air during playtime.

Next, I asked students to finish the second half of chapter 3 in partners using a list of comprehension questions I pulled from the teacher's guide. Students also wrote a two-sentence summary of the events in Chapter 3.

At the end of class, I used a quick exit ticket to make sure everyone is keeping up with the plot thus far. I just asked a few basic comprehension questions in English and asked for some character descriptions. Available here: Exit Ticket Ch. 1-3 It took about 8 minutes.

Ekeko - Day 4

Today, we tackled Chapter 3 of El Ekeko: un misterio boliviano.

For a good portion of class, I read aloud to the students, using comprehension questions to circle the text. I also paused several times to use PQA with the students. Some discussion threads that arose:
                   -How many siblings do you have? Are they big or small? How old are they? Do you like them? Do you have to stay home with them? Are they annoying?
                   -What is the traditional food of the Bolivian mountains? Are there potatoes in Idaho? Do you like potatoes? Do you like french fries or potatoes more? Do you like potato soup? Do you like fries with ketchup or fry sauce?
                   -Do you like dolls? Are you scared of dolls? Did you play with dolls when you were younger? Do your siblings like dolls?

We read about 5 pages (including pictures) before the students were flagging.

For the last 15 minutes of class, I had students work in groups of 3 or 4 to rehearse the Reader's Theater play from Chapter 3 of the Teacher's Guide. We practiced pronouncing "responsabilidades," "arruinarla," and "fragil" as well as the correct level of emotional intensity on Mari's line, "BUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAA!" Students rehearsed each of the different roles and were supposed to get more dramatic with every read-through. It got a little loud, but they had fun!

We have an inservice day tomorrow, so I'll post again on Monday.

Ekeko - Day 3

Today, we explored El Alto in a little more depth by watching the short video included in the teacher's guide and then discussing. The students were amazed by the amount of traffic and car horns. They were also interested in the locals' clothing, the stray dogs, the shops in the background, the number of taxi cabs... it's a whole new world for them!

As a follow-up from yesterday, I showed students the Bolivian currency and briefly explained who the people were on each of the bills. The file with these pictures is available here: Bolivian Currency

After a few minutes of discussion, I passed out bookmarks (about 1/3 of a sheet of paper) with the Ch. 2 comprehension questions from the TG printed on them in Spanish. I instructed students to form pairs and read Chapter 2 aloud in Spanish, pausing on every page at least once to discuss the comprehension questions with their partner. If they focused and spoke in Spanish as much as they could, they did not have to write anything down, but if they had side conversations in English, they would have to write ALL the questions and answers on notebook paper. This worked swimmingly. I was really impressed with the students' ability to stay in the target language, using English only to clarify meaning with their partner.