Ekeko - Day 19

Today is the last day before spring break, and the last day we spend with El Ekeko. I wish I had one more week to spend on Bolivian culture, but that will have to be a schedule adjustment I make next year. There's never enough time for everything!

Because it was the last day before a vacation, the kids were very, very distracted. I tried a different order of events each class period until I got it right. 8th period was the best, so you get to see 8th period's order of things. First, we briefly reviewed Chapter 11 and some of the previous chapters with circling questions. I wanted it to be fresh in their minds before I had them evaluate the novel and communicate what they learned about Bolivia.

Next, they filled out said evaluations, answering the following questions. I'll post their answers once I sort through them.
1. What are some things you learned about Bolivian culture?
2. What was the most interesting part of the book to you?
3. What was the most difficult part about reading this book?
4. What do you wish we would learn about next?
5. Any other comments about the novel?

As our last activity of the day, students created their own Ekekos and decorated them with gifts for their friends and family. Using the template from the teacher's guide, students colored an Ekeko and drew miniature items that represented what they would like to give to their families. The problem was, they couldn't remember multi-step directions today, so I broke it up into steps. Step one: draw 3 or more mini-gifts you would give your family or friends (5 min). Step two: label the gifts in Spanish (5 min). Step three: color and decorate (10 min).

Last weekend John Oliver had a funny segment about the Bolivian zebras, the young people who wear zebra costumes and help teach citizens about traffic laws. It is a really positive segment that doesn't make fun of Bolivian culture or swear at all, so I decided to show it in class.  There IS one mildly inappropriate moment around 2:40, so I downloaded the video and clipped it in Movie Maker before showing it to my middle-schoolers. We watched this five-minute video while the students finished up coloring their Ekekos.

Last, students presented their Ekekos to each other, using the phrase "Me gustaria ____________ para ________." I don't have art-loving kids this year, so a lot of them were honestly pretty terrible, but the writing and speaking part was fine, and it was a fun activity to keep them engaged the day before a break. Here's a sampling of some of the better ones:

Ekeko - Day 18

Well, we made it through the novel! I wasn't actually planning for the students to get all the way through Chapter 11 today, but they were so motivated that it was easy breezy.

Students worked in pairs to read Chapter 11. They were supposed to pause and discuss each page with the provided comprehension questions in Spanish. Because there was no new vocabulary and really no new concepts, they had a much easier time managing this chapter and really seemed to enjoy it.

Next, I passed out the brief play from the teacher's guide and we did Reader's Theatre. In a couple of classes, I had two groups willing to go, so we had a contest to see which group was more dramatic. They really hammed it up!

We still had some leftover time, so students finished writing their note summaries and turned them in. I guess we'll have time for a fun day tomorrow!

Ekeko - Day 17

Today was a bit of a downer, because we read Chapter 10 of Ekeko, which reveals that Nicolas is cruel and mean because his father is cruel and mean.

I didn't want to do anything "fun" - no games or acting that might cheapen the serious issues and emotions of the story. So, today I just read aloud while the students listened and followed along. We did pause fairly often to circle the text with comprehension questions, and this chapter provided an excellent springboard for PQA. Our focus was "¿Qué puedes hacer?" and the students brainstormed what you can do for someone who is having a tough time, like Nicolas.

One or two students came up with jokey answers, but for the most part the kids took it seriously and suggested kind things, like "Puedes invitarle a la casa" and "Puedes dar los regalos a la persona." Several kids suggested that Paco should find the Ekeko and give it to Nicolas.

Although the chapter was a downer, the kids were really engaged today. I think some of them enjoyed the more serious tone (and they're middle-schoolers, so they love drama).

Ekeko - Day 16

Today was assessment day. I wanted to assess the students' reading skills without testing their plot detail memory too much, so I gave them the text of Chapter 9 (which they had never read) printed along with 10 questions in English. They were a mixture of comprehension questions and SBAC style questions asking for inferences, context clues and text evidence. If you would like to use them, they can be found here: Chapter 9 SBAC questions.

The test only took the students about 20 minutes (some finished in like 8), so afterward we played a fun review game. I wrote many vocabulary words from the text on the board in different colors. I divided the students into two groups and gave each one a flyswatter. Then, to give just a bit more input, I described the vocabulary terms in Spanish and/or gave clues from the text. Students had to race to think of the correct term and hit it with the flyswatter.

For example:
Piensa - formar ideas en tu cabeza
Pelota - es una cosa que necesitas para jugar los deportes
Mochila - es una cosa que usas para llevar los libros a la escuela
Nuevo - no es viejo
Alasitas - el festival de cosas miniaturas en Bolivia

Ekeko - Day 14

We tackled Chapter 8 of the text today. Since it was the first day of Alasitas in the novel, I played this song as an introduction. We did a little bit of Movie Talk with the video, but I didn't pause as often as I typically do because I wanted the students to enjoy the song as well. I gave them permission to giggle at the guy's over-the-top enthusiasm and 70's hair, as long as they didn't make fun of the festival itself.

Next, we looked at the picture at the beginning of Chapter 8 and used it to review what Paco drew in Chapter 7 and to predict what would happen in the morning.

Then, students were allowed to work in partners or alone to read the text of Chapter 8 and to write a comic strip of the events in Chapter 8. I used the comic strip provided in the Teacher's Guide with a couple of small changes. Students had to write two sentences per picture instead of one, and I replaced one of the Chapter 8 pictures with the picture of Paco and Pepe from Chapter 7. Some students copied sentences right out of the text, and I feel like that's fine - it actually makes writing into more of an input activity than an output activity. What do you guys think?

Today I noticed numerous kids reading more actively than before. I have a group of reluctant readers this year, and typically they read only what is required. However, today I had several groups ask if they were allowed to read ahead to find out what's going to happen next (um, of course), one kid tell me that this is "a really cool book" and lots and lots of students getting involved in the plot. They thought the idea of a magical, wish-granting statue was great. "This kid (Paco)'s a genius!" a student informed me. "He's going to get a sweet gaming system!" "I wonder if Paco could use the Ekeko to make more Ekekos," another wondered. "I would just make tons of bacon," a third commented to his friend. One girl wasn't so sure. "I don't think everything will keep going right for Paco," she said. "It feels too easy. I think something bad is going to happen, I'm just not sure what."

I have a sneaking suspicion she's right. :-)

Ekeko - Day 13

After a couple of days outside reading, we came back in to review.

Because Chapter 7 mentions food a few times, I decided it would be a good day to learn about some Bolivian cuisine. I used the slide show provided in the Teacher's Guide, but you could definitely find photos on Google Images or Flickr. My class did a food unit a while ago, so this was the perfect opportunity to review. I showed a photo of a particular food and asked "¿Qué hay en la foto?" or "¿Qué tiene la comida?" and students called out ingredients they saw. After naming all the ingredients, I would give a brief description of the food (such as Pique a lo Macho being "un poco picante") or an interesting fact (like Anticuchos being made from "el corazón de una vaca"). At the end, we briefly compared Bolivian food to Mexican food and Bolivian food to U.S. cuisine. The students started out telling me that Bolivian food was more like Mexican food, until they realized they had no evidence to back that up. Brains are strange.

After viewing foods, we played a review game. I wanted to try "El juego del botón" from the TG, but the students begged to play "Silla caliente" again, so that's what we did. The first round of questions was about the text, and the second round of questions was about the foods from the slideshow.

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.

Ekeko - Day 11

Today was not exactly an exciting day to blog about, although I think the students and I enjoyed it. We had our first really beautiful spring day, and I wanted to be able to enjoy it with my classes, so I rearranged my lesson plans a bit to let us go outside all class period.

During the first half of class, students read Chapter 6 in pairs and answered some questions in English. Some were comprehension questions, but I tried to focus on the question types they will see on their SBAC test, since our school is very academically focused and we are all supposed to be supporting the English and Math departments with our own classes. If your school is like that, here are some question ideas: Ekeko SBAC questions

I will say that today was the first day the reading seemed easy for the students. I think being outside cleared their minds! I would highly recommend reading outdoors with your classes.

In the second half of class, I let students play a grammar game for review. Unlike many CI teachers out there, I do teach verb conjugation alongside novels and stories. Although not ideal, my students will move on into an entirely grammar-based class in Spanish 2, so I feel I must give them at least enough background not to be confused and overwhelmed next year. So here is a free bonus game: Conjudados

In this game, students have a stack of cards with a verb conjugation on one side and a set of questions on the other. They play in groups of two. One student studies the card for 15 seconds. Then, they roll two dice to get a number between 2 and 12. The other student then asks the corresponding question. It's not exactly inspiring, but the nice thing is that it is technically input, although not comprehensible or contextualized. At least you're not giving them repetitions of incorrect output.

Ekeko - Day 10

Today was a great day! Especially for the Monday after daylight savings time, the kids were amazingly cheerful and responsive.

We started out with a quick TPR review of Chapters 4 and 5. We acted out Paco going to the market with his backpack, shining shoes, Mateo stealing his backpack and the scene with the witch. Then we pantomimed returning home, finding the letter, and the contents of the letter.

Next, we discussed the differences between the old Ekeko Paco has and the new ones used for Alasitas. I was impressed by how quickly students put together sentences like "Tiene muchos colores" and "Tiene una sonrisa misteriosa."

Next, we did PQA about the small gifts purchased for Alasitas,

¿Qué te gustaría recibir?

¿Qué te gustaría dar?

For about 15 minutes, I read the last two pages of Chapter 5 aloud to the students and circled the text with many comprehension questions. This section, full of dialogue, seemed to be a breeze for the students.

Students had 5 minutes to write a short summary of Chapter 5 in their notes packet.

For the last 15 minutes of class, students read the first two pages of Chapter 6 (the letter from Paulina) "volleyball style" by taking turns reading a line in Spanish and translating it to English. Cine they struggled with the last letter, I wanted to make sure they went through this one extra slowly and understood it well. I added a fun factor by having students physically pass a beanbag back and forth as they took turns. All in all, they did well and seemed to comprehend the text. Hurrah!

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.

Ekeko - Day 2

Hello all,

Today was the second day of reading El Ekeko: un misterio boliviano. Today we read Chapter 1 in a couple of ways. First, as a warm-up activity, we read a short play based on the dialogue in Chapter 1.  I had the students read in groups of three so they could practice pronouncing each role's dialogue and also to give them 3 repetitions of the vocabulary (sneaky!).  Then we discussed the actors' feelings and motivations, reviewed pronunciation of a few key words and then I had one group present. The students enjoyed acting, and the play elicited several new topics of discussion: what does it mean when Nicolas calls Paco "Paquito"? Why is the money so important to Paco? What is Bolivian money like? The students were particularly interested in Bolivian currency after I showed them some real bills and coins, and asked about the people on the bills. I didn't actually know, so I promised to get back to them tomorrow. It turns out Bolivia celebrates 2 painters, a poet, a judge and a librarian on their currency! Tomorrow I'll post the short Power Point I made to show the different bills and the people on them.

After acting, we read the rest of Chapter 1 as a digital storybook with pictures from La Paz, Bolivia. I used the slides from the teacher's manual as a starting point. If you don't have any photographs, these blogs: http://bolivia.for91days.com/2011/07/24/el-alto-and-its-crazy-market/ and http://www.lapazlife.com/places/el-alto-la-paz/ have some fun ones you might start with. The students really enjoyed seeing photographs of the places they were reading about. The pictures also provoked some good discussions, just like I was hoping, like why crime rates are sometimes higher in poor neighborhoods (hint: it's not because poor people are bad!)  I also think reading in this format helped the students fully understand Chapter 1.

That's all for today!

Ekeko - Day 1

Today I started reading Ekeko: un misterio boliviano with my 8th grade Spanish 1 students. Although I enjoy writing novelas, I'm not a great blog writer, so I'll be keeping these posts concise.  This is the first time I've used Ekeko with students, and I want to chronicle lesson plan ideas I have, students' reactions to the novel and insights I gain.

A bit of background on my classroom. I teach in Meridian, Idaho in a fairly homogeneous, suburban, upper-middle class district. I'd say my students are generally pretty "easy" to teach, although one of the main challenges I face is getting them interested in world cultures and getting them to put themselves in others' shoes. I'm hoping reading El Ekeko will help!  I have 42 minute class periods, and my class counts for high school credit.



To introduce the Andes region, I showed the video for Calle 13's song Latinoamerica. The students first read and translated the chorus of the song, which uses several words from Ekeko, as well as weather words familiar to my students.

"Tú no puedes comprar al viento
Tú no puedes comprar al sol
Tú no puedes comprar la lluvia
Tú no puedes comprar el calor
Tú no puedes comprar las nubes
Tú no puedes comprar los colores
Tú no puedes comprar mi alegría
Tú no puedes comprar mis dolores"

The full lyrics sheet I made is available here: Calle 13 - Latinoamerica

After translating this chorus, the students discussed the meaning of the chorus and predicted what the song might be about. They generally decided the song meant that money can't buy happiness.

Next, we watched the video, which is just gorgeous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkFJE8ZdeG8&

It shows many different beautiful facets of Latin American cultures and geographies, including views of the Andes mountains and the people who live there.  The song and video also feature Susana Baca from Peru, Totó la Momposina from Colombia and María Rita, from Brazil, so it mixes more traditional South American music with the rap/reggaeton style of Calle 13.

The students really loved the video, and most of their discussion afterward was sincere. I was surprised that one of the main themes of their conversation was the poverty of the people in the video. I thought the houses and lives of the people seemed pretty typical, but for kids who've never been out of Meridian, Idaho, I guess they seemed jarringly poor. However, despite their (perhaps a bit blunt) initial reactions, the students had insightful discussions about how sometimes their own lives are not all that great, because everyone's too wrapped up in their cell phones and themselves. Several students mentioned that the Latin Americans in the video seemed proud of their land and their families, and happy with their lives. My favorite quote of the day:
 "Me: So, who do you think she's talking about when she says 'You can't buy my life' and 'My land is not for sale?'
Student: I'm pretty sure it's me. An American. She was staring me down."

I hope I am able to build those discussions throughout our reading of the novel!

After watching the video, we began reading Chapter 1. Since it's the first chapter, I didn't get too fancy - the students followed along while I read, and we paused often so I could check their comprehension. We're only about 4 pages in, so we'll finish Chapter 1 tomorrow. More updates then!