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!