As a Spanish teacher, I have always avoided teaching about Día de los Muertos until this year. I went to Pinterest and saw a ton of really cool ideas and I learned a lot about DDM. So, I am teaching about it this year and my kids are learning a lot of new vocabulary and about Mexican culture. I am also making connections to Halloween and asking kids to compare and contrast both celebrations.
I created a lesson plan which I had to submit for another purpose and I thought I would share it here with you. There is a lot of stuff in here and some of it will be done in the Amazing Race groups, other activities will be done individually and yet others will be part of a choice menu.
Lesson: El Día de los Muertos Versus
Halloween
Spanish
3 Honors
Essential
Question: How does culture affect the way in
which people celebrate special events?
Modes
of Communication: Interpretive Reading, Interpretive
Listening, Interpersonal Communication (Spoken and Written), Presentational
Writing
Instructional
Strategies: Cooperative learning, Connect to
prior knowledge/learning, Comparing similarities and differences, Vocabulary
Development, Demonstration, Differentiating Instruction, Displaying student
work, Nonlinguistic representations, group/share, use of visuals/media, Use of
walls to extend learning, Using higher level thinking skills, and
differentiation
Day
1
Hook/Opener:
In their Amazing Race Cooperative
Learning Groups, students ask and answer in Spanish the following questions:
1.
¿En qué piensas cuando ves esta imagen?
2.
¿De qué países se trata esta imagen?
3.
¿Cuál es el propósito de esta imagen?
The groups come together to share
their thoughts on the visual with the
large group.
Note: We had a great discussion 100% in TL with my kids regarding who would want Halloween to infiltrate Mexico and who would not. I showed them a few icons from DDM, wax candles, flowers, calacas, la catrina, etc. On the cons they said "abuelos" or "personas tradicionales" and for the pros "niños". I probed further "por qué les gusta a los niños Mexicanos, Halloween?" They said "tienen caramelos", "llevan disfraces". Who else would be interested or not? I used my fingers to indicate money. They said "personas en tiendas", someone said "personas venden". I said .. "venden qué? They said "flores, velas, calaveras de azúcar, máscaras de esqueletos, etc". Then a precious child who is my daring kid said from her head "disfraces de Halloween vienen de Estados Unidos, disfraces de esqueleto vienen de Mexico". BINGO! They got it. In a 10 minute discussion they had experienced the cultural triangle.
Conmpare and Contrast: Students
look at two articles with pictures about DDM. They create a Venn diagram in their groups, and make a comparison to
Halloween. They need to write several complete thoughts and not just list vocabulary words. When students are done, their work is posted on the outside wall and
the whole class does a gallery walk looking at what each group posted. There is
some discussion regarding the accuracy or inaccuracy of the posts.
Days 2 – 6
In the next few days, students will do
some of the following activities:
Analyze interpretive readings
regarding Day of the Dead
Watch a Mexican commercial for Day
of the Dead products
Read infographics depicting the
perspective of Mexicans regarding Day of the Dead
Read a list of Tweets from people in
Mexico regarding Day of the Dead
Watch a silent video about day of
the dead and create a narrative in the imperfect and preterite tenses regarding
what is happening in the movie
Write a short narrative about what
they would do if they were in Mexico on November 1st & 2nd
Read in depth infographics comparing
Day of the Dead and Halloween
Create an altar with offerings
Email a fictional student in Mexico
explaining how Halloween is different from Day of the Dead
Follow #DiadelosMuertos and tweet 3
times regarding what they have learned
Read and analyze a poem about day of
the day
Create their own poem about Día de
los Muertos
Prepare "pan de muertos" and do a Gouin series about it.
Prepare "pan de muertos" and do a Gouin series about it.
Blog in Edmodo regarding what they
have learned about Day of the Dead and their opinion about it.
Differentiation:
Students will have a menu of choices
from which they can choose some of the above activities. Some of the activities
are required and some of work will be done in their cooperative Amazing Race
groups while others will be done individually. Out of respect for students’ religious beliefs, activities such as the altar will be in the choice
menu.
Materials and Resources:
Infografias
Comparación entre Noche de Brujas y Dia de los Muertos - http://estudiafeliz.com/category/actividades-de-pensamiento-critico/
Comercial dia de muertos http://www.pinterest.com/pin/225391156324943650/
Silent short movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlRzfL1BGbI
Reading Materials attached: http://www.monografias.com/trabajos10/dimue/dimue.shtml#ixzz3GDulEOsH (only certain sections will be used)
Mexican perspectives on Day of
the Dead:
www.pinterest.com/pin/523965737871530417/ (Twiccionario)
