John C. Warner
The unit is an exploration of Puerto Rico and its people, customs and traditions through folk literature. It is essentially divided into three parts: an introduction to the study of mythology in general with suggested readings for teacher and student including myths, fables and folktales in English with questions for students following each selection; a sample of Puerto Rican folk literature with exercises for the student; and a student involved creative writing project. The unit contains suggested exercises and ideas for teaching vocabulary found in the legends such as through visual representation of vocabulary on flash cards. It explores classroom games and activities useful in testing vocabulary comprehension and retention. The unit also suggests different methods of analysis of folk literature including class discussion topic questions, and short and long term writing assignments. The unit involves students in the mind expanding process of creative writing by suggesting that students create original tales patterned after what they have studied. There is a week long lesson plan devoted to this topic in the unit which also includes suggestions for field trips and assemblies utilizing different community resources. Along this line, the unit features activities that involve students’ presenting their original legends as skits during a school-wide festival as a cultural awareness project. The final purpose of the unit is to teach students about another culture in a new and innovative way in hopes of stimulating their interest to do some cultural exploration on their own. In this way, they become more aware of people and events which surround them.
(Recommended for 9th grade Spanish I, 10th grade Spanish II, 11th grade Spanish III, 9-12 grades American History)
Key Words
Puerto Rican Hispanic Folklore Foreign Language Instruction Mythology Spanish Culture Rico
