This language arts curriculum unit is to be taught over a four-week period, with two classes per week taught by an ESOL teacher and the remaining class sessions taught by the regular language arts teacher. Specifically intended for seventh-graders, the unit could be for eighth- or ninth- graders with supplemental readings. The unit begins with several poems by Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz and continues with folktales from several Latin American countries and an essay by Laura Esquivel. The unit concludes with Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. The objective of the unit is to introduce the predominantly Hispanic student population in this class to modern Latin American literature. The students will be asked to think about what the author intends us to "see" in his/her writing; the students will also be asked what they are learning to observe. Students will write in each class, learn the biography and geographical background of the authors and present a final project.
(Developed for Language Arts/ESL, grade 7; recommended for Language Arts/ESL, grades 7-8)
