Bethania Urena H.
The Case of Hector and Felicia from Shadowed Lives, p.120.
Objectives
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1. To make the students aware of the different types of risks and problems that many people face during their immigration process, such as: separation (sometimes the mother has to raise the children for a long period of time)
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2. To help students see that in this case, as in many others that we have already studied, the parents immigrate to other countries looking for better jobs and for a more secure life for their family
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3. To improve mathematical, vocabulary, and numerical reasoning skills: mental computation, problem solving, etc.
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4. To have the students compare the lifestyle between urban and rural areas (here the teacher will bridge into Social Studies)
Activities
Students will:
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-study new vocabulary words
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-read the story
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-make comments about Felicia and Hector, about their children, about the types of rural tasks, etc.
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-locate and identify places on the map
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-talk about time and distance
-complete written exercises
Materials
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-dittos with the written story
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-blackboard with the new vocabulary words
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-maps of Mexico and the United States
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-paper and pencil
Words to Study
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agriculture
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income
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schooling
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field
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irregular
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economic
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demands
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although
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provide
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migrate
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household
Procedure
The teacher gives the dittoed story of Hector and Felicia to the students. The teacher explains that since we are learning about immigration, we will learn about a Mexican family who decided to come to North America. We will learn about the type of life that this family had in Mexico (here the teacher points to the map of Mexico). We will discover why the family decided to immigrate and about the problems that they faced at that time.
Prior to the lesson, the teacher will write the new vocabulary words on the blackboard, so that the class can review the meanings before reading the selection.
Questions for Discussion
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1. Where is Aquascalientes? The teacher asks for a volunteer to locate Aquascalientes on the map of Mexico before beginning the discussion of the reading passage.
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2. Can you explain the difference in jobs between urban and rural areas?
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3. Hector said that he had had no schooling; he was illiterate. Do you think that he could find a job in the city?
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4. Here the teacher will bridge the lesson into Mathematics:
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-If Hector left Mexico in 1972 when he was 26 years old, how old would he be in 1996?
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-What about Felicia? She was 21 in 1972. How old would she be now?
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-Hector wanted to save money. Why? What does it mean to save money?
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-Where do people take money to save it? (This might be an opportunity to teach the students about some of the different means of saving and investing, to point to mutual funds, for example, or to distinguish between a savings and a checking account.)
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-What types of things could Hector buy with the money he hoped to save?
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-How long did it take for Felicia to come to the United States with the children?
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-How many times in a year did Hector come to Mexico to see his family? (Here the teacher can review the calendar, the months, the weeks, etc.)
