The lessons in this unit will focus on the Spanish language and images. Since the unit revolves around art and writings in Latin American cultures, it will be focused on two major periods, pre-Columbian and colonial era. Hence, most of the lessons will deal with these periods. Furthermore, in order to personalize the lessons and make them meaningful for my students, I will incorporate themes from their family lives. Generally speaking, students like to share family memories such as birthdays, special events, the birth of their siblings, graduations, holidays, and other celebrations. The unit will give them the opportunity to use technology such as slides with images and captions to present their Spanish heritage.
While researching for strategies, I was able to find out multiple art and history ideas and incorporate them in the unit. For example, aborigin art is a very interesting topic to explore with students. Aboriginal art in the Caribbean Islands was very distinguished by its abstract nature and it can be a great source for students to use critical thinking and their analytical skills in order to interpret them. As a way to start a lesson, students can also compare aboriginal art of the Aztecs and that of the Tainos or the Ciboneys in the Caribbean Islands.
Creating a lesson combined with the art class will give the students the opportunity to explore, enjoy, and be creative. It will also create a connection between Spanish as a language and other disciplines such as art, and history. As an assessment students can create their own "aboriginal" paintings and explain in writing or orally what the picture represent and why is meaningful to them.
Another teaching strategy that I will use is to create a mural. Either in group work or individual work, students can present it to their classmates or schoolmates. Murals were a very important part of Latin American art. Jose Clemente Orosco and Diego Rivera were two Mexican painters who incorporated indigenous art and history in murals. Murals were a very essential and very unique way to depict Latin American history and the wars of Independence from Spain. Teaching murals as an art and history lesson will open more opportunities for students to freely express themselves and work on project as a group showing cooperation and teamwork.
Since the lessons plans will have two sets of objectives, content objectives and language objectives, the lessons will follow a set of guidelines on sheltered instruction. The idea of designing a lesson plan following this model is taken from the SIOP model; a sheltered instruction observation protocol designed by Jana Echevarria and Ann Graves .
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. The rational for following this model is to help students with scaffolding techniques so they do not become overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of information that they will find in Latin American art and history. Also, lesson plans and materials must be modified in accordance with the language proficiency. That is, the higher the proficiency level is, the more challenging materials are. For the lower level, readings will be differentiated and modified.
Part 1: 45 minutes
Preparation
Teacher will go over the content and language objectives.
Strategies
Teacher will brainstorm with the students about their childhood memories. Teacher will link family concepts to students' background. Teacher will also present key vocabulary in writing, orally, visually and will highlight the key concepts for the students to see.
Lesson delivery
Teacher might use a variety of techniques and strategies to explain the concept of family life, relation, siblings, parents, grandparents and other relatives. Such materials include visuals, videos, books or teacher made materials. Teacher will reinforce the key concepts with activities, individual or group work.
Note* Since students are native Spanish speakers, most likely a few of them have visited countries such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, etc. and have had very rich experiences in the countries their parents are from.
Review and assessment
Teacher might stretch the lesson depending on students' ability. The project depends on how well and fast students absorb the concepts and are able to perform successfully.
Teacher will present the performance task with clear direction and a rubric. The performance task might depend on the teacher. Some examples of performance task are: Present a poster with family pictures and describes the relation to the family members, time and place student took the picture, why is it meaningful and dear to them. Preferably the pictures must be from the Spanish speaking countries, or childhood pictures. The project can be in the form of a poster or if the teacher feels comfortable to challenge students technologically, she/he might design a rubric for a technology project such as Power Point presentation, or a slide show using an enhanced web-component. A web enhancement component can be a slide show designed on google.com or photodex.com. Students have to open their own account.
Part 2:
Students will present in front of the class their projects and be graded with a rubric.
Materials: Taíno art (visuals and papers), drawing paper, pencils, or colored pencils
Strategies:
Background knowledge
Recall background knowledge by asking students what they know about aborigine art and if they have learned about this subject in art class.
Show on the overhead projector the "art" from the research work (Taino symbols in the Island of Hispaniola) and ask the students how can it be interpreted.
Ask the student to pick one of the symbols and write a paragraph (3-4 sentences) expressing in complete sentences their own interpretation.
Lesson Delivery
Teacher will go over the language part of the lesson by explaining how important subject verb agreement in a paragraph is. (A teacher can conduct this lesson at her/his own discretion).
Review Assessment
Pass around pencils, papers and a copy of the Taino symbols just studied.
Ask the students to think of one important event in their life, or an idea and interpret it in drawing using aborigin art.
Students will write a paragraph using correct and short sentences. Teacher will model a paragraph or use a sentence starter.