Lesson Plan Page 1 Section 1. Name and School District Section 2. Topic/Theme of the lesson Los refugiados y la inmigración Section 3. Language and level for lesson Section 4. Standards Spanish, Level IV and AP (This class is conducted entirely in Spanish.) 1.1-Students discuss what they already know about refugees and immigration. Students discuss possible meanings of signs and photos. Students discuss psychological stages of adaptation of refugees and the film El Norte. 1.2-Students read about the psychological stages of adaptation of refugees and interpret spoken language in the film. 2.1-Students interpret cultural factors that contribute to fleeing homeland. 2.2-Students understand the concepts of coyote, tarjeta verde, la migra and choque cultural in relation to immigrants and refugees. 3.1-Students connect to psychology by learning about stages of adaptation of immigrants and refugees. Students reinforce knowledge of geography by tracing route taken by refugees on maps. Students connect with math by converting distances to miles and superimpose journey on maps of areas with which they are familiar. 3.2-Students gain understanding of the immigrants/refugees perspective. 4.2-Students compare the immigration of their ancestors to the U.S. to the current influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants. 5.1-Students use Spanish to ask questions of a local immigrant worker from Mexico. Section 5. Overview/Scenario Students in a forth year and Spanish AP class in Greensburg, PA explore the topic of refugees and immigration from Spanish-speaking countries to the United States. The economic, political, social and educational situations in various Spanishspeaking countries are discussed as factors contributing to people fleeing their homelands. Students also learn about choque cultural or culture shock and the other
Lesson Plan Page 2 psychological stages of adaptation refugees and immigrants experience. Students watch the film El Norte which depicts the journey of Rosa and Enrique from their village of San Pedro in Guatemala to the Los Angeles in search of work. Students describe why Rosa and Enrique fled San Pedro and what happened to them in each of stage of their adaptation to their new environment. Finally, students interview a local immigrant to gain his perspective on his experience coming from a small town in Mexico to work in southwestern Pennsylvania. Section 6. Agenda/Action Plan/Schedule By the end of this lesson students will be able to speak and write about the conditions in the homelands of refugees and immigrants that cause them to leave. They will understand what these people have to go through in order to arrive here and perhaps empathize with the risks they endure. Students will also understand the normal, psychological stages of adaptation that a person experiences in a new country including the concept of culture shock. The lesson will reinforce insight into the students own culture by revisiting the concept that immigration to the U.S is not a new issue and that many of their ancestors were immigrants. Students will participate in the multilingual community around them by interviewing a local immigrant worker. Student vocabulary base will increase to incorporate words, terminology and expressions related to immigration/refugees and students will refine skill in describing past actions and events using the preterit and imperfect past tenses. This lesson may last from 4-6 days on an intensive schedule (90 minute blocks) depending on the length of the discussions, amount of work assigned outside of class and the time allotted for extension activities. Section 7. Hook/Prior Knowledge To hook the student s interest they are first shown a transparency of an Undocumented Alien Crossing road sign from southern California. Students give ideas about what they sign might mean. Then students look at photographs and drawings depicting refugees and immigrants to the U.S and other countries. Students answer questions about what they see including, Where are these people?, How do they look?, How do they feel?, Where are they going?, Why are they there?, and Who are they?. Students brainstorm in small groups and list any ideas they already have about immigrants of refugees from their history classes or general knowledge. Through teacher- guided discussion, ideas are explored and listed on the board. At this point students are encouraged to begin taking notes. It is very important that students have a base knowledge about why people flee their homelands and what they hope to find in the new country. Using personal knowledge and a dictionary, students define the terms immigrant, migrant, and refugee. It is also beneficial for students to reflect on the history of the U.S. and the mass immigration here from Europe in the 19 th century. At this point students are given a list of key vocabulary words, expressions, and terminology that is related to the topic of immigration and refugees.
Lesson Plan Page 3 Section 8. Engagement/Learning Experiences/ Progress Indicators 1. Students will participate in Hook/Prior Knowledge activities as described above. 2. Students will read Los años 80: la década de los refugiados and La adaptación psicológica de refugiados latinoamericanos from Ocho Mundos. 3. Students will participate in pairs or small group discussion to describe the segments of the reading in their own words. Students will also complete activities from the text focusing on comprehension of the text, new vocabulary, terminology and grammar. The grammar topic is the differentiation of the preterit and imperfect past tenses. At this point, students have already studied this topic many times and are working to further refine their skills. 4. Students complete individually a teacher-generated handout (handout #1) on which they identify the reasons why people flee their homeland and the characteristics of each stage of psychological development. 5. Students watch the film El Norte and take notes as they watch focusing on specific questions (see teacher-generated handout #2). 6. Students write about the reasons why Rosa and Enrique fled Guatemala and what they experiences in each stage of their psychological adaptation in the United States (handout #1, can be used twice). In this activity students are directed to use the new vocabulary and terminology along with the preterit and imperfect past tenses. Students will focus on using the imperfect past tense to describe the general conditions in San Pedro and in the U.S. when Rosa and Enrique arrived, how they felt, and what they did on a daily basis. They will focus on using the preterit to describe specific things Rosa and Enrique did as they were traveling from Guatemala to the U.S., things they did when they first arrived, things that happened to them in the course of the film. Students are also asked to write several sentences containing both the preterit and imperfect past tenses describing something that was happening to Rosa or Enrique when another event interrupted. For example, Rosa limpiaba (estaba limpiando) la casa cuando ella se desmayó, or Enrique hacía (estaba haciendo) la maleta cuando Nacha entró y le dijo que Rosa estaba enferma. 7. Students discuss culture shock in more detail and hypothesize about the types of problems immigrants to Pennsylvania might face. They also discuss
Lesson Plan Page 4 culture shock as experienced by a foreign exchange student and a person traveling abroad. 8. Students listen to audiotape of a conversation between three foreign exchange students in the U.S. who are describing their problems in adapting to the culture here. Students listen and fill in the missing words from the dialog and answer comprehension questions. The questions should allow students to dram comparisons between what exchange students experience and what Rosa and Enrique experienced. 9. Students are given a background about Santiago, a young immigrant worker in a local Mexican restaurant and are asked to develop/write questions that they want to ask him about leaving his small town in Mexico, about coming and working in PA, or other questions of general interest. 10. Santiago comes to class, and students ask him the questions they have developed taking notes on his answers. (Sometimes a videotaped version of an interview with Santiago is used in which the teacher asks him the most common questions and he responds.) Students discuss and summarize their impressions of the interview. 11. Finally, students write about being a refugee or immigrant. They write in the first person as if the events had happened to them personally. They may take the perspective of Rosa, Enrique, and Santiago or make up their own personal history based on everything previously discussed in the lesson. Students must incorporate the new vocabulary, terminology, preterit and imperfect, and references that indicate cultural understanding. Students may also complete an objective exam in lieu of or in addition to the writing assignment. Section 9. Materials Film- EL NORTE El norte. Dir. Gregory Nava. Perf. David Gallapardo and Zaide Sylvia Guiterrez. Cinecom, 1983. Reading and activities- EL MUNDO DE LOS REFUGIADOS Wegmann,B. 1986. Ocho Mundos:Themes for Reading Skills and Cultural Awareness (pp. 56-79). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Vocabulary List- APRENDIZAJE Nance,K. and Rivera, I. 1996. Aprendizaje:Técnicas de composición (p. 85). Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company. Text and Audiocassette- IMAGÍNATE Chastain, K., Guntermann, G. and Kramsch, C. 1991. Imagínate, text and
Lesson Plan Page 5 Audiocassette (pp. 199-208). Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Teacher generated materials (copies attached) *Note- I have my own personal collection of newspaper clippings, photos from personal travel, drawings from students etc. I have collected over the years for the Hook/Prior Knowledge activities. I have listed below web sites below with similar items to those I currently use. Section 10. Technology Connections www.isn.org- This site is the Immigrants Support Network. It provides information about green cards, work visas, immigration laws, support groups and an extensive list of articles related to immigration and refugees. www.time.com- The site entitled Life on the Border provides a photo journal of the immigrant s journey. www.rose-hulman.edu- This site titled Immigration provides photos, statistics of the Hispanic population in the U.S. with graphs, photos and border crossing road signs. www.geocities.com- This site provides more photos that can be used to stimulate discussion about immigration. Section 11. Integration/ Extensions In an extension project, students would be given a list of possibilities that may include (but not be limited to the following): 1. Research typhus, the disease that Rose contracted in the film, or another common ailment of refugees such as malnutrition, dehydration etc. Write a summary and report to the class with visuals. (Science connection, 1.3- presentational mode of communication) 2. Research immigration to or a specific Spanish-speaking country (ex. To Spain from Africa) report to class with visuals. (History connection, 1.3- presentational mode of communication) 3. Listen to a song related to the topic (teacher should provide a list of possible songs such as La migra by Santana, Que se te escapa by Ella baila sola, or El pecado de ser africano en Madrid by Amistades Peligrosas.) Anaylze song based on ideas studied in class. Present song and analysis to the class.
Lesson Plan Page 6 (Music connection, 1.3-presentational mode of communication) 4. Write a poem about immigration/refugees incorporating the vocabulary and terminology studied in the lesson. Read the poem to the class. (1.3- presentational mode of communication) 5. Draw, design, paint, and make a mural or poster depicting your impressions of the plight of immigrants/refugees. Describe to the class in your own words. (Art connection, 1.3- presentational mode of communication) 6. Read a piece written by an immigrant/refugee related to his/her experiences in coming to the U.S. or adapting. (Teacher should provide students with a list of possibilities) Students summarize the piece and present to the class with visuals to aid in presentation. (Literature connection, 1.3- presentational mode of communication)