What a powerful and heartbreaking video! As a runner (whose mom still supports her at races) this video really struck me. Arianne Dowd and I created some free resources (here) and I used it in my Cultura y Civilización course last semester in my immigration unit.
I love doing this unit in Spanish 1. This is a mostly freshmen class and they really don't know much at all about immigration. By using engaging CI stories IN SPANISH (with some facts in Spanish along the way), my big goals for this unit are the following:
I want students to understand that immigrants (documented and undocumented) come to the U.S. for a variety of reasons, including: for work, for family, for more opportunities, for safety, and for many other reasons.
I want students to have empathy for undocumented immigrants.
I want students to know that immigration is very complicated and it is not possible to "deport them all" (a common comment).
I want students to understand that most undocumented immigrants are contributing to our society and our culture.
I have blogged about using the song and video "ICE El Hielo" a lot because I think it is such a good song to include in an immigration unit. It shows a lot of cultural practices and perspectives related to immigration and it, usually, leads to students having empathy for undocumented immigrants.
In addition to the Story Listening script, I have created some other activities to do with the story after I have told it in a "Story Listening" style. These are the follow up activities that I have created:
Hay una mujer. Se llama Eva. Tiene treinta y siete años. Ella es de El Salvador, pero vive en California. Eva trabaja en un restaurante. Todos los días se despierta temprano, prepara el desayuno para su hija, sale de su casa, y va al trabajo.
Hay una chica. Se llama Marta. Tiene quince años. Ella es de El Salvador, pero vive en la California. Es la hija de Eva. Es una estudiante muy buena. Todos los días se despierta temprano, come el desayuno, sale de su casa, y va a la escuela. Sueña con asistir a la universidad.
Hay un hombre. Se llama José. Tiene cincuenta años. Él es de México, pero vive en California. José tiene dos trabajos. Es jardinero y trabaja en un restaurante. Los jardines donde José trabaja son como Disneylandia, son muy bonitos. Trabaja en el mismo restaurante de Eva. José tiene esposa, pero ella vive en México. Todos los días se despierta temprano, come el desayuno, sale de su casa, y va a su primer trabajo. En México fue taxista. José monta en bicicleta mucho porque no tiene su licencia, pero también tiene una troca vieja (no es nueva). Maneja su troca vieja sin licencia.
José, Eva, y Marta tienen vidas buenas en los Estados Unidos pero todos tienen un problema: Vinieron a los Estados Unidos sin documentos porque querían una vida mejor. Eva llevó a Marta a los Estados Unidos cuando Marta tenía dos años. Vinieron de El Salvador, un país muy peligroso. Marta quería que Eva tuviera una vida mejor con menos peligro y más oportunidades. José vino porque quería una vida mejor también. Él le manda dinero a su familia en México todos los meses y quiere vivir en México, no en los Estados Unidos.
Un día, cuando Eva prepara el desayuno, ella ve la televisión y ve "Continúan las redadas." Eva tiene miedo porque no quiere ser deportada. Hay muchas redadas.
Hay otro hombre. Se llama Paco. Paco vive en California también. Paco tiene una familia: tiene una esposa y una hija. Es un padre bueno. Y también es un esposo bueno. Todos los días, Paco se despierta temprano, habla y juega con su hija, sale de su casa, y va al trabajo. Tiene un trabajo bueno, pero es difícil. A veces a Paco no le gusta su trabajo porque tiene que separar a las familias. Un día Paco trabaja y entra el restaurante de José y Eva con otros hombre de su trabajo. Es un problema para José y Eva. ¿Qué será su trabajo?
Many Spanish teachers have used La Misma Luna in class. It is a wonderful movie that students love. It also creates empathy for undocumented immigrants in the United States. This year and last, instead of just showing the movie, I decided to createa unit for my Spanish 1 class about immigration. It went really well! The unit packet includes the Essential Questions, the "I can" statements for the unit, the readings that summarize the two stories (the short film and the movie), a variety of activities for the two stories, Quizlet links, and a link to a summary textivate activity. The first story was the PBS short film "The Other Side." This short film has an excellent twist at the end; very few students knew it was coming. The video is in English, but I told the story in Spanish. I used this slideshow to tell the story. We spent a few days on this story and did some activities in the packet, including: reading, drawing, cierto/falso, and textivate (see slide 75). Students took a short quiz on that story after a few days. Throughout the unit, we also spent time learning the information on slides 4-8. The Quizlets on slide 9 helped with that. Those Essential Questions were on the test and students had to be able to answer them in Spanish (presentational writing). Here is the slideshow with some of the slides.
After that story, we moved on to the the story of La Misma Luna. I created the slideshow below to tell the story of the movie before we watched it. It has screen shots and very simple Spanish to tell the story. We watched it in segments and did some of the activities in the packet, as well as some Quizlet Live activities (embedded in the slideshow). Here is the slideshow withsome of the slides.
I love doing these slideshows! The triple connection of hearing, seeing a picture, and reading is very engaging and really helps students understand the story. Lots of connections are being made! Then, they hear the authentic Spanish in the movie. We do watch the movie with English subtitles. Our song of the week was also related to immigration. We used the song ICE El Hielo by La Santa Cecilia. This slideshow introduces them to the band. To start the week, students did the basic cloze activity and we went over the English meaning. Then, we sang it all week. Click here if you would like to make a copy of the slideshow and use it in your classroom.
I share this to help others teach in TL with comprehensible input. I am on that path, but not quite there yet! So, if you have any suggestions, let me know.
I am going to show "La misma luna" in my Spanish 1 class. It is going to be a little break from the stories that we have been doing. So, I decided that before students watch the movie, I wanted to show the 18 minute PBS film "The other side," but I wanted to describe it in comprehensible Spanish for level 1 (hence some weird wording). I also wanted to introduce some more vocabulary that they will need for talking about "La misma luna" (hence the multiple repetitions of el padre, el hijo, y la hija - first intro to family vocabulary).
I am wondering if this will be too advanced for level 1, but I know it will definitely be successful for my immigration unit in my Culture and Civilization course. Here is the unit for level 1.
Here is the slideshow with some of the slides:
I am also going to use the song "ICE El Hielo" to go along with the unit. Below is a slideshow about the band, "La Santa Ceclia."
We just finished the unit called "Perspectivas de la Inmigración" (UbD curriculm document and unit packet) in my Cultura y Civilización unit. This is the fourth time I have done this unit and it has been a little different each time, but the one thing that has stayed the same is the engagement in this unit. Most students have an opinion about immigration and undocumented immigrants in the United States, so they are interested in this unit.
By the end of the unit (hopefully), they understand how complicated immigration laws and reform really are. They will also understand a little more about the undocumented immigrant experience in the United States and (hopefully) develop some empathy for undocumented immigrants.
These are the Essential Questions for the unit:
¿Por qué emigran ilegalmente muchas personas a los Estados Unidos? ¿De dónde es la mayoría de los inmigrantes indocumentados? ¿Cómo llegan algunos? ¿Por qué vienen ilegalmente y no legalmente? ¿Cuál es el proceso de entrar legalmente en los EEUU?
¿Qué pasa ahora con la reforma migratoria en los EEUU? ¿Qué es el DREAM Act?
¿Quiénes son algunos cantantes que cantan sobre la inmigración? ¿Cuáles son sus perspectivas? ¿Cómo son diferentes y/o similares las canciones y los videos? ¿Qué opinas tú de las canciones?
En tu opinión, ¿hay una solución al problema? ¿En qué consiste?
The first Essential Question was the speaking assessment (done about halfway through the unit). In order for them to answer those questions, they had to investigate a bit. Below are some of the links they used to gather information before discussing in class and taking the "speaking test". We did not use all of them, but did use the bolded ones. Some are authentic resources and some are in English. I really liked the infografías because they are excellent differentiated readings.
Another thing we did at the beginning of the unit was watch an episode of the "reality show" 30 Days. It is English, but students answered questions (see unit packet) about it in Spanish and we discussed the different (at times extreme) perspectives of immigration in the show. Although it is a "reality show" and a little much at times, I continue to show it to students because I think they enjoy it and learn a lot from it.
After having focused on the first Essential Question, the next part of the unit was to see three different perspectives of immigration in three different songs:
Perspectiva #1 - Bandera by Aterciopelados - This song questions the idea of having borders and the immigration laws of some countries, obviously the United States being one of them. The lyrics are simple and easy to understand and the music video is excellent for discussion!
*Note*: Some students did not like this video because they felt like it was anti-American (and it might be), but I explained that this is a perspective of some people. A good question to ask then is, why do they have that perspective?
Perspectiva #2 - Pa'l Norte by Calle 13 - This song is about the journey of an undocumented immigrant as he travels North. The journey is described as being very difficult and the undocumented immigrant is glorified for his grit and persistence. The song also has some excellent cultural references and the vocabulary in this poem/song is rich. This video is also excellent for discussion. *Note*: This song contains some language and phrases that some might not want to use. I skip some parts of the song and focus on the important parts. Also, René might be drunk in the video, I ignore that part.
Perspectiva #3 - ICE El Hielo by La Santa Cecilia - This song shows the experience of undocumented immigrants in the United States. It is a beautiful song and easy for students to understand. The video is also powerful.
This perspective is particularly important because it is one sung by a band from the United States. It was also interesting for students to hear one of the band members speak here (starting at 10:55) about being an undocumented immigrant.
As with all the units, we sang all of theses songs a lot and students became very familiar with the videos as well. We also illustrated Pa'l Norte as a class and students illustrated ICE El Hielo in groups of 2-3. (I need to get some pictures of those on here!). All of the discussion questions about the songs and the videos are in the unit packet.
This is the unit test. Students did an excellent job on this assessment. I love correcting them because for many of the questions, there is not one right answer. The questions are so open that students can take many paths to answer them.
There are so many excellent authentic resources for to teach a unit about immigration! Check out Zambombazo's resources here. La Misma Luna is also an excellent movie to show students.
What are some of your favorite resources to teach about immigration? Please share!
