I'm one of the teachers who would rather use this as an educational opportunity, rather than mark this day with a day off. It's a positive step to shift the focus - to celebrate Native Peoples Day, Explorers Day, Día de la Raza, and beyond - but as a language teacher I feel the obligation to directly address some of the myths and traditions attached to Columbus, that even when innocuous are connected to much bigger issues.
Several years ago I put together a jigsaw reading activity for my middle school students related to this theme. I collected a variety of articles and resources and had students work in groups to read, discuss, and share opinions.
Because of limited time this week and the need to play catch-up with nearly half my class (we've had lots of absences recently) I am going to select just a few of the resources and use this as an extension activity for the students who are already finished with our other assignments. I have adjusted it a bit to include some resources in Spanish and some current articles, and I thought I would share it in case it could be useful to anyone else. All the materials are in this shared Dropbox Folder, with some more details below.
Use this List of Resources for grouping and planning.
I summarized the resources I found in this chart, categorized by topic, format, learning style, and reading level (including some appropriate for heritage Spanish speakers, and ELL.) I am hoping to give each group a laptop and a folder of printed materials so that they can select the information that fits with their level and learning style. I wanted an easy "database" of resources to find exactly what my students need, or to help them to choose resources for themselves. (Click the preview below for the entire list as a PDF.)
 |
Share links to digital resources, or print out appropriate texts for your students.
Brainpop videos listed above do require a subscription. For the other articles and resources, I have a few PDFs that I put together to print.
 |
| I'm hoping that the maps and comics will be particularly good to assign to low readers and visual learners. |
Have students work together with a variety of resources to gather information.
I have this response sheet for my students to use in groups. Depending on the level and the time constraints, you could have each group only focus on one section, or you could have groups focus on resources for different sections, and then regroup to share findings.
This is not an activity I have tested extensively yet, but I wanted to share it now since it is seasonally relevant for this week (and since I was already gathering and categorizing the resources, maybe it can save you a little time!)
Do you have any other resources I could add to my collection?
No comments:
Post a Comment