Goals for this Unit

 

Literacies:

1)      Students need to gain knowledge about cultural diversity in relation to Puerto Rico using the book and their own life experiences.

2)      Students will apply knowledge of themselves to others.  They will use the knowledge of their own maturation to relate to Santiago’s memoir.  They will examine their own concepts of what is American and compare those to those expressed or implied in When I Was Puerto Rican.

3)      Students must be able to read and comprehend the book.  Students will have adequate vocabulary knowledge to understand the text.

4)      Students must be able to orally express their ideas.  The students must be able to act out a skit, explain pictures and/or passages of text to the rest of the class, and contribute meaningfully to class discussion.

5)      Students will cooperate in groups.  They will have to prepare for and perform a skit, prepare a food dish, and work together civilly in small group discussions.

6)      Students will have practice with testing situations.  They will have a series of short answer, fill in the blank, and/or multiple choice reading quizzes.

7)      The ability to express ideas with pictures.  They will have to draw pictures illustrating the text.  They will have to construct any props that they might need for their skit.

8)      Students will use the English language effectively.  Their writing in class must always strive to be grammatically and structurally correct.

9)      Students will draft, revise, and write a final copy of their script.  In this way students will learn about the writing process.

10)  Students will learn about how the perspective of a story matters.  They will write in different perspectives.  They must be able to assume a character for their skit.

 

Final Project:

Students will do plays in groups of @4.  This includes a written script and all other requirements set forth in the final part of the unit plan.  The students will all have to work together to create a skit in which all members are active participants.  They will have to turn in a rough draft, revise and then submit a final copy when they perform their skit.  The skit is worth a total of 50 points.  They are graded both for individual participation and as a whole group.  The students must be “experts” on their section of the book.  They will have to answer any questions that their fellow students ask about their section and their play after they are done with the 15 minute play.  They must showcase the story as well as the cultural aspects that we have studied through the course of the novel When I Was Puerto Rican. In writing this skit, I hope to make the students both prove an understanding of the book and it’s characters and an ability to sympathize with the unique cultural experiences of Puerto Rico.

 

           

 

 

                                                                                               

Activities:

1)      Students will read the section where Santiago moves to the big city in Puerto Rico.  That would give them a cultural comparison.  What are the differences between the two Puerto Rican cultures?  How does that compare to different regions of America?

2)      I will have Luis Martinez (A friend of mine from Puerto Rico) come in to talk to the students about life on the island so the students can relate the book to a real person.

3)      Students will draw a picture that represents a certain scene or chapter from the book.  I will give them the chapter to draw from, They will pick a scene or make a collage type picture of the chapter.  Students must also be able to explain their pictures to their classmates.  What are the different elements?  Why did they pick what they chose to draw?  This is the lesson I have included as my segment.

4)      Students will have a food day that includes all the food mentioned in the book.  Food will be provided by the students and or parents.

5)      Students will write mini-essays over the chapters to be read for that days discussion in their writing journals.

6)      Students will take fill in the blank reading tests to check if they are doing the assigned reading.

7)      Students will learn the Spanish words included in the book.

8)      Students will draw pictorial representations of vocabulary words.

9)      I will lead class discussions on the bookl and lead the students to think about the various topics that come up in the reading.

10)   Students will keep a reading journal in which they write their thoughts on the required reading for that night.  This will be the fuel for the next days discussion.  I will check their journals periodically.

11)   Have students write on the chalkboard everything that they think of when they think “American”

12)   Rewriting of a section of text in another character’s perspective.  Examine how the perspective matters in a narrative.