Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!
Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September
15, the independence days of five Hispanic countries -- Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Mexico achieved independence on September 16, and Chile on September 18. Get
started by checking out the classroom activities, lesson plans, and Web links
available on the ReadWriteThink
calendar entry for Hispanic Heritage Month. For resources on specific Latino/a
authors, illustrators, and themes, tap these resources:
- Sandra Cisneros
Invite students to explore the work of Sandra Cisneros as well as their own personal
heritage with the ReadWriteThink lesson Investigating Names to Explore Personal History and Cultural Traditions (M-S), which asks students to research naming traditions then write about their own names, using a passage from The House on Mango Street as a model. For a more extensive unit on Cisneros' book, check out "A
Ride Down Mango Street" (S) from English Journal, which discusses how the book invites the reader to experience racism and growing up in America. "Where Life and Art Intersect," Chapter One from the NCTE volume Sandra Cisneros in the Classroom: "Do not forget to reach" (S-C), provides biographical information on the author and suggests activities for students to connect with the author's experiences.
- Judith Ortiz Cofer
Carol Jago offers strategies for teaching Judith Ortiz Cofer's Call Me María in "Call Me Ishmael, I Mean, María" (S) from Classroom Notes Plus. After reading the text, students explore one of Cofer's poems and write a similar poem of their own.
- Susan Guevara
Book illustrator Susan Guevara shares her experiences in the publishing world in "Authentic Enough: Am I? Are You? Interpreting Culture for Children’s Literature" (E-C), a chapter from Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children's Literature. Elementary level teachers can use the details in the article to raise interesting questions about the books available in their schools. Teacher education classes can use the article as a touchstone for an interrogation of school resources, focusing on the questions such as "Who is represented in these texts?" and "How are these peoples represented here?"
- Pat Mora
Read biographical details on an author who writes for all ages in "Profile: Pat Mora, Fiction/Nonfiction Writer and Poet" (E) from Language Arts. The article explores how Mora's works are topics drawn from her life experience and discusses her advocacy for cultural and linguistic diversity, and for more Latinos in all phases of children's book publishing.
- Richard Rodriquez
After reading Rodriquez's literacy narrative Hunger of Memory: The Education
of Richard Rodriguez, try the activities in "The Literacy Narrative as Production Pedagogy in the Composition Classroom" (C)
from Teaching English in the Two-Year College to invite students to explore their own literacy experiences. The article outlines procedures and includes a heuristic for the project.
- Gary Soto
For options to read Gary Soto's "Seventh Grade" with students, read Helping ELLs Look at Stories through Literary Lenses (M) from Voices from the
Middle, which outlines pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading activities for the the short story. The article focuses on English Language Learners, but the techniques can be used with any middle-level students.
NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this Inbox is provided
for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available
to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 09-13-2005.
Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary,
M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, G=General).
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