Objectives
While focusing on Latin-Caribbean topics, I will teach the geography, history, poetry and culture of this region to enhance the pen-pal connections. I specifically plan to lead my students' inquiry into the connections that Puerto Ricans and Dominicans have with African Americans. Through this process students will improve their, reading, writing, speaking, critical thinking, research and multi-cultural competency skills. Detailed objectives within three major categories are described below.
Researching and Analyzing Puerto Rican and Dominican Culture
To provide students with background knowledge I will do a topical review of Puerto Rican and Dominican geography and history using the school district prescribed social studies textbook, World Cultures and Geography: Western Hemisphere. I also plan to use The Historical Society of Pennsylvania website, to expose my students to the history and presence of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in Philadelphia. Once students obtain background knowledge about Puerto Rican and Dominican cultures, they will conduct their inquiry about how the music and dance of Latin-Caribbean and African American cultures are interrelated. Students will conduct web research on dance styles and music associated with Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Students will explore how the confluence of these dances and music styles reflect the connections between Latin-Caribbean and African American cultures. Lastly, students will complete a first person narrative research report about their journey of discovering the connections between Latin-Caribbean and African American cultures.
Reading, Writing, and Responding about Puerto Rican and Dominican Culture
To improve literacy practices, students will write pen-pal letters, research reports, expository essays and other creative writing. The letters will be informed by students' inquiry and mini-lessons provided about Puerto Ricans and Dominicans presence in Philadelphia. Students will use the pen-pal exchange to further inform their inquiry about the role music and dance plays in their pen-pals' lives. Furthermore, I plan to use school district prescribed Latin-American fiction, non-fiction text, other picture books and bilingual poetry to demonstrate the diversity of experience of Latin Americans. Jill Kuhniem in her article, "Cultures of Lyric and Lyrical Culture: Teaching Poetry and Cultural Studies," notes that her students frequently comment that reading poetry is like reading a foreign language. Incorporating poetry to learn about Spanish words and Latin-Caribbean culture will allow me to intermingle the aesthetics of culture with its actual practices. For example, I can use poetry to describe or explore Afro-Cuban dance or music styles or I can use music lyrics to explore deeper questions about identity. Students will interpret and analyze films to situate culture in its proper context. (Kuhniem 123) Through interpretation and analysis of films students will learn to appreciate the complexities of Latin American identity along with their own identity. Students will learn to read and respond to film in much the same way they would a work of fiction or a non-fiction text, and they will make connections with theme, character, setting, plot, etc. Students will learn to critically view film such as West Side Story, and determine what stereotypes are promoted in such Latinized films. Lastly, students will have writing workshops to compose expository essays about how to dance; write bilingual poetry; or respond to music, film or other art derived from Latin-Caribbean culture.
Creating and Performing Representations of Puerto Rican and Dominican Culture
To support students in creating performing arts and multi-media end products, I plan to collaborate with Latino community arts organizations such as the Asociación de Músicos Latino Americanos or Taller Puertorriqueño. Both these organizations work to promote the awareness of Latin American culture in Philadelphia through performing and visual arts. They are also both located in the heart of the city's Latino community which is in close proximity to the Marín School. To culminate this unit, students will document and show case what they have learned by performing in a Nuyorican Poet's Café format. The Nuyorican Poets Café began in the early 1970's in the East Village as an outlet for Puerto Ricans in New York to innovatively express themselves through poetry, music, hip hop, video and visual arts. (Algarín and Hollman 23) I have previously staged Poetry Cafes with my students that more closely match Russell Simon's Def Poetry Jam which has played on Broadway and aired on HBO. For our Filadelfian Café students will demonstrate Latin dance styles, recite bilingual poems and rap lyrics, and show clips of digital stories showing their reflections of learning about Latin-Caribbean and African American connections en ciudad de Filadelfia.
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