Introduction
I teach pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade at a suburban elementary school in the Richmond City Public School district in Richmond, Virginia. My unit, designed to cover six weeks, is written for fifth graders and focuses on the Mexican folk song "Bate, Bate Chocolate" ("Stir, Stir the Chocolate") as the springboard for three writing exercises. In my district, writing is a state-tested objective for fifth grade students. Students nationwide often approach writing with a sense of dread. My curriculum unit makes writing fun by utilizing a song with an appealing name and theme — chocolate.
As the general Latino population grows throughout the United States, the Mexican immigrant population stands out as having one of the largest impacts on our nation's schools in terms of enrollment. This school growth has heightened an awareness of a rich culture that already exists as a part of the culture of the United States. Like the population of other school districts across the country, the Richmond City Public School district shows increasing numbers of Latino students every year. During the 2003-2004 school year, 2.66% of students in Richmond Public Schools were Hispanic. That ratio increased to 2.93% during the 2004-2005 school year. (1) A large percentage of this Hispanic population is Mexican. The average enrollment at my school during the 2006-2007 school year was 451, with 7.2% Hispanic, 84.6% Black, 6.5% White, 1.2% Asian, and .5% Unspecified. As the population of Hispanics increases, specifically Mexican immigrants, so does the interest in Mexican culture and customs. Due to a general student interest in learning more about Mexican culture and the need to spark excitement for writing, I have selected the Mexican folk song "Bate, Bate Chocolate" as the core of my curriculum unit.
Music is closely connected to the four core subject areas of Mathematics, History, Science, and Language Arts (which can include English, Reading, Writing and Literature). As it relates to mathematics, music is a complex numerical language of notes and meters. Any historian will tell you that music connects with a myriad of events in history, and it has its own history in the lives of countless composers and in different styles of music that have evolved over time. Music is also a science of sounds produced by the vibrations of voices and instruments. Likewise, when singing a song, children are connecting with language by reading words. With these connections in mind, "Bate, Bate Chocolate" will provide the foundation for activities that will be enriched by studying the vocabulary and language semantics of the song lyrics, the musical form of the song, the historical significance of the song text, and the history of chocolate. Increasing the knowledge base of my students through a variety of activities will endow them with the skills to complete three writing assignments related to "Bate, Bate Chocolate" as outlined in my unit. This folk song (also found in chant form) can be located under other titles, including the following: "Bate, Bate"; "El chocolate"; "Rima de Chocolate"; "Chocolate - Hot Chocolate"; and "Chocolate".
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