Strategies
First, I will begin teaching my unit by playing two versions of "Bate, Bate Chocolate." I will alternate the song version and the chant version continuously while displaying objects for the students to see, smell, and touch. These objects will include cacao beans, a molinillo, a variety of chocolate products (milk chocolate, varying percentages of dark chocolate, cocoa powder, chocolate syrup, brownie mix, chocolate candy bars), a Mexican flag, and an olla para chocolate (the pot in which hot chocolate mixtures are stirred). I will pass around the different chocolate products for the students to experience by observing, smelling and touching. By arousing the senses and introducing the students to some of the items mentioned in "Bate, Bate Chocolate," they will be more easily capable of identifying with the theme of the unit. By hearing the song and chant continuously, the students will become more familiar with it.
Next, I will pass around a small see-through bag of cacao beans. At this point, I will also show illustrations of the cacao tree and the inside and outside of a cacao pod. Books that I will use to show illustrations of the cacao trees, pods and beans include Coe's The True History of Chocolate and Baquedano's Aztec, Inca, and Maya.
It is important for students to know the history of chocolate. The English word chocolate comes from the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. In this language, xoco-atl means "bitter water" and cacahuatl-atl means "cacao water." (11) The regional origins of chocolate are believed to be an area between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. These rivers are located in South America. (12) At this point, I will show the students several classroom maps of these two rivers as well as maps showing the location of the Aztec Empire. These maps are found in Odijk's The Ancient World: The Aztecs, and Armentrout's Timelines of Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs.
The cacao tree grows cacao pods that, when cut open, reveal a sweet pulp surrounding dark cacao beans. These pods spread throughout Mesoamerica, which was the area associated with high cultural awareness. In pre-Conquest times this area included the southern part of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and portions of El Salvador and Honduras. (13) I will use Kimmel's story and picture book Montezuma and the Fall of the Aztecs, Tanaka's Lost Temple of the Aztecs, and Mason's If You Were There: Aztec Times to show maps of the Mesoamerica area. This activity also allows students to meet a World Studies standard for identifying and locating continents, oceans, and major features on maps and globes. Again, using Coe's The True History of Chocolate, I will show pictures of the cacao tree. During this time period, chocolate was used by the Olmecs, the Americas' first civilization. The Olmecs then passed cacao on to the Mayan culture, which referred to the beans as kakaw. (14) Many authors note that when Christopher Columbus encountered a Mayan trading canoe in 1502, he knew that these beans were valuable by the way the Mayans scrambled to retrieve the ones that had fallen, picking them up "as if their eyes had fallen out of their heads." (15) Subsequently, the Mayans passed chocolate on to the Aztecs through the trading industry. As a point of reference, I will show the location of the Maya Empire as shown on a colorful map of the empires of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas in Baquedano's Aztec, Inca, and Maya.
During the time of the Aztecs, chocolate was both a food commodity and a form of currency. Goods were bought and sold by barter. Tenochtitlán served as the center of a great market where thousands of Aztecs came every day to buy and sell goods. A specified number of cacao beans, for example, could buy a dugout canoe, a slave, or a feather cape. (16)
Because cacao beans were also used as currency, a drink made from the beans was considered a holy beverage. The noblemen of the Aztec Empire claimed chocolatl as a favorite cold drink and often sipped it during religious celebrations. During this time, chocolate was also commonly drunk as a mixture with chile peppers, flowers that resemble black peppers, the seeds of the bitter almond-tasting pizle, or lime water. (17)
During colonial times, the Spaniards continued to grow the cacao trees. These trees remained a colonial crop until the eighteenth century, and in 1753 they were given the scientific name Theobroma cacao by the eighteenth-century Swedish scientist Carl von Linné. Theobroma is the name of the genus to which cacao (the "chocolate tree") belongs. It means "food of the gods." (18) Production of chocolate products dramatically increased when the wealthy were no longer the only ones privileged enough to drink it. When women and children began to drink cocoa (invented in 1828 by the Dutchman Van Houten), the product became domesticated. (19) Cocoa is one of the display items that I will allow students to experience with their senses.
Today hot chocolate is a popular children's drink in Mexico. Children often sing the "Bate, Bate Chocolate" song or chant the rhyme when the drink is being stirred, singing or chanting faster and faster as the drink is stirred faster and faster. The drink is customarily made from Mexican beans that are toasted very dark, then coarsely ground over heat with sugar to make a chocolate disk that dissolves in water or milk. In today's Mexican culture, the best chocolate is handmade and called chocolate de metate "chocolate from the hand-grinding stone." (20) Baquedano's Aztec, Inca, and Maya has superb illustrations of grinding stones. I will use this book as a read-aloud because it also contains other illustrations that will be of interest to the students.
Elements of Music
"Bate, Bate Chocolate" is both a song and a chant. Although I will teach the chant version during the introductory portion of my unit, my main focus will be the song version. As a music teacher, it is imperative for me to teach the music elements of the song that are essential to understanding its structure.
The song embodies elements of music that deal with repetitive rhythms, AB song form, and a two-pitch melody that uses the pitch syllables do and low ti. In F Major, the key in which the song is written in Orozco's De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs for Children, these two pitch syllables translate to the note names F and E. Many folk songs utilize only two, three or four pitches to develop the melody. Consequently, the two-pitch melody in this folk song is not uncommon. Some recordings of the song use three pitches. Students will listen to both the two-pitch and three-pitch versions. It will be important to review the seven letters of the music alphabet (ABCDEFG). To demonstrate the movement of the melody, I will write the text on the board and place the appropriate note names on top of each syllable of the text to show the melodic direction of the music. In part A there is a repeated pattern of paired eighth notes followed by three quarter notes. The B section consists solely of repeated paired eighth notes. During my lessons, these terms will be defined and explained as they relate to the song.
The action part of the song, called the B section, describes the stirring action used to mix the concoction. The molinillo is the special utensil that is held between the palms and rotated back and forth as a means of mixing or stirring the chocolate drink. This utensil is used to smoothly incorporate a chocolate disk into the liquid. I will also supply a clear jar filled with water and a molinillo for students to simulate rotating the utensil inside the chocolate pot.
Another song with a similar theme, "Chocolate (Is My Favorite Vegetable)" by Les Julian, will serve as the comparative musical selection. I will also teach the music elements of this song. It incorporates the same general elements of rhythm, song form, and melody, but in different ways. "Chocolate (Is My Favorite Vegetable)" uses a samba rhythm, a three-verse/refrain form, a through-composed melodic form, and a rap section.
I will use recordings to help teach both songs. By using teacher-modeling, I will use the echo-sing and echo-speak strategies to teach both "Bate, Bate Chocolate" and "Chocolate (Is My Favorite Vegetable)." I will sing/speak one line and then have the students repeat what they have heard. I will start with one line at a time and then increase the number of lines each time until they are first able to sing with guided practice and then able to sing independently. Understanding music terminology is the key to explaining the components of a song. This unit focuses on the Music standards that appear in Appendix II.
This curriculum unit can be adapted by using other Latino children's songs such as "Arroz con Leche" which is both a song and a singing game, the latter of which is most popular among Mexican children. The song is found in several different versions and sometimes with different titles. Different versions exist in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. These versions harbor varying forms in which the melody and melodic form may be slightly different and in which the words and references to places often change from one country to another. Because different versions are found throughout Latin America, this song offers an opportunity to compare the historical aspects of at least three different versions. This song also mentions a food product, arroz con leche. The cultural implications of arroz con leche, literally "rice with milk" or "rice pudding," would allow students to explore the cultural significance of that dish in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. Although rice pudding is not the subject of the song, it holds marked symbolism that would give the unit a literary venue worth exploring.
Graphic Organizers
I will use Venn Diagrams and Sensory Notes to help my elementary students organize their ideas in a systematic manner. These graphic organizers will extend each student's vocabulary and will be identified as resources to assist with writing.
Venn Diagrams allow students to compare and contrast two ideas or concepts. After studying the music format of both "Bate, Bate Chocolate" and "Chocolate (Is My Favorite Vegetable)" each fifth grade class will construct a Venn Diagram on the blackboard to consider the two songs. Construction of a Venn Diagram will include two overlapping circles, large enough to write inside. The mid-point where the circles overlap will provide the area for writing ideas and concepts that the two songs have in common. The open spaces of both circles that do not overlap will serve as spaces for writing information that is pertinent only to that particular song. I will initiate construction of the diagram by asking what the songs have in common. This activity will be followed by filling in the spaces inside both circles with information that makes the two songs different. Students will use this graphic organizer to write three explanatory paragraphs on how the two songs are the same and different.
I will also guide students through an exercise in taking and using sensory notes. Sensory notes are designed to guide students in writing down words and phrases that describe what they see, hear, smell, and how they feel. In my unit, taking sensory notes will give the students an additional vocabulary list from which to draw content for their third writing assignment. These notes will be taken in response to hearing Rick Bayless's oral account of a chocolate experience in Mexico. (21) Bayless is a renowned food historian whose specialty is Mexican cuisine.
Writing Themes in "Bate, Bate Chocolate"
Writing is an integral part of the curriculum for fifth graders and is a state-tested objective. Within this objective, students must write to describe, to inform, to entertain, and to explain. For my unit, students will write three pieces - one descriptive paragraph about their favorite chocolate candy bar, three explanatory paragraphs to compare and contrast "Bate, Bate Chocolate" and "Chocolate (Is My Favorite Vegetable)," and an alliterative poem to entertain. Thematic material gleaned from the lyrics, music structure, and historical aspects of "Bate, Bate Chocolate" will serve as sources for intriguing prompts for writing. English teachers may find this unit helpful as a way to interest students in writing about a subject or topic - such as chocolate - that has mass appeal.
Word Walls
Using the senses will help students begin to generate vocabulary words that will be used in the unit. I will first start a Word Wall of Objects from the objects that are shown and circulated around the room. I will ask the students to name the objects; as they name them, I will write each one on an index card and post it on the Word Wall of Objects.
Next, I will construct a Word Wall of Adjectives. My prompting question will be: What adjectives can you use to describe chocolate? I will remind the students to think of ways to describe the texture, taste, smell, appearance, and sound (how it sounds when it is chewed, crushed, drunk, or blended), of different forms of chocolate. Again I will write each of the students' words on index cards and post them on the Word Wall of Adjectives.
A third Word Wall of Spanish Words will allow the students to understand pertinent Spanish vocabulary that I will be using when I teach the unit. For this Word Wall, I will invite the Spanish teacher to assist with pronouncing and spelling the Spanish names of some of the objects that I will display. During class, the Word Walls will be hung on the blackboard to provide always-visible vocabulary that I will use when teaching the unit and that the students will use when writing their assignments. They will serve as constant reminders of the topic of the unit. Since each class will generate its own words for the Word Walls, I will need to post only the words created by that particular class.
As a music teacher, I have posters with descriptions of the music elements and posters with music signs, terminology, symbols, and notes. Collaboratively, these wall hangings will serve as reminders of music terms and symbols that the students have learned from kindergarten through fifth grade. I travel with these materials on my music cart.
Read-Alouds
I commonly use read-alouds because I can show illustrations and teach an entire class about a particular aspect of a unit. Because I teach my music classes weekly instead of daily, read-alouds allow me to cover a substantial amount of material in a short period of time. I will read and show illustrations about the cultural heritage of Mexicans in the United States and about the history of the Aztecs. These books are located in the "Materials for Classroom Use" section of this curriculum. I will prompt the students to discuss the pictures by pointing to specific illustrations and ask them to describe what they see. I will also ask them to tell what they know about the pictures based on what I have just read. For emphasis, I will circulate these books for individual student perusal.
Several books aforementioned offer spectacular illustrations and explanations of the popular chocolate beverage sung and chanted about in "Bate, Bate Chocolate." One children's music book in particular provides a vivid illustration of a mother making the chocolate drink by rotating a molinillo within a chocolate pot. This book is José-Luis Orozco's De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs for Children. I chose this book because it shows a fun and busy moment in the family kitchen.
How to Write a Paragraph
There are countless ways to assist students in organizing their thoughts in order to write a paragraph. In my unit, I will always give students their topics in the form of a prompt. My students will be writing to describe, to explain, and to entertain. For each writing exercise, I will write a prompt on the board. The first prompt is "What is your favorite chocolate candy bar and why?" This particular prompt will engage the students in writing a descriptive paragraph. It will serve as the basis for their first sentence, the topic sentence. The students will then utilize their Word Walls in order to descriptively write about their favorite candy bar, focusing on why it is their favorite. The visible nouns and adjectives on the Word Walls serve to instill confidence so that the students will not be at a total loss for words. The second assignment will consist of three paragraphs. For the first paragraph, students will utilize their Venn Diagram to write about ways in which "Bate, Bate Chocolate" and "Chocolate (Is My Favorite Vegetable)" are alike. The second and third paragraphs will include details about each song that distinguish the two. The third assignment is an entertaining poem that the students will write using alliteration. The students will formulate their assignments with the assistance of the Word Walls and Sensory Notes.
Comments: