Latino Cultures and Communities

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 07.04.07

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. Unit Overview
  4. Why They Came and Where They Settled
  5. The Literature
  6. Unit Wrap-up
  7. Lesson Plan 1: Understanding Maps and Globes
  8. Lesson Plan 2: Secret Footprints
  9. Lesson Plan 3: Martina Cockroach
  10. Lesson Plan 4: Juan Bobo and Amelia Bedelia
  11. Bibliography

Cuéntame Una Historia, Por Favor! (Tell Me A Story, Please!)

Kathy Howell Zimbaldi

Published September 2007

Tools for this Unit:

Lesson Plan 2: Secret Footprints

Objective: Students will use oral language skills to participate in a group discussion regarding themes of prejudice, trust and fear in the story, Secret Footprints, by Julia Alvarez.

Activity:

Part 1

The first part of this lesson will begin with the teacher introducing a new vocabulary word: xenophobia. Students will be told that this word comes from Greek roots:

Xenos= foreigner

Phobos= fear

This word means fear of strangers. There are other types of phobias, such as arachnophobia=fear of spiders; claustrophobia= fear of enclosed spaces; hydrophobia= fear of the water, etc

Part 2

The teacher will read aloud the story Secret Footprints. Students will be separated into cooperative groups of 3. Each member of the group is a recorder, reporter, or leader. In literature circles students will be asked to consider the following questions:

  1. Is fear of strangers ever a good thing? Why or why not?
  2. Is fear of strangers ever a bad thing? Why or why not?
  3. Why were the ciguapas afraid of the humans?
  4. Why wasn't the human afraid if the ciguapa?
  5. Have you ever felt like a stranger? When? If not, how do you think it feels to be the stranger?
  6. Is being a stranger ever a good thing? Ever a bad thing?
  7. Define trust; fear. Who do you trust? Who do you fear?
Teacher led discussion will follow each group presentation.

Comments:

Patricia Gray

December 24, 2014 at 8:42 pm

Thanks for the Unit!

I thoroughly enjoyed your writing about the other Spanish-speaking countries and how to introduce other Latin cultures to your students. Thank you for your hard work! I would love to participate in an initiative like this.

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