Activities and Essential Questions
The following essential questions can serve as guides to help shape selection of children’s literature and collaborative conversations in Reading:
How do people shape our lives?
Students will discuss the impact of important people in their own lives and discuss and write about this. Students can extend this question to home and interview parents. Students will have an opportunity to listen to the story, El zopilote y la chirimía by Gabriela Olmos. In this story we will look at the elements of character and discuss the notion of family bonds and traditions. Through supplementary activities students will bring back information from home to help us distill additional components of this story such as rituals and traditions.
How do places/spaces shape our lives and experiences?
To explore this question, students will read Dream Carver by Diana Cohn and will discuss important places to their lives as well as that of their families and they’ll identify those places within the stories that we read. We will also supplement this book with real-life pictures of these landscapes to help generate vocabulary in both English and Spanish.
What can magic look like in a fairy tale?
Students will read the wordless picture book Journey by Aaron Becker, and begin analyzing the illustrations to find meaning. Visual thinking strategies can be used to closely read into images. Students will receive copies of images and practice storytelling with partners and then at home to someone in the family. Discussion should focus on what they imagine happening in the story and seeking evidence for their ideas.
How can objects symbolize or represent larger ideas?
Creating alebrijes is central to the unit. The alebrije will be introduced through video shorts. Students will read El ladrón de sueños by Sid Fleischman and consider the manner in which the character interacts with the alebrije. Students will embark on a mini-research project noting the how and why of an alebrije image. The card will list details on the back and they will select two animals to report on with their groups. These two animals will be used to create their sculptures. Students will begin sketching animals and then share out about them through small group discussions. Eventually, through the week, they will embark on short exercises in which they mix parts of their alebrijes with others to create new ones. Students will also re-visit the Dream Carver to further explore the craft. Students will also read Tsipeni y Joselito by Patricia Dominguez. We will discuss the relationship between the main character and compare and contrast this to Fleischman’s book.
What stories of bravery exist in your history?
Using the book, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote by Duncan Tonatiuh, students will revisit the concept of journeys and explore a story of bravery that is presented in this tale. Students will look at the structure of this story and consider the moral that emerges regarding family and trust. They will interview family members about their journey to the United States and bring those stories back to the classroom through collaborative conversations. These stories will serve as inspiration for the alebrije stories providing the common theme of bravery.
Field Trip
Students will take a field trip to the National Museum of Mexican Art to see real-life examples of alebrijes and other forms of popular art, and then visit the community of Pilsen, known for building size murals depicting many common themes related to Mexican and Mexican-American history and culture. In addition, we will engage in visual literacy exercises using strategies such as VTS focusing on two alebrijes that are part of the museum’s permanent collection: Pedro Linares’ “Alebrije”, and Manuel Linares Mendoza’s “The Worm”. Using open-ended inquiry questions to guide their exploration of the art pieces, they will consider the following questions: What do you notice about this work of art? What does this piece remind you of? How would you describe its design? What influenced the artist to create this? What story does this tell?
Artist Residency
Visual arts sessions in partnership with the National Museum of Mexican Art will also be integrated into this unit. First, students will create the visual landscape/setting for their story. Students will be discussing color and space by examining terrain of specific parts of Mexico that represent the homelands of the family. We will also explore the urban landscape of Chicago and incorporate elements of both spaces into one setting. Students will then look at the materials that are utilized to create alebrijes and begin assembling their own. The use of an open studio approach becomes important to invite opportunities for collaboration between friends or family. The arts will also be a vehicle for creating the landscape for our stories. This “Creative Lab” will allow children extended time to create their alebrije either with each other or family members afterschool using a variety of miscellaneous materials and objects that have been collected through the class and across the school.
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