Teaching Strategies
I plan for this unit to take about three weeks, which would roughly equate to fifteen classes, each forty-three minutes. Before this unit students have completed previous lessons exploring their identity through an identify map. They will also have had a few foundational lessons about the geography of the Americas which include explorations of the terms Latin America and Hispanic. I will also be seeking to connect to songs that they have shared with me during a beginning of year get-to-know-you “class playlist” activity. This background knowledge lays an important foundation for them to be able to draw connections to their lives and see patterns through various stories.
To help students draw out key ideas, themes and connections between Puerto Rico and music I suggest using Project Zero Thinking Routines (henceforth shortened to PZTR) to analyze text, images, videos or songs. Thinking routines are a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps that teaches utilize to support and scaffold students thinking about the content.[72] While thinking routines can be done individually, I found them most powerful when students share their thinking with each other and then the instructor. This allows students to draw on their peers’ ideas while also enabling the teacher to thread the needle of themes and key takeaways.
To help students acquire vocabulary necessary to understand the topics discussed in this unit I suggest using a Frayer Model vocabulary chart. Frayer Models are a graphic organizer that increases language acquisition.[73]
As part of this unit, consider providing guided notes sheets that students fill in to help retain information from each lesson. I also suggest two large class visuals. A large map of the Western Hemisphere could be posted in the class. As you explain each genre, draw a line from each geographical location that influences the genre. Use different colors of markers for each genre. At the end of the unit the poster will be a visual representation of the transnational connections created by these genres of music. You could also post a large timeline, where, as each decade of Puerto Rican history is taught, you can place key events on the timeline to create a sense of chronology and to make patterns more evident.
I will use political cartoons from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth to showcase how the United States viewed Puerto Rico at the time. This is a prime opportunity to illustrate the problematic view the US has historically had regarding Puerto Rico.
Figure 1 “Will Wear the Stars and Stripes” Illustrated by Charles Lewis Bartholomew and published May 7, 1898, in the Minneapolis Journal.
Figure 2 “What the United States Has Fought For” Political Cartoon from the Chicago Tribune, 1914.
Figure 3 “How Some Apprehensive People Picture Uncle Same after the War” Detroit News, 1898.
The flow of the lessons will follow the order of the background information presented above, with the information chunked by sections of the performance, the genre of music on display and related history.
Students will spend one class period analyzing the lyrics to “LO QUE LE PAS´O A HAWAii” We will structure our discussion using the PZTR “The 4 Cs” connecting the lyrics to what we have learned about Puerto Rico, Challenging ideas, positions or assumptions brought up in the text, identifying concepts (this will be a great time to review key vocabulary term), and changes in attitudes, thinking or actions.
As a culminating project students will have an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in one of four ways.
- A political cartoon about the conditions of Puerto Rico
- A letter to a senator about the conditions of Puerto Rico
- Ability to write a song or poem about the impact of colonization, gentrification and privatization on a community.
Students will engage in a gallery walk to review their peers’ products, and the product will be graded on the IB Communication rubric.
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