Juxtaposing House on Mango Street, Local Latinx History, and Personal Experience through Student Writing

In this lesson students are encouraged to draw connections between an interview with a local Latina, Marta Moreno and three vignettes from Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street with similar themes in order to help students ultimately produce their own vignette mirroring Cisneros’ writing style.
Created By:Jamie Hedlun, Mead High School

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Using Expert Text from a Latino Author to Inspire Personal Narratives

In this lesson students will use a Latino author, George Rivera, as an author model and a Latino illustrator, Tony Ortega, as an illustrator model, in a short writing unit practicing personal narrative. Students will publish personal narratives with an option to use a simple free tool for digital publishing. It is important to show that Latinos from Colorado have experienced success in a variety of fields.

Created By: Jessica Gerstner Twin Peaks Academy Charter School

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Family Customs: Expressing Vocabulary About Family Life by Exploring Primary Sources

In this lesson students will use primary sources to identify local latino customs. Students will then orally express their personal experience with customs in their own family/culture. Students will use key vocabulary and be able to express their tradition as they are able, based on their WIDA Can Do levels. Students will participate in conversation with others, applying both Speaking and Listening skills, in order to build understanding of other cultures and appreciation for similarities with their own customs. Students will use sentence stems to help express their ideas. Oral expression of cultural identity through discussion of family customs.

Created By: Amanda Cox, Twin Peaks Charter Academy

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La Familia (a Spanish language lesson)

In this lesson students will use Boulder County Latino History Project interview and photo to practice family-related vocabulary and learn about a local Latino family and one Latina’s experiences growing up in Boulder County. La familia can be used over several classes to 1) learn/review family vocabulary, 2) to compare/contrast specific aspects of family with students’ own experiences.
[NOTE: Many mini-lessons around family and other vocabulary/structures can be introduced throughout the year and related to local Latino history: describing family, family and work/play, family and clothing, family and education, family and fighting discrimination. This can also be used in conjunction with cultural reading about Latino families that often is part of Spanish textbook series.]

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Introducing Latino History in Boulder County with Mini-Lessons

In this lesson students will look get an introductory look at Latino History in Boulder County. Lesson One introduces key vocabulary needed to understand and analyze Latino history in Boulder County. Lesson Two is a teacher-directed activity that guides students through an analysis of primary source images. Lesson Three asks students to identify and mark key locations in Boulder County on a map. Lesson Four asks students to look closely at a primary text for details and ideas that are important or relevant to them and create a found poem. These lessons can be done in a rotation of learning stations or can be used individually.

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