View as Webpage

At Teaching for Change, our hearts go out to the people of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It is important to help our students understand how the climate crisis and colonialism shape the lives of people on the islands and across Latin America. The Caribbean and Central America experience kindred struggles. Here are recommended books for K-12 on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.  


Teach Central America Week is fast approaching! Read below to learn about a workshop on Indigenous Central America, a documentary that will begin streaming in October, and resources to teach about Central America using poetry and prose.

Events

Indigenous Peoples' Day Curriculum Teach-In

October 1 | 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT)

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change will host an online teach-in with a series of workshops and keynote speaker, Rebecca Nagle.


Workshop on Indigenous Central America

Teaching Central America program specialist Jonathan Peraza Campos will lead a workshop that will provide teachers with strategies and resources for introducing the Quiche Maya ancestral story in their classrooms. Participants will explore the Popol Vuh, the Maya origin story, which highlights the importance of corn and nature to the Maya and other Indigenous communities throughout Central America. Connections will be made to Indigenous communities and the challenges they face today.

Learn More and Register

Teach Central America Week

October 3–9, 2022

Three years ago, Teaching for Change launched Teach Central America Week to encourage and support teaching about Central America during Latinx Heritage Month. We have collected lessonsbooklistsbiographies of noted historical figures, and readings for free use by classroom teachers. Read about past weeks here.

Learn More and Sign Up

LA MANPLESA: An Uprising Remembered

Documentary Film Streaming October 6

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington, D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of a young Salvadoran man, Daniel Gomez. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theater, this film weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.’s first barrios and dives into the roots of the '91 rebellion. Streaming starts October 6, 2022 on PBS, America Reframed.

Learn More

Teaching with Poetry and Prose for Middle and High School

Salvadoran History Through Poetry

In this two-part lesson, students explore the history and culture of El Salvador through Claribel Alegria’s poem “Little Cambray Tamales” and then write their own recipe poems.

View Lesson

Exploring the Histories of El Salvador and Guatemala with Literature

In this instructional unit, students draw on the When We Were Young website and literature (fiction and nonfiction) to understand the civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala and the ongoing effects of these conflicts on Central America and the United States.

View Lesson

Poetry Fires the Revolution

In this series of three activities, students gain background knowledge on life in Central America during a volatile period of war and unrest in order to understand the risks writers, artists, and poets took. Students analyze poetry and commemorate how a poet from Central America used poetry and action in the fight for social change.

View Lesson

Personal Creed

In this lesson, students use the lens of Claribel Alegria’s poem “Personal Creed” to understand how the civil war in El Salvador (1980-1992) shaped the experience and perspective of this accomplished poet and an entire generation of Salvadorans.

View Lesson

Middle School Students Say Everyone Should Learn About Ernesto Cardenal

During Teach Central America Week, 8th grade teacher Caneisha Mills used the Introduction to Central America lesson to explore the lives and experiences of Central American figures with students. After learning about the people in the lesson, students said that everyone should know about Ernesto Cardenal, a priest, poet, and activist who worked to overthrow the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. His lyrical poetry highlights and details Central American history, his views on politics, and his dedication to love and spirituality.

View Teaching Story

Teaching with Poetry and Prose for Elementary

Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup: A Cooking Poem

In Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup, a young boy helps his mother prepare a soup the whole family will enjoy using ingredients from Mother Earth. Onions are “yellow as the dawn,” beans are like stars spread out on the “sky of the table” and the water in the pot is “as deep as a little lake.” Groundwood Books has published an activity guide to accompany this book.

View Teaching Guide

 Movie in My Pillow / Una Pelìcula En Mi Almohada

In Movie in My Pillow / Una Pelìcula En Mi Almohada, a lovely bilingual collection of autobiographical poems, young Jorge tells the story of how he and his father, fleeing from the war, arrive in San Francisco. Eventually, the rest of the family will join them, but for now, father and son, leaving in the middle of the night—and without saying goodbye to anyone—must travel alone. The Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP), on behalf of the Américas Award, produced a teaching guide to accompany the book.

View Teaching Guide

Poetry

Poetry for Elementary

Names

by Claudia Lars


Sun is the name

I give the morning…

What a light show!

True radiance!


And to the pretty bird

I give a name

that nobody guesses

flower Angel  

A Stick Horse

by Oscar de Leon Palacios


A stick horse

I made myself,

with an old broom

that I found.


Happily

I rode him all day

And I don’t have to give him

salt nor corn.


More Poetry for Elementary

Poetry for Middle and High School

Like You

by Roque Dalton


I, like you,

love life, the sweet charm of things,

the celestial landscape of January days.

Also, my blood boils

and I smile for the eyes

that have known the burst of tears.

I think that the world is beautiful,

that poetry is like bread, for everyone.

And that my veins don't end in me

but in the unanimous blood

of those who fight for life,

love,

things,

landscapes and bread,

poetry for everyone.

Apolitical Intellectuals

by Otto René Castillo


One day

the apolitical intellectuals

of my country

will be interrogated

by the simplest

of our people.

They will be asked

what they did

when their nation died out

slowly,

like a sweet fire,

small and alone.

No one will ask them

about their dress,

their long siestas

after lunch,

. . . .continue reading

More Poetry for Middle and High School 

Central American Poetry Books

Visit Booklist

Meet Our Advisors

The Teach Central America campaign benefits from the scholarship and feedback from a dedicated team of advisors. We want you to meet them! We will introduce two at a time in our e-newsletters this year, beginning with those below. 

Jennifer A. Cárcamo is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at UCLA and visiting scholar at Rutgers University in the Center of Latin American Studies. She is the director of the films Eternos Indocumentados and Children of the Diaspora.

Stephanie M. Huezo, Ph.D. is assistant professor of history at Fordham University. Her research focuses on community organizing, Central American revolutions, and immigrant activism. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Popular Education Liberates.

See More Advisors
Donate to Teaching Central America
CFP_Recert_22 image


Teaching for Change

PO Box 73038

Washington, DC 20056

Teaching for ChangeTwitter | Facebook


Social Justice Books: Twitter | Instagram


Zinn Education ProjectTwitter | Facebook | Instagram


D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice: Twitter | Facebook