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.
| |
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.
| |
Teach Central America Week
October 3–9, 2022
| |
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.
| |
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. | |
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. | |
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. | |
|
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. | |
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. | |
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. | |
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. | |
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.
| |
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
| |
Central American Poetry Books | |
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. | |
|
Teaching for Change
PO Box 73038
Washington, DC 20056
| |
| | | |