Global Health Narratives Lesson Unit for High School Spanish Students
Prepared by Michelle Hulme-Lippert
1) Begin by choosing one story for students to read from the “Part 4: Latin
America and the Caribbean” section of Global Health Narratives (GHN).
2) Before students read the story, introduce it to the class with the “Prereading Activities and Questions” from the GHN Teaching Guide (translate
into Spanish) or create a similar introductory activity. Some activities may
take several days to complete.
3) Ask students to read the selected story as a homework assignment. Use
the “Learning Objectives for this Narrative” from the GHN Teaching Guide
to create comprehension questions in Spanish for students to complete at
home.
4) After students have read the story and answered the questions
individually, have a class conversation in Spanish discussing the story and its
themes. These conversations may be as an entire class or in small groups.
Include questions that ask the students to relate to the characters in the
story. The “Suggested Discussion Questions” in the GHN Teaching Guide
provide examples of such questions.
5) Follow the “Recommended Activity” in the GHN Teaching Guide or create
a similar activity that encourages the students to respond meaningfully to
the story in Spanish.
6) Assign the following project: In pairs, students will write their own
narratives in Spanish. This story may relate to the same global health topics
discussed in the story read by the class or it may discuss another topic
related to health and / or justice in Latin America and the Caribbean (and /
or in the United States). Students should first research the topic their
story will relate and write a composition summarizing the topic. Students
should also include a paragraph outlining their narrative ideas. Teachers
should approve the topic and narrative ideas before asking students to
progress. Students should then write a rough draft of their narrative in
Spanish, which will be edited with the help of their teacher. Students will
then create a final copy of their narratives, which may include illustrations.
The student authors can then read their stories to younger Spanish learners
at the local elementary or middle school and give a copy to the class or
school library.