Jackie Huebner
The Day of the Dead
Spanish - 9th grade (Beginning Level)
Essential Questions
- How do other cultures view death? Why?
- What are the most important events in the celebration and why are they done?
- What are some of the myths associated with the Day of the Dead?
- How does the Day of the Dead differ from Halloween?
- What do the key objects symbolize?
- What is your opinion of the celebration?
Comprehension Strategies
Strategy: Questioning the Author
Comprehension Area: Questioning
Literature Source: Dia De Los Muertos, by: Ann Heinrichs
Objective: The students will be able to think beyond the words on the page and
will consider the author's intent for the selection and his or her success at
communicating it. This strategy becomes a tool for recognizing and diagnosing
inconsiderate text/a fallible author.
Overview: The teacher provides the students with the standard format of five
questions. Students read a selection of a text, usually one or more paragraphs,
and then answer the following questions:
1. What is the author trying to tell you?
2. Why is the author telling you that?
3. Does the author say it clearly?
4. How could the author have said things more clearly?
5. What would you say instead?
It is intended to make the students aware of the difference between good/poor
writers and to recognize they may be struggling as a reader not because of their
lack of skills, but instead because of the author’s poor writing.
Strategy: Fishbowl
Comprehension Area: Questioning
Literature Source: El Dia de los Muertos by: Mary Dodson-Wade
Objective: Students will be able to actively engage in conversations based on
the questioning strategy and will also be able to assess the types of questions
and answers given.
Overview: Students are put into two circles, one inner and one outer. The inner
circle is given a question or topic to discuss among themselves and debate.
Students in the outer circle quietly take notes and critique how well the inner
circle is discussing the topic and strategies that they use to make their points.
Then the two groups reverse roles.
Strategy: Webpage Creation
Comprehension Area: Organizing/Sculpting/Summarizing Strategies
Literature Source: Day of the Dead by: Linda Lowery
Objective: Students will outline the main categories of the article and create a
website using these categories as buttons that when clicked upon, will provide
the reader with a summary of each of the main points.
Overview: Students will observe the teacher model how to create a website by
summarizing an article and creating headings for each of the main topics. Then
they will read a new article, outline the main points to use as buttons, create a
summary of the article, and then create the webpage to be published on the
school website.
Strategy: Venn Diagram
Comprehension Area: Organizing/Sculpting/Summarizing Strategies
Literature Source: Day of the Dead - A Mexican-American Celebration by:
Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
Objective: Students will use a Venn Diagram to compare the U.S celebration of
Halloween to the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead by stating what is
unique to each and also what they share in common.
Overview: Students will read the text first and when they are finished they will
write down information that only pertains to Halloween in the U.S on the left side
of the Venn Diagram. Then the students will write down information that only
pertains to the Day of the Dead in Mexico on the right side of the Venn Diagram.
Then they will write down the things that both Holidays share in common where
the two circles intersect in the middle.
Strategy: Double-Entry Journal
Comprehension Area: Connecting to Background Knowledge Strategy
Literature Source: A Gift for Abuelita - Celebrating the Day of the Dead by:
Nancy Luenn
Objective: Students will learn and apply the comprehension strategy of making
connections by keeping a journal of their connections and reactions to the text.
Overview: Students will first learn about the three types of connections: text-toself, text-to-text, and text-to-world. Then they will read the text and fill out the
double-entry journal worksheet, where on one side they will state ideas from the
text and then on the other side they will write their reactions to the idea.
Strategy: Making Connections
Comprehension Area: Connecting to Background Knowledge Strategy
Literature Source: Pablo Remembers - The Fiesta of the Day of the Dead by:
George Ancona
Objective: Students will learn and apply the three types of connections while
reading about the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico.
Overview: Students will first learn about the three types of connections: text-toself, text-to-text, and text-to-world. Then the teacher will hand out three
worksheets, one for each of the types of connections. The students will read
about how one family celebrates the Day of the Dead and as they are reading
they will fill out the worksheets whenever they make one of the three types of
connections.
Strategy: Making Inferences and/or Predicting
Comprehension Area: Picture Walk
Literature Source: Clatter Bash - A Day of the Dead Celebration by: Richard
Keep
Objective: Students will predict what is happening in the story by carefully
examining the pictures in the book before reading the actual text.
Overview: The teacher will walk around the room showing the students the cover
a book and asking them what they think the book will be about. Then the teacher
will show the students the pictures in the book, page by page, and ask them to
talk about what they see on that page and what they think it has to do with the
story. The students will orally tell the story solely based upon the pictures shown
and after they have predicted what is going to happen in the book, they can read
the actual text and see how well they made inferences from the pictures.
Strategy: Sticky Symbols and Drawings
Comprehension Area: Making Inferences and/or Predicting
Literature Source: The Skeleton at the Feast by Elizabeth Carmichael and
Chloe Sayer, pp. 14-24
Objective: Students will use inference to either create symbols representing
different concepts within the text or to mark when they use certain
comprehension strategies while reading the text.
Overview: As students read a text, they will draw symbols on sticky notes
representing different concepts in the text, such as: religion, history, figurines,
celebrations, decorations, altars, etc. The students will place those sticky notes
on the appropriate places in the text as they come across certain concepts.
These mental images help with the storage of the information in their long-term
memories.
Strategy: Word Splash
Comprehension Area: Vocabulary/Understanding and Remembering Words
Strategies
Literature Source: Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life and Death, by:
Amanda Doering
Objective: The students will be motivated to find the meaning of various
vocabulary words as they are “splashed” around the room. Once they figure out
what the word means, they can draw a picture to represent it.
Overview: The teacher puts the new vocabulary around the room in a variety of
ways. The words can be displayed in the front of the room on paper or hung
from the ceiling with string. The teacher can write the new vocabulary on stickers
and put them on each student as they come into the classroom. The variety in
how the words are presented is key to making sure their interest is peaked and
they are motivated to learn what they mean and why they are there. The teacher
them encourages them to try and read the words and guess what they mean.
These predictions help their brains to organize and assimilate the new
vocabulary. As the students learn about the new words, they add pictures to the
vocabulary words that represent their definitions. Seeing the words represented
visually around the room help the students to remember the words and
definitions.
Strategy: Vocabulary Sketches
Comprehension Area: Vocabulary/Understanding and Remembering Words
Strategies
Literature Source: Day of the Dead by: Tony Johnston and Jeanette Winter
Objective: Students will create sketches representing the definition of new
vocabulary words as they come across them while reading the text.
Overview: The students will be given a vocabulary sketch graphic organizer and
they will be given a book to read that contains new vocabulary words. Whenever
they come across a word they do not know, they will write it on the top line of the
square and then write the definition below it. On the box to the side of the
definition, they will draw a sketch of that word for visual representation. They
repeat this procedure with each new vocabulary word until they have completed
the book.
Variation: The teacher could provide the students with the vocabulary words
and/or definitions already filled in so they have some familiarity with the words
before reading. Then when the students come across the words in the text, they
can draw the images that first came to mind.
Name: Jackie Huebner
Strategy: Inconsistent element
Comprehension Area: Monitoring Comprehension
Literature Source: Halloween and other festivals of death and life by: University
of Tennessee Press
Objective: Students will be able to understand the reading so well that they can
figure out where an inconsistent statement has been inserted in the reading.
Overview: The teacher takes a reading and inserts an inconsistent statement in
it. Then the teacher lets the students read the entire reading and afterwards has
a discussion about it as a class. The teacher will then see if any students has
spotted the inconsistent statement.
Name: Jackie Huebner
Strategy: Clarifying Bookmarks
Comprehension Area: Monitoring Comprehension
Literature Source: El Dia de Muertos, by: Ivar Da Coll
Objective: The students pause after short sections of the reading to think aloud
about their understanding of the reading so far.
Overview: Students are paired up and sit next to each other, but each facing
different directions as to facilitate listening to one another read. They take turns
reading every other paragraph and after each paragraph the reader needs to
finish one statement provided by their clarifying bookmark worksheet. Examples
of the statements: This part is tricky, but I think it means.../I know something
about this from… By hearing the other student’s responses, the listener can
check their own comprehension of the material and clarify the information.
Textbook
Mas Alla de las Palabras: Intermediate Spanish by: Olga Gallego & Concepcion
B. Godev Gallego, O., & Godev, C. B. (2004). Mas alla de las palabras:
intermediate Spanish. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Key Vocabulary
la calavera (the skull), el esqueleto (the skeleton), el panteon (the graveyard), los
muertos (the dead), el altar (the altar), el cempasuchil (marigolds), el copal
(incense), la calabaza (pumpkin), pan de metros (bread of the dead), las velas
(the candels), la ofrenda (the offering), los angelitos (little angels), los flores (the
flowers), la tierra (the earth), el agua (the water), el viento (wind), el fuego (fire)
Fiction Books
A Gift for Abuelita - Celebrating the Day of the Dead by: Nancy Luenn
Beto and the Bone Dance by: Gina Freshet
Clatter Bash - A Day of the Dead Celebration by: Richard Keep
Day of the Dead by: Linda Lowery
El Dia de Muertos by: Ivar Da Coll
Soccer Cousins by: Jean Marzollo
The Festival of Bones by: Luis San Vicente
Informational Books
Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life and Death by: Amanda Doering
Day of the Dead: A Mexican-American Celebration by: Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
Día de Muertos in México-Oaxaca by: Mary J. Andrade
El Dia de los Muertos by: Mary Dodson-Wade
Fiestas : a year of Latin American songs of celebration by: Jose-Luis Orozco
Halloween and other festivals of death and life by: University of Tennessee Press
Pablo Remembers: The Fiesta of the Day of the Dead by: George Ancona
Paper Crafts for Day of the Dead by: Randel McGee
The Skeleton at the Feast by: Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloe Sayer
Assessment
During:
1. Orally stating the names of Day of the Dead objects when pointed to and
finding them when hidden around the room.
2. Questions and answers sheet base on book: Day of the Dead: A MexicanAmerican Celebration by: Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
3. Venn Diagram comparing Halloween to the Day of the Dead
4. Classifying objects as either for Halloween or Day of the Dead
5. Pictionary of objects/events – The students will draw various things
associated with the celebration and have the rest of the class guess what
they are drawing.
6. Flow Chart of the events that a typical family would go through to
celebrate a death.
After:
1. T/F quiz on statements about Day of the Dead
2. Matching quiz on Spanish/English words
3. 3-5 minute group skit portraying a Mexican family celebrating the death of
a loved one
4. Self-assessment on all areas covered in this unit
WebQuest
http://mail.lakotaonline.com/tamera.terndrup/webquests/dayofthedead/index.htm
The purpose of this WebQuest if for students to obtain information about the Day
of the Dead, because they are going to be interviewed from a local newspaper
about the celebration. They work through a series of worksheets, games, and
quizzes to do so. She provides a link to online games, which I would have my
students do for practice and I could also use the interview idea to make their
research have a purpose/context.
Video/Media
1. CD-ROM: México's Día de los Muertos, Version 1.5, Pentewa Interactive,
2001. Interactive CD-Rom for the Day of the Dead
2. DVD: Myths, legends & traditional holidays from Latin America
30 min video about various traditions including the Day of the Dead
3. DVD: Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico
Cartoon clip of the Day of the Dead
Related Websites
1. http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/
This site contains four fun crafts the students can do in class along with “how to”
videos. The Day of the Dead altar is fully explained and what is put on it is
shown and described well. There is also various articles about different aspects
of the Day of the Dead. I would use this site for their teacher’s Day of the Dead
education packet. It has material for a full unit on the Day of the Dead, including
things like games, readings, worksheets, color pages, crafts, puppets, masks,
and lesson plans.
2.
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/sdwells/oaxdd/sdwoaxacadaydead.html
The photos on this site are amazing. The Day of the Dead is authentically
presented in a photo essay through Oaxaca. The captions explain the photo’s
significance. I would have my students compare the graveyards, parades, and
decorations of Mexico with those of the U.S. This should be a fun task for my
students because of the colorful, fun pictures.
3. http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/mexico/mexdead.html
This site has many clear subheadings for making the information a lot easier to
find. The information is written very clearly, so its very easy to understand. Links
to other sites, references, flickr, and a wiki is given. The photos are unique and
very interesting. I would use this site for my students to look up information for a
worksheet or an interview, since the information is categorized well.
Related Magazine Articles
Courtney, W. (2008). Days of the dead. Teen Ink, 1.
Hertz, M. (2007). Day of the dead. Inside Mexico, 1-4.
Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008. (2008). Day of the dead.
Miller, C. (2008). Day of the dead history. The Arizona republic, 1-2.
Kilpatrick , N. (2008). Mexico's devilishly dark side. Festivals & Events, 1-3.
Two Content Area Standards
Culture 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between
practices and perspectives of the cultures studied.
Comparisons 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture
through comparison between the culture studied and their own.
One Reading/Language Arts Standard
Reading/Literature A.8.4: Read to acquire information.