In Spanish 3, I do a film and reader based unit on El Salvador and its Civil War. It is ESPECIALLY timely as the current situation at the border has its roots all the way back to this period in the 80s-90s!
We begin by watching the film Romero (it’s in English but I put on Spanish subtitles and we discuss in Spanish). We need to understand how his death really catapulted the country into war. Then we watch the film Voces Inocentes. We discuss the child soldiers in El Salvador and how it would feel to be taken. We talk about what WE were doing when we were 12 and compare that with Chava and his friends.
Then I do these centers – El Salvador Centers Share.
The centers let me quickly review all of the things we learned in the film study portion before tackling the reader based study of Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha 13 from Fluency Matters.
This reader (and TG) are one of the most engaging we do in all 4 years of study. Every single chapter is packed with surprises and action!