Title: Spanish Influence on the Caribbean Islands (This lesson would be appropriate to space out over the period of three days.)

Materials: slips of paper (two for each student), response journals for the students, one copy of Isla sectioned into groups of five pages

Objectives:

• Groups of students will look up and list, fromIsla' s glossary, the meanings of an assigned portion of Spanish words used in the book Isla .
• Students will participate in a discussion about the Spanish influence on the Caribbean islands observed by slips of paper collected each time a student contributes.
• Students will respond to a question about cultural influences in a response journal.

Procedures:

Vocabulary Development:

• Divide the class into five groups.
• Assign and give five pages from the book, Isla, to each of the groups.
• Give each group a copy of the book's glossary.
• Have the groups go through their pages and write all of the Spanish words.
• Instruct groups to consider what their Spanish words mean based on the context of the story.
• Have groups look up and write the meanings of their Spanish words from the book's glossary.
• Instruct groups to have lists checked off by teacher when they finish.
• Re-assign groups so one member from each of the original groups is in a new group.
• Have each student share the meanings of three of the Spanish words from their lists.
• Re-read the story and have students listen for the Spanish words they have studied.

Guided Discussion:

• Arrange the students' desks into a circle, so the environment promotes communication.
• Give each of the students two slips of paper. Ask them to put their names on each slip. Instruct them that each time they contribute to the conversation they must place a slip into the middle of the circle. Encourage the students to participate but mention that once they run out of slips, they must let others in the class contribute.
• Ask the questions: 1) What specific example does the grandmother give of the Spanish people settling the Islands? 2) What Spanish influences did you notice in the story and illustrations? 3) What do you think the Spanish people thought when they landed on the Caribbean Islands hundreds of years ago? 4) Why do you think the Spanish people left Spain in the first place? 5) How do you think the girl and Grandmother influence their present New York community?
• At the end of the discussion, gather the slips of paper in the middle of the circle and give a point to all of the students who contributed.

Response Journal:

• Pose the question, "What if the Caribbean Islands were settled by a different group of people such as the Japanese or Egyptians? What do you think the Islands would be like today? What would be the similarities and differences?"
• After students have had a chance to write in their journals, ask for a few volunteers to share their responses.
• Collect journals.

Evaluation: Check off each group for writing the meanings of the Spanish words from their assigned pages from the book. Also, give points to the students who contributed during the guided discussion and check off responses in students' journals.