In this lesson plan, students will research the Dust Bowl and the geography of Mexico, which will give them the proper background knowledge for the novel Esperanza Rising.  The students will use a map to trace the routes used in the story. In order to complete this lesson, students should already have basic reading, writing and computer skills.

Created by Keli Jacewitz, November 2007

Reading/Literary Response. The student expresses and supports responses to various types of texts. Connect, compare, and contrast ideas, themes, and issues across text (4-8).

• Connect signs/messages to plot
• Compare and contrast characters
• Compare ideas
• Compare themes

Including answering questions to connect ideas  both within and across (paired) texts. Including recognizing theme as: the “central or dominating idea—the message implicit in a work. The theme is seldom stated directly. It is an abstract concept indirectly expressed through recurrent images, actions, characters, and symbols and must be inferred by the reader or spectator. Theme differs from subject in that theme is a comment, observation, or insight about the subject.
TEKS §110.22. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 6.(b)(11)(D)

Reading/Text Structures/Literary Concepts. The student analyzes the characteristics of various types of texts (genres). Compare communication in different forms including contrasting a dramatic performance with a print version of the same story or comparing story variants (2-8). Including:

• Identifying similarities between the experiences of two characters,
• Identifying the differences between two events
• Identifying the differences between two accounts of an event
• Identifying the differences/similarities between a play/film/video and the print version of the same story

TEKS §110.22. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 6.(b)(12)(C)

Geography. The student uses maps, globes, graphs, charts, models, and databases to answer geographic questions:

Create thematic maps, graphs, charts, models, and databases depicting various aspects of world regions and countries such as population, disease, and economic activities.

• The World’s Continents
• Oceans of the World
• 5 types of maps: Climate, Political, Physical, Land Use and Resource, Population
• Parts of the map
• Latitude
• Longitude
• Tropic of Cancer
• Tropic of Capricorn

  Pose and answer questions about geographic distributions and patterns for selected world regions and countries shown on maps, graphs, charts, models, and databases Five themes of geography:

• Movement
• Region
• Human environment Interaction
• Location
• Place

TEKS §113.22. Social Studies, Grade 6. (b)(3)(A,B)

Geography. The student understands the characteristics and relative locations of major historical and contemporary societies. Locate major historical and contemporary societies on maps and globes. Such as:

Greece	Brazil	Afghanistan
Russia	Egypt	China
Italy	Kenya	Japan
United Kingdom	Iraq	United States
Mexico	Iran	Canada
Ancient Greece

TEKS §113.22. Social Studies, Grade 6.(b)(7)(A)

Geography. The student understands the impact of interactions between people and the physical environment on the development of places and regions. Identify and analyze ways people have adapted to the physical environment in selected places and regions.

• Example: The building of the dams

TEKS §113.22. Social Studies, Grade 6.(b)(7)(A,B)

1. In their journals, have students answer the following questions: Have you ever had to choose to make a change that you did not wish to make? What was this change? Describe it in detail. When you think back, what good came from this change? How did it force you to grow?



2. Once students have written their response, the teacher can explain that in Esperanza Rising, Esperanza is going to be forced to make a change. Explain that thinking about how they feel during change will help them relate to the character. Ask if anyone has an entry that they would be willing to share. Take the time to hear 3-4 entries if students are willing to share.



3. Explain to the students that in Esperanza Rising the characters will make a journey from Mexico to the United States. All of this is happening during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. In part one of this lesson, the students’ time will be spent researching the Dust Bowl and looking at images from Mexico and the Dust Bowl region. Explain that the blank maps will be kept during the entire reading of the novel. These will be used to trace the routes Esperanza and her family and the Okies took to California.



4. Before handing out the computers, give each student a post-it note. Have each person write down one rule they remember about using the laptop computers. Have them switch post-it notes with a partner and check their answers. Review some of the answers and then pass out the laptop computers.



5. It is suggested that the teacher set up a Webquest for the websites to keep students from wandering to unapproved sites. Here is an example of a webquest: http://www.fc.bryanisd.org/~twilliams/webquests/FOV1-0004C468/



6. The teacher will direct students on how to access the webquest. Once there, the students will research the Dust Bowl and see how the weather changed the way of life for hundreds of thousands of people. This also had an affect on the entire country. The students will then research images of Mexico and migrant workers in California. How do these two compare and contrast? What do you notice? How is life in Mexico different than in the United States? How is it the same?

Note: The teacher can give each student a copy of the webquest guide. Hopefully once you create your own webquest, you could create a more detailed guide than the one provided in this lesson. This one is just a generic guide in case nothing else is available to you.

7. Give each student another post-it note. Have each person write down one new thing they learned today. Have them share with their elbow partner. Optional: The teacher can collect these and place them on a chart. These could be used to reflect back as you are reading the novel.

Independent Practice: Students will research life in Mexico and the United States during the 1930’s.

Enrichment: Students could locate and mark, on a world map, their country of origin. Then they could create a class map of all of the students’ families/ancestors origins, to where they now are.

Remediation:

• ESL students can work with a partner
• SPED students can work with a partner, CM/resource per mods

Assessment/Rubrics: Webquest Guide and Maps

Resources: The Children’s Theatre Company “Student/Teacher Study Guide.”

Webquest Handout – 1 per student Map of the United States – 1 per student Map of Mexico – 1 per student Images of Mexico on TIDES Webquest Braceros in Oregon Photograph Collection Dust Bowl images at University of South Dakota Surviving the Dust Bowl at www.pbs.org 1930’s Dust Bowl at www.ccccok.org Farming in the 1930’s at livinghistoryfarm.org The Dust Bowl at www.weru.ksu.edu Life in the Camps at the Library of Congress Learning Page Teacher Laptop
Teacher projector
COWS (Computers on Wheels)
Post-It notes – 2 per student

Vea esta lección en Español aquí