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G AT E WAY S T O H I S PA N I C L A N D SPLANT THE SEEDS

Design a bulletin board that encapsulates the values and key objectivesof the Hispanic Lands Series as they are explored throughout the unit.

The bulletin board becomes a metaphoric garden where ideas areplanted and knowledge and student productivity are harvested. This isa tremendous tool to create an interactive, child-centered environmentto launch the theme of the unit. You may want to use the modelbelow as an inspiration for your Hispanic Lands bulletin board.

What is Culture? Engage students in a discussion about what cultureis. Explain that all the customs and ideas that are common to a groupof people make up their culture. Elicit types of customs such as theway we dress, the food we eat, the holidays we celebrate, the musicwe listen to, the religion we practice, and the values we believe in.

Point out that people who live in the same land may have differentcultures. What people usually call “the Hispanic culture” is in realitymany cultures that have in common a territory (Latin America) and alanguage (Spanish). Many other aspects of the cultures of the Hispanicpeoples, like the foods and music, are widely varied. Add that culturesmay vary from region to region inside a country, and even from city tocity inside a region. Discuss how people from different cultures enrichthe life of all people living in the United States and in the state whereyou live.

Tell students that the text and the beautiful illustrations in the books ofthe Hispanic Lands series will provide them with opportunities to learnabout the rich environments found in the Hispanic lands and thecultures that extraordinary people have developed in those places.

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Open the Gateways! Motivate students to create their ownreduced version of the bulletin board in which they recordnotes, sayings, summaries, citations from the books,elaboration, and amplifications that connect the knowledgelearned as they read the books in the Hispanic Lands seriesof Gateways to the Sun. Students may use this “map oflearning” as the cover of a portfolio or a personal collectionof work and activities developed throughout this unit.

IINNSSPPIIRRAATTIIOONNAALL QQUUOOTTEE

“There is a way to contribute to the protection of humanity, and that is to never give up.”

Ernesto Sábato (Argentine writer)

On the Wings of the Condor 129

LESSON 1:On the Wings of the Condor

EEXXPPLLOORREEInitiate a discussion with students about culturalheritage. Motivate them to talk about theindigenous groups that once existed (and/orcontinue to exist today) in the United States ortheir countries of origin, and about their history,culture, and customs. Encourage students toestablish connections between the firstinhabitants of the Americas and contemporarysocieties by asking them to name someindigenous cultural elements that continue toexist in the continent, such as languages, dress,works of art, and food.

Invite students to reflect on the overallsignificance of indigenous groups by askingthem to discuss the aspects of our culture whichwould be different, or which would not existtoday, if those groups were not a vital part of itshistory and development.

TTEEAACCHHCreative Reading

You may read aloud or have students read theselection independently. When reading aloud,interrupt the reading only if students appear to be lost because of an unknown word. Suggestthat independent readers do the same. In eithercase, ask students to use sticky-notes or flags tomark words they would like to discuss later. Ifthere are not enough books for each student tohave a copy, ask students to instead write downthe words on a separate sheet of paper. Refer tothe Introducing New Words section in step 3 ofthis lesson for ideas for working with the newvocabulary.

To promote strategic reading, encourage studentsto read actively by visualizing what they read,making predictions and inferences as they read,and jotting down words or phrases that standout as important.

Questions such as the following will help initiatea creative dialogue after reading the book.

OO BB JJ EE CC TT II VV EE SSRead an informative textLearn words associated with art andarchitectureDiscuss indigenous cultures and theirrelevance in modern societyDiscuss how languages affect andinfluence each otherGive informative presentationsPractice various writing formsDo research on ancient culturesOrganize a food drive

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Comprehension Strategy: Summarizing

Comprehension: Problem/Solution

Vocabulary in Context

Word Study Skills

Listening/Speaking: Answer RelevantQuestions

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Selection: On the Wings of the Condor

Activity Sheets 15–16

Vocabulary Graphic Organizers 1, 4

Assessment Sheet 10

Assessment Forms 1, 3, 4

See pages 125–127 for a correlation to theStandards for Language Arts, Social Studies, Math,Fine Arts, Foreign Language, and Technology.

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CREATIVE/TRANSFORMATIVE PHASE

The last page of the book says that thedescendants of the first inhabitants of LatinAmerica continue to enrich life and to make itbeautiful in many different ways. How wouldyou like to enrich life, and make it morebeautiful for everyone around you? Why did youchoose that way? What do you like best aboutthat way of doing it?

Did reading this book change the way you thinkabout your own culture? Why did it change it?How did it change it?

AAPPPPLLYYVocabulary Development

INTRODUCING NEW WORDS

Prepare ahead of time by identifyingwords that are important to understanding

the text and essential ideas in this book. Youmay want to consider the following words:inhabitants (p. 6), territory (p. 6), varied (p. 6),vast (p. 6), islands (p. 6), forest (p. 9), desert(p. 10), mountaintops (p. 12), surroundings(p. 15), languages (p. 15), indigenous (p. 15),experimented (p. 16), medicinal (p. 16), bark(p. 16), obstacles (p. 18), floods (p. 18),overcome (p. 21), deep (p. 21), abysses (p. 21),relay (p. 21), empire (p. 21), steep (p. 22),irrigated (p. 23), reproduced (p. 24), clay(p. 24), weavings (p. 24), sculptures (p. 26),engravings (p. 26), inspired (p. 28), multicolored(p. 32), cloaks (p. 32), edible (p. 35), sucker(p. 35), sources (p. 37), continuous (p. 38),nutritious (p. 41), originated (p. 42), sap (p. 45),descendants (p. 46), enrich (p. 46).

Work together with students to fill outVocabulary Graphic Organizer 1. First, ask

students to scan the text for possible words foreach column. Make sure that all the key wordsin your list have a place somewhere in the chart.Then, invite students to choose one of the wordsthey have written in the first or second columnto develop a word study on their own.

Ask students to choose a graphicorganizer that they find appropriate for

their word study, and ask them to come to classprepared to share their research. Sharing theirword study in pairs or small groups will be avaluable opportunity for students to apply theknowledge gained through word study, as wellas to enhance and enrich each other’s work asthey monitor each other’s comprehension andaccuracy.

Model a word study by filling outVocabulary Graphic Organizer 4 with

students, using the word varied. See page 226 ofthis Teacher’s Guide for a model of how to usethis graphic organizer.

RELATED VOCABULARY

This book offers students the opportunity tolearn or practice words related to art andarchitecture. Ask students to create a word web,word bank, or thematic dictionary thatincorporates the words related to art andarchitecture that they find in the selection, aswell as other related words that they might knowor find.

DESCRIPTIVE PHASE

What are some indigenous words thatlater became part of the Spanish language?

From which indigenous languages did theycome?

How did the first inhabitants of LatinAmerica fight diseases? Which plant parts

did they use to create their medicines?

Who were the Inca chasquis? How did theydo their work?

What did the Incas build that allowedthem to plant their crops on steep

mountains?

What were some of the beautiful objectscreated by the first inhabitants of Latin

America? What materials did they use to createthose objects?

Which of the foods that we eat todayoriginated in Latin America?

PERSONAL/INTERPRETIVE PHASE

The first inhabitants of Latin America lived in avariety of landscapes. In what type of landscapewere you born? What do you think is the mostbeautiful or interesting aspect of that landscape?

Has anyone ever given you a naturalremedy when you were sick? Tell about

that experience.

CRITICAL/MULTICULTURAL/ANTI-BIAS PHASE

The first inhabitants of Latin Americacontributed to the world in which we live todayin many different ways. Which of theircontributions do you value most? Why do youvalue that contribution in particular?

On the Wings of the Condor130

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On the Wings of the Condor 131

H I S P A N I C L A N D S

RREEFFLLEECCTT AANNDD CCLLOOSSEEOral Language Development

Motivate students to summarize and reflect uponwhat they have learned from this book byencouraging them to play the part of tour guidesor cultural ambassadors. Motivate them to informothers about the cultural history of LatinAmerica, and about the effect it has had onmodern society. If you wish, you may assignparticular topics to each student, such as naturalfeatures, food, architecture, medicine, art, etc.Motivate students to make their arguments aspersuasive and as informative as possible byincluding some of the factual informationprovided in the reading.

See pages 133–134 for a comprehensiveAssessment of this lesson.

ADDITIONAL VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES

You may also want to take advantage of thediscussion about environmental regions and theillustrations in the book to teach additionalwords, such as the following: humid, arid,species, habitat, ecosystem, fauna, flora, altitude,mountain range, coastal, vegetation, irrigation,pre-Columbian, handicrafts, monument,contribution, folklore.

For Language Learners For younger students, orfor those who are not thoroughly familiar withthe language, you may want to work on simplerwords, such as the names of the geographicalfeatures, animals, and food items depicted in thebook.

ILLUSTRATED BILINGUAL DICTIONARY

Help students begin to build, or continue tocreate, their own illustrated bilingualdictionaries. List all words in the story thatstudents have generated or asked aboutduring the reading process. Encourage themto write the words and their correspondingSpanish terms, along with a drawing of eachitem. Motivate older students, and those whohave a better grasp of both languages, to addrelated words. Motivate students to work inbilingual pairs or groups whenever possible sothey can contribute to each other’s languagedevelopment.

MANY COGNATES!

Motivate students to further notice thesimilarities that exist between languages byasking them to provide an English cognate foreach of the words included in Activity Sheet15. Then, encourage groups of students towork together to add additional cognates tothe list provided. Finally, motivate groups tocompete with each other to see which onecan come up with the largest number ofcognates, as you write them and keep a tallyon the board!

ON THE WINGS OF THE CONDOR

Motivate students to pretend that they areflying over Latin America on the wings of amystical condor. Encourage them to use theinformation they have gathered from thebook to convey what they see, and howthey feel about it, in one of the followingwriting forms: a descriptive poem, apersonal journal entry, a letter to a friend, anewspaper or magazine article, or atelevision newscast.

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HOME CONNECTION

Recipes Let your students’ families knowthat the class is engaged in reading about

indigenous cultures of Latin America. Explainthat many common foods originated in LatinAmerica, such as beans, corn, and tomatoes.Motivate parents to share recipes that containone or more of these ingredients with theirchildren. Alternatively, parents may share arecipe from their own country of origin orcultural heritage that uses ingredients typical ofthat culture’s cooking. Send home Activity Sheet16.

HANDS-ON PROJECT

Feeding Humanity Motivate students to sharethe foods that the indigenous cultures of LatinAmerica have shared with the world by engagingthem in a community food drive. Limit the fooddrive to canned foods, and to foods thatoriginated in Latin America, such as tomatoes,corn, and beans. Encourage students to becomefurther involved in community service by askingthem to suggest specific organizations theywould like to help.

TECHNOLOGY CONNECTIONS

The Incas Help students to log on tohttp://incas.perucultural.org.pe/english/galemon101.htm. There, they will have anopportunity to see many photos of Incaarchitecture and art accompanied by explanatorycaptions. Ask students to write a brief essayabout their favorite item.

CONNECTION TO OTHER TITLES OF THE

GATEWAYS TO THE SUN COLLECTION

The synergy among the books of the Gatewaysto the Sun Collection lends itself to a dynamicintegration of learning across the genres. Thefollowing are just two suggested titles andactivities to integrate On the Wings of theCondor with other titles of the collection. Youwill surely find many other connections as youwork through the different series.

Book Title: VoicesSeries: Biography

Discuss how people indifferent times andcircumstances have respondedto the challenges imposed bynature. After carefulobservation of his naturalenvironment, Carlos Finlay used science to findthe link between mosquitoes and yellow fever,and shared his work generously for the good ofhumankind. Encourage students to find andreflect on similar challenges and responses in thehistory of other cultures.

Book Title: Canvas and PaperSeries: Art

Invite students to appreciatethe artwork of EmanuelPaniagua, a Guatemalan artistinspired by the Mayan andQuiché cultures. Discuss howartists express their feelingsand beliefs about theirrelationship with nature.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Ancient Cultures Motivate groups of students tochoose one of the ancient cultures presented inthis book, or one they are particularly interestedin (preferably one their ancestors belong to), anddo research on its achievements andcontributions. Provide students with anopportunity to present their findings, and askthem to create posters as visual guides for theiroral presentations. Encourage them to include asmany visual elements as possible in theirpresentations, such as artifacts, illustrations,maps, and photographs.

ART

Miniature Villages Motivate groups of studentsto recreate Latin American geographical regions,and the indigenous peoples who live in them, bycreating miniature villages that depict the social,cultural, economic, and agricultural interactionsthat take place among their inhabitants. Studentsmay use various materials to create their villages,such as clay, wood, cardboard, cloth, andrecycled materials. Exhibit your students’ work atyour school or local library, and encouragestudents to explain their depictions to theiraudiences.

On the Wings of the Condor / Extend the Lesson132

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