Perspectivas de la Inmigración... otra vez

In my Cultura y Civilización class, we started our “Perspectivas de la Inmigración” unit.

I LOVE the Essential Questions, the resources (two songs/videos and two movies), and the assessments (comparison essay, caja de identidad, and Socratic Seminar) for this unit.

The main essential question for the unit is:

“What cultural practices and perspectives related to undocumented immigration can we see in forms of entertainment, specifically in the songs “Un besito más” and “ICE El Hielo” and the movies "Icebox"  and “Ladrón que roba a Ladrón”? (Side note: I don't think I will be using Ladrón que roba a ladrón anymore, for a variety of reasons).

This unit is so important right now. 

My students really have no concept of legal or illegal immigration and this unit is so eye opening. At the end of the unit, my goal is that students have a better understanding of how complicated immigration is (a wall won't fix it). I also hope that they have empathy for undocumented immigrants and more of an understanding of why someone would come here undocumented. And, newly, I want my students to have an awareness of the (more and more privatized) detention centers in the U.S., and specifically that more and more children are being detained. See this article, which states:

I have blogged about this unit, and it’s iterations, a few times. I always add something new and like to share for other teachers to save them some time.

So, this time around I have added a second movie - thanks to Bethanie Drew! The movie is “Icebox” (watch it for free here). Here is the trailer:

Because I just added this movie at the very last minute (like one day into the unit), I haven’t had time to create many resources, but it is so good, that I had to show it! So, what to do to give students some CI related to this movie?!?

(This is nothing revolutionary, but I am sharing anyways.)

Before starting the movie, students read about the movie and the director. I adapted this article “Icebox, la película que se mete en las tragedias familiares de la frontera EEUU-México” and made up a little interpretive reading activity with it.

I am breaking the movie up into 20-25 minute segments. After each segment, students are doing a cierto/falso dictation activity (finishing the last part today). My students are doing this for homework, but it could also be done in class. The dictations are in this document. I record them on Flipgrid (see an example here).

After each dictation, students are responding to a few questions (on Flipgrid) related to what they watch. The questions are in the dictation doc. 

After the dictation students will see the sentences and make corrections.

This movie has been so eye opening for them and they are definitely engaged with the story of Óscar.