Maria J. Fierro-Treviño
NATIONAL STANDARDS: COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNITIES
Imagine that your classroom is a newspaper office and each student is a reporter. Each student will write an article for the special edition of the newspaper for Hispanic Heritage Month.
ACTIVITY: Engage in conversations
- Interview a Hispanic student, teacher, or administrator in your school
- Interview a Hispanic person in your community (neighbor, employee in a business/ restaurant, community leader, etc.).
- Conduct a phone interview with a Hispanic you know in another city.
ACTIVITY: Provide and obtain information
- Write an email to a Spanish-speaking pen pal in a Hispanic country or another part of the United States.
- Write a letter to a Hispanic government official (local, state, national) or a consulate from a Spanish-speaking country in the United States requesting specific information.
- Submit questions of interest to a journalist in a Spanish newspaper/journal or a Spanish TV or radio personality.
Students: Develop your questions thinking about the person you are interviewing or to whom you are writing. Should it be written/asked formally or informally? What do you want to know about that person or what do your questions of interest address? After the interview or when you have received a written response, summarize the interview or the written response and prepare to present it to the class orally. Use notes only. Do not read your notes to the class use them as reference.
Teacher: Interviews and letters will vary in length and depth depending on the level of language of the student. Spanish 1 and 2 students can write 4-5 interview questions and summarize in 4-5 short sentences. Spanish 3 and 4 students should write more detailed questions and summaries. Teachers may modify number of questions based on special populations (GT/special needs). Develop a rubric for oral and written assignments. Students are given the rubric in advance in order for them to understand how they will be scored. Understanding the rubric criteria, helps students formulate their questions.
