Rethinking Identity: Afro-Mexican History, A Culture Unit

Rethinking Identity: Afro-Mexican History

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/30_04/30-4_nicola.shtml

Source: Rethinking Schools, Volume 30 No.4 - Summer 2016, By Michelle Nicola

Key Points-

·      One of the points of this article was the connection that was being made between the students and their heritage. One that was not known to them before hand.

·      Another point was the teacher’s ability to find resources about the Afro-Mexican culture, and then how dramatically the students we pulled into the search for more information. Also how much the students began to question why the culture seems to have become invisible.

Relevance-

·      This is a very exciting article to me because it is very relevant to my Spanish Literacy 2 class I’m currently teaching. They are a similar population, although younger, but many prefer to speak English, and don’t want to embrace their heritage. I feel that my mission is to encourage their acceptance and pride in where they come from. This article showed me that it is possible to get my students to do this.

·      This is also relevant to me, because I’ve had the ideas of exploring the cultures and heritages of the student populations before. I feel its very cool, that there is a school nearby, that is doing this. So I know it’s possible, and I’ll get it done in the future.

Audience: Teachers, Administrators, Students