Oh my!! Can I just say again how much I absolutely LOVE the novels from tprstorytelling? In Spanish IV, we are now finishing Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha. . For additional resources, I have been using the teachers guide (great activities) and also the incredible Carrie Toth’s (@senoraCMT) blog, Somewhere to Share. This is my first time teaching this novel, and the conversations it has prompted in class have been beyond my expectations. I’ve been using a variety of picture prompts to encourage individual response, partner responses, and small group responses. Sometimes I have listened to each group, sometimes they have recorded their sessions, and sometimes we have talked as a class. I’m posting 4 different examples here.
Chapters 8 – 10 pictures and words 
These are pictures that I laminated, cut out and put in a baggie for each group. The words were also laminated and cut out, but in a separate baggie. In groups of two, the students first looked at the pictures, identifying what the pictures represented for the chapters. Next they matched the words with the pictures (multiple correct ways to do it), and retold the story of those chapters. Then, they removed the words and placed the pictures in order, identifying why they were arranging them in the order they chose.
chap 11 repaso fotos This was done with a partner, retelling chapter 11 using only the pictures.
Chap 11 – 14 in pictures This they recorded with a partner on Google Voice as they talked about what each picture represented over the span of these three chapters.
remordimiento y perdon This culminating activity will take place tomorrow after we read the final chapter. I already know from previous discussions that there will be several students in each class who will not believe that the grandmother is able to forgive the narrator. I hope that these pictures will guide our thinking and discussion.
And finally, Carrie Toth and Kara Jacobs (@karacjacobs) had already identified several songs to use with this unit about El Salvador/Voces Inocentes and the novel Vida y Muerte. I added one more to their list: Así crecí by Farruko. I had the students look at the Spanish lyrics first without using the video, (although they had heard the song playing in the background as they worked several times). I put the Spanish lyrics on cardstock, and I made strips in English that they tried to match up with some of the Spanish lyrics. I only selected lines that focused on things that we had discussed in the unit or vocabulary that we had targeted. When they had finished matching, I had them read the English strips out loud. That gave them a real sense of the meaning of the song, and was actually quite powerful. Next, they listened to the song as they looked at their lyrics. There also is cloze that I created but only had time to use with one class. I will apologize for errors in advance, the song is filled with slang and I did the best I could do at the time!!! Asi creci Farruko cloze Asi creci Farruko asi creci sentence strips in english Corrections and suggestions will be welcomed!!!
elmundodebirch 
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With your remordimiento perdón ideas, I combined images of Jeremy Meeks who is a real life convict/pandillero trying to do better. He’s the convict that became an internet sensation when his mugshot was posted and after serving time has been offered modeling opportunities. My students often have personal experience with the criminal justice system and this unit has engaged them like nothing else. I can’t wait to see what happens with this activity. At the very least I hope it offers them some hope in their personal lives. As always, thanks for sharing.
Amazing stuff, thank you for the ideas and inspiration!
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