I started our “cinco de mayo” study with a few interesting articles as I was out of class at PD’s twice this week. Students read about authentic street foods in Mexico like elote, carnitas, aguas frescas, and… (one of the best street foods in the world) TAMALES. Reading about them was interesting, but it was the pictures that sealed the deal.
I knew they wouldn’t care about an old battle victory over the French if they didn’t feel a little connection with Mexico itself. So then today we watched this little gem of a video:
I did a think, pair, share activity where they jotted down any examples of Mexican they noticed, got with a partner to compare their list, and then we shared them with the class.
Next, I showed them pictures… they worked on whiteboards in groups of 2-3 and had to write a #hashtag or question that connect with the picture of Mexican culture. The activity is a good one for my students – but the authentic pictures made it GREAT!
We did a little group activity that dealt with stereotypes and misconceptions about Mexico which led to some great conversation and a lot more questions.
Then we looked at a few of these pictures before we left. I love this article and was really surprised at sides of the country I never knew existed! Check it out here!
 Original Publication Date: April 2014
More Lesson Ideas for Cinco
Will you please share the articles you used? I cannot locate the ones I did last year.
I used good old fashioned Wikipedia for when I was gone. I just added some pictures and wrote up a few questions. Here are a few of the links…
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/cinco-de-mayo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariachi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_street_food
I also used parts of this… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xoloitzcuintli
(just for fun because the Xolo is hugely popular in dog shows now! Plus it was really fun listening to them try to pronounce it in class!)
Thank you for sharing the video and articles! I’ve been frustrated by finding outdated videos and info that just covers surface-level info. These are updated and the lesson really shows the deeper aspects of the culture in a meaningful way. 🙂
You’re welcome! I know how much it helps to have an article, picture, or video to inspire a lesson!
Awesome pics!!! I always struggle with 5/5 to do something fun. The IB tests require students to discuss authentic pictures and they are hard to find such brilliant ones as yours. You’ve shared in more ways than you know.
Lee Anne Calhoun Chico, Northern Cali!
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note® 3, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
Glad it was helpful! Thanks, Lee Anne!
The website about Mexico is amazing. I had no idea about some of those places in Mexico. I would have said there is no way snow exists in Mexico. Who knew?
I agree! It’s crazy to see the crocodile, dessert, and snowy mountains all in own HISPANIC country!
Is this the article from the Mexico you thought you knew? I googled it because when I click on the picture it didn’t go to the site, just the picture. Thanks sharing!
Here it is…
http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/14555168/Mexico-uno-de-los-paises-mas-lindos-del-mundo.html
http://www.ogilvypr.com/en/case-study/mexico-place-you-thought-you-knew
Did you show the pictures to them as a group or did they have laptops to go at their own speed to view the pictures?
I showed them as a group. It was fun to see them on the “big screen.” You could do it any way you want though! Might be fun to let them see them up close – or better yet – find there own! If they have there own laptops, give a description and let them submit their favorite picture. Oh the possibilities!
Can you provide the link to the video? It’s not coming up on my computer. Thanks!
Great shares, as always Muchachita! Added to my Cinco de Mayo bookmarks: http://ow.ly/wpq0P
Thank you, Noah!
Awesome list of resources there – Check it out, everybody!
I tried this today and my kids loved the hashtags on whiteboards
Great! It’s a fun way to get them thinking creatively!
For el 5 de mayo, I had my students listen to a morning edition on NPR http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/05/02/308624630/cinco-de-mayo-whose-holiday-is-it-anyway It was a quick listen to, but gave the students an idea of how this holiday is viewed in Mexico. Being Mexican American I remember it was never a big deal growing up on the border, until many years later. This program helped me come to grips with this. 🙂
Loved all the pictures you had, brought back memories for me.
Great listen!
I love these resources!! I’m especially curious, though, about this activity: “We did a little group activity that dealt with stereotypes and misconceptions about Mexico which led to some great conversation and a lot more questions”
Our kids have SO many stereotypes/misconceptions about Mexico & Mexicans, that I’d love to know what this activity was – it’s something I’ve always wanted to address in class but have never quite come up with the right way to do it! Anything you’d be willing to share would be much appreciated! ¡Mil gracias!
If you want something else about Puebla you can introduce them to talavera pottery. I show them a bunch of my grandmother’s dishes, tiles, vases (I have a lot of talavera). It’s appealing to them because it’s so colorful.
One of the most famous is Uriarte talavera: http://www.uriartetalavera.com.mx/index.php, but in Puebla there are a lot of talleres to shop in.
I also teach them about volkswagen de Puebla one of the largest vw plants in the world (used to be the only place you could buy vw beetles)- http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/info_center/en/themes/2014/01/Volkswagen_de_Mexico/Basic_information_Puebla_and_Silao.html It all helps to debunk some stereotypes.
If you talk about Popo and Ixte there are great view of Popo from Puebla, and a stair you can climb down into what is billed as the world’s smallest volcano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN2GG5oNyuI- They usually like that and it lets me end my year with the tale of Popo and Ixte and all the fable telling/writing that entails.
My mole video from Puebla (it also shows typical kitchen with talavera tile and lots of talavera dishes, is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7MLDaEwPKc. It is a commercial for the La Casa de Mole en Puebla, but it has beautiful images of Mexico and the volcanoes from the Puebla side. I LOVE Puebla .
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing Jeanne.
Used this information for my Cinco de Mayo lesson! You guys really help me with my culture lessons 🙂 For some reason, those are always harder for me!
Was this lesson done and/or discussed in English? I’m thinking about how I’d do it with novice students…
When I did a similar one, it was in Spanish. By this time of the year, most students are novice high/intermediate low. Everything has to be simplified, but they can do it! We used Venn Diagrams and lists to compare, reused structures and phrases they knew well (is more… is less… they have… we have…), made simplified timelines with images (maps, pics of people) to represent the historical information and they needed a specific focus when reading/listening to authentic resources (highlight all the dates, circle all the foods, etc). Any deep background knowledge they needed can be sent home to be read in English so in class we can stay in target language. I try to remember this: they can do higher level thinking in their heads and I need to keep the discussion parts to simple sentences supported with lots of visuals. Here are two links to some activities I like to use with novices to keep these things at their level:
http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/activities/modes-skills/reading/idea-71-highlight-away/
http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/planning/3-quick-and-easy-reading-forms/
Hope this helps! Ask if you still have a question. I may have more examples to explain it.
I used these pics with my ELL high schoolers and did the hashtag activity. It was a huge hit!
These are amazing pics…. where did you find them? (I know, silly question, but I seem to have trouble finding super interesting/high quality images online.)