Gooooood afternoon from Literacy Connexus everyone. We hope that this blog finds everyone happy, healthy, and safe!
If you saw Friday’s post you know that I originally had a resource planned to share with everyone for Hispanic Heritage month. But, I was so excited about meeting our goal for North Texas Giving Day I just couldn’t keep it to myself. You didn’t think I forgot about my promise, did you? I would never!
What is Hispanic Heritage month?
According to www.HispanicHeritageMonth.gov it is a “month where Americans observe Hispanic Heritage (from September 15 to October 15) by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.”
Given our location, many of our students are Hispanic or Latino, and what better way to honor them and celebrate Hispanic Heritage, than by incorporating it into their classes here! The connection between language and culture is incredibly strong, and for some ELLs, learning English can feel a bit like leaving a piece of their culture behind. Giving students chances to celebrate their culture, and share it in class – especially while still helping them towards their English language goals can be important in relationship building and cross-cultural witnessing with our students.
So without further ado, here is a great resource for short activities to do with your students for Hispanic Heritage month – Editing!
That’s right, editing. Having students edit short pieces of text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes is an excellent way to help students improve their English. It requires the student to identify and correct the mistake, and allows for a great class discussion afterwards about their thought processes. How did they know that it was wrong? What should it have been? Why?
The great thing about this activity is that nearly any text can be turned into an opportunity for editing. Text from an article, a commercial, a coupon, a story, really all you need are words and a little imagination.
But, for as plentiful as editing inspiration may be, sometimes it’s nice when someone else has already done the imagining for you. Cue Education World’s grand entrance! Education World has a fantastic resource called Everyday Edits that has a short text ready for editing for every day of the year! Luckily for us, they also have a Hispanic and Latino section with five texts specifically created to build language skills and cultural literacy.
Click here to visit Every Day Edits on Education World, and click here to see the Hispanic and Latino Edits available.
I love to use this kind of activity as a warm up at the beginning of the class because it transitions very easily into a discussion, but it could serve just as well anywhere else in your lesson. Give it a try and let us know what you think!
Until next time, blessings and happy teaching!
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