I feel so lucky to have been born in such a diverse country. At this gift-giving and reflective time of year, when I am thinking about what I want and need, I think about the advice that I’ve heard repeatedly and truly believe – that, at least for someone in the middle class like me, life experiences and travel can bring so much more happiness and fulfillment than material things. On that note, I really hope someday I have the time to travel and learn from the different cultures of Colombia. And I would love to start that journey by visiting family first. My parents are from the Caribbean coast (known in Colombia as The Coast, or “La Costa”) and moved to Cali a long time ago. I have extended family in many places in the country so planning a trip that included family connections would be a beautiful experience and allow me to learn more about my own country and heritage.
One of the ways diversity shows up in Colombia is through music. Señal Colombia is a national television channel funded and founded by the government. The channel focuses on content that reflects the different Colombian cultures and populations. The channel also has a space on YouTube. I highly recommend that you explore it if you want to learn more about my beautiful Colombia – its cultures, people, and history!
Colombia is divided into five different regions: the Pacific, Andes, Orinoco, Amazon, and Caribbean. The country is made up of 31 departments (similar to states or provinces), all ethnically distinct from one another to varying degrees. As you can see below, each region is represented in a video, but Colombia’s musical diversity goes way beyond what’s shown here in these Christmas songs.
Song: Los peces en el río. Genre: Bullerengue/chalupa. Group: Las mujeres de mi tierra. Region: Caribean- Cartagena
“Día de Todos los Santos” (All Saints’ Day) is celebrated on November 1st, but if this date falls on a weekend, the celebration is moved to Monday to make it a long holiday weekend. This is known in Colombia as “La Ley Emiliani”, and it happens with some celebrations. As a result, Monday is a day off for many people in the country.
Growing up in Colombia I remember Día de Todos los Santos as a day to go to church or go to the cemetery to bring flowers and remember the loved ones who are no longer with us. Since I grew up in a big city, I could see that nothing big happened on that day. However, there are other places in Colombia where this celebration has a deeper meaning. I recently became aware of these celebrations.
The Misak People and All Saints Day
For the Misak People in the Cauca Department located in the Andes mountains in Southern Colombia, November 1st (as this article states) marks the first day of the new year, and November 2nd is a day to take offerings to the church and the cemetery.
This fun celebration is also known as “Tintilillo” and is celebrated in some areas of the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. I was able to find some videos, and if you watch them all, you can hear that they have a variety of songs. In some places, they are asking for ingredients to make sancocho and in other places, children are asking for candy.
I am sure there are other places in Colombia that have their unique celebrations to remember their loved ones and celebrate their lives.
This is one of the most relaxing activities I have used with my fifth graders. We are close to the break so they really enjoyed learning about Año Viejos. I gave them a little introduction about this tradition and its meaning (see post from previous years). We also watch a video of a girl making an Año Viejo in Colombia, and this leads to a small discussion about the materials needed to make an Año Viejo. Although the girl in the video doesn’t use firecrackers, most people put them in their Años Viejos.
We watched a video of the actual tradition. In the video we saw the excitement on the streets of people counting down. And we could hear the fire crackers and the sounds of a radio station playing the national anthem, a song which is always played on December 31st at midnight:.
After reading the story each student decorated a paper Año Viejo, which you can also find in my store. I also gave each student a small magnet to stick it on the back of the Año Viejo.They placed their Años Viejos on the magnetic board I have in my classroom while I played a video of a Christmas fireplace I found on YouTube.
I also played the traditional Año Viejo song while the students where coloring their Años Viejos.
Last but not least, I placed the Año Viejos on one of the bulletin boards in my room. I used as a title for the bulletin board the name of the song “Yo no olvido el Año Viejo”. Click HERE to download the letters.
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A few years ago I wrote a short story to use with my students to make a curricular connection with the butterfly life cycle in second grade science class. It is a twist on ” The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, which many of my students are already familiar with, and it’s also a popular title in kindergarten. This new version I created of my own story has more repetition and simple structures.
Before teaching the story you might want to pull out a map and point at the different countries mentioned in it: Colombia, México, La República Dominicana, Cuba, Argentina, and Perú. There are some traditional dishes mentioned in the story. You might want to talk about them. This will also be a great opportunity to talk about your students’ favorite food.
Pre-teach some of the vocabulary using TPR: va, tengo hambre, come, canta, duerme and dice.
Read the story to your class. Some questions you might want to consider while reading the story.
¿Dónde está la oruga? ¿Está en Colombia o Bolivia?
¿Qué come la oruga en Colombia? ¿Come pizza? ¿Come sancocho?
¿Qué hace la oruga? ¿La oruga duerme o corre?
¿La oruga es un perro ahora ? ¿La oruga es un perro o una mariposa?
¿La oruga dice “hola”? ¿La oruga dice “hola” o “adiós”?
After reading the story I like going back and talking about each picture. Talk about the colors in the different flags included in the story.
Act it out! You can have individual actors or have different groups going to different places. Print some masks, pictures of the different foods and flags of the countries included in the story.
Click HEREto download the story “La oruga va Latinoamérica.”
This story is a great follow up of the story I do during the fall called “Monarca va a Michoacán.” I also use this story to create a connection with their science curriculum, as well as to create a cultural connection with “El Día de los Muertos” celebration in Mexico. Read more on how I use “Monarca va a Michoacán” here!
To be able to talk about the integration of culture in a Comprehensible Input class, it is first necessary to define “Comprehensible Input” and “culture.”
The “Comprehensible Input” theory is one of the theories of language acquisition proposed by the American linguist Stephen Krashen. In his hypothesis, Dr. Krashen explains that there can only be the acquisition of a language when the input, linguistic component or message is understood by the learner, but in addition to being understandable it should be of interest to the learner and that it be about an issue with which the learner can relate and connect. Visit Comprensible.com to learn more about CI.
Culture is a term that has been defined by different authors in different fields. The definition most commonly used and that challenges people in different fields is that of Clifford Geertz (cited in Ortner, 1999) who defines culture as “a system of values and beliefs that represent a group, as a network of meanings within which people live. Meanings encoded in symbolic forms (language, artifacts, etiquette, rituals, calendars, etc.)” (p.3).
Taking into account the definitions of “Comprehensible Input” and “culture,” I will explain a little the process of how I integrate these two elements in practice and offer you some advice, too.
I find it helpful to start with the goal or the objective of the topic. Why do I want to share this topic in my class? Where do I want my students to arrive with the exploration of this topic in class?
Then I think about the developmental stage and the linguistic level of the students. Is it a topic that is easily understood with the level of L2? Is the subject relevant to the students’ age?
I suggest you consider this approach:
Define the theme or cultural content that will be shared with the student. Once the theme is defined, make sure that the content that is going to be shared is true and does not fall into the perpetuation of stereotypes. If possible, check that information with someone from the culture. Another important aspect to take into account, especially at the beginner levels or early grades, is whether it is a specific issue and whether it allows generating connections and space for comparisons. The cultural theme should not be limited only to the culture of L2.
Determine the input: In this case, it is not important for the students to understand each word, but the input must be by context and the use of cognates.
Determine what type of material can be used to support the topic: Photos, videos, songs, artifacts or authentic resources, etc.
It is possible to teach culture in a world language class, but in this case, it is very important that this input is understandable so that there is a success in the fusion of culture and Comprehensible Input.
Here are some resources that might help you get started with this topic. Ready, set, go!
I have these Day of the Dead books in my classroom and have seen how my students get motivated to look at them to read and look at the art. In the elementary Spanish program at the school where I teach, the Day of the Dead is one of the cultural explorations we do to help our students to understand what this celebration means to many communities in Mexico. We are not celebrating it, but we aim to show appreciation of a tradition that’s important to another culture. The Day of the Dead is not related to Halloween. The Day of the Dead is a two-day celebration to remember loved ones who have passed away. This is a happy and colorful celebration. Here are my five top book picks:
Día de los Muertos (Celebrate the World) introduces children to the meaning of the celebration in a fun and dynamic way. Students are also exposed to Spanish vocabulary related to the celebration.
Uncle Monarch and the Day of the Dead has a beautiful story that shows the importance of Monarch butterflies in this celebration. In some places in Mexico, it is believed that these butterflies carry the souls of loved ones who have passed away.
I feel that these next two books need teachers to provide a little bit of background about this celebration before sharing them with the children.
Clatter Bash!: A Day of the Dead Celebration is a vivid book! There is not much text, but it’s great to use to describe the pictures. The illustrations will keep your students engaged. At the end of the book there is plentiful information about the Day of the Dead celebration.
Last, but not least! HERE is a banner to decorate your classroom!
