This lesson focuses on the vocabulary and skills students need to define, identify, discuss and apply a variety of informative writing techniques. The texts in this lesson are infographics related to marginalized people. Students are asked to apply the techniques they learn to an informative text of their own. 

 This lesson is designed for a 90-minute period at the high school level for a dual language Heritage or Spanish Language Arts class. However, it could easily be divided into sections or modified for middle school students or advanced Spanish world language students. In this lesson, students explore how identity is formed through various life influences and analyze the cause/effect relationship between their personal identity and significant influences in their lives. Students will explore the topic through the RadioAmbulante podcast “Sisters” and the painting “Las dos Fridas” by Frida Khalo. Students will practice metalinguistic awareness and develop their translanguaging skills through explicit instruction on the use of transitional phrases related to cause and effect in English and Spanish. Then students will use these phrases to engage in conversations with their peers to discuss how the different influences in their lives have shaped their identities. Finally, students will produce a written summary of the relationship between the primary influences in their lives and the primary characteristics of their identities. 

This lesson is designed for a 90-minute period at the high school level for a dual language Heritage or Spanish Language Arts class. However, it could easily be divided into sections or modified for middle school students or advanced Spanish world language students. In this lesson, students build on their analysis from lesson 1 to consider how the influences in their lives have formed their identity and how they can ensure that the influences in their future lead them toward their goals. First students explore how people’s identities are impacted by context through an analysis of the influences and dominant aspects of their identity in three familiar contexts. They then analyze the poem “A Julia de Burgos”, the values represented in the poem, and their own values. Next, they analyze the painting “La creación de las aves” by Remedios Varo to see how it is possible for a person's identity to fully align with their values. Finally, students analyze how past and current influences in their lives have made them who they are and consider what future influences will help them to achieve a future self that aligns with their personal values, and present this analysis verbally to their classmates. 

In this lesson students will learn about Louise Erdrich and then read her poem “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance.” As students read they will analyze how the writer uses words, phrases, and details to communicate a theme. Students will discuss the message of the poem in both small and large groups and discuss how the author’s literary choices help communicate this message. Students will then write about a message in the poem and explain what lines most strongly communicate that message as evidence to support their thinking.