Celebrating Christopher Columbus Day
This week was important because on the 12th of October "many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza in many countries in Latin America, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad, Fiesta Nacional in Spain, Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) in Argentina and as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various areas since the early 20th century."(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day)My colleague who teaches grade 6 (11-12 years old) and I decided to do a middle school assembly to celebrate this event and also as a way to promote Spanish at our school. My colleague gave me the script of a short play in Spanish about how Christopher Columbus discovered America and I decided that my grade 7 class (12-13 years old) would perform it. First, we spent one lesson reading the play and understanding it in English. It was a great way to practise reading skills and also to talk about Spanish history and culture. Each student was assigned a role to play and they practised during several lessons. The students who did not study Spanish were assigned a role in English so that the non Spanish learners would still understand the play during the assembly. Sometimes, I would deliver a normal lesson and we would then spend the last 15 minutes of the lesson rehearsing. Not only was this excellent for practising speaking skills: Spanish pronunciation and intonation, it was also an excellent way of learning how to talk and present something in front of an assembly. The class thoroughly enjoyed rehearsing and performing the play and it showed the other students at the assembly what they could achieve after only two years of learning a new language. After the play, grade 6 sang a Spanish song entitled "El doce de octubre" which I found on YouTube. All in All it was a wonderful assembly: students who performed it were very proud of showing their Spanish skills and it motivated other students to learn another language (hopefully!)! This was the first time I celebrated Columbus Day and I will definitely do it again next year! What about you? Did you celebrate it with your students? How?
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