Latin American Literature Circles

The theme Latin America is too exciting to tie down to one book per class, so for this unit, the students will be reading books of their choice in literature circles, or book clubs. My reasons for using this strategy and the books below are twofold: I want the students to be exposed to all that the theme "Latin America" entails, from Mayan civilizations to current issues of indigenous rights, and from the experience of the conquistadors to the Latino experience in America today. I also want to experiment with some of the challenges that arise when reading a whole-class novel such as the diversity of interest levels and comprehension levels within the class, and the difficulty of giving each student a voice in class discussion. By allowing the students to read books they have chosen, I hope that they will be motivated to keep up with their reading and to analyze their stories on a deeper level. In class, the students will practice discussion skills, and we will talk about using literary elements to analyze the books we are reading. No puedo esperar! (I can't wait!)

Grade 5
Jaguar by Roland Smith– Sam, Carlos, Bryce
The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Sid Fleishman – Lucas, Richard, Harrison
The Captive by Scott O'Dell – Evan, Conall, James
Midnight Son by Denise Lewis Patrick – Ian, Chandler, Neal

Grade 6
Jaguar by Roland Smith – Andrew, George, Jonathan
Taking Sides & Baseball in April by Gary Soto – Corey, Samuel, Ian, Bo
The Captive by Scott O'Dell – Ruffin, Cameron, Myles
The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell – Logan, William, Jesse, Lindsay

Grade 7
House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer –
Alex, Owen, Justin, Johann, Foster
The Forty-Third War by Louise Moeri –
Winston, AJ, James, Caelan, Zac
Taking Sides by Gary Soto – Josh, Keats, Sasha


Grade 8
City of Beasts by Isabel Allende – Daniel, Riley, Andrew, Alexey, Parker
House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer– Zach, Pablo, Eli, Willem, Nick