Teach Central America Week: October 7-13, 2019

More than seven million Central Americans reside in the United States and migration from the region is headline news. However, most schools teach very little about Central America, including the long history of U.S. involvement in the region and Central America’s rich history and literature. This makes it difficult for students to understand the mass migration of Central Americans to the United States and for Central American students to see themselves in the curriculum.

To address this, Teaching for Change launched Teach Central America Week (October 7-13) to encourage and support teaching about Central America during Latinx Heritage Month. Teaching for Change is providing free resources for classroom teachers, including lessons, book lists, biographies of noted historical figures, and readings, which can be found at TeachingCentralAmerica.org.

Hundreds of teachers from 33 states and the District of Columbia signed up to participate in this first annual Teach Central America Week.

Why Teach about Central America?

For some educators Teach Central America Week deepened their ongoing work and for many others, it opened a new door. Here are some of the comments we received from teachers about why they participated in Teach Central America Week.

I must admit that I felt a sense of shame upon seeing this campaign announcement — I have taught practically nothing about Central America! The only lesson I did last year was a way-too-rushed day about U.S. intervention in the 1970s using Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire. I am excited to dedicate a week to the topic. — Educator, New York, New York

I am K-12 school counselor at a small rural school in South Dakota. We have two female students who are new to the country from Guatemala. While I am trying to build an ELL program, I am also trying to educate our local students on the girls' culture. — Shanna Davids, school counselor, Deuel School District, Clear Lake, South Dakota

Approximately 60-65% of our school population have recently immigrated from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Latinx Heritage Month is already a critical cultural celebration at our school, and Teach Central America Week will help us further strengthen our school-wide community building. — David Baird, administrator, Phoenix Charter Academy, Chelsea, Massachusetts

Teach Central America Week Activities

Read below for examples of preparation for and activities during Teach Central Week. Please add your story. In appreciation of your time and for your thorough answers we will send you a free book.

Washington, D.C.

In Washington, D.C., Teaching for Change hosted a Latinx Literature Open House to help educators prepare for the week that showcased titles from our Latinx, Afro-Latinx, Immigration, and Central America lists, as well as other resources for teaching about Latin America.

To honor Teach Central America Week, Marlena James, Spanish teacher at Dunbar High School (DCPS) used the Central America 101 mixer to help students learn about significant figures in Central American history and current events. James carefully scaffolded students’ knowledge, as she shared hints about each country and encouraged them to draw on previous classroom conversations, as well as examine the decorated walls that were adorned with a map of Central America and various flags from Central American countries. Read more.

Teaching for Change, in collaboration with the Casa de la Cultura El Salvador and Groundwood Books, hosted Salvadoran author Jorge Argueta for a talk launching his new book Caravan to the North. Argueta also visited three schools: Harriet Tubman ES (DCPS) in collaboration with An Open Book Foundation, Thomson ES (DCPS), and Capital City PCS. The Embassy of El Salvador also hosted Argueta for an author talk. See photos from the author talk, photos from Thomson ES, and photos from Tubman ES.

At Langdon ES in Washington, D.C., parents read the book Rainbow Weaver to students and led them in a weaving project. The Central American students in the class were deeply appreciative of the opportunity to highlight their native language and cultural traditions, and it was a culturally enriching experience for the other students that deepened their connection to their Latinx classmates. See photos.

At Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Washington, D.C., parent Norma Moran spoke about El Salvador and her experiences as an immigrant. Moran used the resource Exploring the Histories of El Salvador and Guatemala with Literature to help plan her lecture. Moran brought in a traditional Salvadoran dress which some students tried on. Finally, the class played Loteria.

Maryland

Robin Keys’ students at Greenbelt MS in Prince George’s County, Maryland participated in a lesson on trade in Central America. Students created graphs to illustrate import and export trade to the United States and Central American countries and examined the impact trade had on those countries, making a chart that highlighted the reasons people may leave Central America.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Maryland, College Park endorsed the week, with the explanation: “We regularly offer courses in Central American literatures and cultures and support the learning of our students, some of whom are children of immigrants or immigrants from Central America. We will host several events on Central America in support of Teach Central American Week.”

Virginia

In Alexandria, Virginia, teachers at an elementary school prepared for the week with a full day professional development session on Central America.

New York

Isabel Gil-Everaert, a Sociology PhD student at the Graduate Center, CUNY, launched a college course on Central American migration in fall of 2019 and generously shared the syllabus.

Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City hosted a mini Teach-In on October 7 to introduce pre-service and current K-12 teachers to a modified version of the “Introduction to Central America” lesson and explore TeachingCentralAmerica.org. Yianella Blanco, who organized the teach-in commented, "It really does prove that there is a real need and demand for this work. We have heard from other organizations on campus here at Teachers College and at Columbia who are now interested in collaborating with us to put on more events around Central American history and culture as well as issues that affect the Central American community.”

Connecticut

At the beginning of the school year, Ann Neary, a World Literature teacher at Staples HS in Westport, Connecticut, assigned students to research and read literature from a country of their choosing. None of the students selected any country in Central America. Neary collaborated with Social Studies teacher Dan Heaphy, using the role play Central America: An Introductory Lesson and the When We Were Young, There Was War website to introduce students to the the people and history of Central America. Several students remarked, "Why didn't I know this?" After building background knowledge of Central America, students were given poetry packets to examine using the TPCASST tool.

Mississippi

Alexandra Melnick introduced her students in the Mississippi Delta to lessons from the Teach Central America and “When Were We Young” websites.

Central America

The group Bilingual Education for Central America (BECA) led activities during the “Acto Civico” portion of each day at their partner school in Honduras, Santa Monica Bilingual School. BECA teachers and partnering school faculty led discussions with the 200+ students (grades K-9) regarding the geography of Central America and a brief history of each Central American country. The students were incredibly receptive to these discussions and many continued the conversation throughout the school day.

Social Media

People also shared what they were teaching about Central America on social media at #TeachCentralAmerica and #TeachCentralAmericaWeek.

2020 Teach Central America Week

We hope you will join us in teaching about Central America during next year’s Teach Central America Week — and all year long.