Designing Monuments of Central Americans in an ESOL Classroom

By Bryan Cockrell

Bryan Cockrell with books about Central America.

I teach 9th grade students in Montgomery County, Maryland who are developing their English language proficiency. During Teach Central America Week, I asked my students what they had heard about monuments in the news. They described monuments they had seen in D.C. We looked at images of the "re-designed" Francis Scott Key statue in Baltimore and the statue of Edward Colston that Bristol residents threw into the water.

I asked students, "What if we created monuments for people who actually promoted justice in the world?" 

I told them about Teach Central America week and asked them what they know about Central America. They had a competition to label maps of Central America quickly in teams, and then teams presented the correct answers to the class. The teams at the board led a call and response so that all of us could say the names of places on the map.

I then laid out lanyards with name tags, each with a photo and the name of one individual from the Introduction to Central America lesson. I also printed the biography of each individual for students to browse and select. Once they made their selection, students read the biography and wrote gist statements about what they learned. Then, they had a meet and greet with their classmates, each student taking on the identity of the person they chose. 

The students looked for thematic or other connections (e.g. poets, people concerned about the rights of farmers) and formed groups of two or three. Using Google slides, each team then designed a monument to the people they chose that honored their shared beliefs and values and the struggles they participated in. 

Finally, students gave presentations of their monuments. In their presentations, students needed to demonstrate their reading comprehension by making a connection between their monument and the biography. They also needed to demonstrate their use of the future tenses to explain what visitors will experience and learn when they go to the monument.