From Generation to Generation from Code Switch
Photo credit: Image of the Chicano Moratorium protests in Los Angeles, photo by Deniseb0206
This resource provides an opportunity to reflect on several questions from our learning arc including:
- In what ways do stories of migration help us understand who we are?
- How might the environment in the new land help or hinder newcomers’ inclusion?
- How do newcomers come to understand the new land and their place in it over time?
- How might newcomers and the receiving community balance their identities, cultural values, and world views as they interact with one another?
What stories do we share across generations and what stories do we silence in ourselves and in others? One of the perpetual challenges faced by people who move is balancing their identities and memories of life before migration with the desire and pressure to fit into their new world. That tension is captured powerfully in this story from NPR’s It’s Been A Minute podcast producer Andrea Gutierrez. When Gutierrez learned that her father was an activist in the Chicano Movement during the late 60s and early 70s, she wondered why he had never told her and what his silence reveals about Mexican American identity in the United States.
Teaching Ideas:
Pre-Listening:
Before listening to the story, you might use a think-pair-share routine to reflect on the question, “In what ways do stories of migration help us understand who we are?”
Active Listening:
As students listen, you might have them note how the story helps to answer the following questions:
- In what ways do stories of migration help us understand who we are?
- How might the environment in the new land help or hinder newcomers’ inclusion?
- How do newcomers come to understand the new land and their place in it over time?
- How might newcomers and the receiving community balance their identities, cultural values, and world views as they interact with one another?
Discussion
One way to begin discussion and hear student’s questions, connections and wondering is with the see-feel-think-wonder routine from Project Zero. To explore these ideas in more depth you might try to circle of viewpoints routine as a way to consider the perspectives of the different people mentioned in the story (from the sisters to the father and grandmother) or the step-in, step-out, step-back routine. To wrap up the lesson and underscore the significance of the story, conclude with the three-whys routine.