Problem Statement:

Headlines in the past five years or so have demonstrated that monuments in communities across the country have become a source of controversy, causing many to not only investigate the honored, but the decisions made that placed such monuments where they are in the first place.  The decisions that are based on politics, pride, and power are strategic and send a powerful message that oftentimes is controversial and divisive, as we have seen with the statue of Columbus in South Philadelphia.

At the intersection of American St, Girard Avenue, and 2nd Street on the Northern Liberties section/Kensington border of Philadelphia, there is a large monument, a sculpture of Don Quixote on a horse, inviting one and all to engage in the power of government grants and special programs to promote business and entrepreneurism in the American Street corridor.  Once an industrial hub, it also cuts through the barrio in which generations of Puerto Ricans have made their home in Philadelphia.  Perhaps those who made the decision to place this particular statue in this particular location were only familiar with the popular musical based on Miguel De Cervantes’ epic in which Don Quixote sings about achieving his impossible and idealistic dream.  And, because Don Quixote is associated with Spain and the Spanish language, it was seen as culturally appropriate to place this symbol of (albeit crazy) ambitious idealism in a generational Puerto Rican neighborhood turned ‘enterprise and empowerment’ zone.

This zone now is home to a more gentrified neighborhood and its citizens include people from many Spanish speaking countries, as well as many other countries.  This is evidenced in my classroom, and students learn to expand their abilities in some of the languages of their neighborhood: Spanish, English, and Spanglish.  Spanish (for Spanish speaker) classes I teach are designed to help students build on the language they have, the language of their community. I consider my class an ‘empowerment zone’ by trying to bring in timely and rich topics to use in the development of literacy in Spanish.  For these classes I focus on themes of language, identity, and heritage through topics that have included even the Ingenioso Hidalgo, himself, Don Quixote. Students read and studied excerpts and examined the iconography of Quixote, not realizing we had a large monument to him less than a mile away.

The unit I have created could stand alone, or around/as part of, a unit on Quixote, or as part of a study of the historic barrio in Kensington to include some readings on the empowerment zones, the statues’ link to the zones, and what that might represent.  I ask students to either defend the statue as is, or propose a new monument that better represents the blending of heritage and history to commemorate their barrio.

Social Justice, Monuments, Museums, and Heritage

The course’s objectives as stated in the syllabus include an examination of colonial representations in monuments, as well as new ways of representing the past, in order to imagine a “new vision for our future.”   Through visits from Belizean activists Filiberto Penados , Cristina Coc, Pablo Mis, and later Dr. John Morris, retired director of the Belize Institute of Archeology, who are all currently working towards a broader acknowledgement of the specific impacts of the Maya monuments and artifacts on the tourism industry, we have learned about how colonialism formed past and current views of people and groups in order to benefit financially, while divesting Mayas from their own lands and monuments.  Through readings explaining how monuments are made and strategically placed to send messages to those who are exposed to them daily, willingly or unwillingly, I have learned about how monuments are used to shape public thought about the past in order to shape policy and economic power over time. (Lees 2021) Through a walking tour of monuments placed outside of The Philadelphia Museum of Art (10/12/2022), an analysis of monuments’ imagery, placement, and messaging revealed much about how Philadelphia is marketed and how these monuments have contributed to the ideas about who Philadelphians are, and more importantly who Philadelphians aren’t – Europeans, Indigenous, and African descendants.

Among the materials shared in the toolkit as part of the course readings are materials related to decolonizing museums from Monument Lab Studios (Murawski & Campbell, 2020). After a bit more research on that site I came across materials that can be used with students for work around monument research and decolonization – to record data, question, research, and propose something different/more relevant.  Also included in the toolkit, is an interactive site from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that is dedicated to the history of the Hispanic population in Philadelphia, which is a useful tool for me in preparing this lesson, as well as for use by students in the lesson propped in this document.

It was the readings regarding heritage and history that changed my initial direction from a unit about the Columbus statue to a monument much closer to home – the Quixote statue.  In reading about what heritage is, how history is viewed using monuments, and whose histories are often not reflected in these images, I began to question this statue and the message it is, or more importantly is not, sending (Lowenthal, 2015; Smith, 2006; Trouillot, 2015).

Research

In preparation to prepare and teach this unit I had to research:  1. The monument, itself, in order to find out the background information about the placement of the statue, and, 2. Basic information about empowerment zones and their effect on the community.  In the past I have taught a unit on Quixote, but the framing of the statue is something I haven’t done, and so it required further investigation.

The statue was placed after the naming of the American St. ‘Empowerment Zone’, an attempt to reestablish a business corridor in the historical barrio of Kensington, Philadelphia.  The area was a former industrial hub, but had since languished (Yant, 1997; Weaver, 2022). As the areas directly south of where the statue was placed gentrified and pushed many in the Hispanic community out, the areas north of Girard Ave. became neglected by the city and home to many looking for less expensive housing options.  The statue’s placement, however, was not intended solely to harken a new day for the community, as small businesses could find a home along the American Street corridor between Girard Avenue and Lehigh Avenue, but to attract clients to a pan-Hispanic business planned for the intersection where the statue now sits.

The city of Philadelphia won a bid (in collaboration with the city of Camden, NJ) for empowerment zone status in 1994, eventually identifying three areas within Philadelphia for the designation and receipt of federal grant monies. (Weaver, 2022) The grants and tax incentives would be passed along to businesses looking to develop within the zones, including the business planned by Alejandro Gallard-Prio for a site at 2nd St and Girard Avenue.  His business model, according to an article about the statue in 1997, stated that the business would include imported goods from Spain, and his funding included Spanish investors.  The large bronze statue of the knight Don Quixote on his steed was placed in the Fall of 1997, a gift from Ciudad Real, a city in Spain.  The city paid about $100,000 for the granite base of the statue and was dedicated December 16th, 1997 (Yant, 1997).  Gallard-Prio hoped the statue, who he said “represents Spain”, would bring “immigrants from all backgrounds together to celebrate their history” (Yant, 1997).

While some sources say the empowerment zone status has expired, perhaps in reference to the initial federal program status, the city still maintains a webpage for the zones and offers grants for businesses specifically within its borders. (American Street: Programs and Initiatives) The business planned by Mr. Gallard-Prio is not in operation, and to my knowledge has never been open to the public.  His largest marketing tool, however, remains.  The Quixote statue is, perhaps, a fitting tribute to his dreams, but I will let students decide if it is fitting for the American St. Empowerment Zone.

Content Objectives

By the end of this unit, I want students to have thought critically around the concepts of heritage, history, monuments, and power/empowerment in their own neighborhood, how the Don Quixote statue came to be placed at the intersection of 2nd street, American Street and Girard Avenue, to better understand Quixote as an icon, and to finally express an opinion about whether or not they think the statue is appropriate, possibly suggesting an alternate.  Ultimately, I want students to look beyond the superficial and to question what they see in their environment, and how this has shaped their community’s ideas of past, present, and future.

Some crucial pieces of the unit are:  1. Reading to understand what an empowerment zone is, and 2. Researching the history of the neighborhood, 3. Reading some research-based articles about monuments and what they represent, and lastly, 4. Reading excerpts from El Ingenioso Hidalgo (the novel from which the character of Don Quixote comes). The class is a literacy-based language class, so this unit will encompass reading for research, reading non-fiction, and reading fiction, as well as expressing a written or spoken opinion about the monument and a possible replacement using text evidence and writing/speaking for a specific purpose.  All of these are skills necessary for preparation for college and career, but more importantly, for specific enduring understandings about the society in which we live and how it shapes our reality, in order to empower students to effect change in the future.

Essential Questions:

1. What are monuments?
2. Who is Don Quixote? What does his iconography represent?
3. How can monuments reflect the history and heritage of the community?

Big Ideas:

1. Iconography
2. Empowerment/economic zones
3. The purpose/messaging of monuments

Enduring Understandings:

1. Monuments must be examined critically for historical value and messaging
2. The (sometimes flawed) iconography of literary figures, specifically Don Quixote
3. Ever-evolving neighborhoods, gentrification, and economics

Knowledge and Skills:

1. Basic understanding of Don Quixote as a literary figure and an icon through reading of excerpts from Miguel de Cervantes’ novel El Ingenioso Hidalgo
2. The history of the neighborhood through guided research on the Philadelphia Historical Society’s Website
3. Basic understanding of ‘empowerment’/economic zones and the history of the American Street Empowerment Zone through classroom discussions
4. Criticism of public policy through reading newspaper articles about the Don Quixote statue’s placement at 2nd/American St & Girard Avenue in Philadelphia
5. Basic understanding of the purpose of monuments, the history of the neighborhood, economic/empowerment zones, and the iconography of Don Quixote, through the use of presentational skills necessary to defend the statue of Don Quixote or a proposal for a new monument.

Assessment

Ongoing formative assessment of daily progress and skills development in class through participation in class discussions and activities is part of the process of my class.  Summative assessment of the students’ presentation of a new monument to replace the Quixote statue, or their defense of the statue, as it stands, is based on an argument using class materials and discussion as sources of evidence/support for their ideas.

Beginning with the question: Have you ever noticed the statue at 2nd St., Girard Avenue, and American Street?   By asking who/what the statue represents as an introduction to the unit will yield interesting discussions about what students see every day and don’t notice, as well as what they do notice.  Some students may be surprised to learn that the statue is roughly 1.5 miles from the school.

Using Monument Lab as a template for a new pre-reading strategy by conducting research and collecting data through a short field trip (if not in person, using photography, as the monument is not documented in Monument Lab’s interactive database of monuments in the US). These materials have been adapted to suit my specific needs for the class – I use materials in English and Spanish for every assignment, allowing students to respond in the language(s) they choose.  The existing materials are in English only, as of right now.  In any case. These materials are perfect to use as “bookends”, to start the unit and end the unit as they provide a framework for data collection, followed by thoughtful questions about the messages the monument is sending, and about what or who is missing from that monument and the messages, and finally, ending with a proposal for a new monument with reasoning supporting the new monument.  My lesson goes from this starting point of the awareness (or not) of the Quixote monument, to field trip and data collection, research into the monument and its meaning as a way of introducing the actual novel itself.  All of this is encompassed in the materials I have adapted from Monument Lab, and some literature-based discussion of empowerment/economic zones in general, and this particular one, as well.   This discussion will also include some quotes from several sources about the empowerment zones, including an essay by Tim Weaver (2022) presenting a lot of information about Philadelphia’s designated zones, and basic information from Wikipedia. (Empowerment Zone, 2022)

The middle section of the unit calls for the students to actually read excerpts from El Ingenioso Hidalgo, which is the title of the actual novel whose protagonist is Don Quixote. After doing a small lesson presenting background information on the time period and author, students dig into the novel, which is actually comprised of two very long books.  Due to time constraints students will read excerpts of some of the most important chapters in order to determine whether or not Don Quixote is an appropriate symbol for the community and for the empowerment zone.

The lesson plans for the reading of the excerpts, as well as for the non-fiction pieces of the unit, will follow a process I have developed to help students practice skills and develop stamina with the end goal of a more robust literacy practice that can be used across content areas and further expanded for use as the student continues their academic trajectory.  The process includes determining background information, identification of key vocabulary words and some practice with making meaning from unknown vocabulary words, multiple exposures to text, annotation, comprehension practice, and analysis of the themes.

It is also important to note that the reading of such a culturally important work is valuable in a language class, in a language arts class, and in a class which also works to help students find a connection between language, culture, and identity.  The work of Don Quixote is timeless and often is not what people expect to read from a book written in the 1600’s.  Included themes in the chapters covered will be:  feminism, justice and prisons/penalties, equitable pay, physical abuse, legalizing prostitution, idealism, and the ever-present thread of exactly who is sane and who is delusional.  These themes are important on their own, but also can give students some ideas about whether or not they think the current monument is an appropriate one for the American St. empowerment zone, or at all.

After reading the chapters and analyzing the themes, students are then asked to decide:  1. What a monument to Don Quixote is representing or what message it conveys, 2. If this monument is the right one for the empowerment zone, or for the entrance to the barrio at all, always explaining their reasoning and supporting it with text evidence from their research, and from their readings, and 3. Proposing a new monument to take its place, defending it in a presentation to the class.

State and District Standards

These lessons and activities all support the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards for ‘foreign’ language instruction.  Although it is not a foreign language to my students, these are the required standards for instruction in my class according to the School District of Philadelphia. The ACTFL standards supported by my unit, along with the unit parts supported by each, are as follows:    Under the standard of Interpretive Communication, all, or almost all, of the student ‘input’ – what the student receives in the class is in Spanish.  This includes class materials, and will include the Ilan Stavans’ graphic novel version of El Ingenioso Hidalgo (Don Quixote) in Spanglish.  In order to meet the standard of Presentational Communication:  Students will be presenting their proposals for new monument using as evidence their materials from class:  all readings and class discussions of the meaning and messaging of monuments, what an empowerment zone is and isn’t, the effects of these zones on the community, and whether or not Don Quixote is an appropriate icon for this zone and this community.  For meeting the standard entitled Making Connections, the unit covers local geography and history through the research into the existing and proposed monuments. Classic literature and basic literacy skills are reinforced through the reading process of annotation, comprehension, and analysis.   Civics is a running theme through the study of empowerment zones and research into monuments in general, and the Don Quixote monument, in particular.  In order to meet the standard of Acquiring Information and Diverse Perspectives, students conduct research into monuments in general, the Don Quixote monument, the ideas around empowerment zones, and the history of Hispanic people in Philadelphia all will require students to ‘acquire and evaluate perspectives.’  Through their imagining of a new monument, they will also be considering other perspectives of their own work. And lastly, to meet the standard of Cultural Comparisons, through the imagining of a new monument to replace the Quixote monument, students will be gaining new insights into their own community and the cultures in it, truly imagining a monument that reflects their history and their present, but will also represent how they are seen in the future. My ultimate hope is that, through his unit of study, that young people do not remain, as Smith (2006) writes “passive receptors of the authorized meaning of (their) heritage”, but can construct a sense of heritage and history “that is both more inclusive of alternate discourses” that “acquire or engage with a sense of history.”

Field Trip

The opening activity to the unit will be a field trip to visit the monument using the Monument Lab materials that I have adapted for use in a Spanish language classroom and for work on the particular statue that is the focus of the lesson (Murawski & Campbell, 2020).  This document allows for students to visit the statue, observe, make notes and collect ‘data’, and record their initial thoughts on the Quixote statue without any of the background information about its placement.  The materials include documents with spaces and instructions for recording data from any plaques or signs, a map of the area, thoughts and feelings on the actual images, and a reflection on who is not represented, as well as any thoughts on how it might represent a power dynamic also present in society, either now or in the past.

This will open the students up to a conversation about monuments in general, and this one in particular.  Using teacher made documents we can discuss and/or use other resources such as readings and videos to learn more about why monuments are placed where they are and what messages they send.  It is during these lessons students will come to have a deeper understanding of iconography through monuments, as well as political and societal values represented through the statue’s placement, size, imagery, and messaging. As stated by Lees (2021) “…there is no amount of explaining that can dismantle, for everyone, the power of the monument coupled with the power of place.”  I am hoping that this sparks a deeper conversation on those topics prior to focusing on the specific imagery of the statue, and that we can return to those ideas after reading selected chapters from the novel.

It may seem a good time to dig deeper into the particular statue, but without really understanding the literary figure of Don Quixote, I feel students might become confused about whether this is an appropriate icon, or not.  The public in general, and our students in particular, have little knowledge about Don Quixote as a literary figure, and even less as an icon. They may be familiar with the imagery involved, as his images are ubiquitous even now.

Lessons and Activities

Upon their return from the field trip, students will reflect on what they saw and how they felt.  Students also will imagine what they think this statue might represent, the messaging they believe it is meant to be sending, and how it might be symbolic of a power dynamic.  These are all ideas important in the purpose of monuments.

On day two students will make meaning from key vocabulary words used to talk about monuments and statues.  They begin to reflect on their ideas of monuments, what they are in general, and reflect on any statues they are already familiar with in our city (or others, many of my students are immigrants).  They are asked about any statues or monuments depicting people of color, women, indigenous people.  During these conversations, an effort is made to encourage students to think about how a monument can represent the past and the present (and the future) at the same time, in preparation for the culminating activity in which they imagine a monument that represents the community’s past and present, and can stand into the future.  They are also asked what else they want to know about monuments, and specifically this monument.   Lastly, they are asked to describe the place where the statue stands over the last 300 years.  In order to do this, students will be directed to explore the Philadelphia Historical Society’s web page The Puerto Rican Philly Experience.  The site has archived interviews, photographs, and an interactive timeline that students can explore in order to find some information about the area.  They will also be able to do a simple Google search to find out the history of the area beyond that which appears on the page dedicated to The Puerto Rican Philly Experience. It is my hope that students at this point begin to question the Quixote statue’s presence in the neighborhood where it stands.

On day three students begin to read about the statue’s placement from the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about its placement (Yant, 1997; Gralish, 1997).  This is in addition to the ongoing research about the area where the statue stands, and can be added as a source for student research.  The articles detail the area’s issues that led to the designation of an economic ‘empowerment zone’.  These materials will be transcribed and translated for student use in a Spanish classroom. I anticipate some discussion of the concept of an Empowerment Zone, what it means for the areas and the citizens living within them.

On days four and five I intend to scaffold student thought into a flow chart beginning from what was going on in the area prior to the designation of the Empowerment Zone. The flow chart will continue through the statue’s placement, along with the who, what, and why, as well as how it relates to the Empowerment Zone.  This is not part of the original Monument Lab materials, but will be original organizers added to the ones I have already adapted.  From there space will be left for students to later write about the Quixote imagery and what it means to them after reading, and these materials, as well, are a departure from the Monument Lab original resources, but are based on them and tailored to meet the needs of my unit.   Lastly, I intend to make materials like the ones in the monument Lab Field Trip guide that serve as spaces for imagined new statues or a defense of the statue as it stands at the end of the unit.

The table below breaks down the week of ‘statue study’:

Cycle 1 See appendix for lesson plans and materials

Launch, Statue Field Trip, intro

Day 1

Field Trip:  Statue location: 2nd & Girard

Walk from Girard Station to statue, loop back up 2nd/American a few blocks and back around to the station to go back to school

Students use note taking Lab docs for data compilation and initial thoughts.

Monument Lab adapted materials slides/pages 1-4(see appendix)

Day 2

Reflection (start on slide 6)

Research

What are monuments?  What are monuments in your city like?

Students begin researching what the area was like in the past using the Monument Lab adapted materials and the website from the Historical Society of Philadelphia

Key Vocabulary:

Monumento

Reflexionar

Reflejar

Colectivos

Conmemorar

Empowerment

Statue

Monument Lab adapted materials slides/pages 5-7(see appendix)

Day 3

Research

Reading:  articles from 1997 about the monument’s placement are read and students continue to research the area’s history.

Monument Lab adapted materials slides/pages 7-8 (see appendix)

Day 4

Discussion

Empowerment Zones – the who, what, where, why

Student note catcher included in materials.

Monument Lab adapted materials slide/page 9 (see appendix)

Day 5

Flow chart and TEXAS paragraph

Organizer/Flow chart to place in order the events leading up to the statue (and afterwards)

TEXAS organizer to write about the events

Monument Lab adapted materials slides/pages 10-12 (see appendix)

The second cycle is an introduction to the novels, to include building background information and reading Chapters 1 and 2 of the novels using the variety of leveled reading materials we have available to us.  These activities also include some guided research, the use of videos, and readings designed for use by students in Spanish, and a Spanglish graphic novel format reading, as well.  Also, these lessons will follow my process for literacy building that uses a flow of activities that students are familiar with.  In my experience I have found that repeated use of activities that students have mastered, along with a gradual increase in the complexity of materials, resources, and topics used, helps students gain the skills needed to be competent readers who can express themselves for many different purposes, while gaining much needed confidence in academic tasks, and stamina for more challenging and rigorous coursework.

On day one of this cycle students are asked to watch a video about Miguel de Cervantes and take notes about his life and events taking place during his life.  Students are then asked what they think he would write, making a prediction about what they will read. This is followed by a cyclical assignment we call dictado, in which students try to write words and phrases from the reading, as a preview of what will come and as a way to help students make meaning of more difficult words and passages from the texts before reading. Later in the week they also will expand their understanding and use of the words or phrases by determining synonyms, antonyms, examples, drawing representations of the words and phrases, until the words are very familiar to them.  On day two students may preview the text, in this case chapters one and two, annotate the text for familiar and unfamiliar words, ideas, as well as things they find interesting or funny, polemic, or provoke a strong reaction in some way.  Students are asked over the course of the cycle to demonstrate comprehension by answering questions using text evidence (How does Don Quixote look? /Is Don Quixote crazy?), and to make connections to current literary or media representations of figures that are like Don quixote in some way.

This cycle continues through the selected chapters.  I chose the chapters, as noted in the appendix, that I feel are more important for students to understand who Don Quixote is and what he stands for, as this is not only important in understanding the novel, its importance in literary history, but also to have a broader understanding of the iconography of Don Quixote in order to express an opinion on his likeness in the statue in our own community.  To that end students read about the beginning of Don Quixote’s journey, including the infamous battle with the windmills, which seems to be what he is remembered for by the few in the general public who are familiar with his iconography. Students also read about Don Quixote freeing a child servant from an abusive master who receives a stern lecture about equal pay.  In later chapters students read about a woman shepherd who wants to determine her own fate and not be required to marry, and Don Quixote defends her right to self-determination to the rejected men who want to be her husband. Students also read about his actions in freeing convicted criminals who are being sent to serve their sentences. These readings suggest a more-full depiction of the character than the one often characterized as a crazy geriatric who hallucinates that he is a knight, but students finally see that he is also an idealist who fights for what is right, even when all odds are against him.  In any case, students will then be asked to decide if the statue of Don Quixote is an appropriate representation of the past and present communities that have lived in the area of 2nd and American streets.

Below are a sample of Lesson Plans for chapters 1 and 2, to include the process I use for developing literacy through the reading of the chapters:

Cycle 2: See appendix for lesson plans and materials

Quixote:  CH 1 & 2

Day 1

Introduction to life and times of Cervantes

History

Dictado

Video

Teacher made materials/public use readings and videos

Day 2

Chapter 1 & 2

1st read

Vocabulary Frayer Model

1st read – read and annotate

Video chapter 1

Teacher made materials

Day 3

Chapter 1 & 2

2nd read

Vocabulary Game

2nd read – read for comprehension

Video chapter 2

Teacher made materials

Day 4

Chapter 1 & 2

3rd read

Vocabulary Sentences

3rd Read – analyze

Teacher made materials

Day 5

Wrap Up

Vocabulary Quiz

TEXAS – Is Don Alonso Quijano crazy?

Teacher made materials

Lastly, students express their opinions about the appropriateness of the Don Quixote statue as it stands, or to propose a new statue or monument of some kind. At this point students will go back to adapted Monument Lab materials to review their ideas about Don Quixote and his likeness being used to welcome people to the American Street Empowerment Zone.  In reviewing, students are asked if they feel the monument truly represents the people and history of the area, and if it even should.  They must decide who and/or what any monument should represent.

In imagining their replacement monument students, students will be asked to create a document supporting their ideas, to include the history of the area.  To that extent, they may need to go back to the timeline page of the Philadelphia Historical Society’s page dedicated to the Puerto Rican/Hispanic experience in Philadelphia (The Puerto Rican Philly Experience) in order to do more research on the neighborhood’s history, or to recall their research done prior to reading Don Quixote.  Students have a checklist of requirements for their monuments in order to ensure it is a fair and accurate representation of the area’s history that can last into the future, as well as space for citing sources for their interpretations of the results of their previous research.

Lastly students will be asked to make a presentation of their imagined replacement monument (or to defend their reimagined Quixote monument) using as compelling arguments their research, readings, and drawings.  This culminating project allows students to draw on all of the learning and instruction that happens throughout the unit and allows me to assess students for their answers to the Essential Questions, Enduring Understandings, content objectives, and student literacy with regards to reading and writing skills.

The following table describes the ending cycle for the unit:

Final Cycle: See appendix for lesson plans and materials

Wrap Up

Day 1

Review of Statue – Empowerment Zone

Review of field trip and cycle 1 materials

Rotation:  Who was Don Quixote? Does the monument represent the community?  The Empowerment Zone?

Next steps:  Does he stay or does he go?

Monument Lab adapted materials slides/pages 1-14 (see appendix)

Day 2

Propose a new monument or keep existing one

Brainstorm Ideas

Determine appropriateness

Sketch ideas

Monument Lab adapted materials slides/pages 15-16 (see appendix)

Day 3

Create a larger version of the proposal

Create a formal version of the proposal as an infographic

Student made materials

Day 4

Present the infographics to the class

Presentations

Student made materials

Day 5

Letter Writing to the city

Write a letter to the city proposing a new monument.

Teacher made organizer

Monument Lab adapted materials slide/page 17 (see appendix)

Works Cited

American Street: Programs and Initiatives. City of Philadelphia. (n.d.). Retrieved          December 1, 2022, from https://www.phila.gov/programs/empowerment-zones/american-street/

“Empowerment Zone.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empowerment_zone.

Gralish, Tom. “Symbol of Empowerment.” The Philadelphia inquirer (1969), 1997.

Lees, William (2021). “The Problem with ‘Confederate Monuments’ on our Heritage Landscapes. Social Science Quarterly (1002-1015)

Lowenthal, D. (2015). Knowing the past. In The Past Is a Foreign Country – Revisited (pp. 289-302). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139024884.023

Murawski, Mike, and Bryna Campbell. (2020) Monument Lab Field Trip.  Monument Lab Studios and Super Nature Adventures, LLC. https://data.monumentlab.com/monument-lab/assets/koc89365r1w8o044

The National Standards Collaborative Board. (2015). World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. 4th ed. Alexandria, VA: Author. https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/publications/standards/World-ReadinessStandardsforLearningLanguages.pdf

Nicholas, Peter. “AMERICAN STREET ZONE SCORES BIG.” The Philadelphia inquirer. (1996): n. page. Print.

Pennsylvania, Historical Society of. “Don Quixote Statue.” PhilaPlace, http://www.philaplace.org/story/317/.

Philadelphia Art Commission. https://www.phila.gov/departments/philadelphia-art-commission/regulations/

 The Puerto Rican Philly experience · timeline/cronología · HSP Exhibits. (n.d.).  Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://omeka.hsp.org/s/puertoricanphillyexperience/page/timeline

Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage (1st ed.) (pp44-84). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203602263      

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. (2015), Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. E-book, Boston: Beacon Press, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb04595.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of University of Pennsylvania

Weaver, T. (2022, March 17). Enterprise zones and empowerment zones. Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/enterprise-zones-and-empowerment-zones/

Yant, Monica. “Quixote Statue is Bid to Inspire Area to Dream.” The Philadelphia inquirer (1969), 1997.

Classroom Resources

Boyle, Margaret, and Crystal Hall. “Teaching ‘Don Quixote’ in the Digital Age: Page and Screen, Visual and Tactile.” Hispania, vol. 99, no. 4, 2016, pp. 600–614., https://doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2016.0106. Accessed 18 Oct. 2022.

This was a valuable resource for teaching strategies and creative ideas for presenting the sections of the unit relating to reading El Ingenioso Hidalgo (Don Quixote).

De, Cervantes Saavedra Miguel, et al. El Quijote Para Estudiantes De Español: The Quixote for Spanish Learners. Read It!, 2014.

Again, this is a version of Don Quixote adapted for young readers, as the original is a very challenging read.

Loqueleo 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2022, from http://viajesliterarios.loqueleo.com.mx/uploads/storys/119/119.pdf

Again, this is a version of Don Quixote adapted for young readers, as the original is a very challenging read.

Stavans, Ilan, et al. Don Quixote of La Mancha. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018.

This is the graphic novel formatted, Spanglish version of the novel.  In an attempt to engage students and reach literacy levels, this version of the novel is appropriate.

Lesson Plans:

Lesson Plan – Cycle 1

Lesson Plan – Cycle 2

Lesson Plan – Cycle 3

Ancillaries and Materials

Adapted Monument Lab Packet

The American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages Standards as applied in this unit of study:

Interpretive Communication: Learners understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics.

All, or almost all, of the student ‘input’ – what the student receives in the class is in Spanish.  This includes class materials, and will include the Ilan Stavans’ graphic novel of El Ingenioso Hidalgo (Don Quixote) version in Spanglish.

Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers.

Students will be presenting their proposals for new monument using as evidence their materials from class:  all readings and class discussions of the meaning and messaging of monuments, what an empowerment zone is and isn’t, the effects of these zones on the community, and whether or not Don Quixote is an appropriate icon for this zone and this community.

Making Connections: Learners build, reinforce, and expand their knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking and to solve problems creatively.

The unit covers local geography and history through the research into the existing and proposed monuments. Classic literature and basic literacy skills are reinforced through the reading process of annotation, comprehension, and analysis.   Civics is a running theme through the study of empowerment zones and research into monuments in general, and the Don Quixote monument, in particular.

Acquiring Information and Diverse Perspectives:  Learners access and evaluate information and diverse perspectives that are available through the language and its cultures.

Research into monuments in general, the Don Quixote monument, the ideas around empowerment zones, and the history of Hispanic people in Philadelphia all will require students to ‘acquire and evaluate perspectives.’  Through their imagining of a new monument, they will also be considering other perspectives of their own work.

Cultural Comparisons: Learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

In the imagining of a new monument to replace the Quixote monument, students will be gaining new insights into their own community and the cultures in it, truly imagining a monument that reflects their history and their present, but will also represent how they are seen in the future.

School and Global Communities: Learners use the language both within and beyond the classroom to interact and collaborate in their community and the globalized world.

From the research into their own community’s recent and not so recent past in order to design a monument to replace the standing one of Quixote, to understanding how and why monuments are placed, again, students will be gaining new perspectives into their own community, the cultures in it, and creating ideas for an image that could reflect their history, past and present, and how they would be seen in the future.