I came up with the idea during one of the lessons I was involved, in which pupils of 3rd and 4th year (because it was a rural school some years were mixed) were dealing with some reading. I thought that, during the time that I was a primary school pupil, I did not have many chances to know foreign authors or foreign literary works. So I decided to give that chance to who were my pupils at that time, by introducing the Spanish worldwide known Cervantes and its Quixote to them. The teacher was very excited because, as she told me, it was very likely that pupils will have to read it at high-school.  So I putted my shoulders to the wheel.

Although I would have preferred pupils to be the ones who look for the information about the concrete author and his works, due to the fact that I did not have much time to develop the activity, I felt somehow a little bit forced to be the one who presented them that information. For doing it, with the help of the Ministry of Education and Universities of the Principality of Asturias’ webpage, I designed two highly visual presentations. In the first one, I included representative and noteworthy data about the author: the city where he was born, the fact that he participated in a war, or that he was in prison.

The second one was about The Quixote: the main characters, the main idea about the different adventures the Quixote lives throughout the whole story, as well as an activity to teach them some words in Spanish.

After that, I showed them a concrete adventure: “The adventure of the windmill” through a video. Because the story was originally narrated in Spanish I previously took out the sound, created a script, and then two of the pupils act as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. They have lot of fun.

I wished to end the lesson with a meaningful activity for the pupils, so I proposed them the creation of their own Quixote book, by writing, illustrating or both, other adventures that he could have had. They seemed delighted with the idea, and it works much better than what I would have never expected! The interest, creativity and effort that the children demonstrated were spectacular, and the outcome was simply amazing. I was really proud of them

Cover that I created for their book

Some examples of their stories/illustrations are the following ones:

They were really engaged with the activities of the whole lesson and, according with what they told me, they enjoyed so much the experience.

Do you think it was a good idea? Are there any changes you will apply? Does it wake up some ideas for your future activities? I’m looking forward to your answers. Thanks a million!