Teaching Central America in an AP English Language Classroom
By Jody Peltason
Teaching Central America materials have been fantastic resources for my AP English Language and Composition course at Coolidge HS, which focuses on analyzing and writing about expository and persuasive texts.
We always start with at least a brief mixer activity to pique students' interest and build some basic background knowledge. When my classes are small and I have the time, I break the mixer up into three different "dinner parties": One for Nicaragua, one for El Salvador, and one for Guatemala and Honduras. This gives students the opportunity to begin recognizing themes and patterns across the regions.
I know it's going well when someone says, "Wait a second, why is Ronald Reagan at ALL the dinner parties?"
Last year, we followed the mixers with a role play simulation on U.S. policy in El Salvador (based on lesson 2 in U.S. Policy in Central America, “Re-Imagining U.S. Policy in El Salvador in the 1980s: A Role Play”) to build background knowledge, and then we used the sources assembled for the "argument essay" (lesson 4 in U.S. Policy in Central America, “Should the U.S. Intervene? A Persuasive Essay”) in a form aligned to the "synthesis essay" on the AP exam. In other words, students wrote an essay arguing their position on U.S. involvement in the Salvadoran Civil War, integrating claims (and/or counterclaims) from at least four of the sources provided.
When I have had time in the curriculum, I have also paired these lessons with Giocanda Belli's memoir The Country Under My Skin, which chronicles her involvement in — and eventual disillusionment with — the Nicaraguan Revolution. Alongside this memoir, students do a close reading of Reagan's 1986 “Radio Address to the Nation on the Situation in Nicaragua" and then write rhetorical analysis essays, paying particular attention to Reagan's use of the word "freedom" and how it contrasts with Belli's understanding of freedom. In order to deepen students' understanding of the Cold War context, we also do rhetorical analyses of several Cold War political cartoons and, for a second essay, the March 1986 Time Magazine cover featuring Daniel Ortega with the caption "The Man Who Makes Reagan See Red."
The feedback from students has generally been very positive. During the mixers last year, several students asked why we were "learning history in English class," but they got into the activities anyway. Soon enough they saw how the material lent itself to practicing the synthesis and rhetorical analysis skills at the heart of AP Language. More important, I hope, they saw how the material applies to their own communities and the current political moment.