{"id":2267,"date":"2010-01-27T19:45:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T00:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2267"},"modified":"2010-01-27T19:45:09","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T00:45:09","slug":"teaching-civics-with-childrens-literature-too-many-tamales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2010\/01\/27\/teaching-civics-with-childrens-literature-too-many-tamales\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Civics with Children’s Literature: Too Many Tamales"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images3.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Too Many Tamales<\/a> by Gary Soto<\/a> and illustrated by Ed Martinez<\/a>\u00a0is a story about a little girl named Maria, who is helping her mother and father cook tamales for their Christmas party.\u00a0 It begins with Maria and the mother kneading the masa, and Maria\u00a0being very proud of herself for helping her mother cook.<\/p>\n

“She felt grown-up, wearing her mother’s apron. Her mother has even let her wear lipstick and perfume.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As they were kneading Maria’s mother placed her diamond ring on the kitchen counter. Without her permission, Maria wears her mother’s ring and then later loses it while making tamales. Once their family starts arriving, Maria is so excited to see her cousins, she forgets about the ring.\u00a0 They run upstairs and start cutting out pictures from newspapers and magazines of all the presents they want for Christmas. As Maria cuts out a picture of a pearl necklace she thinks, “The ring!” Needless to say, all the cousins eat their fair share of tamales in search for the ring.\u00a0 They have no luck, so Maria\u00a0is forced to tell her mother what happened. She\u00a0is very upset and scared to go to her mother, but she knew what she had to do.\u00a0 Maria’s mother, wearing the ring, knew exactly what\u00a0Maria was about to tell her.\u00a0 She already knew Maria had learned her lesson from wearing her ring, so without punishment, Maria’s mother let her know that is was OK. The story ends with the entire family\u00a0cooking a second batch of tamales for their family Christmas party.<\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections<\/strong>
\nThis book is a great example of authority and power.\u00a0 It allows you to introduce authority and power as vocabulary words in your classroom.\u00a0 Maria knew she had done wrong by losing her mother’s ring, and was forced to tell her what happen.\u00a0 Even though Maria’s mother had the ring, she knew by not letting Maria know that she would learn her lesson. The mother is the one with the power and authority, she is the one who sets the rules for their house. When using this book in a classroom, you can explain to your students why certain rules are made, and how they are there to protect you.\u00a0Maria’s mother has a set of rules for her house to protect their property and themselves. By using this book in your classroom, it allows your students to see an at-home situation that they can relate to.\u00a0 The class discussion about power and authority\u00a0in their\u00a0homes could then lead into a discussion about power and authority at school. As the teacher you\u00a0explain to the students who has\u00a0the authority at\u00a0school (i.e. principal, vice-principal, and teachers). This allows the students to\u00a0connect the story to their own classroom and school (SOLs K.8, 1.10).<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n