Las abejas de bronce por Marco Denevi
A Literary Unit Curriculum Summary
By Alex Draughan and Brooke Hayworth
EDU 399
Dr. Guy Arcuri
Spring 2006
Appropriateness of Las abejas de bronce in a K-12 Curriculum
Las abejas de bronce is a short fable that gives a picture of the effects of technology on our environment in an imaginary situation. In the story a fox owns a bee hive, and decides to purchase artificial bronze bees to replace natural bees in order to increase productivity to meet the product demands of the bear and his family. As time passes, the artificial bees begin destroying the flowers and fail to produce honey. The fox has to leave his home because he caused all of the destruction, but destroys the artificial bees before leaving. This fable is appropriate for a K-12 curriculum because it can be adapted for different developmental levels, it relates well to the curriculum, and it provides a context for foreign language instruction.
This literary selection is appropriate at the elementary level because it has a definite beginning, middle, and end easily distinguishable by young students. The story by Marco Denevi is easily adapted at the language and cognitive level of the student because the plot follows the basic story form used in elementary instruction. This fable is kid-friendly because the characters are animals and students are able to relate with the characters’ experiences, which is necessary because of the students’ egocentricity. It also allows students to use their imagination, background knowledge from the L1 science curriculum regarding plants, animals, and behavior. The text catches their interest and motivates them because they enjoy learning about animals and using their imagination. In addition, the story teaches a moral lesson and provides polar opposites of good and bad/right and wrong that students in the mythic layer require. This story is appropriate because it can be adapted for pre-literate and emergent-literate students through the use of visual aids, manipulatives, and dramatization.
Not only is the story adaptable at the elementary level, the story plot is an excellent teaching tool for middle school students as well because it includes themes that require abstract thinking, provide opportunity to discuss and debate open-ended questions and touch upon broader themes related to the environment and responsibility that teens are beginning to think about in their own lives. This story provides a perspective that may be agreed upon or disagreed upon and provides a platform for further discussion of central themes and preoccupations, such as the environment and responsibility, in the world in which these teens live. They can use it to compare cultural perspectives and explore diversity. This story can be connected with the middle school science curriculum pertaining to the scientific method. Students can analyze the story for possible outcomes extrapolate the plot based upon changes in characters’ actions. They can use their background knowledge from social studies when approaching ethical/political/economic issues within the story. The sixth grade social studies curriculum focuses on Latin-America and creates a background of cultural information in the first language that provides a framework for L2 instruction throughout the rest of middle school and into high school.
At the high school level students will be able to read this simple text with the help of a vocabulary list and scaffolding based upon level of Spanish proficiency. This text is rich with information that can be used to study literary movements, purpose of the author, culture, economics, environmental concerns, personal responsibility and values, and appreciation of nature based upon the particular interests of students to aid motivation to learn the language. They can analyze the author’s style, use of dialogue and word selection, write summaries, condensed versions for use by younger students, and personal essays regarding social and technological change. This can also be used as a model for creative writing projects for students’ personal work. Developmentally these students can discuss and debate abstract ideas and themes pertaining to the story.
Simple short stories such as Las abejas de bronce provide students with an opportunity to learn and use the target language within the context of a content rich environment incorporates material from other subject areas. This text can be modified for use by students of all ages and developmental levels with various activities appropriate for their learning styles and developmental capabilities. In conclusion, using a literary text as a unifying theme and language learning context is an effective approach that provides opportunity for adaptation, modification, and expansion of the L2 curriculum in a way that motivates students and caters to all of their learning needs. A curriculum unit using Las abejas de bronce would meet these standards while entertaining and teaching life lessons.