Inside: Resources for teaching the novel El capibara con botas in Spanish class. Front-loading culture and vocab before teaching the novel. How to get ready to teach your first novel in Spanish class
El capibara con botas – Spanish class novel
I mentioned in my curriculum plan for this year that I was going to add the novel El capibara con botas by Mira Canion for the first time.
The book came out after I had already made my big curriculum purchase last Spring, but I knew it would be a perfect culture-filled first novel. I even wrote about ideas for the novel last summer here – libro lunes – El capibara con botas.
So this year, I asked if I could use my yearly “classroom supply” allowance instead to buy a class set of novels. It was approved and I would much rather have books than supplies. (I can buy those cheaply myself at back-to-school sales:)
El capibara con botas – student’s prior knowledge
This year my freshman Spanish 1’s previous Spanish knowledge includes two separate quarter-long exploratory Spanish classes over the last two years. They have done the first few SOMOS units, special person interviews, my High-Frequency Verb Unit, some Sr. Wooly songs, and other various cultural units.
I plan to use the novel El capibara con botas towards the end of the first quarter of Spanish 1. Also, I will use it during my 8th grade exploratory Spanish second semester.
Pre-load Vocab for El capibara con botas
To prepare for the vocabulary in the novel, I plan to start the year in Spanish 1 with a review of the Super 7 high-frequency verbs as well as special person interviews using my High-Frequency Verb Unit. We will also do Martina Bex’s SOMOS unit 5 which focuses on is feeling, has and goes.
I like to try to pre-teach most of the key vocabulary before even starting the book. Otherwise, students get bored if the novel takes too long if you try and add too many new words before a chapter.
However, I do like to pick out a few keywords from each chapter to reinforce again right before reading. I usually do this through PQA (personalized questions and answers), but charades or TPR can be used as well. This helps students feel confident as I read the chapter to them.
Pre-load Content for El capibara con botas
Before actually starting reading, I also like to have students dig into the culture of the novel. Luckily this book is chock full of culture since it is set in the Amazon of Ecuador.
I am hoping to try and do something cross-curricular with the science teacher involving the water cycle, the Galapagos Islands, animals of the Amazon, rainforests, or other similar themes. I know that most of my students have never left the country, let alone Iowa. So they need a lot of background knowledge to fully understand the setting and characters in the book.
Capybaras
Since most students have never seen this animal, or maybe even heard of it, we will do some research and watch some videos to get a better feel. Hopefully, they will fall in love with the giant rodents 🙂 I created this digital stations activity with capybaras and Ecuador, to allow students to do a little research on their own using their Chromebooks. If technology is not on our side we will just do the stations traditional style around the room with the resources printed and videos downloaded.
Also, here are a few videos that we might use to introduce the capibara. Since most are in English, I may mute some and do them movietalk style.
I love teaching about geography and exposing my small-town students to amazing new parts of the world. It’s important to spend some time learning about the country that our novels are set in before beginning the book. I wanted a basic novice level reading about Ecuador, so I created one. It has three sections focusing on the geography, culture, and rainforest of Ecuador. It has a lot of cognates and the same high-frequency vocabulary as the book. You can download the reading and comprehension questions here.
Teaching the novel El capibara con botas
Once the background vocab and cultural knowledge are established, I will start reading the book. I plan to do about one chapter per day once we get rolling with the book.
Since it is a novice-level class, I will most likely read to the students and all of our activities will be in class. I do not know what we will be doing day by day yet, but there are lots of ideas for novel activities searching the label novels. The plan will be to blog about our journey reading the book along the way. I am excited to read a book this early in the year in Spanish 1 and I hope it is a big confidence builder.
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Updated resources & blog posts for teaching the novel El capibara con botas
More resources for teaching the novel El capibara con botas
- Critical Thinking Activity – Kelly Ferguson
- Kahoot – Ch1-4 Capibara
- Quizlets of Vocab – Capibara
- Quizlet – End of novel comprehension ?’s
- miscositas – lots of Capibara resources
- Miscositas – capibara mini unit
My El capibara con botas Pinterest Board for more ideas for cultural expansion.
Have you taught El capibara con botas? Please share any additional resources in the comments!
FYI if you are here looking for El capibara con botas free PDF or El capibara con botas in English, I am sorry to disappoint you.
Want to learn more about teaching with novels?
Before you start…
Teaching Whole-Class Novels
- how to teach a novel – a typical day.
- 20 activities for teaching with novels.
- post-reading ideas
- Mix it Up! Reading TPRS novels as a class
- How to Assess a Novel
Other Ways to Teach with Novels
Ideas for specific Spanish 1 Whole-Class Novels
(Sorted from easiest to hardest)
- El capibara con botas.
- Brandon Brown quiere un perro.
- Tumba
- Peter va a Colombia.
- El Silbón de Venezuela.
- El Ekeko.
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