El capibara Chapters 10-14 & Assessments

We finished El capibara con botas by Mira Canion over a month ago, but I am just getting around to blogging about the end of the book. To be honest I have been avoiding it because we did not really do anything “blog-worthy” and as I get farther from finishing it, I forget what we even did :/

We completed it as the first-ever novel in Spanish 1. I went too slow to start, so by the end, it was dragging. I decided to power through the end very fast to try and end it on a positive note. This means this post will be quite short.

Teaching El capibara con botas Chapters 10-14

El capibara has a comprehensive teacher’s guide and you can find all posts I have for the novel using the label Capibara, including teaching chapters 1-4 & chapters 5-9.

Chapter 10

We read and discussed the chapter as a class.

To review chapters 9&10 we played the marker game with true/false statements.

Chapters 11&12

We discussed the cultural elements below in advance and then students read the chapters and completed this fill-in-the-blank as a review. (For those who finished early, I had this jaguar reading as an extension)

Quito (ch11)

Since chapter 11 is called Quito, we did a little research as a class about Quito to be able to compare it with cities around us. We checked it out on Google maps as well.

Ciclo de agua (ch12)

Chapter 12 is another good time to bring up the water cycle and the importance of plants for the environment.

Chapters 13&14

Reader’s Theater

As a class we read these two chapters as a group Reader’s theater style with actors. We completed chapter 13, stopped to discuss it a bit, and then did the last chapter.

Order of Events

Students used manipulatives to order events of the novel.

Novel Review

End of novel Quizlet

End of novel Kahoot

Assessments

During the novel, we did a reading assessment and a listening assessment.
In the end, I wanted to do interpersonal speaking and presentational writing.

For interpersonal speaking, I typed up a bunch of general questions about the novel in Spanish. These were printed, cut out, laminated and students used these to practice in class. My baby parrots Spanish students were not ready to create all their questions alone, so they got to draw these questions to provide support. After practicing a while some students could repeat questions without needing to draw one, but most appreciated that crutch. These could be used to practice in small groups, in inside/outside circles, or assessments where a couple comes up to the teacher’s desk for a summative assessment.

For a writing assessment, students were just asked to retell the novel in Spanish. We did a practice attempt in class the day before. On the day of the assessment, students just wrote in Spanish without using any notes or the book. I was quite impressed with how much they could retell!

My goal is to try and teach this book next semester with my 8th grade exploratory. They had one quarter of Spanish last year. The hope is this novel will be the main curriculum for their nine-week class. Of course, I will share how it goes.

I hope you and your family and friends enjoy a blessed and relaxing holiday weekend!

Updated resources & blog posts for teaching the novel

Planning for Capibara
Chapters 1-4
Chapters 5-9
Chapters 10-14

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Read more about: Capibara, novels

Allison Wienhold

Allison Wienhold of Mis Clases Locas has a decade of experience as a #deptof1 secondary Spanish teacher in Iowa. She enjoys creating curricula using novels, films, and music. Allison provides professional development to World Language teachers, including being the keynote speaker at MALT and Comprehensible Iowa, and workshop presenter at dozens of state & regional organizations, school districts, AEAs, and virtual conferences.