Teaching the novel Tumba

Inside: Resources for teaching the novel Tumba in Spanish class. Lesson plans for every chapter if the novel Tumba. FYI this is not where you would find Tumba by Mira Canion pdf.

Teaching the Novel Tumba

As a part of my Spanish 1 expansion Culture & Civilization class, we are reading Tumba by Mira Canion. It is now my third time teaching the novel, and it gets better each time.

My first time with the book I posted each chapter with ideas. I am including links to the original plans, along with what did this time. We have 60-minute classes and typically do 1 chapter with expansion activities per day. For more ideas, here are all posts with the label Day of the Dead.

All Tumba Blog Posts (updated)

Introducing the novel Tumba

Cultural reading about Mexico with questions
Video with activities by Elena Lopez
Embedded reading for Tumba with activity
Discuss the geography of Ciudad Mante & author’s note with materials from the teacher’s guide

Tumba – Chapter 1

Read & discuss the chapter as a class.
Compare our school to both a private school and public school in Mexico using the pictures & school schedules in the teacher’s guide.
The next day reviewed the chapter by completing a cloze activity of the chapter using target vocab.

Tumba – Chapter 2

Looked at pictures of Day of the Dead to spark discussion.
Students read the chapter on their own. We then listened to the audiobook, pausing to discuss as we went.
Students completed a timeline activity by Elena Lopez & we discussed it.
We discussed “Calavera” poems. Students wrote their own and read them to the class. (With a bigger class earlier in the year we did a 2-line retelling, sharing poems to one partner at a time).

Chapter 3 of Tumba

Since the chapter is titled “Altares” before reading it we watched and discussed this video & this infographic.
We also watched this video for more visuals of the holiday.
While reading I drew out the family tree on the board to try to keep all of the new characters straight.

Tumba Chapter 4

Before starting the chapter, we used the comprehensible reading and questions on the Mexican Revolution from the teacher’s guide. This gave more background on the history of Mexico for this culture class, as well as giving context for the buried treasure in the book.
At this point, the students found the actual book quite easy to easy, so they read the chapter on their own, and then we discussed it.
We looked at pictures of typical foods in Mexico, as well as watch this video about how to make tamales.
To review the chapter on Monday, students used images of the chapter from the teacher’s guide to do a free write describing what happened. We shared these to review as a class.

Tumba – Chapter 5

We listened to multiple versions of the traditional song “Cielito Lindo.” We also watched this Coca-Cola ad , which shows whole stadiums of soccer fans singing the song.
After reading and discussing the chapter, where Sergio flirts with Alex’s little sister, we discussed pick up lines in Spanish.

Chapter 6 of Tumba

Using pictures from the teacher’s guide, we compared cemeteries in the US and those in Mexico using PQA.
Students explored pictures of caves in Mexico from my original Chapter 6 post to see the variety an beauty of caves in the region.
After reading the (very short) chapter, students worked with a partner to put together sentences from the chapter (activity from Elena Lopez). They then put the sentences in order of the chapter, used their books to check, and then retold the chapter in Spanish and English to their partner. To finish, we reviewed the chapter as a class.

Tumba Chapter 7

Using pictures from the teacher’s guide, we discussed Ciudad Mante.
Students came up with 2 truths and a lie (Mentiroso) about chapter 7. They wrote them on small pieces of paper, I read them, and students guessed which was the lie.
After reading chapter 7, students made an 8 box storyboard to review what had happened in the book so far. They used one box for each chapter 1-7, and one box for their predictions for the rest of the book.

Tumba Chapter 8

To intro the vocabulary, students worked in partners to sort words from the chapter into categories of their choice. See this post for possible extensions to this activity and other ideas for this chapter. Students explained their choices of categories and how the words fit.
Using an activity from the teacher’s guide, students read a passage of the chapter that goes back and forth between telling a story in the past and the present and identifying which verbs were past tense and was present. They justified why they thought each word was past or present and we spent a little time looking at how you could identify based on context or the word ending. Pop up grammar in context at its finest!

Chapters 9&10

After reading chapter 9, students create 10 question true/false quizzes to give out loud to multiple partners.
Students practice interviews of the characters by matching up questions and answers provided in the supplemental section of the teacher’s guide.
When we finish the book, we will discuss how Alex, the main character changed throughout the books and students will take a Chapter 10 Kahoot.

Assessments for the novel Tumba

Students will complete both an interpersonal speaking and presentational writing assessment.
For the interpersonal speaking they will use authentic pictures from the teacher’s guide to ask each other questions about the book, including the school, home, city, Mexico, day of the Dead, etc. They could also compare these elements in the book to their lives.
For presentational writing, they will choose one or more aspects above from the book to compare to their lives.

You can find all resources for Tumba here.

You can find more resources for the Day of the Dead Here.

Other Novel resources you may enjoy

Coco – Movie Guide

As an extension, I usually teach the movie El Libro de Vida, but now I use Coco. Here is my Coco – movie guide or El Libro de Vida – movie guide

Please share other ideas for this novel in the comments!

Want to learn more about teaching with novels?

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Teaching Whole-Class Novels

Other Ways to Teach with Novels

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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.

Teaching the novel Tumba