Habla Handboook: Chismografos

8/8/2019 Habla Handboook: Chismografos

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Chismgrafos

HABLA BEST PRACTICE HANDBOOK 2010writing

by Kur t Woo t ton


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HABLA BEST PRACTICE HANDBOOK 2010

was key or getting our class o teenage girls

to open up by answering un questions they

were interested in. I asked a group o our

Mexican teachers what kind o questions they

used to write about in their own chismgra-

os years ago and they shared questions like,

Which boy/girl do you like? What is your

avorite movie? Who is your avorite singer?

Who was the rst person you kissed? Whatis your avorite book?

We liked the idea o the chismgrao but the

questions that are typically asked lacked the

potential o developing stories in response.

So we took the concept o chismgraos

and used it with the art o bookmaking we

learned rom visiting artist Amanda Lichten-

stein o BreakArts.

The students made their own books with a

sheet o construction paper. As a title or their

mini-book, they each thought o an ending to

the line Tell me a story about . . . that they

wrote on the cover page. Students passed the

books around, sent them to other classes in

the school, and the books lled with stories.

Chismgrafos

We nd ideas or best practices in the most

unexpected places. One aternoon, our Habla

team o teachers was sitting around the table

thinking o possible ways to inspire our teen-

agers to write in our English classes. We knew

we wanted the teenagers to generate stories

in narrative orm, but i you teach middle

school or high school students you know its

dicult to motivate thirteen, ourteen, andteen year olds to simply write stories about

their lives!

Since we do place a great value on storytelling

at Habla, we needed to nd a way to inspire

the teenagers to write stories. Mara del Mar,

one o the co-directors o Habla, said, When

I was in high school we used to have these

notebooks, called chismgraos. We wrote

a question on each page, and then passed

the notebook around to dierent grades and

even dierent schools. All the other students

wrote their answers to the questions. The

word chismgrao combines the Spanish word

chisme which means gossip with the Greek

sux graphia which means a style o writing.

This type o casual and unrestrained writing

An Habla Original Activity

This activity was developed by Mara del Mar

Patrn Vzquez, Amy Lehrburger, and Kurt

Wootton as a way o teaching literacy and

language. It is now a key activity used in Habla

language classrooms with students o all ages.


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We adapted the process or our language

classrooms by adding an extra step or revi-

sion o the students narratives. Beore stu-

dents write in a classmates book, they write

a drat o their story in their own notebooks.

A native speaker edits the original text with

the student beore each drat was publishedin a chismgrao. This natural process led to

conversations about vocabulary and gram-

mar that were authentic and embedded in the

need to tell the story.

When we introduced the activity in the class-

room, students everishly wrote their own

stories and scrambled to read each others

responses to prompts they had generated including:

Tell me a story about your unniest experience.

Tell me a story about the best thing you have done with

your riends

Tell me a story about the best party that you ever went to.

Tell me a story about the worst experience o your entire lie.

Tell me a story about the happiest moment in your lie.

Tell me a story about the last time you were araid.


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and a ront and a back. There are many instruc-

tions or bookmaking available on-line with

videos and photo explanations.

3. Design the cover.The students artully

create a cover page or their books, writing

their Tell me a story about... titles and

decorating the empty space. The title needs to

be clear enough so that other students, when

they receive the book, will understand the

prompt and be able to tell their stories.

At Habla we provided the class with colored

permanent markers to write their title and de-sign their covers with borders and illustrations.

4. Write and edit. Students rst write their

own stories in their own books. Ater refect-

ing on the narratives they want to share, they

write the rst drat o their story on a separate

piece o paper. Each drat is reviewed or

grammar and spelling. These mini-conerences

Procedure

1. Select the story. Students will create their

own books during the class. Beore you start,

ask students to brainstorm possible prompts

or their books beginning with the phrase,Tell me a story about... Oer them some

examples. Ask them to invent an original

prompt to be the ocus o their book. Encour-

age them to choose a prompt that they would

like to respond to with their own story. Check

to make sure all the topics are both genera-

tive and appropriate.

2. Make the book.There are many simplebook structures that can be made with one

or two pieces o construction paper. Choose a

structure with no ewer than 6 pages and ask

the students to create a simple book using

colored paper. We opted or a simple struc-

ture in which students old one sheet into

eight quadrants, resulting in 6 inside pages


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between student and teacher might also be

used to have larger conversations about how

to write an eective story. Nancie Atwells

bookIn the Middle is an excellent resource

or how to structure writing conerences. In

Hablas classrooms, since our students are

learning a language, we coner with students

quickly and work with them on how to cor-

rect grammar mistakes and misspelled words.

Students are motivated to get it right be-

cause they know their peers will be reading

their work in the nal books.

5. Publish. When each drat is approved,

students then publish the work in the chis-

mgrao. Using a variety o pens and markers,

students write and illustrate their stories.

6. Pass, read and share. Ater students pu-

blish their stories, they pass their books along

to other students. Repeat the writing, editing,

and publishing process in a relaxed atmosphe-

re. When the books begin to ll up, students

will be eager to read the new chapters. Let

students talk about their stories, ask questions,

and guess who the authors are.

In the tradition o the chismgao, the

books can be passed beyond the classroom,

rom class to class, or even school to school.Language and literacy learning is about the

sharing o stories, nding the words to des-

cribe ourselves and the world around us. The

chismgao, borrowed rom popular Mexican

youth culture, places writing and language

learning in the hands o the students.


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Habla is an educational center and lab school based in Mrida,Yucatn, Mxico,

dedicated to ostering school environments that promote the success o all

students rom multiple cultural backgrounds. For teachers, artists, and school

leaders, Habla oers: cultural and language experiences, teacher institutes,

and an annual international educational orum.

www.habla.org.

Habla Handboook: Chismografos

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