At M.S. 390, Andorra Comes Alive Through Comics

By: Asma Jaffrey, Global Classroom Intern

“Andorra? A country? Really?” said a student in Mr. Swander’s 6^th grade class at MS 390 on October 23, 2009. Global Guide Natali Martins, a Fulbright student studying at Teachers College, replied “yes there is, can you guess where it’s located on the map?” Students feverishly attempted to locate Andorra on a digital map, but could not find it and began to name all the continents. Finally a student said “Europe!!!” and from here, Natali took the students on a journey to a far away nation without leaving the walls of room 601.

To begin, students explored ‘cultural identity’ through an interactive activity called Cultural Diversity & Cultural Understanding. Each student paired up with a partner and filled out a Venn diagram with characteristics they had in common and characteristics that were different among them (for instance gender, phenotype, languages, tastes, backgrounds, experiences, family, heritage, dreams, projects, religion, etc.) To their surprise, the students had many things in common with one another that they did not know - even after being in the classroom together for almost two months!

To provide students with a rich cultural background on Andorra, Natali discussed the geographic composition, population size and language diversity of her small country. Natali presented students with several beautiful pictures of Andorra in a thoughtful manner; she designed every power point slide with a question and provided students with a choice of three answers. Students had to choose the right answer in order to move onto the next slide. Students saw pictures of various parts of Andorra, which they compared to New York City and other cities around the world.

To conclude her presentation, Natali introduced the class to an important tradition in Andorra called Diada de San Jordi, which is very similar to the American tradition of Valentines Day. Natali narrated a folk story connected to Diada de San Jordi through comics and asked the students to create a folk story from their culture through comic as a creative homework assignment.