Objectives:

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Analyze Nicaraguan a song and poem to interpret their meaning.
   
2. Compare and contrast different perspectives represented in the song and poem.

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Materials:

1. Student Handout: Nicaragua Nicaragüita
   
2. Student Handout: Worksheet A
   
3. Audio clip: Nicaragua Nicaragüita
   
4. Student Handout: Nicaragua
   
5. Student Handout: Worksheet B

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Notes to the Teacher:

1. Perhaps the most famous of Nicaraguan songs, Nicaragua Nicaragüita was written directly after the Sandinista revolution in 1979 as the first song of the Canto Epico al FSLN. The Canto Epico is an epic song series written and performed by Carlos and Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy celebrating the revolution and recounting the events leading up to it.
   
2. Nicaragüita is also the name of the national flower, frangipani.
   
3. Diriangén was an Indian chief who resisted the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
   

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Activities:

1. Distribute the student handout entitled Nicaragua Nicaragüita.
   
   a. Direct students to underline cognates and known words.
   b. Play the audio clip (Nicaragua Nicaragüita) and direct students to follow along by reading the stanzas on the handout.
   c. Ask students to interpret the emotional tone of the song. What feeling about Nicaragua does the vocalist convey?
   
   
2. Distribute the student handout entitled Worksheet A.
   
   a. Divide the class into small groups to translate the song and to complete Worksheet A.
   b. Once students have completed the worksheet, ask students to report their findings and interpretations.
   
   
3. Distribute the student handouts entitled Nicaragua and Worksheet B.
   
   a. Ask students to follow along as you read the poem. (Alternately, you can ask for student volunteers to read various stanzas.)
   b. Again divide the class into small groups to discuss the meaning of the poem and to complete Worksheet B.
   c. Once students have completed the worksheet, ask students to report their findings and interpretations.
   
   
4. Conclude Activity by summarizing the students' findings and asking students for final impressions.

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