Objectives:

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

1. define common terms concerning family life.
   
2. evaluate the importance of the extended family in contemporary Nicaragua.
   
3. compare the Nicaraguan family structure to that of today’s American culture.
   

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Materials:

1. Student Handout: Family Life in Nicaragua
   
2. Poster board
   
3. Pictures of people from magazines and newspapers
   
4. Glue, tape, colored pencils (optional)
   

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Activities:

1. Distribute the student handout entitled Family Life in Nicaragua.
   
   a. Direct students to read the first four paragraphs of the handout.
   b. Place each of the following terms on the chalkboard and ask students to define them based on the information in the handout.
   - compadrazgo -- the relationship between a child's parents and the child's godparents.
   - Padrino -- godfather
   - Madrina -- godmother
   c. Ask students to explain the significance of godparents in Nicaraguan family life.
   d. Ask students to explain why the extended family has an important role in economic life.
   
   
2. Direct students to read the remaining paragraphs of the handout.
   
   a. Place the following term on the chalkboard and ask students to define it based on the information in the handout.
   - Machismo- eccentric male pride, where men believe they are superior: the "macho man".
   b. Explain that machismo means that a man cannot let anything detract from his image of himself as a man's man, regardless of the suffering it might bring on himself and the women around him.
   c. Reinforce that according to machismo the proof of every man's manliness was his ability to completely dominate his wife and children, to never let anyone question, deprecate or attempt to thwart his manhood, and never to reveal his true feelings to anyone lest they somehow take advantage of him.
   d. Ask students to evaluate the impact of machismo on family life, particularly upon Nicaraguan women.
   
   
3. Provide each student with a posterboard.
   
   a. Explain that each student is to imagine that he/she is from a Nicaraguan family, and the assignment is to create an extended family tree with all of their relatives using the following format:
   - The student should cut pictures out of magazines or newspapers for his/her "unique" family.
   - Direct students to glue pictures on the poster board creating the formation of a family tree.
   - Direct students to label the pictures of their family members with their name and position in the family, madre,
   padre, hermano, etc.)
   
   
4. Concluding Activity
   
   a. Direct students to write an essay comparing the similarities and differences in American family life to that of the Nicaraguan family life.
   OR
   b. Have students create a story about the family life of a child/woman/man in Nicaragua.
   

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