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Mary Buren Elementary Students were invited to sing, rap, and read poetry to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu at Allan Hancock College on Thursday morning, October 23, 2008. Mr. Cuello’s “Kids From Room #36, also known as Cali Kids, sang, rapped and read poetry to Mrs. Menchu, high school students, Allan Hancock College students, and community members. The students treated the approximately 100 audience members to songs featuring the California State Standards, and poetry about Native Americans. The songs included “Guess Who’s Back,” “I’m Going to College,” and the ever popular “A,E,I,O,U.”
Mr. Cuello’s students were the only elementary students invited by the college to participate at the special community event because they are known for their contributions to the community. His class has historically always being involved in events in the local community. The students in the past have read poetry at community events in Guadalupe (Children’s Festival) Cal Poly State University (College of Education) Chicano Youth Conference, University of California Santa Barbara (Chicano Studies Department). Last year they performed in front of over 200 Cal Poly students and local teachers, along with me and children’s poets Brod Bagert, and song writer Gary Dulabaum. My student’s contributions to the community have been featured at statewide conferences including CABE (California Association for Bilingual Education) AMAE (Association of Mexican American Educators) and IRA (International Reading Association). “Service to the community has always been a big part of the curriculum for my students,” said Mr. Cuello. The students researched Rigoberta Menchu’s life on the internet. The used Goggle and other search engines to search for important facts about Mrs. Menchu to help learn about the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Winner from Guatemala. They discovered her hardships growing up as a Mayan in a war torn country, where she and her family endured great pains. The curriculum for 4th grade covers the local
indigenous (Native Americans) tribes, so the students found it very interesting
to learn about Menchu. She being of Mayan culture the student natural inquires
about her lead me to directed lessons towards the Mayans in the classroom. The
students learned about the Mayan calendar or the Tzolk'in calendar combines
twenty day names with the thirteen numbers of the trecena cycle to produce 260
unique days, their mathematics (units of 20 instead of 10), study of stars, and
the invention of the zero, a major contribution to the field of mathematics by
the Mayans. After learning about Menchu, the 28 fourth graders formed
into 4 groups and as cooperative groups created poems in honor of Menchu. The
poems included acrostic poems using her name. The students not only wrote the
poems, but acted out the ideas and concepts behind the words. The students were
given time in class to rehearse their poems, and practice their songs and raps.
The students were very excited to be invited to perform and honored to be the
only elementary school at the event. Before the Menchu speech, the fourth graders performed at Allan Hancock College stage for the audience. The students engaged the audience in their songs/rap. “I was very impressed to see community members singing along the chorus with the students. It just goes to show you how influential Xicanito students can be,” said Mr. Cuello. After their performance Mr. Cuello’s students listened to the words of wisdom and peace provided by Mrs. Menchu. The students took pictures with the Nobel Laureate and received many words of praise from her and audience members. The event at Allan Hancock was memorable for all participants especially the youth in attendance. Below are examples of the acrostic poems the students wrote
for Mrs. Menchu Respectful Memory Rose Intelligent Excellent Imagine Guatemala Nice Guatemala Beautiful Cool Ocean Enter Helpful Enter Rigoberta Unique Rigoberta Talented True Artistic Artistic We would like to thank Allan Hancock College for inviting the Mary Buren Elementary Cali Kids From Room 36 to participate in such a fine and historical event. Jaime Cuello Commendation Letter |
