The novel Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha is a compelling drama about life and death in the MS-13 gang.  We read it in level 4 and I always like to do a lot of pre-reading activities to prepare the students for the novel.  I give them vocabulary that they need to acquire, background cultural knowledge, and I hook them.   Here is what I do to accomplish that.

• Unit Hook from Kristy Placido:  “Recruiting Day”  Have an administrator come in and “remove” a couple students.  Read more about this hook HERE.
• Background Info on El Salvador:  In order for the students to better understand the culture and history of the novel, I briefly talk about El Salvador and its civil war.  I make sure to talk about the FMLN and about the recruiting of 12 year old for the war.  I use the slideshow found on this site.
• Film Study.  We watch Voces Inocentes before reading the novel.  It is a powerful film that shows the instability of El Salvador during the war.  It is a great lead in to the novel.  Kara Jacobs has great discussion questions on her blog.
• Essential Questions.  I give them this essential questions sheet as a guide through out the unit.  They answer the questions as we discuss the film and the novel.
• Pre-teach vocabulary.  I pre-teach a lot of the vocabulary structures from the novel using TPR.  I used this TPR story as a way to do that.  I had students act out the story as I read it.
• After about two weeks of pre-reading activities, we are ready to start the novel.
• The teacher’s guide has a lot of great activities for this novel.  It is a must buy!
• Other resources for this novel:
  • Carrie Toth has activities for many chapters
  • Sharon Birch has many great activities
  • Mike Peto has activities for the song “Casas de cartón”
  • Allison Wienhold has an awesome list of resources for this novel