About This Lesson
Unit 6, 90 Miles to Havana, focuses on Latin American history, specifically the Cuban Revolution. At the end of the unit, students will have the opportunity to compare/contrast the Cuban Revolution as presented in informational text and historical fiction and analyze the value of each type of text.
This unit is difficult to classify in terms of a single literary genre. We have identified the unit as a memoir. CKLA Units 1 and 2 introduced Grade 6 students to the idea of identity—what makes us who we are. This unit gives students an additional opportunity to think about and discuss more about identity in literature and in their own lives.
Students will read 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis. In this book, the author reflects on and writes about his experience leaving Cuba when he was a boy at the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. Students will observe how the protagonist’s identity is defined by and changes in the eyes of others as a result of new environments and experiences.
In terms of literary skills, students will also focus on various skills, including pronoun-antecedent agreement, frequently confused words, and roots and prefixes shared with Spanish. During the writing portions of the lessons, students will write business communications.
