Don Quixote de la Mancha is the most famous novel of the Spanish Golden age and is considered to be the work from which modern western literature originated. It was written between 1605 and 1615 by Miguel Cervantes. The central character is a nobleman, Don Quixote, who has read too many books on chivalry. He sets off on his horse accompanied on his adventures by his servant Sancho Panza. In a central scene in the book he comes across windmills in La Mancha and mistakes them for Giants. He stabs the 'giant' with his lance and gets caught up in the sails of the windmill and is spun around. Many of our most common expressions in English come from this novel including:-Out of the frying pan and into the fire
-It all comes out in the wash
-The pot calling the kettle black
-Tilting at windmills
-The proof of the pudding is in the eating
-All that glistens is not gold
-Tell me thy company and I will tell thee who thou art
Miguel Cervantes
As part of our Book Week activities, I asked Lucía and Begoña to visit every class in the school and give an interactive lesson on the Spanish classic, Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes. Begoña worked with Infants to Second class and gave an outstanding interactive session based around the scene in the book where Don Quixote mistakes 40 windmills for giants and decides to do battle with them. The children acted the scene out in a drama and produced a little book of images and vocabulary as well as producing masks. Lucía worked with third to sixth class and had an equally dynamic seminar telling them about the characters of Don Quixote (who represents our noble self) and Sancho Panza (who represents our lazy self).
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza by Pablo Picasso
Begoña's Experience
Hello everybody! I have to say that the first time that I heard that I was going to teach “Don Quixote” I felt afraid, because it is a huge book and it´s very famous! After we had chosen the story, we thought about the main objective, which was that the children would learn the story and enjoy it.
Then the first lesson arrived and I was afraid. What if they didn´t like it? It wasn’t the first time that I was going to teach the classes, so why I was so nervous? I took a deep breath and I started to talk. Thank God it all went perfectly. The children enjoyed the story of “Don Quixote and the Windmills” and they loved the drama we did! I think that I started to learn to teach the first moment that I stood in front of a class. Now I could feel the difference between the first lesson I taught and this last one. My confidence grew. I have to say that I was a little exhausted trying to keep going during the lesson and I’m grateful that I had the 6 lessons on different days, because I had more time to prepare different activities and to change the methodology according to the feedback I got from the children and teachers.
For me these lessons were the best experience in my life! I will use them again without a doubt.
Lucía's Experience
When I was first told that we were going to teach something about Don Quixote, I thought I would not be able to do it! It is tough to speak for a long time in a language that it is not your mother tongue, so I had to go through a lot of preparation with the vocabulary, activities and materials. Luckily, the teachers offered us invaluable help.The six sessions in two days were exhausting, but it was completely rewarding to see that they had learnt and understood the story. I enjoyed it as much as they did! Of course all hard work was worth it!
