Curriculum Resources
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Panama
Panama is a country on the isthmus linking Central and South America.
Lesson Guides and Classroom Activities
Grade Levels: 5–8
Subject Area(s): Language Arts
This lesson uses Margarita Engle's Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal and the oral storytelling project, Voices from Our America, to give students a more nuanced understanding of the people of the Panama Canal. Silver People presents various fictional and historical voices from the Panama Canal in poetic prose while Voices from Our America gives students a chance to interact with real voices from the Panama Canal. Ultimately, these resources allow for classroom discussions pertaining to race relations, power struggles, and the differences between race, nationality and ethnicity. What does it mean to be Spanish, Caribbean, American, Tennesseean, Nashvillian, etc.?