Southwest Children's  Literature

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The First Tortilla: A Bilingual Story

After hearing the story and making their own tortillas, third-grade students at Ruth Powell Elementary School were asked to respond to this story by identifying the character traits exhibited by the main character, predicting the culture represented in the book, and writing and illustrating a paragraph about their experience. Here are some of their responses.

"I like the story The First Tortilla because it's pretty much about a girl who is trying to help her family and her village. They need rain so they can grow squash and so they can eat." Alyssa

Alyssa's drawing

 

"From this story I learned about how they get corn flour. It is cool. You have to get a large stone and rock and corn and crush the corn until it looks like powder." Becca


Jessica's drawing
"What I learned about corn is you can make corn tortillas out of corn like Jade did. I also like that you can pick corn and cook it." Jessica

"Today I made a tortilla. Here are some steps about how to make tortillas. First it's obvious that you need dough. Then you pat it down as thin as it gets. Then you cook it. Last you eat it. Mine was so so so so so delicious!!!!" Dylan
"When Jade went to the Mountain Spirit he gave her all the corn the ants kept in the cave. She made tortillas from it and shared them with her village." Sydney
Sydney's drawing

Brian incorporated the fact that The First Tortilla was bilingual by using both English and Spanish in his story "The Pequeño Tortilla."

"Mi thought the tortillas were muy delicioso! First I went palma, palma, palmadita! Second mi cooked the tortilla! Third mi ate the tortilla! ¡Yum¡ ! Deliciso! Mi love tortillas!

Students were able to identify a variety of traits exhibited by the story's protagonist. Some of their responses included….
Vintonique's drawing
Vintonique believed Jade was "brave because she went to the Mountain Spirit by herself, happy because she always had a beautiful smile on her face and adventurous because she climbed mountains and climbed back."

Alyssa
thought Jade was "kind because she shared her recipe with the village, smart for finding the recipe for a tortilla and brave because she climbed the mountain to see the Mountain Spirit."

Renee said Jade was "caring because she cared about her village so much she went to the Mountain Spirit, a believer because she believed the bird and the mountain could help her and smart because she learned how to make tortillas."

Taylor felt Jade was "thankful because she brought the Mountain Spirit a gift, brave because she did something very dangerous and caring because she helped her village."

Kristin said, "The little ants were carrying corn. To me when Jade was there she was kind to the ants for giving her corn. I think she was being thankful to the Mountain Spirit for giving them rain and good crops for the season. She was brave because she went to the Mountain Spirit and said we need rain for our crops or we will go hungry. I think she was being adventurous because she went through all of the weird things that happened to her on the way like the Mountain Spirit coming alive and talking with her." Kristin's drawing

Students were encouraged to use both text and picture clues to infer the culture represented in the story. Here are some of their ideas.

Karly predicted Jade was from Mexico because of "the dress she wears, the canyons and all the crops that grow there."

Taylor felt Jade was from New Mexico because "her dress looks like it is from New Mexico, the symbols in the pictures, and it is a desert there."

Renee thought the Jade was from Mexico "cause it's hot and dry there, there are symbols in the boxes and the clothes she wears look like Mexico."

Mariah's drawing

Mariah who drew this picture of Jade meeting the Mountain Spirit guessed Jade was from Mexico because "they speak Spanish in the story, they have dark skin and they dress like Mexicans of long ago."