Text 5- Don Quixote (ELL, Gender, Culture)

     The story of Don Quixote is about this mid 50's Spainard (75 year old male in todays age), that has read so many books about "caballeros andantes" (knight) that he wants to become one even when they don't exist anymore in Spain and he is nearing a late stage in his life. Everyone thinks he has gone crazy but no one can stop him from taking off with Sancho Panza, his escudero (squire). They go on to find adventures that sometimes don't even exist in order to protect the honor of his Dulcinea that he has never even seen before. He goes on and fights some molinos (mills) that he thinks are dragons, even after Sancho has warned him that they just mills. But he did everything for his beloved Dulcinea.

Citation : Garcia Gonzalez, Luis Ignacio. "::: El Caballero Don Quijote : La Aventura De Los Molinos :::." ::: El Caballero Don Quijote : La Aventura De Los Molinos :::. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.


   I believe this story can be hard to read if you are reading the old Spanish version, because I read it this way and it was difficult. There are some words in there that no longer exist today, but its still a very fun story. I wanted to use this book, but I didn't know how to make it easier to understand with language that we use today until I stumbled upon this link. I believe this link is great because it gives you the essence of the story without adding too many extra things. I think this would be great for an ELL student because the text is provided but so are pictures to aid with comprehension. When ELL students know their language and are still learning English, learning a third language can be very challenging. That's why being able to use this extra help will help everyone in the classroom. If students still need additional help, the link can be provided for them to explore and play a couple of the games that are appropriate, like the ones recognizing characters, ordering scenes and just general questions. I know I have a student in class that is an ELL learner and has an IEP as well and when she see's only words she becomes scared and thinks it is too difficult to follow and that's why a story like this would be good for her to see and build confidence as well. I believe Don Quijote also teaches culture because "caballero andantes" is something that was very popular in Spain. Don Quijote is legendary and is a book that was considered a best seller for years and years. Everyone today has heard of at least the name of the book I'm sure, because it is that famous. This also represents the values of the culture and also the value of women. Dulcinea was Don Quijote's prized imaginary possession. It shows the value of  women in this stage of Spain's society. Women were people that didn't do much if they belonged to upper or even middle classes. Women were supposed to be beautiful because you will never read a book written in this time period  that talks about an ugly women or even prostitutes. Women were thought of being sacred, but Cervantes did start breaking this ideal because he wasn't scared to add prostitutes as characters or women that lost their virginity. Because if you loose your virginity and you're not married then you lost your honor and everything that you have in life and you might as well die as my professor Dr, Lopez would say. This could then connect to maybe why some Hispanics cultures still think this way of not having relationships till marriage and why my mother still thinks that why too...

(I only know this because I took SPA 502 and it was all about Don Quijote and I wrote a 10 page paper about women in this time period)


http://nea.educastur.princast.es/quixote/index2.htm