I love teaching with Spanish poems for children, and I am so impressed by how fun and useful Douglas Wright’s poems are with Spanish language learners. It is authentic language that really works with my students! Douglas Wright is a well-known children’s author and illustrator from Argentina. As a humorist, artist and author, his work consistently includes literature suitable for many levels. I also appreciate the content; his poems deal with the experiences of children and their relationships with others and the natural world. I am hoping that someone in the publishing world will compile a book of his Spanish poems for children specifically for children learning the language and include language activities. It would be a wonderful resource for our classes!
For the time being, those of you who live in New York, Miami or other big cities may want to ask if your bookstores can get Douglas Wright’s new book Rimando Ando. Quite a few of the poems from the book are available on his blog El jardín de Douglas and from what I have seen there, it is perfect for children learning Spanish. The posts Walking and talking in Spanish and One pretty poem are also about Spanish poems for children by Douglas Wright and include suggested activities.
Fortunately for us, Douglas is generous with his work. He shares his poetry and art on his blog and on La biblio de los chicos. The poem, Apurados, apurados is one of many you can find online. This poem works well with Spanish language learners because of the simple, natural language, the repetition and the rhythm. Questioning where everyone is going in such a hurry is an experience that speaks to people of all ages.
You can read the poem and see Douglas Wright’s artwork at Apurados, apurados. I am including it here with a simple translation for meaning. Thanks Douglas! Suggestions for using the poem with Spanish language learners follow.
Apurados, apurados por Douglas Wright
Apurados, apurados, / In a hurry, in a hurry,
todos andan apurados; / everyone is in a hurry.
yo me pregunto ¿hacia dónde?, / I wonder – where are they heading?
me pregunto ¿a qué lugar? / I wonder – to where?
Apurados, apurados, / In a hurry, in a hurry,
todos andan apurados; / everyone is in a hurry.
dicen “¡permiso, permiso!”, / They say, “Excuse me! Excuse me!”
dicen “¿me deja pasar?” / They say, “Will you let me by?”
Apurados, apurados, / In a hurry, in a hurry,
todos andan apurados; / everyone is in a hurry.
¿por qué van tan apurados?, / Why are they in such a hurry?
¿adónde quieren llegar? / Where do they want to get to?
Possible activities to use with the poem Apurados apurados:
1. Answer the questions posed by the poem and related questions:
¿Cómo se sabe que una persona está apurada? ¿Qué hace una persona que lo demuestra? / How do you know that a person is in a hurry? What does a person do that shows she is in a hurry?
¿Adónde van las personas que tienen tanta prisa? / Where are people going in such a hurry?
¿Por qué están tan apurados? / Why are they hurrying?
¿Dónde se ve a personas así? / Where do you see people like this?
¿Otras personas te ven a ti y piensan que estás apurado? / Do people see you and think that you are in a hurry?
2. Use the poem to talk about Buenos Aires and other cities:
Douglas Wright vive en Buenos Aires, Argentina. ¿Qué sabes de esa ciudad? / Douglas Wright lives in Buenos Aires. What do you know about that city?
¿La gente está tan apurada por todo el mundo? / Do you think people hurry this way all over the world?
¿Cuáles son las ciudades de otros países que son como Buenos Aires? / What cities in other countries do you think are similar to Buenos Aires?
3. Talk about the expressions permiso and ¿me deja pasar?:
¿Dices permiso en la calle? ¿En qué momentos lo dices o lo escuchas? / Do you say excuse me on the street? When do you say it or hear it?
¿Qué haces cuando alguien te dice permiso o me deja pasar? /
What do you do when people say excuse me to pass you on the street?
¿Por qué dicen las personas en el poema me deja pasar en vez de me dejas pasar? ¿Cuál es la diferencia? / Why do the people in the poem use verb form deja instead of dejas? What is the difference?
4. Act out the poem. One student can represent the observer as the others hurry about. Everyone recites the first two lines of each stanza together. The observer recites the other lines, except for “permiso” and “me deja pasar” Three different students can recite the observer’s lines, one for each stanza.
5. Draw the street represented in the poem. What else do you see and hear on the street? What do people say? Include captions in bubbles above the heads of the people to show what they are saying.
6. Change the adjective apurados to another adjective. Work together as a class to change the questions to match the new adjective and create a new poem. Talk about how the visual image of the street changes. Draw the new scene. Possible adjectives include enojados, enamorados, tan cansados, asustados, muy callados, etc.
7. Practice with vocabulary by showing photos of street scenes and people. Students describe the people in the photos using apurado, apresurado, relajado, calmado, etc.
8. Ask students to find the rhyming words in the poem (pasar, lugar, llegar). Ask students to think of other words that rhyme with these.
9. Although the poem is short and focused on one subject, the voice in the poem is clear and distinctive. As readers we know what the narrator sees, what he hears and what he thinks. Look at the art that goes with the poem (click to enlarge). Identify the person that represents the voice in the poem. Choose one of the other people in the picture and write a paragraph about what the person sees, hears and thinks. Try to focus the paragraph on one subject the way that the poem does.
10. Assign individual students or pairs to choose another poem by Douglas Wright to share with the class. There are many poems available on La biblio de los chicos and his blog El Jardín de Douglas.
Assign students to research the author, Douglas Wright. You can provide specific questions for them to answer based on the information available online.
