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The Corrido Lesson
By Pamela Gray

Overview

Desperately wanting to experience some solitude from a large family in a small apartment, Esmeralda, draws a bath and begins to sing loudly "corridos about traitorous lovers and revolutionaries." (p. 51) Pirates and revolutionaries have long been the topics of this form of poetry. Roberto Cofresi y Ramirez de Arellano has been touted as Puerto Rico's bravest pirate before 1825, when he was put to death for plundering merchant vessels in the Caribbean. To this day, Cofresi continues to live in song and in legend of the corrido.

The corrido, a ballad, tells a story in a multi-stanza poem. The term originates from the Spanish verb corer, which means to run. The corrido's story "runs" without pausing for chorus or repetition. Introduced to Puerto Rico from the Spanish romantic ballads of the 16th century, the corrido is found in former colonies throughout the world. The most popular and widely known corridos are from Mexico and the American Southwest.  While folklorists argue the exact birthplace of the present day corrido, most indicate the Mexican-American War and the Texas-Mexico border as the timeframe and location where the largest body of these ballads were written.

These Border Corridos deal predominately with heroes facing historic situations. The most famous of these is "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez." The decade of the 1930s--the period of migrant labor struggles and the American Civil Rights Movement--marked a distinctive change in the themes. No longer isolated to heroes, corridos now told the story of innocent victims and cruel injustices and ended with a hope for change and collective action. "Discriminacion a un martir" and "El 29 de Agosto" are examples of this new victim genre.

This lesson allows the flexibility for a two-day to one-week development, depending on the level and background of the students.  In many colleges and universities, corridos are taught in Spanish; but for this lesson, you can use either Spanish or English.   

Objectives

Students will:

  • Recognize elements of Hispanic poetry.
  • Comprehend language, tone, theme, and form of the corrido poem.
  • Evaluate student-written and -published corridos.
  • Write a poem that models the themes and forms of a traditional corrido.
  • Write and use a poetry concept journal.
  • Recognize the important poetic differences in translated corrido poems and those written in Spanish.

Skills Attained

Students will be able to:

  • Develop and expand their appreciation of poetry by reading and writing poems.
  • Use and develop interpersonal communication skills through paired writing and evaluation.
  • Write poetry in a format that meets the rubric standards.
  • Develop and improve their oral reading skills.
  • Practice using a poetry rubric for evaluation.

Lesson Outline

I.  Anticipatory Set

Poetry Idea Journal (10-15 minutes):  Have students identify, define, and give examples on one or all of the following topics, then create quick writes, journal entries, or notes on them:

  • bravery;
  • love of family;
  • love of country;
  • a favorite journey or trip;
  • a person they admire, an adventure they would like to have; and/or
  • a goal they hope to achieve. 

II.  Topic library

1.  Assign students to bring the following: (homework: 5-30 minutes)

    • article from a newspaper or magazine describing a heroic act by an ordinary person.
    • newspaper or magazine article describing someone who was mistreated by society or government with details of the incident.
    • student-written description or copy from a book or magazine describing a modern day or historic event where someone acted heroically.
    • photocopy or handwritten description of an historical incident where a person or group of people were mistreated or involved in a tragic event.

2.  To help students select a topic, first make several photocopies of each student's contributions and place them in a folder. Then, over a two-week period, give them time to read incidents other students have submitted. They do this during roll taking, a waiting period when they've done an assignment early, or if they arrive early to class. You can also have a mass general reading in one class period. 

3.  Allow students to select article. (10-15 minutes per article)

4.  Next, introduce students to the verse form by reading any of the corridos in this lesson or one you've selected from the corrido web resources at the end of this lesson plan. Then, ask students to consider the event answering the questions below, either in a guided classroom discussion, their journals, or their homework. If their work is written, have them also discuss the various interpretations. (15-20 minutes)

    • What were the details leading up to the incident? 
    • What is the writer's value judgment? 
    • Why is this judgment correct or incorrect? 
    • What would the student do if faced with the same situation? 
    • What is the historical context of the corrido?
    • Why was the corrido written?
    • What does the poet want the listener to do with the event?

5.  Then, pair students together, hand out copies of another corrido, and have the pairs list the following:  rhyme pattern, syllable count, poetic devices, details of language usage, form of the corrido, themes, tone, and interpretation. (Depending on the level and background of the class, this part of the assignment might take an entire class period.)

You can use these identifications to reinforce students' prior poetry study or to introduce new elements. As corridos can be written in Spanish or English, you can give fluent Spanish speakers or Limited English speakers the same corrido in Spanish and ask them to do the same assignment.

6.  Then, have students discuss their observations, allowing the discussion to continue until all students feel they have mastered the format, content, and syllable count.

7.  Next, instruct students to create, in pairs, their own corridos from their Idea Journal, magazine/newspaper article, or historic event. (20 minutes)

Note that the corrido is a ballad form--the majority those listed as sources in this lesson plan follow a simple four-line stanza with eight syllables on each line where the last word of the second and forth line rhyme . As some students may find identifying syllables challenging, music from web sites or on compact disks may help them. For example, Los Lobos and Lalo Guerrero's CD, "Papa's Dream" includes "Route 90," a basic corrido that uses the same syllable count and rhyme pattern as this lesson does. While muting or turning down the volume for the vocal, have the class tap their feet or hum the rhythm of the music. Some students find this "humming" count, rather than a traditional syllable count, easier to use when constructing their corridos. ("Corrido For Papa Lalo," on the same CD, explains the corrido form in song, although it uses a different syllable count and rhyme pattern.)  

8.  Have students pairs exchange their corridos, give a blank rubric to each pair, then have them write an evaluation of the new corrido. (15-20 minutes)

9.  Return the corrido and evaluation to the creating pair and allow them to amend their poems, as necessary.

10.  Depending on time constraints, allow students to share their corridos with the class, either by presenting them with music, developing them into a display with artwork, or using them in a poetry slam contest.

11. You could them have students discuss the differences in rhyme and language between the Spanish and English corridos. (This is important for modern corridos that might involve satire or irony.) 

III.   Assessment

You can use any of the poetry evaluation guidelines developed in state frameworks to assess this project. Depending on time constraints, you could also ask students to develop their own rubric and guidelines after they have studied several examples of traditional corridos. The following rubric asks students to comment and answer a series of questions.  You should give one blank rubric to every pair of students for each step in the lesson.

Evaluation Categories

Questions to Consider

Suggestions for Additions or Changes

 

 

 

Theme

What are the corrido's themes?

 

 

  

Are they traditional or modern?

 

 

Why are they effective?

 

 

 

 

 

Poetic Devices

 

 

 

What devices does the corrido use?

 

 

  

How are these devices used?

 

 

Why are they effective?

 

 

 

 

Form

 

Does the poem follow the form for a corrido?

 

 

  

How is it different?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tone

 

What is the tone of the corrido?

 

 

  

Is it traditional or modern?

 

 

Is it appropriate to the themes and topic?

 

 

Is the tone maintained throughout the poem?

 

 

 

 

 

Language

Is the language traditional or modern?

 

 

  

Is it used in an appropriate manner?

 

 

Can you identify and list language that was particularly effective?

 

 

You could also have them add a checklist , with ratings using a plus, check or minus, or numerical ranking, to categories listed. Thus, for example, a writer might receive a plus score for the overall theme score but a minus score for poetic devices if he or she had some difficulty with that portion of the rubric.

Then, review the rubric with the students and ask them to use it to evaluate a poem from the text or a copy of a corrido from one of the web sites listed. Ask for volunteers to explain what they wrote for each section and how they ranked the poem for that element. For student verse, the rubric works most effectively with a preliminary and post critique. Once the poet is confident that he or she has met or addressed the suggestions from the evaluator, you then provide the final rankings and a grade and eliminate the initial evaluation scores.

To encourage students to use the evaluation rubric constructively, you could give an overall grade for the paired rubric evaluation using the plus, check or minus ranking or an overall numeric score. Remind students that the rubric is a guideline to help them improve their work, so it should present both the elements of the corrido that work well and constructive suggestions for ways it could be better. While using the rubric process the first time is more involved, once the students have the process mastered, they can use format quite rapidly for any type of writing. For advanced classes, several sets of readers can critique a work. This provides the poet with a range of comments for the more interpretive portions of the rubric.

Suggested Related Works

Any of Shakespeare's tragedies provide a suitable narrative for a corrido.  In particular, the tragedies Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, or Othello all provide dramatic material for "victim corridos."

In addition, S. E. Hinton's works, The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, offer a linear plot for this type of poem.

John Steinbeck's The Pearl and Of Mice and Men present a clear narrative that also could easily be told in a corrido.

You can also use epic poems from previous lessons for a corrido. For instance, students could retell Jason's journey and his quest or King Arthur's knights and their search. Beowulf or individual accounts of The Canterbury Tales also make for an interesting interpretation in the form of a corrido. 

Additional Resources

The University of Texas web site has numerous corridos that you could use for this lesson. (The site has print text as well as a unique collection of audio from early border corridos recorded in the 1920s.) 
http://www.sp.utexas.edu/jrn/revcor.html.

Los Lobos with Lalo Guerrero. "Papa's Dream." Music for Little People. Warner Bros. Records, Inc., 1995.

Interdisciplinary Links

Spanish Language:  Have Spanish-speaking students read the poem slowly for non-speakers, who should focus on listening for accents and syllables in each line.  Stop after each line to review syllable count.  Spanish speaking students also could select a corrido, or a recording of one, and present a translation for the class or take a student composition in English and translate it into Spanish.

Fine Arts :  Corridos were originally sung with accompaniment of a stringed instrument. You could have students develop a reading presentation that incorporates music and/or art to enhance their verses.

History and Social Sciences:  Assign a project that selects an historical figure or event from U.S. or World History. Then, you could assign students to research this topic and write an historically accurate corrido telling the story of incident or an account of the life.       

Technology and Cinema: You could have students develop a presentation using basic software, such as Power Point, to feature their corridos with words and images. Cinema students could develop a storyboard to illustrate their poem. Excellent examples of book illustrations with video can be found that retell American tall tales and fables.

Communication/Fine Arts :  Hold a Poetry Slam that allows students to present their corridos in a     competition. See lesson plan on this web site.

Share with Children :  You could have students write classroom corridos with themes for children. You could then take them to local elementary schools where older students explain the corrido form and present their own verse.

Pamela L. Gray is Director of The Gray Areas of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and created both the lesson and rubric.