Integrating the Book into Classroom Instruction
The book “Land of the Cranes” (2020) by Aida Salazar is about a nine-year-old girl, Betita, who lives with her parents in the detention refugee camp where undocumented immigrants live. Betita dreams about returning to the land of cranes, believing she is also the crane, as her father told her. This land is situated in the Southwest of the United States, but Betita is not allowed to go there with her family because they have no legal permission to move from the detention refugee camp. The narrator, the same age as the students, makes the story about immigrants’ hardships more persuasive and allows children to develop empathy.
Selecting Appropriate Sections for Younger Students
The passage when Betita’s father has to leave his daughter and his pregnant wife because he is deported from the United States can be used as a section for reading to younger students. This excerpt is a dramatic moment in the story, and it might make students feel the emotions that Betita experiences. The conditions of life in the detention camp for illegal refugees are horrible; there are no conveniences in this place, and Betita’s pregnant mother does everything possible to find an advocate to help her return her husband (Salazar 48). In the same passage, Betita talks about the cranes that used to live in Southwest America in ancient times and tells other residents of the detention camp that they are all cranes and soon will return to their native land.
Due to its vivid imagery, the crane metaphor can be emphasized to younger students. Many women and children who are left in the detention camp feel that they also feel like cranes that cannot fly away to the promised land at this particular moment, but this day will come. It is the manifestation of the free spirit and the dream about liberty that people have deep in their hearts.
Connecting the Book to Current Events
The book’s content is relevant to current events, including immigration to the United States, the perception of immigrants, and the separation of families. There is significant controversy in contemporary society concerning these issues. Therefore, younger students should be exposed to these topics at a level of understanding that corresponds to their age.
Discussion Questions to Guide Student Reading
The teacher’s questions can help students understand the situation and Betita’s emotional state in particular. The questions are the following:
- What do you think about Betita’s emotional state?
- Is Betita’s behavior right? What would you do in her place?
- Do you think separating families is fair when someone violates the immigration law?
- Is it humane to keep immigrants in detention camps even though they have no documents to cross the border?
- What is your attitude to immigrants?
Cross-Curricular Activities: Art and History Applications
Activities like art and history that can be done in the classroom draw on how students perceive immigration and Betita’s experience. For example, they can draw people trying to escape from violence in Mexico, which is why they cross the American border illegally. They can draw the detention center for the illegal immigrants with no conveniences and depict Betita, who dreams about freedom and uniting with her father. The historical insight into the questions of immigration can inspire students to depict visually the hardship immigrants faced in the past after arriving in the United States.
Works Cited
Salazar, Aida. Land of the Cranes. Scholastic Incorporated, 2020. Kindle ed.