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Lesson 2

We will view and discuss an excerpt from a video to better understand life under Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of texts?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “‘El Jefe’ Portrait of a Dictator,” Bill Leonard, CBS News, 1961

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Present

We will share what we discovered in our research on the mirabel sisters.

Share two things that you discovered during your research on the Mirabal sisters.

Activity 2: Write

We will define the term dictator and discuss past and current dictators.

For this activity, you will use a Vocabulary Journal, which you will maintain for the entire unit. Using your prior knowledge or any of your vocabulary strategies (context, morphology, reference source), write down the definition of the word dictator in your Vocabulary Journal.

Discuss the following questions with the class:

  1. What qualifies a person to be considered a dictator?

  2. Why do people follow dictators?

Activity 3: View – Write

We will watch a section of the cbs special report “‘EL Jefe’ Portrait Of A Dictator” and respond to a series of questions.

You will view three sections of the documentary, "‘El Jefe’ Portrait of a Dictator," to help better understand what life was like for citizens of the Dominican Republic under the rule of Rafael Trujillo in 1961.

Watch the first excerpt and be prepared to discuss the following questions as a class, which can also be found on your Section 1 Question Set.

Questions for 0:00-18:38:

  1. What paradox between the standard of freedom and standard of living does the reporter discuss?

  2. What ethnic diversity is present in the Dominican Republic?

  3. How do Dominican hobbies and interests compare to those in the United States?

  4. As described at the 8:30 mark, what are the options for citizens who oppose Trujillo?

  5. What do you notice about the religious aspects of Dominican culture?

  6. What relationship exists between Trujillo’s regime and settlers from other countries?

  7. How does the Trujillo regime handle defectors?

Activity 4: Discuss

We will discuss what we have learned so far about the trujillo regime.

Discuss the following question as a class:

  1. What did you learn about Trujillo or the Trujillo regime during this first excerpt of the documentary?