Wendell Norris Marquez teaches pre-AP Spanish to seventh graders at Lively Middle School in Austin, Texas.
Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
On a recent Monday morning in Wendell Norris Marquez’s classroom in Austin, Texas, students were getting ready to read a story in Spanish by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But first, they discussed the differences between a story and a novel, and between a story and a legend.
“Los cuentos son ficción (Stories are fiction),” said one student. “But are legends real?” asked Norris Marquez.
No, the students decided. They may have started based on something real, but then they changed over time as they were told and retold.
This is a sophisticated literature class. But these students aren’t in high school. They’re in seventh grade. And they’ll be taking the AP Spanish exam before they graduate from middle school.
“When I describe this class, I tell people it’s…
