Teacher education through Don Quixote: an experience in the pedagogical residency program with teaching spanish

Abstract

This paper aims to present an experience report that took place during the Pedagogical Residency Program in a high school, using the novel Don Quixote for teaching Spanish as a foreign language. The objective was to give students the opportunity to engage with literature in Spanish, aiming to develop both their reading competence and literary competence. The methodology included three main stages: an initial discussion addressing themes such as madness, values, and friendship to connect the novel with the students' context; a dramatization of the Windmills chapter, combined with the screening of a film excerpt; and, finally, a written activity focused on identifying and using adjectives related to the narrative’s characters. The theoretical foundation was based on authors who discuss literature in language teaching, such as Ballester (2009, 2016) and Ibarra (2009, 2016), who highlight the importance of working with literature to develop students’ critical and cultural competences, as well as Mendoza Fillola (2006), who emphasizes the need to renew teaching methodologies, allowing the literary text to become a stimulus for learning. The concept of literary literacy, as proposed by Cosson (2007), was used to integrate practical activities that encourage students to rediscover literary texts in a meaningful way. The results were positive in two out of three classes, motivating the future implementation of a Reading Circle. This experience reaffirmed the value of literature both in additional language teaching and in teacher education.