Lesson 1

Duration of lesson: 40 Minutes

Lesson Title: Introduction to Culture/Journals/The House on Mango Street

Overview:

Students will examine their own culture and what makes them unique. They will complete a family tree and a cultural survey. Students will be introduced to their new journals that are specific to The House on Mango Street. Textbooks will be assigned and they will make pre-reading predictions about what the book is about. The first journal topic will be: What is culture? What culture do you associate yourself with? Why is cultural identity so important?

NYS Standards:

  • Standard 1:Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
  • Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
  • Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

NYS Performance Indicators:

Students will write original literary texts to create a personal voice, use resources such as personal experience, knowledgefrom other content areas, and independent reading tocreate literary, interpretive, and responsive text, respect the age, gender, and cultural traditions of the audience

  • Build background by activating prior knowledge throughquestioning what they already know about the form in which thestory is presented and the period in which it was written.
  • Consider the age, gender, social position, and cultural traditions of the writer
  • Select, reject, and reconcile ideas and information in light of prior knowledge and experience

Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to examine their personal culture through the family tree and culture survey.
  2. Students will be able to answer the questions “What is culture? What culture do you associate yourself with? Why is cultural identity so important?” in their journals.
  3. Students will be able to preview the text (cover art, chapter titles, back cover, etc) and make predictions about the text.

Materials:

  1. Family Tree Handout
  2. Culture Survey
  3. Individual Student Journals
  4. Individual Student Copies of The House on Mango Street

Procedures:

  1. Introduction to Culture
  2. Students will be given a blank family tree and a culture survey at the beginning of class.
  3. Go over both the family tree handout and the survey and check for understanding. Be sure that students understand what they are expected to do.
  4. Introduction to new Journals
  5. Explain that the new journals being distributed are for The House on Mango Street only.
  6. Pose the first journal prompt: “What is culture? What culture do you associate yourself with? Why is cultural identity so important?”
  7. After 10 minutes journals are collected.
  8. Preview of The House on Mango Street
  9. Handout copies of The House on Mango Street and write down student names and book numbers
  10. Ask students to “look around” the text and ask them to make predictions based on the cover art, author bios, chapter titles, and back cover.
  11. Students will write down these predictions on a small half sheet of loose-leaf with their names. These will be turned in as a “ticket out” along with the culture surveys and the family trees.

Homework: For homework students will read the first three chapters of The House on Mango Street titled: “The House on Mango Street”, “Hairs”, and “Boys and Girls”.

Rationale: This unit was created to engage students with a text that will allow them the opportunity to explore a culture that may be different from their own in a safe and structured environment. I begin by having students examine that with which they are comfortable—their own culture and family heritage. By looking at their own family first, they may begin to see similarities between their family lives and that of the main character. This will encourage understanding and establish common ground. First I intend to focus on the similarities and as the book progresses begin to discuss the differences that come up.

Assessment: Students’ journals will be assessed on a complete/incomplete basis and the predictions will be saved to revisit at the end of the unit.

Lesson 2

Duration of Lesson: 40 Minutes

Title of Lesson: Home and Family Through Esperanza’s Eyes

Overview:

The first three chapters that the students read for homework last night discuss Esperanza’s relationships with her home, her family with whom she shares it . We notice that the entire story is told from her point of view, even when the story isn’t directly related to her. We also get a feel for Esperanza’s culture. This lesson will cover the characters we’ve met so far, the viewpoint the story is told from, and the setting of the story. Key question: Why did Sandra Cisneros set this story where she did? Why does Esperanza describe the house the way she does? Students will describe in their journals what the words home and family mean to them.

NYS Standards:

  • Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
  • Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
  • Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

NYS Performance Indicators:

  • Identify the author’s point of view, such as first-personnarrator and omniscient narrator
  • Interpret characters, plot, setting, theme, and dialogue,using evidence from the text
  • Identify cultural and ethnic values and their impact oncontent
  • Consider the age, gender, social position, and traditionsof the writer

Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to discuss what point of view the story is told from and what observations about the narrator (Esperanza) they made as they read.
  2. Students will be able to recognize the cultural background of the author (Cisneros) and how that helped her create the characters and settings of Mango Street.

Materials:

  1. Individual Student Journals
  2. Individual Student Copies of The House on Mango Street
  3. Pre-selected quotes to be read to the students

Procedures:

  1. Students will be given the journal prompt: “In the first three chapters of The House on Mango Street we are introduced to our main character (and narrator) Esperanza. She describes for us her home and her family. What does home mean to you? What does family mean to you?
  2. Teacher led discussion of Point of View.
  3. Types of Point of View handout provided
  4. Pose the questions “What is the heritage of our author Sandra Cisneros?” and “How do you think that effects the setting of our story?”
  5. Discuss the specific descriptions that Esperanza gives of her home and her family.
  6. Pose the question: “What is most important to Esperanza?”
  7. Discuss the word “relationship” and it’s multiple meanings. What kind of relationships have we encountered in the story so far? Can any of you relate to these types of relationships?

Homework: Read chapters titled “My Name”, “Cathy Queen of Cats”, and “Our Good Day”.

Rationale: Continuing to ease students into the idea that there are similarities and differences and both are wonderful things. In Lesson Two we begin looking at relationships. The relationships we have with our family and our home/neighborhood. Since this is a common theme throughout the book I continue to draw attention to these relationships that we all have. This allows students to view the human personality and begin to assemble their own theories about human nature. The student uses personal experiences to interpret the work and in return the literature raises questions about the readers former opinions and ideas on a subject.

Assessment:

Students’ journals will be assessed on a complete/incomplete basis and the class discussion will be informally assessed based on class participation.

Lesson 3

Duration of Lesson: 40 Minutes

Title of Lesson: My Name, My Story, and My Identity

Overview: The three chapters assigned for homework during Lesson 2 were based around the theme of personal identity. Today’s lesson will give students an opportunity to examine their own identity and write a journal entry about identity.

NYS Standards:

  • Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
  • Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.
  • Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

NYS Performance Indicators:

  • Read, view, and respond independently to literary works that represent a range of social, historical, and cultural perspectives
  • Select, reject, and reconcile ideas and information in lightof prior knowledge and experience
  • Write and share personal reactions to experiences, events, and observations, using a form of social communication
  • Identify cultural and ethnic values and their impact oncontent

Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to write a journal entry about their identity after discussing the identities of the characters in The House on Mango Street.
  2. Students will be able to take their journal entries and compose an “I am” poem about themselves.

Materials:

  1. Student copies of The House on Mango Street
  2. Student Journals
  3. Baby Name Books (For Name Meanings)
  4. I Am Poem format
  5. Digital Camera
  6. Colored Paper for mounting poems and photos

Procedures:

  1. Discuss with students the chapters “My Name” and “Cathy Queen of Cats”
  2. Discuss name meanings and invite students to share the meanings of their names. Share the meaning of your own name and pass around the books for students who don’t know their name meanings.
  3. Discuss why someone might want to change his/her name and possible reasons why some people do.
  4. Ask students what they think of Cathy, the Queen of Cats
  5. Discuss whether or not this story is true
  6. Ask students to infer why Cathy would lie about her life.
  7. Introduce Journal Topic: What does your name mean? Is there a special story behind your name? If so share it. If you could change your name what would you change it to? Explain why. Do you ever feel like telling “little white lies” about the events in your life to make them seem more interesting or pleasant?
  8. Students work in journals
  9. Introduce I Am Poem and format handout
  10. Go over directions
  11. Show a model of a completed I Am poem
  12. Students work on I Am Poems
  13. As students complete them I will take their picture and help them mount them on colored paper to hang in the classroom.

Homework: Complete I Am poems and read the chapters titled: “Laughter”, Gil’s Furniture Bought & Sold”, “Meme Ortiz”, Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin”, and “Marin”.

Rationale:

Diana Mitchell talks about how difficulties outside of school mixed with the pressures of adolescence (drugs, gangs, promiscuous sex) can put students in a position to fail in school. Mitchell says, “To use literature that is far removed from the interests or concerns of these students is just another way of telling them that school is not real; that it has nothing to do with anything they’ll ever face; that it’s just something they have to get through.” By encouraging students to look within themselves I am asking them to look at their lives. They see how Esperanza views herself and her name. The students read about Cathy, whose life is so unsteady that she creates an alternate life that she shares with Esperanza. The students are likely to infer that Cathy is white because of the fact that her father is making her family move because the neighborhood has changed and it is now “bad”. The last sentence of the vignette sticks with students. It says, “In the meaning they’ll (Cathy’s family) just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in” (Cisneros, 13). Once students acknowledge their relationships with themselves they can begin to compare these relationships with the other kinds. The I Am poem is a quick and easy way to help students see for themselves who they are as well as share that person with others.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on the I Am poems using the Six-Traits of Writing Rubric. They will also receive participation points for the discussions.

Lesson 4

Duration of Lesson: 40 Minutes

Title of Lesson: Author’s Purpose

Overview: Today students will infer why Cisneros wrote The House on Mango Street by examining the characters from last night’s reading. They will journal about the characters that, if they were to write them, might appear in their own novels about where they live.

NYS Standards:

  • Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak forinformation and understanding
  • Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.
  • Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

NYS Performance Indicators:

  • Recognize relevance of literature to personal events and situation
  • Form opinions and make judgments about literary works,by analyzing and evaluating texts from a criticalperspective
  • Recognize and acknowledge various perspectives onissues of local and national concern

Objectives:

  1. Students will be able to discuss the characters in the chapters and examine Esperanza’s opinions and observations of each character.
  2. Students will be able to discuss Cisneros’ purpose for writing The House on Mango Street based on the character of Esperanza and the observations she makes.

Materials:

  1. Student copies of The House on Mango Street
  2. Student Journals
  3. Loose-leaf paper

Procedures:

  1. Read “Meme Ortiz”, “Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin”, and “Marin” aloud.
  2. Students will take notes on the characters on loose-leaf. They will note things like physical descriptions, personalities, lifestyle, emotional state
  3. Students will answer three guided questions on the same loose-leaf copied from the board.
  4. Why do you think Cisneros includes these three stories in the book even though they are not about Esperanza, but rather are observations that she makes about these people?
  5. In modern culture the individuals in these stories might be described as “troubled” or “problems”. Does Cisneros view them this way? How do you know?
  6. Students share their answers with two of their neighbors and discuss similarities and differences between them.
  7. Full class comes back together and groups share the main points that they discussed
  8. Pose the question to the class: Why do you think Sandra Cisneros wrote this book?
  9. Discussion of author’s purpose and Esperanza’s role as narrator/observer
  10. Collect loose-leaf
  11. Assign Journal Entry: Imagine you are writing a short story or novel about your neighborhood. Describe (in vivid language) what it looks like. Who lives there? Write about your observations of the people and relationships in your own neighborhood. Do people get along? Is everyone happy to be there?

Homework: Read the chapters: “Those Who Don’t”, “There Was an Old Woman….”, “Alicia Who Sees Mice”, “ Darius & the Clouds”, and “ And Some More”

Rationale:

My students will relate to these chapters because the neighborhoods and their inhabitants are very similar to stories they have told to me. It is important for students to closely relate to a story and its characters. They feel affirmed when they read about someone or someplace that is not terribly different from what they know. Investigating and inferring why an author wrote a book is something students seldom do. By asking their opinion and then inviting them to write on a similar topic in their journals they become the author. It is now their job to describe a neighborhood and the relationships within it.

Assessment:

Students’ journals will be assessed on a complete/incomplete basis and the class discussion will be informally assessed based on class participation. The questions will be read and I will write comments on them, but they will not receive a formal grade.

Lesson 5

Duration of Lesson: 40 Minutes

Title of Lesson: Those Who Don’t

Overview: For the first time in the book students read about specific issues between people of different races explicitly. Though the chapter “Those Who Don’t” is very short, it will be the major focus of today’s lesson. This chapter speaks to many students from urban neighborhoods that feel like people avoid walking down their street. We will also discuss the Vargas kids and how they felt when they read that chapter. We will have a discussion about why this happens, what it is that keeps people away, and how they can handle a situation like that.

NYS Standards: