House on Mango Street

1. House on Mango Street

2. Essential Questions • Where does our sense of identity come from? • How does environment shape our identity? • What identities, if any, are permanent and which do we have the power to change? • What roles do neighborhood and community play in shaping who we become? • Make a list of what you consider your identity to be.

3. General Observations • What do you notice about the text? • What are your initial feelings in regards to the text? • Predict what is to come within the novel.

4. Vocabulary • Peeling • Banging • Boarded up • Crumbling • Holding • Tugging • Pleated • Strutting • Pincurls • Anchor • Chandelier • Aisles • Kitchenettes • Choose 4 words that you do not know. • Then complete the vocab. Squares for each of the words. • The top left box is the definition. • The top right box is a synonym • The bottom left box is a context clue sentence. • The bottom right box is a visual of the word.

5. Chapter 1 • Read chapter 1. • Answer the following questions as if you were Esperanza: • Where does our sense of identity come from? • How does environment shape our identity? • What identities, if any, are permanent and which do we have the power to change? • What roles do neighborhood and community play in shaping who we become?

6. House Drawings and Descriptions • Make a detailed picture of the narrator’s flat on Loomis. Below your picture, write a paragraph of the type of flat she and her family lived in. • Make a detailed picture of the narrator’s house on Mango Street. Below your picture, write a paragraph of how she feels about that house. • Make a picture of the type of house you think the narrator would be happy in. Below your picture, write a paragraph as to what she means by, “I had to have a house. A real house.” • Make a picture of your ideal home. Write a paragraph as to why it makes it so special.

7. Homework • Find out seven different homes that people around the world live in. Describe how each home is different based on weather of its region (i.e. Alaska vs. Hawaii). • Pick out your favorite home as well as your least favorite. Tell why you picked these over the others.

8. Self Definition and Identity March 21

9. Journal • What is the personal significance of your given name? Does your name mean different things to you, your family, and your friends? What are your nicknames? What do your nicknames mean to you and those who call you those names?

10. Journal example • For example: My name is Michele Anne (Elaine) (Smith) Gonzalez. My first name means “One like the Lord” and my middle name is the name of Mary’s mother (from the Bible). The reason I received my name is because my mom was a huge Beatles fan and my first name came from a song. She also loved French, so that is why my name is spelled in the French style with one L. My middle name had to be a biblical name because I am Catholic and middle names are usually biblical or saintly. Growing up, I hated my name. People always misspelled it and I would get called Michael by new teachers. When I was being confirmed in my faith in 10th grade, I added the saint name Elaine to my name. This allowed me a bit of change. Then when I got married, I debated changing my name. I have no brothers, so Smith wont carry on. But eventually I chose to take my husband’s name. I am called Shelly by only one of my cousins and “Number 1” by my dad. My dad calls me this because I am the first born and he could never remember my sister’s and my names. So he calls us by numbers. I take this number seriously. I try to lead my sister by example and I always take responsibility for my actions, for others watch me and learn from me.

11. Hairs, Boys and Girls, My Name • Read and mark the text with your reactions and questions. • Style—the distinctive way in which a writer uses language, from how he/she puts sentences together to his/her choice of vocabulary and use of literary devices. • How does Cisneros use style in these chapters? • Where does Esperanza’s sense of identity come from?

12. Handouts • Complete handouts 7-12. • Review Elements of Style handout together. • Go back through the chapters read and mark the elements of style. • Read Hairs writing prompt. • Write your own Hairs. • Hwk: complete a basic family tree. Due Monday, March 26.

13. Friendship and Neighborhood March 26

14. Journal • Is living in a house your family owns different from living in a house or apartment your family rents? How? • Are renters, owners, and homeless people all considered equal citizens in America? Why or why not?

15. Cathy, Our Good Day, Laughter, Gil’s • Share “Hairs Modeling” assignments • Read and mark elements. • Compare markings. • Complete handouts 19-24. • Homework: Write a description of your neighborhood using the elements of style. Due Wednesday the 28th

16. Family Tree • Research one of your family members. • Use handout for help. • Let’s go to the computer lab.

17. March 28

18. Chapter Titles • Look at the table of contents. • What do you notice about the chapter titles? • What do they suggest? • How creative are they?

19. Your chapters • Make a list of 10 actual significant events from your life which helped shape your sense of identity. • Give each event a creative title. • Create a table of contents that displays all of these titles. • Choose one title that you are going to turn into and autobiographical incident essay. • Brainstorm and outline the essay.

20. Friendship and Neighborhood Continued April 9

21. Meme Ortiz and Louie • Read, discuss, and text mark • Complete handouts 25 & 26

22. Your Vignette • Write your vignette. • Have 4 people edit the vignette.

23. Freedom & Entrapment April 11

24. Journal • In what areas of your life are you most free to do what you like? In what areas of your life do you have the least freedom? Consider the roles of gender, race, religion, education, class, age, and upbringing play in limiting an individual’s freedom.

25. Marin, Those Who Don’t, Old Woman, Alicia, Darius, and Some • Read and mark your elements • Compare elements • Complete handouts 27-34

26. Vignette • Rewrite Vignette. • Have 4 people edit.

27. April 18

28. House Chart • In groups, complete the Houses in the Book Chart. • You will find details from the story about several key places, as well as identify a significant quotation that captures something important about that place or what happens there.

29. Map Project Day 1 • Go over handout and get started on project.

30. Growth and Maturity April 23

31. Journal • How is growing into a teenage boy like moving into a new house/apartment? Compare the experience of moving into a new house/apartment to the experiences of being a teenager.

32. The Family, A Rice Sandwich, Chanclas, Hips, The First Job • Read and text mark elements. • How do Esperanza and her friends change? • Complete handouts 25-35/

33. Map Project Day 2 • Complete your map today

34. Description April 25

35. Outdoor charting • Create a chart that has 5 columns. Label the columns: see, smell, touch, taste, hear. • We are going to go outside and you are to list everything you can in the categories on your paper. • You will have 20 minutes to complete your chart.

36. Elements • Using your findings, create literary statements. • For example: loud jet • Alliteration, personification and onomatopoeia: The jealous jet swooshed past the kissing clouds.

37. Draft 1 • Now using your literary statements create a descriptive essay, in which you thoroughly paint the picture of the 20 minutes spend outside. • Then have 4 people edit your paper.

38. Gender Roles April 30

39. Journal • Should parents/guardians raise their teenage girls in the same way they raise their teenage boys? Why or why not? What rules should be the same for girls and boys? What should be different? Do you have brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. who are treated differently from you because of gender? Explain.

40. Pages 56-73 • Get into groups of 3. • You will be assigned one chapter. • You must read the chapter and mark the elements. • Then complete the cloze read activity for the chapter. • Finally, you will come up and present your chapter to the class. No one else knows your chapter so you must be thorough.

41. Descriptive Essay • Let’s go type the essay.

42. May 2

43. The 9/11 Disappeareds • Text Mark • SOAPSTONE • Analysis Paragraph • Hwk: Handouts for Monday’s chapters

44. Write a Story about this Person • Today, you will be given a picture of a person. Your job is to tell the story of that person. What is happening to him/her? What is his/her life like? Etc. • You get one shot. Make it good.

45. Fitting In May 7

46. Journal • Describe a situation where you once felt really our of place or uncomfortable. Why did you feel this way? • What does the word “outcast” mean? What kinds of attributes make people into outcasts? Why must society have outcasts?

47. Pages 74-87 • Read and mark literary elements. • Discussion Points • Compare elements. • Complete handouts

48. Picture Story • You are going to receive a picture of a setting or object. • You are to write a story that includes the setting or object. • Hwk: Edit your story

49. May 9

50. Theme article • Analysis • Questions • Paragraph writing