What did you say? You just got hired at a high school yesterday, and you start teaching tomorrow? It‘s your
first time teaching 9th grade English (or your first time teaching ever) and you‘re looking for something to start
with?
Don‘t worry, we got you.
It is with YOU in mind that Dan and I here at Teach4Real have created our House on Mango Street Unit.
We‘re going to give you a little breathing room. A little time to decorate your room, get organized, find out where
the bathrooms are—so you know where to go at 4 pm when you finally have time to use them. We‘re going to let
you get settled. Calm down. Sit tight. And leave the planning and curriculum to us for your first week, and then
your first month.
And guess what? You are going to absolutely tear it up.
Because Dan and I are still both in the classroom teaching full-time (and overtime), we understand the myriad
of problems faced by new teachers teaching new books. We know what it feels like to be reading a book for the
first time WITH your class. This begs the question: How am I supposed to plan curriculum for a book I haven‘t
even read yet? Even if you are only a couple chapters ahead of your class, this still means you are flying by the seat
of your pants, designing lessons that will take place the very next day—forget about long-term goals, right?
Well, Dan and I have been at this teaching thing a long time and we know we can help, not just with some
general lesson plans, but with a Unit that works in every kind of classroom—especially a low-income urban one—
because this is where Dan and I have taught our entire careers, and we have to say—we know what works.
Matt Amaral is a writer and high school English teacher
from the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his
undergraduate degree in English Literature from the
University of California at Davis and an MFA in Creative
Writing. Matt is a featured Blogger at EducationNews.org, a
leading international website for Education, as well as a
contributor to New America Media, the nation’s leading
ethnic news organization. He is the former Editor-In-Chief
of The Gnu Literary Journal. You can also read his work in
the 2010 issues of TeachHub, EmPower Magazine, The
Dirty Napkin, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Eclectic Flash,
Bird‟s Eye ReView, TravelMag, Escape From America
Magazine and InTravel Magazine.
Matt is a fellow of
AmeriCorps TEAMS (Teacher Education for the
Advancement of a Multicultural Society), and teaches
summer courses at UC Berkeley’s ATDP Program. He has
taught all high school grade levels and abilities, and is
known to dive into fights between students, even though his
wife doesn’t want him to.
Daniel Guerrero is a teacher and lecturer in the San Francisco
Bay Area. He received his B.A. in Philosophy at California State
University, Hayward, his M.A. in Education and teaching
credential from the University of California at Berkeley's,
Graduate School of Education in the Multicultural Urban
Secondary English Program (MUSE). Daniel teaches 9th and 10th
grade English, as well as, 11th grade AP English Language and
Composition. He also presents workshops at the Puente
Program’s semi-annual statewide conferences, which regularly
features the nation’s top educators. Puente is a statewide
program, funded by the University of California, designed to
provide low-income, underrepresented students with a rigorous
pre-AP English Language Arts curriculum. Daniel is also a
summer writing instructor at UC Berkeley’s Academic Talent
Development Program (ATDP) in the GSE. In addition, Daniel is
a part-time lecturer at the Bay Area Teacher Center (BATC) at
Lick-Wilmerding H.S., (accredited through San Francisco State
University) where he prepares new teachers to enter the
profession.
www.teach4real.com
-Pedagogical Philosophy for teaching Autobiographical Narratives with House on Mango Street by Matt Amaral
-Pedagogical Philosophy for teaching Literary Analysis with House on Mango Street by Dan Guerrero
Introduction to our Pacing Guide
-6-week Unit Pacing Guide/Scope and Sequence
Autobiographical Narratives
-Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting and Prompts by Chapter
-Autobiographical Narrative Lesson Plans and Corresponding Handouts
-Lesson Plan: My House
+Prewriting Handout
-Lesson Plan: Hairs
+Prewriting Handout
-Lesson Plan: My Name
+Prewriting Handout
-Lesson Plan: My Neighbor
+Prewriting Handout
-2 Day Lesson Plan: Avoiding Cliches/ Simile Battle
+Handout: Writing Devices
Extra Lesson Plans
-Lesson Plan: Sally
-Lesson Plan: My Street Says Goodbye
Literary Analysis
-Literary Analysis Lesson Plans and Corresponding Handouts
-Lesson Plan: Marking It Up
+Example
-Lesson Plan: Inference Tables
+Handouts/Examples
+Components of a Literary Analysis Paragraph
+Handout Writing a Literary Analysis Paragraph Using Your Inference Tables
-Lesson Plan: LitMaps
+Handout
+Student Examples
-Protocols for Editing/ Workshops/Project/Essay/Exam
-Vignette Project
-Lesson Plan: Editing Narratives
+Editing Guide for Students and Teacher
-Lesson Plan: Writing Workshops
+Handout
www.teach4real.com
-Literary Analysis Essay
+Handout: Writing Paragraphs
+Peer Editing Rubric
-HOMS Final Exam
-Vocabulary Warmup/ Cooldown/ Filler
-Lesson Plan: Vocab Cheat Sheet
+Handout
+Teacher Participation Log
-Emergency Lesson Plan/ Filler for Ghetto Students
-Lesson Plan: Balancing Your Ghetto
-Teaching Tips from Matt‘s Blog:
A Lesson on Urban Identity
Working the Rows
www.teach4real.com
Pedagogical Philosophy for Teaching Autobiographical Narratives with House on Mango Street
by Matthew Amaral
I want to invoke Flossie Lewis whose words capture the essence of autobiographical writing at the high school
level. ―Autobiographical writing needs to be from the heart, and if it isn‘t from the heart, it won‘t be good writing.‖ It
is this idea that is the basis of our HOMS unit.
Beginning the year with Autobiographical Narratives is necessary for many, many reasons. The first is that it is
the easiest genre of writing students encounter in high school—this is not to say Auto-Bio writing is easy, it is just
easier for high school students to get something on paper because it is about their favorite subject—themselves. I
honestly believe you can‘t start 9th grade any other way.
9th graders are at a crossroads in their lives, and it is NOW, right now on the first day of school, that you are
going to set them on the path to being a curious, thoughtful, analytical, descriptive writer; or—they may become
someone whom, as the students say, hates writing essays. Because to them, everything is an essay, even
Autobiographical Narratives. We feel that it is in Auto-Bio writing that we can effectively bridge the gap of
engagement, make writing relevant by basing it on their lives and cultures, and get students to think of writing as
more than just writing essays.
Writing Autobiographical Narratives is essentially Creative Writing. We want students to use all the writing
techniques real writers and storytellers use when narrating important events. As teachers, we can go on forever about
how to write a story, but in this unit, we are going to focus on a couple of avenues in which to enhance their
storytelling abilities. The first is that we are going to get them Writing from the Heart, because culture-based
writing is an immediate way of building community and getting buy-in (this is why you should start the year with
Mango). Then we will get them to begin thinking about the balance between Summary and Scene. Finally, we want
them to put their Figurative Language on steroids. At the end of their Vignette Project, which is the integral
summative assessment of this unit, if they can tell the story of their life balancing narration, their own thoughts,
narrating anecdotes in a ―play by play‖ fashion, and using similes and metaphors that are not clichés, then we are
going to be stoked. That is why we love HOMS, there is no better book to show them figurative language and
balancing summary and scene.
From a pedagogical point of view, we‘re going to throw you some strategies to put in your art of teaching
arsenal. We‘re very big on Teacher Modeling, so beginning with the Hairs Lesson Plan, you will be writing in front
of your class. We encourage this practice, and while we may not have you model in more than one or two lesson
plans, we feel you should be writing in front of your students constantly, because they need to see how the best writer
in the room writes—and yes, that is YOU!
Let‘s forget about the flowery aspirations for a second and get real. If you want your students to become better
readers and writers, there are only two ways to do it—they need to do a lot of reading and a lot of writing. HOMS
isn‘t too much reading to start with, which is good for 9th graders who are more interested in the looks and smells of
the kids packed so close to them in your tiny classroom. It isn‘t too intimidating a text with which to start the year.
But you are going to have to get them to sit quietly and write if you want this to work. Every day they should have an
expectation of coming in, settling down, and getting some writing done. I can‘t say that enough. You need them to
know your room is a place where they come to WRITE, and you need to do it right away. So from day one we are
going to have them writing and we are not going to stop. And if you can do it right, this pattern shouldn‘t end until
June. So bear with us, because we believe in what we‘re doing, we believe in what we‘re teaching, and we believe
that if you want tough kids in urban classrooms to buy into writing, you need to make sure it is from the heart.
Matthew Amaral
Founder of www.teach4real.com
A Blog for Real Teachers in our Toughest Schools
Pedagogical Philosophy for Teaching Literary Analysis with House on Mango Street
by Dan Guerrero
My entire pedagogical, philosophical, educational and social justice outlook in regards to teaching and learning
in public schools boils down to one thing: College! I use the word college to mean more than simply ‗the university;‘
it represents an academic disposition and way of being in the classroom and in the world. It means pride, integrity,
perseverance, struggle, hope, love and, ultimately, success…academic success! However, even if we use the general
understanding of the word, in order to get our students to successfully realize their ‗college‘ dreams, they need to be
able to read challenging, complex texts and write in an academic manner that approximates college writing; I loosely
refer to that style of writing as literary analysis.
Literary analysis writing essentially synthesizes the information deduced from close reading analysis and uses
evidence from a text to illustrate a theme. Ok…that‘s the academic pretentiousness of the little voices in my mind
talking…lets get to the meat of the matter: Literary analysis is about reading, analyzing, understanding and making a
claim about a text‘s meaning; in order to do that, a writer must be able to make inferences and provide evidence from
the text to prove their interpretation!
This is why House On Mango Street is the perfect the novel to use to teach the two essential genres that 9th
grade students must know by the time they walk outside of our doors to summer at the end of the year! After starting
the year with auto-bio, and assuming your students are already used to reading and writing everyday about
themselves, the next step is to write about other people and the ideas of others! The most important part of teaching
literary analysis, just as in autobiographical writing, is giving students the tools to analyze literature without merely
summarizing.
Since House On Mango Street lends itself to both genres so well, the expectation is that teachers will read many
of the chapters with their students analyzing for both components of autobiographical writing (i.e., figurative
language devices, sensory details, etc.) and literary analysis (character, subject, setting, theme, tone/mood, conflict
and symbol). So, integral to this unit, is our focus on three different aspects of literary analysis writing that will
improve our students academic writing: The first is using Literary Terminology to Mark-Up a text. Then we are
going to get them Analyze and Synthesize texts using Litmaps and Inference Tables, rather than simply
summarizing a text as they did in middle school! Writing relevant interpretations of the texts is an essential skill and
we use inference tables, a graphic organizer to combine concrete details (CS) & commentary (CM). In this respect,
litmaps and inference tables are designed to help students learn to read and annotate for both genres simultaneously in
preparation for portfolio writing, which is addressed specifically in this unit. Finally, if our students can recognize the
difference between Autobiographical writing and Literary Analysis writing (aka, Response to Literature) then
they will be prepared for the Rigorous Expectations of AP classes.
Literary analysis writing is about evaluating literature and creating an argument based on inquiry and
exploration of the significance of a character, theme, symbols (effectively representations of themes themselves) and
conflict.
Teaching literary analysis writing to 9th graders may be the first step in the academic path of many of our
students. In this sense, it is an inherently scholastic skill in regards to both form and function; literary analysis is
usually considered rather mechanistic and formulaic in nature and is an illustration of a writers‘ ability to analyze and
synthesize the ideas of other writers. Yet, when the instruction of literary analysis is combined with the development
of a student‘s auto-biographical and figurative writing skills, then our students will begin to write beyond the cold,
robotic style of typical five-paragraph writing lore that so many teachers loathe …Our students will write well on
their way to college!
Dan Guerrero
Contributor to www.teach4real.com
A Blog for Real Teachers in our Toughest Schools
Your First Few Weeks of Mango
Our T4R Pacing Guide gives you a quick view of what your first month and a half will kind of look like. I say ―kind
of‖ because there isn‘t a single teacher on earth who can follow any pacing guide exactly. Our classes are too
different and too complicated for anyone to follow any one pacing guide. Perhaps that is the ultimate irony of the
rigid standardized landscape in which we find ourselves today—we are surrounded by pacing guides no good teacher
will follow.
We have suggested 8 different short stories for you to build the Literary Analysis skills that are essential to our
HOMS unit, which you will start around the 3rd week of school (or if you teach it later in the year it will be at a
different point). You will not get to all of them, and you probably don‘t have copies of many, if any, of these stories.
That‘s okay. Use what stories you have and here‘s why: THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE
INSANE. You are going to have classes with 45 kids in them and you won‘t even have enough desks for all the
students in the room. The first two weeks is a suffocating mix of two things: Community Building and Balancing.
You should focus on getting the kids to know each other and know you, and let the administration and counselors
balance out student schedules. You cannot start any serious unit in the first two weeks, because at the end of that time
you might have 40 different students than when you started.
But at the end of the day, regardless of how balancing goes, the students who remain in your class will think, speak,
write, and listen HOW you want them to every single day. That‘s what you should focus on in your first two weeks.
So while our pacing guide is a loose compilation of recommended readings, don‘t worry about getting to everything.
We are assuming in the first half of every period you are doing community building and teaching them your protocols
and all the other logistical stuff that goes on in the insanity that is the first two weeks. But as long as you‘ve
introduced them to a few texts and shown them the three components of our literary analysis strategy, then you‘re all
good.
:
When you see this on the Pacing Guide, this means we have left you room to address all the things you feel
you need to teach more in-depth. Every school tests different things, so you may have to get to certain parts
of the English curriculum we don‘t cover. Plus you probably have vocab and grammar strategies you like
working on, and other literary analysis concepts like characterization, which we only cover briefly. This is
your time to do your thing- because we are all doing our thing with our own style, and we don‘t expect
anyone to do every single activity we have on the Pacing Guide—this thing is already 100 pages long!
Below is our pacing guide. Follow it as much as you want. Do what works in your classroom. We‘re assuming you‘re
adding your own readings, strategies, handouts, and lessons along the way, because we are all teachers, and we do
what works for us. Make it work for you. Here‘s a tainted apple.
www.teach4real.com
4
Day 1
1st half of class:
Attendance, Community
Building, School Rules,
Regulations, Protocols
Day 2
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
Day 3
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
Day 4
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
Day 5
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
MU: Michelle Cerros: Mi
Problema
MU: Soto: Oranges
MU: Wright: Hunger
Mark-up for the following
elements:
Character, Subject, Symbol,
Theme, Tone/Mood,
MU: Character, Subject, Setting,
Symbol, Theme
MU: Soto: Jacket
Read short story as a class
in whatever style you feel
comfortable: teacher only,
popcorn, pick and choose
or one kid reads it all
because he likes to hear his
voice! Introduce Mark-up!
Short Story option:
MU: Cisneros: Eleven
NOTES:
MU= Mark It Up (see MU
Lesson Plan in Literary
Analysis Lessons)
Mark-up for the following
elements:
Character, Subject, Setting,
Theme, Symbol
HW: Discretion based on school
balancing
C, S, S, T, T/M= Character,
Subject, Subject, Theme,
Tone/Mood, Symbol
Mark-up for the following
elements:
Character, Subject, Symbol,
Theme, Tone/Mood,
HW: Discretion based on
school balancing
S, M, P, R, R, O= Simile,
Metaphor, Personification,
Repetition, Rhyme,
Onomatopoeia
HW: Discretion based on school
balancing
HW: Discretion based on school
balancing
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
1st half of class:
Attendance, Community
Building, School Rules,
Regulations, Protocols
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
1st half of class: Attendance,
Community Building, School
Rules, Regulations, Protocols
MU: Jimenez: The Circuit
MU: Tan: Fish Cheeks
MU: Zona Gale: Bill
MU: Wright: The Kitten
Introduce Inference
Tables (see Inference
Tables Lesson Plan in
Literary Analysis Lessons)
Inference Tables: Students do
on their own with quotes they
find themselves.
Inference Tables: Students do
on their own with quotes they
find themselves.
Introduce students to
components of a literary
analysis paragraph (T4R
Components Handout)
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS
Inference Tables: Students do
on their own with quotes they
find themselves.
Students write a literary
analysis paragraph (Handout)
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS
Use T4R Blank Inference
Table Handout and model
on overhead.
HW: Finish Inf Tables if not
done in class
HW: Finish Paragraph if not
done in class
Litmap LP:
Begin Limap of ANY of the
stories (see LitMap Lesson Plan
in Literary Analysis Lessons)
HW: Finish LitMap
HW: Finish Paragraph if not
done in class
Day 11 House on Mango
Day 12 Hairs
Day 13 Boys and Girls
Day 14 My Name
Vocab Warmup LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
Vocab Warmup LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
Read first vignette “House
on Mango Street” as a
class in whatever style you
feel comfortable:
MU=Mark it Up
Read “Hairs” as a class in
whatever style you feel
comfortable: teacher only,
popcorn, pick and choose or one
kid reads it all because he likes to
hear his voice! Mark-up!
MU: ―Boys and Girls‖
A) Character
B) Setting
C) Sensory details
D) Anecdotes
Read “My Name” as a class in
whatever style you feel
comfortable: teacher only,
popcorn, pick and choose or one
kid reads it all because she likes
to hear his voice! Mark-up!
Autobiographical
Narrative LP: My House:
House how auto-bio focuses
on scene/ setting,
imagery/5S‘ (descrip. of
house) and importance of
dialogue.
Prewriting Handout
1st Draft
Reader Response
Put on file in classroom
Autobiographical Narrative
LP: Hairs: Putting Figurative
Language into their writing.
Prewriting Handout
1st Draft
Reader Response
Put on file in classroom
LP: Inference Tables/Literary
Response Paragraph
Your Turn:
Things to enhance in the unit
Vocab
Literary Terminology/Figurative
Language/Writing Techniques
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS (Literary
Response Paragraphs)
C, S, S, T, T/M (Literary
Terms)
S, M, P, R, R, O (Fig.
Lang/Writing Techniques)
Character Analysis
Grammar
HW: Give HW from Your Turn
Autobiographical Narrative
LP: My Name: Combine Using
Dialogue to Locate a Scene with
Figurative Language on Steroids.
Prewriting Handout
1st Draft
Reader Response
Put on file in classroom
Vocab Cooldown LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
Day 15 Cathy/Good Day/
Laughter
Vocab Quiz
MU: Any or all of the vignettes
you want.
LP: Lit Maps (can be for any
story they want, or a specific
story of your choosing)
HW: Finish a Lit Map over the
weekend
Day 16 Gil‘s
Furniture/Meme/ Louie/
Marin
New Vocab Warmup LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
Marin (*Auto-Bio Prompt
and Prewriting Available in
Unit)
MU: Any or all of the
vignettes you want.
Your Turn:
Things to enhance in the unit
Vocab
Literary
Terminology/Figurative
Language/Writing
Techniques
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS
(Literary Response
Paragraphs)
C, S, S, T, T/M (Literary
Terms)
S, M, P, R, R, O (Fig.
Lang/Writing Techniques)
Character Analysis
Grammar
Day 17 Writing My Neighbor
Day 18 And Some/Family Feet/
Chanclas
Quiz: on HW reading
Discuss HW reading using
Participation Sheet
Autobiographical Narrative
LP: My Neighbor
(Characterization of a neighbor)
Prewriting Handout
1st Draft
Reader Response
Put on file in classroom
Vocab Cooldown LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
Day 19 Born - Sire
Day 20 No Speak/ Rafaela/
Sally
Quiz: on HW reading
Read as class and MU: Focus
on Symbol especially
High Heels=Sexuality
Chanclas= Self Esteem
Inference Tables- have them
respond to quotes about
symbolism- then write a
paragraph response.
(T4R Handout InfTables+Lit
Paragraph)
And Some More (*Auto-Bio
Prompt and Prewriting Available
in Unit)
Vocab Quiz
Read as class and MU:
HOMS Vignettes
 Born Bad
 Elenita
 Geraldo
 Edna‘s Ruthie
 Earl
 Sire
Day 1: Figurative Language
and Avoiding Cliches LP: 2Day Lesson with handout and
teacher participation log
HW: 3 vignettes MU
 Hips
 First Job
 Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in
the Dark (*Auto-Bio Prompt
and Prewriting Available in
Unit)
HW:
 Four Skinny Trees
+Inference Table
and Literary
Analysis paragraph
(this is a great piece
for practice on
analysis)
Day 2: Figurative Language
and Avoiding Cliches LP
Read as class and MU: Focus
on Theme of Male Dominance
HOMS Vignettes
 No Speak
 Rafaela
 Sally
Lit Map: Assign or let students
choose either one of the three
females from today‘s reading or
any female who is oppressed.
Rafaela (*Auto-Bio Prompt and
Prewriting Available in Unit)
HW:
 Finish Lit Map on Theme of
Female Oppression/ Male
Dominance
 HW: Next 4 Vignettes
Day 21 Someone Mysterious
Day 22 The Climax: Red Clowns
Day 23 Finishing Mango
Day 24 Editing and Essay
Day 25 Editing and Essay
Present Lit Maps to class/
Gallery Walk
Quiz: on HW reading
Quiz: on HW reading
Vocab Quiz
 Read as class and MU:
Red Clowns
Inference Tables (the most
important vignette, make sure
you prepare an appropriate
discussion and some good
questions for a literary
response paragraph or two)
Your Turn:
Be creative here, this is the
climax of the novel.
Theme: Loss of Innocence
Read as a class:
HOMS Vignettes
Finish the book as a class and ask
for reactions and discuss book as
whole
 A House of My Own
 Mango Says Goodbye
Sometimes
Vignette Project
Editing and Annotating our
Autobiographical Narratives
LP: Plus Annotation Handout
 Teacher Model (as in LP)
 Students then annotate one of
their own vignettes then
rewrite 2nd draft according to
observations in annotating
process.
Autobiographical
Narrative LP: Someone
Mysterious
Read as class and MU:
HOMS Vignettes
 Minerva
 Bums
 Beautiful and Cruel
 Smart Cookie (*Auto-Bio
Prompt and Prewriting
Available in Unit)
Vocab Cooldown LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
HW:
 What Sally Said
 The Monkey Garden
HW:
Linoleum Roses
The Three Sisters
Alicia and I
Autobiographical Narrative
LP: My Street Says Goodbye
-Assign Vignette Project go
over as class and set due date.
-Assign Literary Analysis
Essay, go over as class and set
due date.
Vocab Cooldown LP:
+Handout and Teacher
Participation Log
HW:
Students choose 10 of their AutoBio Vignettes (or however many
you want to assign) for editing
and revision in preparation for
Vignette Project.
Students bring all Inference
Tables and Lit Maps in
preparation for Essay.
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should choose which
Essay they are going to write and
begin working on Thesis
Statements.
HW:
 Annotate 1 more piece and
Rewrite 2nd draft
 Finish Thesis
Vignette Project
Editing and Annotating our
Autobiographical Narratives
LP: Plus Annotation Handout
 Students annotate two more
of their own vignettes and
rewrite 2nd Drafts.
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should begin
Introductions. Be creative!
Make sure their Thesis
Statement is the last sentence!
HW:
 Annotate and Rewrite 2
more pieces
 Finish Introduction
Day 16 Writing Workshop
Week
Vignette Project
Writing Workshop LP:
Plus Vignette
Checkoff/Workshop Handout
 Students should have 5
second drafts
 Students keep annotating
first drafts and rewriting
second drafts
 Group members proof
read 2nd drafts and give
feedback according to
Workshop LP.
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should be on their
body paragraphs of the
essay. Use the T4R Handout
to help them with
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS and
incorporating quotes. They
already have the quotes in
their Inference Tables!
HW:
 Assign as neededdepending on your finals
schedule/ how far behind
or ahead you are!
Day 17 Writing Workshop Week
Day 18 Writing Workshop Week
Day 19 Writing Workshop Week
Vignette Project
Writing Workshop LP: Plus
Vignette Checkoff/Workshop
Handout
 Students keep annotating first
drafts and rewriting second
drafts
 Group members proof read 2nd
drafts and give feedback
according to Workshop LP.
 Students should begin typing
3rd and final drafts for HW or
if a Computer Lab is available
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should be on their body
paragraphs of the essay. Use the
T4R Handout to help them with
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS and
incorporating quotes. They
already have the quotes in their
Inference Tables!
Vignette Project
Writing Workshop LP: Plus
Vignette Checkoff/Workshop
Handout
 Students keep annotating first
drafts and rewriting second
drafts
 Group members proof read 2nd
drafts and give feedback
according to Workshop LP.
 Students should begin typing
3rd and final drafts for HW or
if a Computer Lab is available
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should be on their body
paragraphs of the essay. Use the
T4R Handout to help them with
TS/CD/CM/CM/CS and
incorporating quotes. They
already have the quotes in their
Inference Tables!
Vignette Project
Writing Workshop LP: Plus
Vignette Checkoff/Workshop
Handout
 Students keep annotating first
drafts and rewriting second
drafts
 Group members proof read 2nd
drafts and give feedback
according to Workshop LP.
 Students should begin typing
3rd and final drafts for HW or
if a Computer Lab is available
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should be on their
Conclusions. Make sure they
reference their Lit Maps to be
able to talk about Theme!
HW:
Assign as needed- depending on
your finals schedule/ how far
behind or ahead you are!
HW:
Assign as needed- depending on
your finals schedule/ how far
behind or ahead you are!
HW:
Assign as needed- depending on
your finals schedule/ how far
behind or ahead you are!
Day 20 Writing Workshop
Week
Vignette Project
Writing Workshop LP: Plus
Vignette Checkoff/Workshop
Handout
 Students keep annotating
first drafts and rewriting
second drafts
 Group members proof read
2nd drafts and give feedback
according to Workshop LP.
 Students should begin typing
3rd and final drafts for HW
or if a Computer Lab is
available
Lit Analysis Essay
Your Turn:
Students should Group Edit
first draft using T4R Peer
Editing Rubric- Literary
Analysis
Final Objectives
Vignette Project finished and
turned in.
Literary Analysis Essay should
be typed and turned in.
T4R Final Exam given.
MU= Mark it Up (refer to Mark it Up Lesson Plan)
LP= Lesson Plan (refer to Lesson Plans)
HW= Homework
C, S, S, T, T/M= Character, Subject, Subject, Theme, Tone/Mood, Symbol
S, M, P, R, R, O= Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Repetition, Rhyme, Onomatopoeia
Your Turn: When you see this on the Pacing Guide, this means we have left you room to address all the things you feel you need to teach more in-depth. Every school tests
different things, so you may have to get to certain parts of the English curriculum we don‘t cover. Plus you probably have vocab and grammar strategies you like working on,
and other literary analysis concepts like characterization, which we only cover briefly. This is your time to do your thing- because we are all doing our thing with our own style,
and we don‘t expect anyone to do every single activity we have on the Pacing Guide—this thing is already 100 pages long!
Prewriting and Prompts by Chapter
Here is a list of Prewriting ideas and Prompts that go with the chapters we feel will get at the Heart of our students‟
stories. Every vignette that has an * next to it means it has a detailed lesson plan that goes with it in the following
pages. We will help you introduce the writing process by showing students how to Pre-Write, get a First Draft
written, as well as provide them with a protocol for sharing student work and Reader Response. After the first couple
of lessons, we are confident you will catch on and be able to execute the rest of them on your own. And feel free to put
your own spin on things. After all, every class is different, and every teacher has a different style. Depending on how
much time you have to finish your unit, you might do all of these, or you might only do a few. Teaching is an
individual art, so from here on out it is up to you. BUT REMEMBER: We do have a final Lesson Plan for teaching
the final vignette “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes.” You‟ll see why we like to end with that piece when you get
there.
*House on Mango Street Prewriting: Handout #1
Prompt: Tell me a story about your house. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A description of
your house using Imagery. 2) Some thoughts you have about your home, and what it means to you
(Interior Monologue). 3) A Scene that shows a fond memory you have of your home and your family (1
Rule: You must use Dialogue).
*Hairs Prewriting: Handout #2
Prompt:
*My Name Prewriting: Handout #3
Prompt: Tell me a story about Your Name. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A bunch of similes
that show how you feel about your name to grab the reader’s attention. 2) Some thoughts you have about
your name, and what it means to you (Interior Monologue). 3) A Scene that shows a time and place that
has to do with your name (1 Rule: You must use Dialogue).
*My Neighbor Prewriting: Handout #4
Prompt: Tell me a story about an interesting neighbor. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A
description of your neighbor using figurative language, with a focus on their actions, movements, and
gestures. 2) Some thoughts you have about this person (Interior Monologue). 3) A Scene that shows a
time and when you interacted with this person (1 Rule: You must use Dialogue).
Marin Prewriting: List characteristics of role models. Choose a person you look up to and list similes and
metaphors that describe this person’s eyes, hair, skin. List the inner thoughts you have about this person.
What scene do you remember when this person showed you something important? What did they say?
Prompt: Who do you look up to as a role model? Describe them using the writing devices we’ve been
working on in class. Locate a scene about a time when this person showed you something important in life
that you will always remember.
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And Some More
Prewriting: List all the people you argue with on a regular basis. Briefly describe one scene that
happened recently, and what the argument was about?
Prompt: Write about a time you had an argument with a friend. This piece needs to be ALL
DIALOGUE. Do not even tell us who is talking. Just use quotations marks and dialogue, and every time the
speaker changes, start a new paragraph.
Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark Prewriting: List all your father’s best characteristics. Describe his face, hair, eyes, and hands using
figurative language. Briefly summarize your thoughts about your father. Briefly summarize a time he taught
you something.
Prompt: Describe your father. Be poetic. And make sure to locate a scene- tell about a time he taught
you something you will never forget.
*Sally This Lesson Plan is under Extra Lesson Plans
Prewriting: Handout #5
Prompt: Write a vignette about someone you find mysterious. Your story should be in three parts: 1)
A description of this person using figurative language, with a focus on their actions, movements, and
gestures. 2) Some thoughts you have about this person (Interior Monologue). 3) You need to ask them ten
questions. (1 Rule, most sentences need to have 3 commas!) The commas are important. Tell them they
have to use three commas in almost every sentence. Tell them not to worry about breaking grammar rules.
Just write long sentences and use lots of commas. GO!
Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays
Prewriting: List all the women we’ve met on Mango Street so far. Now list the characteristics each
woman shares. What or who is holding them back?
Prompt: Write about a time you were controlled by someone or something. Locate the scene, and use
dialogue to show how that person controlled you, and how you reacted. (A secondary prompt can have
them write about a woman they know who is controlled or trapped).
A Smart Cookie Prewriting: List characteristics that describe your mother. Use adjectives. They can be good and bad.
Think of one simile and one metaphor that describes your mom.
Prompt: Write a vignette describing your mother. Be poetic, use figurative language and the other
writing devices we have been working on in class. What color is her hair? Her eyes? Her skin? What is her
smell? Use dialogue, locate a scene that shows her love. What does she always say?
*Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes
The lesson plan can be found in Extra Lesson Plans, and will help your students end their story, and
guide them to a controlling idea about their lives and what is at the heart of their project.
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Lesson Plan:
This lesson is the basic template for all our Autobiographical Narrative writing days. It is assumed that before this
lesson you read the vignette in the book, and Mark it Up as a class, or another such Literary Analysis activity. Once
you have read the vignette, these lessons follow the pattern of Prewriting, Writing a First Draft, and Reader
Response.
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior
Monologue to depict the characters‘ feelings.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
T4R Handout Prewriting: My House
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to write a story using Dialogue to help Locate a
Scene.
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their home
-Use Imagery to describe their home
-Use Dialogue to help them locate a scene
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings
-Communicate the significance of their home in their life
Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s story
-Provide feedback to their partner
Prewriting:
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Students will make three lists focusing on Imagery, Locating a Scene, and Interior Monologue
- Pass out T4R Handout #1: Prewriting My House
- Begin with the first list- Imagery. Tell students to describe their house/apartment, then take them down the list of
sights, smells etc. Give them plenty of think time and writing time- go slow.
- Then move on to the second box, Interior Monologue, and have them write their own thoughts about how they
feel about their home.
- Move on to Locating a Scene- tell them to think of a time when something happened in their house that shows
how they feel about the place. For example, tell them this story, or something from your own life:
This one time, I had a fight with my cousin on the phone. I was upset, and felt like I was going to cry. I went into the
living room to see what my family was doing. They were sitting around the TV, and our favorite show was about to
start. I sat down next to my mom, and by the end of the show I felt better. In fact, when the show ended, I closed my
eyes and fell asleep as my mom ran her fingers through my hair.
Now tell them to write a brief summary about a good memory they have of their home. Give them time to think and
write- maybe three minutes. Also, have them write some Dialogue, and tell them they will need to include it in their
story. Some students might not be able to come up with anything, at this point, you need to Work the Rows (Matt‘s
Ed Blog Tip).
This doesn‘t have to be a lot of work because they are about to write about it for 15-20 minutes. Just a couple of
thoughts will do.
Writing 1st Draft
-Tell students to get out a piece of paper, but to keep their Prewriting on their desk to help them. They should put
their proper heading on the paper, and the title they should write is My House.
-Put the following Prompt on the board:
Tell me a story about your house. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A description of your house using
Imagery. 2) Some thoughts you have about your home, and what it means to you (Interior Monologue). 3) A Scene
that shows a fond memory you have of your home and your family (1 Rule: You must use Dialogue).
Remind them not to write the numbers 1-3 on their piece (don‘t worry, some still will), just write paragraphs.
- Tell them they have 15 minutes, set a timer if you have one, then quietly tell them to begin.
- Do not sit at your desk the entire time. Give them time to think and begin writing, then Work the Rows, to help get
the slow ones started, answer questions, and make sure everyone is on task.
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Reader Response: Introduce Pair/Share and Golden Lines
-When students are finished, explain to them your technique for pairing them up. You can have them work with the
student next to them, have every other student leapfrog, etc. The important thing to remember is that to build
community, they should share with a different student almost every time, so they hear the stories of everyone in
the class.
- Tell them about Golden Lines. Remind them this class is a community of writers, and as writers they often have
some really great ideas. So for their partner‘s piece, they need to listen for their favorite line, and when their partner
has finished reading, they need to underline it.
-Tell them they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ SILENTLY,
THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their own voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you hear
the lull, remind them to give their partner their paper and have their partner underline a Golden Line.
Extended Activity: Have them leapfrog 2-3 times if you have time. You‘ll find if you set this up right, in a few
days they will be pairing up and underlining Golden Lines with joy. The more people they can share with, the
better.
After they have shared their work, and returned to their desk, they need to file their 1st drafts in their writing folders.
We encourage you to have a place in your class for them to keep their writing. Especially in an urban public school,
the kids have a tendency to lose anything that leaves your classroom- SO DON‘T LET THESE PRECIOUS FIRST
DRAFTS OUT OF YOU CLASSROOM!
Remind them they will be putting all their first drafts there, and will be going back to revise them. Remind them of
the writing process, and how we are just getting started, and their first drafts are not done. I also like to remind them
they will be doing 15 of these
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their home?
-Use Imagery to describe their home?
-Use Dialogue to help them Locate a Scene?
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings?
-Communicate the Significance of their home in their life?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner?
Final Thoughts for you the Instructor
This lesson, as well as the following lessons in which we write narratives based on a vignette from HOMS, are
focused on locating scenes. It is not a narrative if they do not locate a scene.
Also, the reason we end with a scene is because we want them to get away from ending their pieces with: “And that
is why I love my house.” We want them to end their stories with, “And I fell asleep there on my mom‟s lap, her long
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fingers twirling my curls into dreamland.” That communicates the significance of home and family more than any
direct thoughts.
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Name_________________
Prewriting: My House
Imagery
Sights: (Describe your house)
Sounds: (freeway, birds)
Smells: (mom‘s cooking,
plants)
Tastes: (mom‘s cooking)
Textures: (Rug, doorknobs)
Interior Monologue
Briefly write some thoughts and feelings you have about your home. Do you like it, why? Do you want
something more? How come?
Locate a Scene
Think of a memory you have that captures the importance of your home.
This one time….
Dialogue
________ said, “
.”
Then I said, “
.”
Lesson Plan:
Again, you should read the vignette as a class first, and Mark Up the different kinds of figurative language
Sandra Cisneros uses to describe the hair of her family. While this lesson follows the same pattern we set up
with the first narrative lesson plan, it adds a few things. First, we want to introduce the concept of Modeling
your own writing in front of the students. We also need to begin to hammer home the idea that the students need
to concentrate on using figurative language in their writing (without clichés).
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the audience.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior Monologue to depict the
characters‘ feelings.
3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
3.7 Recognize and understand the significance of various literary devices, including figurative language,
imagery, allegory, and symbolism, and explain their appeal.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
T4R Handout Prewriting: Hairs
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to use Figurative Language in our own writing,
especially Similes, Metaphors, and Personification.
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their family‘s different hairs
-Use figurative language to describe their hair- focusing on simile, metaphor, and personification
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings
-Communicate the significance of their family in their life
Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s story
-Provide feedback to their partner
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Teacher Modeling:
Students need to see how good writers operate, which means they need to see the work of the best writer in the
room—YOU! After reading the vignette ―Hairs,‖ have them get out a piece of paper and follow along as you
write a vignette on the hairs of your family. Writing this vignette is an introduction to putting figurative
language on steroids, so make sure you do so while writing. Notice in my example below, you can simply start
with three similes in a row. Something else important to note is that they should see you struggle. If you don‘t
like how something turned out, cross it out. They should see that messing up is part of the writing process. So
sit in front of them, turn the light off, and have them copy down what you write word for word on your
overhead. Below is an example you can use if you don‘t have time to prepare something:
My brother‟s hair is a brown wig. It is sculpted so perfectly it is like Michaelangelo came back from the dead
and did my brother‟s head. His hair is like granite, but a deep brown color, like tree bark in a dark forest. The
gel he uses is thick and green, like nuclear waste. His head is so unnaturally hard it seems like a fallout from
some failed experiment, and Joe was left with a helmet forever. Before it hardens he stands in front of the
mirror and fights it, because without the gel keeping it in place, his hair is cranky, like it was woken up at two
in the morning by a gust of wind blowing it out of place.
My dad‟s hair is nothing like my brother‟s. It goes backwards, like he is constantly standing on the edge of the
ocean during a hurricane. He doesn‟t even have to do anything to it. It lays back on his head like it fell over and
doesn‟t feel like getting back up. It is black, like the darkness underneath the house, where he spends so much
time working on all the broken pipes and hidden wires.
But my mom‟s hair. Ahh, my mom‟s hair. Like ripples in a creek bubbling around smooth stones. Like the
trickle of a smooth waterfall, falling over her shoulders. Mom‟s hair smells like a hike through the mountains—
pine needles and the wind that breathes on your cheek just enough to make them glow red. Her hair is brown,
like the path below your feet a million miles from this city, where you can lay down and roll around and no one
would care because you are a part of your mom‟s hair.
Reading this piece now, it seems a little much for 9th graders. They will not be able to come up with half of this
stuff. But the key to modeling is the process. Every one of these lines I come up with in front of the class. I
say, ―His hair is brown like..WHAT?‖ I ask the class. I talk them through my thinking process. Like with my
mom I want to talk about the forest and creeks and hiking in the mountains. I ask them what that says about her,
and about my feelings about her. You should be talking almost the entire time you are writing. And the students
should be writing every word you write. This is tough to do, admittedly, and may take some practice, which is
why you probably want to prepare some similes and extended metaphors in advance. But I cannot encourage
you enough to write in front of your class. They need to see you struggle with similes and personification, so
they can see that their struggle is the same, and that it is okay.
Prewriting:
Students will try to come up with a variety of similes, metaphors, and personification to depict their family‘s
hair.
- Pass out T4R Handout #2: Prewriting Hairs
- Begin with the first list- Figurative Language. Tell students to name three family members in addition to
their own hair. Make sure they choose one SPECIAL family member, like Esperanza‘s mother. They will end
their vignette by tying that person‘s hair to how they feel about them.
- They should begin thinking up similes, metaphors, and personification to describe the hair of members of their
family. They don‘t have to fill in every single blank. As long as they get one or two good ones per person it will
suffice. Give them 5-10 minutes for this, and Work the Rows.
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- Take them through the Special Family Member box. As they write down some thoughts about this person, see
if they can find a relationship between their hair and their personality.
This doesn‘t have to be a ton of work because they are about to write about it for 15-20 minutes. Just a couple
of thoughts will do.
Writing 1st Draft
-Tell students to get out a piece of paper, but to keep their Prewriting on their desk to help them. They should
put their proper heading on the paper, and the title they should write is Hairs.
-Put the following Prompt on the board:
Using "Hairs" (p. 6-7) as a model, write a 1-page vignette about your family‟s hair! You MUST USE one type of
figurative language per person, and two or three similes per person would be even BETTER! Think about how their
hair captures who they are, especially your Special family member. How does their hair reflect the same traits you love
about them?
- Tell them they have 15 minutes, set a timer if you have one, then quietly tell them to begin.
- Do not sit at your desk the entire time. Give them time to think and begin writing, then Work the Rows, to help
get the slow ones started, answer questions, and make sure everyone is on task.
Reader Response: Introduce Pair/Share and Golden Lines
-When students are finished, pair them up like you did with the first vignette. The important thing to remember
is that to build community, they should share with a different student almost every time, so they hear the
stories of everyone in the class.
- Remind them about Golden Lines. Remind them this class is a community of writers, and as writers they often
have some really great ideas. So for their partner‘s piece, they need to listen for their favorite line, and when
their partner has finished reading, they need to underline it.
-Tell them they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ
SILENTLY, THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their
own voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you
hear the lull, remind them to give their partner their paper and have them underline a Golden Line.
Extended Activity: Have them leapfrog 2-3 times if you have time. You‘ll find if you set this up right, in a few
days they will be pairing up and underlining Golden Lines with joy. The more people they can share with, the
better.
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After they have shared their work, and returned to their desk, they need to file their 1st drafts in their writing
folders. We encourage you to have a place in your class for them to keep their writing. Especially in an urban
public school, the kids have a tendency to lose anything that leaves your classroom- SO DON‘T LET THESE
PRECIOUS FIRST DRAFTS OUT OF YOU CLASSROOM!
Remind them they will be putting all their first drafts there, and will be going back to revise them. Remind them
of the writing process, and how we are just getting started, and their first drafts are not done. I also like to
remind them they will be doing 10-15 of these:)
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their family‘s different hairs?
-Use figurative language to describe their hair- focusing on simile, metaphor, and personification?
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings?
-Communicate the significance of their family in their life?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner?
Final Thoughts for you the Instructor
Modeling in this way is something we encourage here at Teach4Real. We feel that to build a community
of writers you need to show them you too are willing to take risks with you writing. This is just one lesson we
feel works great when teaching Autobiographical Narratives, and is another strategy you can add to your
arsenal.
This piece doesn‘t necessarily have to locate a scene (though it can), although with every other vignette
we want to hammer that home. This piece is more of an introduction and exercise in figurative language and
relating it to characteristics, and the importance of family. We will combine figurative language and using
dialogue to locate a scene in the next lesson.
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Name_________________
Prewriting: Hairs
Figurative Language- Similes/ Metaphors/ Personification
Me
My hair is like a _______________, it always __________________________________________.
My hair is _______________ like…
(color)
My hair is ___________________ because…
(Human characteristic)
Family Member #1______________
His/her hair is as _____________ as a ______________ because…
His/her hair is _____________________.
His/her hair ___________________ because…
(Human characteristic)
Family Member #2______________
His/her hair is like a _____________. It is like ____________________________.
His/her hair is ___________, like a __________.
(color)
His/her hair is ___________________ because…
(Human characteristic)
Interior Monologue
Special Family Member #3______________
Briefly write some thoughts and feelings you have about your favorite family member. Why do you love
him/her so much. What traits make them so likable? Is their hair similar to their personality? How so?
His/her hair is like a _____________. It is like ____________________________.
His/her hair is _____________________. It smells like _________________ and
______________________.
His/her hair is ___________________ because…
(Human characteristic)
Lesson Plan:
In this lesson, we want to combine the first two lessons, so that the students make sure to use Dialogue to help
them Locate a Scene that shows something about their name, and use Figurative Language to describe their
name also.
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior
Monologue to depict the characters‘ feelings.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
T4R Handout Prewriting: My Name
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to write a story using Dialogue to help Locate a Scene,
as well as use Figurative Language to describe our Name.
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their name
-Use Dialogue to help them Locate a Scene
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings
-Communicate the significance of their name in their life
Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s story
-Provide feedback to their partner
Prewriting:
Students will make three lists focusing on Figurative Language, Locating a Scene, and Interior Monologue
- Pass out T4R Handout #3: Prewriting My Name
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- Begin with the first list- Figurative Language- Similes. Tell students to describe their name using as many
similes as they can come up with- the weirder the simile the better. Watch out for clichés!
- Then move on to the second box, Interior Monologue, and have them write their own thoughts about how
they feel about their name.
- Move on to Locating a Scene- tell them to think of a time when something happened with their name that
captures how they feel about who they are. Two ideas that will help them are: Walking into a class on the first
day of school and the teacher messing it up- or a story about how their parents named them.
Now tell them to write a brief summary about this memory. Give them time to think and write- maybe threefive minutes. Also, have them write some Dialogue, and tell them they will need to include it in their story.
Remember to Work the Rows (Matt‘s Ed Blog Tip) as some of them invariably get stuck.
Remember, their lists don‘t have to be too extensive, because they are about to write about it for 15-20
minutes. Just a couple of thoughts will do.
Writing 1st Draft
-Tell students to get out a piece of paper, but to keep their Prewriting on their desk to help them. They should
put their proper heading on the paper, and the title they should write is My Name.
-Put the following Prompt on the board:
Tell me a story about Your Name. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A bunch of similes that show how
you feel about your name to grab the reader‟s attention. 2) Some thoughts you have about your name, and
what it means to you (Interior Monologue). 3) A Scene that shows a time and place that has to do with your
name (1 Rule: You must use Dialogue).
Remind them not to write the numbers 1-3 on their piece, just write paragraphs.
- Tell them they have 15 minutes, set a timer if you have one, then quietly tell them to begin.
- Do not sit at your desk the entire time. Give them time to think and begin writing, then Work the Rows, to
help get the slow ones started, answer questions, and make sure everyone is on task.
Reader Response: Pair/Share and Golden Lines
-When students are finished, tell them to get ready to Pair/Share. Remember, they should share with a
different student almost every time, so they hear the stories of everyone in the class.
- Remind them that they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ
SILENTLY, THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their
own voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you
hear the lull, remind them to give their partner their paper and have their partner underline a Golden Line.
Extended Activity: Have them leapfrog 2-3 times if you have time. You‘ll find if you set this up right, in a
few days they will be pairing up and underlining Golden Lines with joy. The more people they can share with,
the better.
After they have shared their work, and returned to their desk, they need to file their 1st drafts in their writing
folders. DON‘T LET THESE PRECIOUS FIRST DRAFTS OUT OF YOU CLASSROOM!
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Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their name?
-Use Similes to describe their name?
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings?
-Use Dialogue to help them Locate a Scene?
-Communicate the Significance of their name in their life?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner?
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Name_________________
Prewriting: My Name
Figurative Language- Similes/ Metaphors
My name is like a _______________
My name is like a _______________ because…
My name is as _____________ as a ______________ because…
My name is a _____________ because…
Interior Monologue
Briefly write some thoughts and feelings you have about your name. Do you like it, why? Like
Esperanza, do you wish you could baptize yourself under a new name? How come?
Locate a Scene
Think of a memory you have that captures how you feel about your name.
This one time….
Dialogue
________ said, “
Then ________ said,
“
.”
.”
Lesson Plan:
As we continue to build on previous lessons, in this lesson, students need to again use Dialogue to help them Locate
a Scene that shows something about their neighbor, and use Figurative Language to describe that person.
Additionally they will try to Characterize their neighbor using, actions, movements, gestures and Interior
Monologue so we really get a feel for who they are.
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters ; use Interior
Monologue to depict the characters‘ feelings.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
T4R Handout #5
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to use Actions, Movements, Gestures, and Interior
Monologue to Characterize a neighbor.
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about a neighbor
-Use Dialogue to help them Locate a Scene and characterize their neighbor
-Show a character‘s actions, movements, and gestures to characterize them
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings about this person
-Communicate the significance of this person to their neighborhood
Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s story
-Provide feedback to their partner
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Prewriting:
Students will make four lists focusing on Figurative Language, Characterization, Interior Monologue, and
Locating a Scene
- Pass out T4R Handout #5: Prewriting My Neighbor
- Begin with the first list- Figurative Language, which should be getting familiar to the students.
-Move to, Actions, movements, gestures. Tell students to describe their neighbor by the things he/she does, the
way they move, and the way they talk and gesture, or any weird tics they possess.
- Then move on to Interior Monologue, and have them write their own thoughts about how they feel about their
neighbor.
- Move on to Locating a Scene- tell them to think of a time when they interacted with their neighbor. Tell them to
write a brief summary about this memory. Give them time to think and write- maybe three-five minutes. Also,
when they write Dialogue, see if they can capture the way the neighbor talks and any words or phrases they always
repeat.
. Remember to Work the Rows (Matt‘s Ed Blog Tip #1) as some of them invariably get stuck.
Remember, their lists don‘t have to be too extensive, because they are about to write about it for 15-20 minutes.
Just a couple of thoughts will do.
Writing 1st Draft
-Tell students to get out a piece of paper, but to keep their Prewriting on their desk to help them. They should put
their proper heading on the paper, and the title they should write is My Neighbor.
-Put the following Prompt on the board:
Tell me a story about an interesting neighbor. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A description of your
neighbor using figurative language, with a focus on their actions, movements, and gestures. 2) Some thoughts you
have about this person (Interior Monologue). 3) A Scene that shows a time and when you interacted with this
person (1 Rule: You must use Dialogue).
-Remind them not to write the numbers 1-3 on their piece, just write paragraphs.
- Tell them they have 15 minutes, set a timer if you have one, then quietly tell them to begin.
- Do not sit at your desk the entire time. Give them time to think and begin writing, then Work the Rows, to help
get the slow ones started, answer questions, and make sure everyone is on task.
Reader Response: Pair/Share and Golden Lines
-When students are finished, tell them to get ready to Pair/Share. Remember, they should share with a different
student almost every time, so they hear the stories of everyone in the class.
- Remind them that they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ
SILENTLY, THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their own
voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you hear
the lull, remind them to give their partner their paper and have their partner underline a Golden Line.
Extended Activity: Have them leapfrog 2-3 times if you have time. The more people they can share with, the
better.
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After they have shared their work, and returned to their desk, they need to file their 1st drafts in their writing
folders. DON‘T LET THESE PRECIOUS FIRST DRAFTS OUT OF YOU CLASSROOM!
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about their neighbor?
-Use actions, movements, and gestures to describe their neighbor?
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings?
-Use Dialogue to help them Locate a Scene?
-Communicate the Significance of this person to their neighborhood?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner?
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Name_________________
Prewriting: My Neighbor
Figurative Language- Similes/ Metaphors
My neighbor is like a _______________, _________, __________, and ____________.
My neighbor is a _______________. He/She is always __________________________.
Characterization
Characterize your neighbor by
what they do, how they move
and gesture.
Actions (what are they always
doing?)
Movements (how do they walk?)
Gestures (how do they look
when they‘re talking?)
Interior Monologue
Briefly write some thoughts and feelings you have about your neighbor. Do you like them? Why? Do
they annoy you, or do you wish they weren‟t there? How come?
Locate a Scene
Think of a time when you had an interesting interaction with this person.
This one time….
Dialogue
________ said, “
Then ________ said, “
.”
.”
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2 Day Lesson Plan:
é
This is a two day lesson that will again hammer home the importance of using Creative similes and metaphors in
student writing as well as a dire warning to watch out for clichés.
CA Standards Focus:
Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications
1.11 Assess how language and delivery affect the mood and tone of the oral communication
and make an impact on the audience.
1.12 Evaluate the clarity, quality, effectiveness, and general coherence of a speaker’s
arguments, evidence, organization of ideas, delivery, diction, and syntax.
important points,
Literary Response and Analysis
3.7 Recognize and understand the significance of various
imagery, allegory, and symbolism, and explain their appeal.
literary devices, including figurative language,
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
Writing Devices Handout
Dictionary/ Textbook with Glossary of Terms
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to write even better Figurative Language than we have
been writing, as well as learn to FEAR clichés.
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Define various writing devices
-Recognize figurative language in the text
-Use figurative language in their own writing
-Present their own writing in front of the class
-Analyze the effectiveness of an author‘s use of figurative language and the importance of avoiding clichés
-Activate Prior Knowledge:
Pass out Writing Devices Handout. Pair students up, or put into groups of four, and tell them to define as many of
the terms on the sheet as they can. Do not have them give examples. Just define the ones they know.
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Work the Rows and help them write better definitions, and remind them of terms they just can‘t remember. They
should be able to define half the sheet at least.
-Find Examples
Then tell students to go through House on Mango Street and find examples of each of the writing devices they
know. Feel free to use your overhead or doc scanner to do a couple of the simpler ones as a class. An example of
metaphor would be ―Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor‖ (pg. 9).
Homework:
Tell them to finish the Handout for homework, both the definitions and examples from the book. Tell them not to
worry about the bottom of the sheet where it says, ―Your Writing.‖
-Check Homework
Go around at the beginning of class with a post-it and write down the names of the students who didn‘t do the
work and anyone who is absent. Everyone else should get full credit. If they have empty boxes, write down their
name and take off the appropriate amount of points.
-Dueling Similes
Tell students they are about to get in front of the class and battle each other head to head. In order to win, they
need to come up with a better simile or metaphor than the other student. The class will vote on each simile or
metaphor with a show of hands, however the teacher has the final say of who wins (to avoid a popularity contest).
But tell them there‘s a catch.
They can’t use clichés.
First you need to define cliché on the board, and have them write it down on their handout (next to the * under the
boxes): Cliché- a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. Very predictable or
unoriginal.
Ask around the room and see if anyone has an example of a cliché. Help them find easy ones and write them on
the board. Dark as a cave. Tall as a skyscraper. Fast as a cheetah. Hot like fire.
Tell them that if they use a cliché when battling, they automatically lose. I like to come to an agreement as a class
that if someone uses a cliché we get to boo the person off-stage all the way back to their desk. Trust me, after that,
they will fear clichés.
Then tell them to spread their writing out on their desk—all the vignettes they‘ve written so far. They should go
through their writing and look for similes or metaphors they‘ve used. When they find them, they should write it
down under ―Your Writing‖ at the bottom of the Writing Devices Handout. Once they‘ve written them down, they
are allowed to edit the phrase to make it more creative or interesting. Some examples you might want to write on
the board are: My brother is loud and annoying, like he has five yapping Chihuahuas in his throat. My dad‟s legs
are so long, it‟s like he could cross the street in one step. It was dark in the house, like all of a sudden we were in a
black and white movie on a moonless night.
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Give them time to find their own examples of either a simile or a metaphor. It is okay if they can’t find any or
haven’t used any. Tell them instead to find a place in one of their pieces that could use a metaphor or simile
and insert one. As you work the rows you can help them do this individually- find a place in one of their pieces
and tell them where to put a simile. They should have a minimum of 3-4 similes written down under “My
Writing.”
As time passes tell them they have ten minutes, then five, then two, then one. Give them a sense of urgency to
keep them engaged. Also, continually remind them that they are about to get up in front of the entire class. Also
continually remind them not to use clichés or they will be humiliated in front of the entire class:)
The Battle:
To prepare, the students should rank their similes from best to worst, so that if their opponent uses a good one,
they might have to use their best one, and vice versa. Then begin calling students up in pairs. They should shake
hands before they begin. I like to tell them to mug each other and look tough like boxers do before the first bell.
But usually what happens is they just start laughing.
You direct who goes first. Once they have both gone, ask the class for a show of hands as votes for the student
whose simile or metaphor was better. This will take a long time, especially in a class of 35 students. Remember to
HAVE FUN! If someone uses a cliché boo them relentlessly (unless they are one of the shy students who can‘t
take it). You probably won‘t get to the final rounds because there are so many students, and because they probably
don‘t have enough similes or metaphors to use to get that far into the competition---so…
Extended Activity
When it seems like everyone is out of similes and metaphors and you‘ve gone a couple of rounds, tell the students
you will do the final rounds later on when everyone has more writing. You might even want to tell them you‘ll
play again. The point of this exercise is to get them using more figurative language in their writing, and to
make them understand they can’t use clichés. This is an activity that can be played over and over!
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Define various writing devices?
-Recognize figurative language in the text?
-Use figurative language in their own writing?
-Present their own writing in front of the class?
-Analyze the effectiveness of an author‘s use of figurative language and the importance of avoiding clichés?
Final Thoughts for You the Instructor
This lesson might not be good for every classroom. Clearly it requires a certain amount of community and
classroom management so that kids feel comfortable in front of each other and are respectful to the kids in front of
the class. And like every lesson, it requires the teacher to facilitate a lot of complicated protocols and moves. It is
one lesson where you really have to be on your toes. A lot of it comes down to how tightly you control your class,
how effectively you can communicate your lessons and goals, and in the end, how you pull it off. However, if
done right, this can be a great lesson that will enhance their figurative language and make them fear clichés!
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Name___________________
Writing Devices
Alliteration
Repetition
Personification
Rhyme
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole
Imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Tone
Theme
*
:
-
EXTRA LESSONS
Lesson Plan:
By now students should be encouraged to include all the techniques we‟ve covered in our first few vignettes. Using
Dialogue to Locate Scenes, use appropriate Figurative Language, and Characterize people through movements and
actions. Other concepts you can begin to include in your objectives are Imagery and other Writing Techniques (nonfigurative language) like alliteration and repetition. Refer to the Editing Annotations Handout for other aspects of
writing they will be expected to include in their 2nd and 3rd drafts.
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior Monologue to
depict the characters‘ feelings.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
T4R Handout Prewriting: Someone Mysterious
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about a mysterious person in their lives
-Show a character‘s actions, movements, and gestures to characterize them
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings about this person
-Communicate the significance of this person to their lives
Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s story
-Provide feedback to their partner
Prewriting:
Students will make four lists focusing on Figurative Language, Characterization, Interior Monologue, and Asking
Questions
- Pass out T4R Handout: Prewriting A Mysterious Person
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- Begin with the first list- Figurative Language, which should be getting familiar to the students.
-Move to, Actions, movements, gestures. Tell students to describe someone mysterious by the things he/she does,
the way they move, and the way they talk and gesture, or any weird tics they possess, and what other people say
about them.
- Then move on to Interior Monologue, and have them write their own thoughts about how they feel about this
person.
- Move on to Asking Questions- Tell them that in this piece they are going to ask the mysterious person many
questions, just like Esperanza does in the vignette ―Sally.‖ Ask them to list five questions they have for this person
that goes deep into understanding who they are.
-Remember to Work the Rows (Matt‘s Ed Blog Tip) as some of them invariably get stuck.
-Remember, their lists don‘t have to be too extensive, because they are about to write about it for 15-20 minutes. Just
a couple of thoughts will do.
Writing 1st Draft
-Tell students to get out a piece of paper, but to keep their Prewriting on their desk to help them. They should put
their proper heading on the paper, and the title they should write is A Mysterious Person or That Person‘s Name.
-Put the following Prompt on the board:
Write a vignette about someone you find mysterious. Your story should be in three parts: 1) A description of this
person using figurative language, with a focus on their actions, movements, and gestures. 2) Some thoughts you
have about this person (Interior Monologue). 3) You need to ask them ten questions. (1 Rule, most sentences need to
have 3 commas!) The commas are important. Tell them they have to use three commas in almost every sentence.
Tell them not to worry about breaking grammar rules. Just write long sentences and use lots of commas. GO!
-Remind them not to write the numbers 1-3 on their piece, just write paragraphs.
- Tell them they have 15 minutes, set a timer if you have one, then quietly tell them to begin.
- Do not sit at your desk the entire time. Give them time to think and begin writing, then Work the Rows, to help get
the slow ones started, answer questions, and make sure everyone is on task.
Reader Response: Pair/Share and Golden Lines
-When students are finished, tell them to get ready to Pair/Share. Remember, they should share with a different
student almost every time, so they hear the stories of everyone in the class.
- Remind them that they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ
SILENTLY, THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their own
voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you hear
the lull, remind them to give their partner their paper and have their partner underline a Golden Line.
Extended Activity: Have them leapfrog 2-3 times if you have time. The more people they can share with, the better.
After they have shared their work, and returned to their desk, they need to file their 1st drafts in their writing folders.
DON‘T LET THESE PRECIOUS FIRST DRAFTS OUT OF YOU CLASSROOM!
www.teach4real.com
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative about someone mysterious?
-Use actions, movements, and gestures to describe someone mysterious?
-Use Interior Monologue to depict their feelings?
-Ask this person questions?
-Communicate the Significance of this person to their lives?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner?
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Name_________________
Prewriting: Someone Mysterious
Figurative Language- Similes/ Metaphors
He/She is like a _______________, _________, __________, and ____________.
His/Her hair is a _______________. Like a ________________________.
Characterization
Characterize this person by
what they do, how they move
and gesture.
Actions (what are they always
doing?)
Movements (how do they
walk?)
Gestures (how do they look
when they‘re talking?)
What do other people say about
them?
Interior Monologue
Briefly write some thoughts and feelings you have about this mysterious person. Do you like them? Why? Do
you have a crush on them? Do you want to be like them? How come? Why do they capture your
imagination?
Ask Them Questions
List five questions you want to ask this person.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Lesson Plan:
This lesson is designed to bring an end to their Autobiographical Narratives as a whole. They will write their own
final piece based on the final vignette in House on Mango Street. While a lot of the writing is copied word for word
from Sandra Cisneros, I find this to be a great way to end their own stories. It also forces them at times to think
deeply and thematically about their writing. By the end of this piece, many students discover what it is they have been
trying to get at in their writing. It may seem different at first, but the end product is usually one they are proud of, and
a great way to end their story.
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior
Monologue to depict the characters‘ feelings.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Write an autobiographical narrative that ends the story of their life so far
-Find the central theme in their writing
Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s story
-Provide feedback to their partner
Activities:
Finish House on Mango Street as a class. Then students write their own final vignette under the teacher‘s direction.
Prewriting:
Essentially, the prewriting required for this vignette are all the pieces the students have written up until now. Ideally
they should have over ten Autobiographical Narratives already in their folders. They are going to have to remember
and think about the central themes their writing has taken thus far.
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Writing 1st Draft
-Tell students to get out a piece of paper, and open their House on Mango Street books to the final vignette, Mango
Says Goodbye Sometimes (pg. 109). They should put their proper heading on the paper, and the title they should write
is My Street* Says Goodbye Sometimes (*Students should insert the name of their street).
-Tell the students this is going to be the last piece they will include in their Vignette Project. They are going to write
like Sandra Cisneros, but they are going to have to insert their own ideas and personalities into her final vignette.
Also talk to them about THEME, and how they are going to have to think about the deeper aspects of their writing so
far. THINK THEMATICALLY!
-1st paragraph: After they have their own title, written with the name of their own street, tell them to copy down the
first sentence of the second paragraph (they could start with the first paragraph, but I usually skip it). Read it out loud,
―I make a story for my life, for each step my…‖ and tell them to stop. Once they have all gotten to ―my‖, tell them to
insert their favorite shoes, the word ―takes‖, and put a period. Give them examples like, ―for each step my Converse
All Star takes.‖ Or, ―for each step my Air Jordan takes.‖ When everyone has it, have them write, ―I say, ―And so
he/she trudged up the (how they get home)______________, his/her (shoes again)_____________ taking him/her to
the (house/apartment, and how they feel about it)_________________________________(ask them to remember
their first vignette ―My House‖). By now they should be getting the drift that they are inserting their own lives into
Esperanza‘s. Work the rows and get everyone done with the first paragraph.
-2nd paragraph: As you begin the second paragraph, tell them this paragraph may be the most important paragraph
in their story about their lives. Here is where they are going to give their main idea, or THESIS. Have theme start a
new paragraph, indent, and write, ―I like to tell stories. I am going to tell you a story about a boy/girl who…‖ and
stop them all. Now tell them that the second part of this sentence needs to contain their deepest truth. What do they
want in life, and where are they going? Tell them to remember all the writing we‘ve been doing in class, and think
about what it is Esperanza wants. What do they want more than anything, and where are they going? Give them
plenty of time to think and fill in the second part of the sentence.
-3rd paragraph: This paragraph is tricky because the students will have a variety of experiences moving from home
to home. Some have moved more times than Esperanza, others have lived in the same place their whole lives. If the
former is true, have them follow Cisneros‘ words, ―We didn‘t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived…‖
If they have always lived in the same place, they can simply put, ―We have always lived on __________ Street.‖ By
now they understand what is going on, and can begin to work without as much direction. You do want to draw their
attention to personification of their house, have them give their home an emotion like ―sad‖ and a color like ―red‖, as
Cisneros does. Finally, end the paragraph with their own relationship with the house. They might have to think about
our first vignette My House, and how they feel about where they live. They might say Cisneros‘ exact words, ―…the
house I belong but do not belong to.‖ Or they might feel they don‘t belong, or they do belong.
-Finishing: From here most of them can finish it out on their own. Draw their attention to changing the street name,
and the part where it says ―bags of books and paper,‖ and encourage them to insert their own possessions. And
remind them to end it with a final thought, ―They will not know I have gone away to... WHAT?‖ Try to get them to
think thematically, and relate their ending to the THESIS they established earlier.
Reader Response: Pair/Share and Golden Lines
-When students are finished, tell them to get ready to Pair/Share. Remember, they should share with a different
student almost every time, so they hear the stories of everyone in the class.
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- Remind them that they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ
SILENTLY, THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their own
voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you hear the
lull, remind them to give their partner their paper and have their partner underline a Golden Line.
Extended Activity: Have them leapfrog 2-3 times if you have time. They should focus on their specific ideas and
possessions, and their THESIS.
After they have shared their work, and returned to their desk, they need to file their 1st drafts in their writing folders.
DON‘T LET THESE PRECIOUS FIRST DRAFTS OUT OF YOU CLASSROOM!
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Write a final autobiographical narrative?
-Find a central theme or thesis to their life and writing?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner?
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Lesson Plan:
LITERARY ANALYSIS
Marking-Up a text is synonymous with annotation, marginalia, and the strategy of talking to the text (TTTT). This is a
fundamental note-taking strategy for reading literature that develops close reading skills necessary to literary
analysis. Of particular importance is a student‟s ability to learn how to identify literary terms. The primary literary
terms that students must learn are: Character, Subject, Setting and Theme, Tone/mood, Symbol, Conflict. As the
HOMS unit progresses, more terms will be introduced, more advanced terms should be introduced based on each
teacher‟s particular needs at their site! In order to use this strategy effectively, students should focus on balancing
relevant notations, versus writing copious notes all over the paper; as a teacher, you must decide whether you‟re
going to grade your 9th graders on relevance and selectivity or fluency! As a side note, you are probably getting these
books from the library and you won‟t be able to write on the page; if this is the case, then you photocopy a few
vignettes and mark up the first few passages together. Then, instruct student to use post-it notes for the remainder of
the book! This is what is called, „Mark-it up!‟
CA Standards Focus:
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
1.1 Identify and use the literal and figurative meanings of words and understand word derivations.
1.2. Distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words and interpret the connotative power of
words.
3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that reflect and enhance their
studies of history and social science. They conduct in- depth analyses of recurrent patterns and themes. The selections
in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve illustrate the quality and complexity of the
materials to be read by students.
Materials:
HOMS novel
Copies of first few HOMS vignettes
Paper
Pen/Pencil
Post-it Notes
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to learn how to take notes in our books; whenever you take notes, there are several
terms you should keep in mind while reading. Once you find examples of those terms, highlight, underline
or copy them down on a Post-It Note and place inside your book.
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
- Annotate reading selection for Character, Subject, Setting, Theme, Tone/Mood, Symbol and Conflict.
- Learn to take notes for relevant, rather than extraneous, information
- Begin using the strategy of Close Reading
- Begin to compile a list of important information as well as, identify important quotations in the text
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:
Mark Up First Vignette of HOMS: The House on Mango Street.
- Warn-up/Sponge activity: Write the Lit Terms and definitions on the board and instruct students to copy on a piece
of binder paper that they will use in the days ahead. These terms & definitions should be on each students‘ desk until
it is clear that they have internalized the definitions of each term.
-Pass out copies of the first vignette OR instruct students that they will write their information on Post-It Notes and
place those on the appropriate pages of their book. Tell students that while you, or fellow students, read HOMS, they
should be looking for examples of any of the seven literary terms discussed in class. Keep in mind that, depending on
the skill level of your students, you may choose to limit your analysis to only four literary terms: Character, Subject,
Setting and Theme. Then, you can introduce the other three terms later in the novel. After reading the first paragraph,
stop and ask for volunteers to share examples of character, subject and setting:
1) Characters: A description of person/people in a novel, play, poem, including physical portrayal, clothing,
personality, etc.
a. Six family members
i. Mama
ii. Papa
iii. Carlos
iv. Kiki
v. Nenny
vi. Me
2) Subject: Plot, main events or the action in novel, play, poem, etc.
a. Narrator moves a great deal and isn‘t happy with the places that she has lived. Further, she feels
disrespected by the nun that is critical of the flat on Loomis.
i. ―We didn‘t always live…‖ and ―Once when we were living on Loomis…‖
3) Setting: Where and when; place, time, date in a story.
a. Several different apts/houses:
i. Flat on Loomis
ii. Keeler
iii. Paulina
iv. Mango Street
b. Poor urban, inner city
i. ―The water pipes broke and …‖
ii. ―…laundromat downstairs had been boarded up…‖
4) Theme: The author’s message or moral of story in novel, play, poem, etc.
a. The narrator (Esperanza) has internalized the negative aspects of the places her family has been and is
struggling to distinguish who she is from where she has lived.
5) Tone/Mood: (For now, you may choose to avoid making the distinction between TONE, as the author’s
attitude toward subject, and MOOD, as the atmosphere created for the reader based on the characters
feelings, and simply tell students to look for specific examples of Cisneros’ language or word choices that
reveals how characters feel!)
a. SMALL: ―But the house on Mango Street is…small and red…windows so small…out back is a small
garage…that looks smaller…‖
6) Symbol: Image, picture or shape that represents or stands for a theme
a. House
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7) Conflict: A struggle or fight between two forces
a. Person v Person
i. Narrators family v Landlord
ii. Narrator v Nun
b. Person v Self
i. Narrator (Esperanza) v Narrator (Esperanza)
c. Person v Nature/Society/God
i. Narrator (Esperanza) v poverty-stricken inner city environment
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Analyze a short story for Character, Subject, Setting, Theme?
-Label their paper accordingly?
-Additionally they can elaborate their analysis with Tone/Mood, Symbol, Conflict?
Final Thoughts for you the Instructor
This lesson, as well as the following lessons in which we mark up vignette from HOMS, are focused on showing
students how to identify literary terms and provide evidence/quotations that support student claims about those terms.
This activity directly relates to creating Litmaps as well as completing Inference tables later in the unit.
This strategy should be expanded to include figurative language/writing devices that are in each vignette, including,
but not limited to: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, rhyme, repetition, etc. Below is an
example of how it would look in the book or on a copy (text blanked out for copywright).
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Lesson Plan:
While reading each vignette, and the short stories at the beginning of the unit, it is essential to show students that
writing literary analysis is much more than simply summarizing the story (which we consider to be a middle school
skill at best). Students must learn to write relevant commentary that explains the themes the authors are writing
about. The best way to do that is to design inference tables; inference tables are two-column graphic organizers that
list important quotes from a story or vignette on the left hand side and include relevant commentary about the quotes
on the right hand side! (see samples included in the unit) Inference tables are a way to show the differences between
summary and commentary; the entire structure requires students to choose quotes and explain the importance of
those quotes on the same page. Inference tables help students recognize the relationships between the words in the
text and the meanings readers associate to them: Inferences!
CA Standards Focus:
2.2 Write responses to literature:
a. Demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of the significant ideas of literary works.
b. Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works.
c. Demonstrate awareness of the author‘s use of stylistic devices and an appreciation of the effects created.
d. Identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
T4R Handout Inference Tables
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Demonstrate significant ideas of a literary work
-Show an awareness of the author‘s stylistic devices and the effects created
-Identify complexities within the text
:
Teacher Modeling
Teacher distributes the T4R Inference Table Handout template and instructs students to write in their first quote/
Concrete Detail (CD) on the left hand side. Now, ask students what is the importance of the quote? What does the
quote mean? This explanation should be written on the right hand side under Commentary (CM)
Invariably, 9th grade students will always try to summarize the quote on their first attempt and this should be the most
important learning goal of this activity on the first day. Students must learn to write relevant commentary that
DOESN‘T summarize! After struggling through a few quotes and commentary, students will get the hang of it, and
teachers will more quickly learn how help students out of summary and into making important deductions and
interpretations of significant quotes. Once the students feel more confident writing commentary, this becomes even
more important than choosing essential quotes; nearly all of the quotes are significant to Esperanza‘s life…as writers,
our students must learn to justify their selections by explaining what the quotes mean to them.
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This, of course is merely the first step in teaching literary analysis; the real target is to get students to write relevant
commentary about quotes that RELATE TO A CHOSEN THEME!!!!!
Extended Activity
Inference Tables are used to lead into correctly writing literary analysis paragraphs. We are assuming you are
teaching them TS/CD/CM/CM/CS. Inference tables are a great way to get them thinking about what literary analysis
writing needs to include, especially with the incorporation of quotes and explanation, analysis, and/or commentary.
You should use inference tables as a precursor to writing responses to literary analysis questions. Use T4R Handout
Writing a Literary Analysis Paragraph Using Your Inference Tables.
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Choose a significant quote in the text?
-expound upon the importance of the quote
-explain how the quote contributes to a deeper understanding of the important themes of the text
-compile two –three quotes that contributes to a single theme!
Final Thoughts for you the Instructor
We are all about teacher modeling and this lesson is designed for you to ‗organically‘ fill in the inference table with
your students while you are sitting at the front of the room working on the overhead projector or digital
camera/ELMO machine! Please notice that we have provided an inference table template as well as a few completed
inference tables; the blank templates are for your students and the filled in handouts are for you to keep to the side as
notes while you are ‗perceived‘ to be working the room and filling in the tables with your students.
Further, the appropriate format and components of a paragraph: TS/CD/CM/CM/CS are readily available on the
internet! As stated in Extended Activity, these tables should lead to good paragraphs of analysis. Please see our
HOMS Components of a Literary Analysis Paragraph Handout for an example of what this will look like!
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Chapter
Title
Concrete Detail (CD)
Commentary (CM)
1)
1)
2)
2)
3)
3)
1)
1)
2)
2)
3)
3)
1)
1)
2)
2)
3)
3)
Chapter
Title
Minerva writes Poems
Bums In The Attic
Concrete Detail (CD)
1) ―She lets me read her poems. I let her 1) This shows that both Minerva and
read mine‖ (p. 84)
Esperanza both trust each other and they let
each other know about their problems.
2) ―One day she is through and lets him
know enough is a enough.‖ (p. 85)
2) This shows that Minerva gets super tired of
her husband and throws him out of the house.
3) ―Minerva is only a little bit older than 3) This shows that the Minerva doesn‘t get
me but already she has two kids and a
along with her husband, must take care of her
husband who left her.‖ (p. 84)
two kids by herself and she is still young
enough to be a kid. She is living the life of an
adult even though she is still a teenager.
1) ―One day I will own my own house 1) This shows that she still lives with her
but I won‘t forget who I am or where I
parents but she is not ashamed about her
come from.‖ (p. 87)
neighborhood anymore. Esperanza is
growing up and starting to realize what is
important in life.
2) This means that she wants an expensive
2) ―I want a house on a hill like the ones house and something that reminds her of her
with the gardens where papa works.‖ (p. father.
86)
3) This shows that she hopes to be successful
3) ―Someday after dinner, guests and I
enough in the future that she will be able to
will sit in front of the fire.‖ (p. 87
entertain her friends in a beautiful house; one
with a fireplace.
1) ―I am an ugly daughter. I am the one
that nobody comes for.‖ (p. 88)
Beautiful and Cruel
Commentary (CM)
1) This means that she is lonely, feels inferior
about her looks and no one seeks her help or
advice. She feels like no one cares about her.
2) This shows that she has decided not to be
2) ―I have begun my own quiet war.‖ (p. treated badly by men like her friends Minerva,
89)
Ruthie and Sally.
3) ― In the movies, there is always one
with red, red lips who is beautiful and
cruel.‖ (p, 89)
3) This shows that only the strong women can
drive the men crazy and take control of her life
as a woman.
A Smart Cookie
What Sally Said
1) ―She borrows opera records from the
public library and sings velvety lungs
powerful as morning glories.‖ (p. 90)
1) The author is telling us that her mom has a
wonderful voice like an opera singer and
Esperanza admired her mother‘s skill.
2) ―I was smart cookie then.‖ (p. 91)
2) This shows that Esperanza mom made a
mistake quitting school. She quit because of
the way she looked, but she knows that she
was smart and could have graduated from
school and had a better life.
1) ―Until one day, Sally father catches
1) This shows that Sally‘s father is really strict
her talking to a boy and the next day she
and that she got in trouble for talking to
doesn‘t come to school.‖ (p. 93)
boys. Her father doesn‘t give Sally the
room the be herself.
2) ―A girl that big, a girl that comes
2) This shows that she might be big, but she is
with her pretty face.‖ (p. 92)
pretty.
-
-
Today, we are going to discuss how to write a body paragraph with all of the necessary components.
We will start with Our Good Day from HOMS and review each piece as a class. Afterwards, you will
write one paragraph about a separate vignette in your groups and a second paragraph about a
third different vignette on your own!
1. TS- Novel/Author: In the vignette, Our Good Day, in the book The House On Mango Street by Sandra
Cisneros,
2. Character/Subject: We read about how the main character, Esperanza, has just met two new friends,
Lucy and Rachel, who try to convince her to give them five dollars to share a bicycle that they want
to buy from Tito.
3. Topic Sentence/Theme: Although Esperanza has a hard time making friends, Our Good Day, shows a
great deal about her personality and the importance of a characters‟ willingness to take risks to
create new relationships.
4. Introduce CD/Quote #1: When Esperanza decides to give Lucy and Rachel the $5 dollars, Esperanza‟s
friend Cathy doesn‟t agree,
5. CD/Quote #1: “Cathy is tugging my arm and I know that whatever I do next will make her mad
forever.” (p.15)
6. Commentary #1: This quote shows something about both Esperanza and Cathy‟s Characters. It
illustrates that Esperanza is willing to take chances to make new friends while Cathy is not willing to do
so.
7. Introduce CD/Quote #2: Esperanza is willing to take a chance to make new friends because she
doesn‟t have many friends in her life. In facts, when she tells Lucy and Rachel her name, she gets
nervous,
8. CD/Quote #2: “And I wish my name was Cassandra or Alexis- anything but Esperanza, but when I tell
them my name they don‟t laugh.” (p.15)
9. Commentary #2: This quote confirms Esperanza‟s discomfort with her name because she is used to
other people making fun of it.
10. Concluding Sentence: At the end of, Our Good Day, all three characters delightfully drive down
Mango street on their new „shared‟ bicycle watching their neighbors from a brand new perspective.
For a moment, Esperanza is happy and briefly distracted from her family problems!
Full Paragraph
In the vignette, Our Good Day, in the book The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, we
read about the main character, Esperanza, who has a hard time making friends. Esperanza has just
met two new friends, Lucy and Rachel, who try to convince her to give them five dollars to share a
bicycle that they want to buy from Tito. Although Esperanza has a hard time making friends, Our
Good Day, shows a great deal about her personality and the importance of a characters‟ willingness
to take risks to create new relationships. When Esperanza decides to give Lucy and Rachel the $5
dollars, Esperanza‟s friend Cathy doesn‟t agree. “Cathy is tugging my arm and I know that whatever I
do next will make her mad forever.” (p.15) This quote shows something about both Esperanza and
Cathy‟s Characters. It illustrates that Esperanza is willing to take chances to make new friends while
Cathy is not willing to do so. Esperanza is willing to take a chance to make new friends because she
doesn‟t have many friends in her life. In fact, when she tells Lucy and Rachel her name, she gets
nervous, “And I wish my name was Cassandra or Alexis- anything but Esperanza, but when I tell them
my name they don‟t laugh.” (p.15) This quote confirms Esperanza‟s discomfort with her name
because she is used to other people making fun of it. At the end of, Our Good Day, all three
characters delightfully drive down Mango street on their new „shared‟ bicycle watching their
neighbors from a brand new perspective. For a moment, Esperanza is happy and briefly distracted
from her family problems!
Using Your Inference Table
Name__________________
Period_______
Date_______
Title of Vignette: ______________________________________
Literary Analysis Question: __________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Topic
__________________________________________________________
Sentence __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
1st Point __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Quote
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Explain __________________________________________________________
Significance_________________________________________________________
Of Quote __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
2nd Point __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Quote
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Explain __________________________________________________________
Significance_________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Concluding__________________________________________________________
Sentence __________________________________________________________
Lesson Plan:
This lesson is the basic template for designing a Litmap, which is a well-known strategy for analyzing multiple
elements of literature in a single page...or in our case, two pages! It is assumed that before this lesson you have
already introduced the T4R strategy of Marking-Up a text or, generally understood as annotation! In our opinion,
the litmap is the best example of the first step in the writing process: brainstorming. We advocate introducing
students to several forms of brainstorming including; outlines, idea webs, concept maps and lists. However, this
activity is multi-modal in nature and therefore, hella cool for kids to complete. In our estimation, if you introduce
this activity to your kids, not only will you see an increase in HW submission but your kids will love you and your
class…In other words, this activity in MONEY! For pedagogical purposes, this activity is intended illustrate the
many aspects inherent in writing a literary analysis paper, literary terminology, and should be suggested to be
included in the introduction paragraph of students House On Mango Street Essay!
CA Standards Focus:
3.5 Compare works that express a universal theme and provide evidence to support the ideas expressed in each
work.
3.7 Recognize and understand the significance of various literary devices, including figurative language, imagery,
allegory, and symbolism, and explain their appeal.
3.11 Evaluate the aesthetic qualities of style, including the impact of diction and figurative language on tone, mood,
and theme, using the terminology of literary criticism. (Aesthetic approach)
Materials:
8 ½ x 11‖ printer paper
Paper
Pencil/ Colored-Pencils/crayons/markers…although markers tend to bleed through paper and since both sides must
be legible, markers are not a preferable option!
T4R Litmap Handout
•Brain (student and teacher)
OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are going to learn how to make litmaps; this activity is an artistic form of organizing all
the relevant information we have been marking-up in our books!
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Create a Literary map that does the following:
-Analyzes character, subject, setting, theme, tone/mood, symbol, conflict (C, S, S, T T/M, S, C)
-Identifies the distinction and importance of combining analysis and synthesis
-Supports an understanding of the importance of selecting significant quotations
-Students will understand that there are at least seven different significant literary analysis terms.
-Students will create a single handout that combines two aspects of literary analysis: analysis and synthesis of
HOMS
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-Students will be able to choose several quotes that support an identifiable/significant theme
-Students will be able to create a visual representation of a significant theme in the novel, House on Mango Street
:
Teacher modeling: Pass out printer paper to each student and say the following, ―STOP whatever you‘re thinking,
stop… STOP what you‘re doing! NOW, take the piece of paper and turn sideways and fold it…now turn it one 45
degrees and fold it one more time…Oh, you don‘t understand 45 degrees? Cool, turn to the LEFT ¼ ways!
Nice…now, fold in half again! …and again! Now you should have eight boxes on one side for a total of 16 boxes
on both sides! (The key is to have each student fold paper in a relatively neat fashion and end up with 8
symmetrically folded boxes. The boxes represent side #1 and do not have any function on side #2 at all. Students
may struggle to conceptualize this at first it will get the picture after they have seen the sample litmaps).
Draw the following graphic organizer on the board and instruct students to copy the headings at the top of
each box:
Author and Title
Characters
Subject
Setting
Conflict
Symbol
Figurative Language
The
House on
Mango
Street by
Sandra
Cisneros
Theme
Metaphor
Simile
Alliteration
Repetition
Now, pass out the T4R Litmap Handout so that students understand what the expectations for the litmap are; before
making copies, insert the appropriate amount of points you intend to assign to this particular activity. We
emphasize that it is important for each student to take their time with this activity whether they feel they have
artistic talents or not. While it is difficult not to be persuaded that students who are artistically inclined should
receive the highest points, we explain to our non-artistically inclined students that completeness and attention to
detail are the most important elements!
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We usually give students 1-2 days to complete this activity and as you will see we‘ll introduce it somewhere
towards the end of the book. Under certain classroom circumstances where HW submission rates of the class are
quite low, we require that students complete a ‗1st draft‘ of the assignment in class, then offer the opportunity for
students to take the assignment home to ‗revise and complete a final draft‘ Litmap for the following day. When
students submit their litmaps, we arrange a ‗gallery walk,‘ or classroom presentation exercise, so that all students
get the see the benefit of both high and ‗low‘ quality work!
When this assignment is completed, we are ready to begin our first draft Literary Analysis Essay based on the
theme presented on side two of the Litmap. For those students who are still unsure of what they intend to analyze,
we partner them with students who have strong litmaps in order to share the ‗wealth,‘ so to speak!
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Create a Literary map that does the following:-Analyzes character, subject, setting, theme, tone/mood, symbol,
conflict (C, S, S, T T/M, S, C) ?
-Identifies the distinction and importance of combining analysis and synthesis?
-Supports an understanding of the importance of selecting significant quotations?
-Students will understand that there are at least seven different significant literary analysis terms.?
-Students will be able to create a visual representation of a significant theme in the novel, House on Mango Street?
Final Thoughts for you the Instructor
This lesson is intended to be a prewriting/brainstorming activity in the writing process, in preparation for students
to write their Literary Analysis Paper. It is also a creative, multi-modal system that allows students to take
advantage of their artistic abilities that are frequently considered unrelated to the writing process. It is also a great
work sample to place on the classroom wall for all to see!
All of the elements on side one should find their way into your students introduction paragraph, while side #2 is
designed to represents the quotations that student intend to use in their body paragraphs. If used correctly, this
activity can be one of the most popular strategies you use to prepare students for writing. There are times
when students complete their litmaps and decide that they want to write about an entirely different topic; we
encourage you to DISENCOURAGE that practice as it defeats the purpose of taking time to develop a litmap. This
usually happens when students receive a low score on the litmap activity becaue of a failure to do it correctly. If,
however, students realize that the quotes that they have chosen do not address their chosen topic, then this seems
entirely appropriate.
This strategy should be expanded to include figurative language/writing devices that are in each vignette, including,
but not limited to: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, rhyme, repetition, etc.
Check out our student samples below!!
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________________
Directions and Grading Rubric: Each student is to make a LIT MAP for One (1) theme that is discussed in class
based on House on Mango Street (HOMS). Preferably, that theme will be based on the concepts on Identity, Poverty or
Adolescence. Using one 8 ½ x 11 blank white paper, fold three times into eight boxes on each side- a total of 16!
Assignment is worth: ___ total points 
LitMaps Side #1- ___ Points = ___ points for 8 boxes
Lit Term Analysis: Choose 8 of the following options to include on the front side of your Lit Map:
1) Author/Title, House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros 2) Character: Describe the important aspects of a
few characters in the story. You can include more than one character in your box. (i.e., Esperanza, Nenny and Sally) 3)
Subject/Plot: Brief, holistic summary of what is happening in the story, 4) Setting: place and time, 5) Theme List a
few themes or message that the author is trying to convey(i.e., effects of poverty & crime, loneliness & growing up
adolescent, hope v hopelessness, identity based on self or others, nature of friendships and love, limit of familial
obligations) 6) Tone/Mood: the emotion and feeling of the narrators voice and the atmosphere of setting on the reader
(sadness, happiness, depression, shock) 7) Symbols: Identify a symbol and the concept of theme that it represents (i.e.,
Red balloon & anchor, 4-trees, ‗chanclas,‘ bike, yellow Cadillac, red clowns, linoleum roses, etc.) 8) Conflict: P v
Person; P v Self; P v Nature/society 9) Figurative Language 10) Quotations from the book and, 11) Vocabulary
words.
LitMap Side #2- This Thematic Visual/Artistic Representation is open-ended creative project that synthesizes many, if
not all of the ideas presented on side #1 ___ points= ___ points for each component
i. Choose a Theme- like the role of pride or death in the novel, Scene, Character, Conflict.
ii. Choose Six Quotes which demonstrate the this idea of importance, then analyze what these quotations
reveal, show, or prove
The Visual Representation will be graded on the following= ___ points:
iii. __ points- Clearly represents a theme discussed in class or another idea of importance. Please discuss
with teacher!
iv. __ points- Includes a clear explanation of why the idea is important
v. __ Points- Presents complex ideas from the novel in an organized way
vi. __ Points- Includes six thoughtful quotations from the novel
vii. __ Points- Includes thoughtful, sophisticated analysis of the quotations
viii. __ Points- Be Creative and colorful
ix. __ Points- Be Neat and carefully made
Side One
Title/Author
Characters
Subject
Setting
House on
Mango
Street by
Sandra
Cisneos
Theme
Conflic
t
Symbol
Figurative
Language
 Metaphor:…
 Simile:…
 Alliteration:
…
 Repetition:…
_____________
Sandra Cisneros tells her readers that she decided to write her novel, The House on Mango Street, because
"you will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are." The purpose of
this project is to create your own book that will help you remember what you know, as well as show others who you
are.
Your book must have the following items:
* An Original Cover (___ points)
* Title/Title Page (___ points)
* Dedication (___ points)
* Table of Contents (___ points)
* 10 Vignettes (see back) (___ points each)
TOTAL POSSIBLE: ____ points
Note: You will NOT receive ANY POINTS AT ALL for any book that is turned in that has less than 5
completed chapters.
Chapter length: A chapter under 100 words will be considered underdeveloped and will not receive full points
(except the final vignette we wrote just like ―Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes‖)
The chapters can be in any order you choose as long as it follows your Table of Contents. The project is worth
____ points and should reflect a great deal of effort. We have done the majority of the work in class, so there will be
no excuses for not having the work done.
YOU WILL BE GRADED ON HOW WELL YOU HAVE INCORPORATED ALL THE WRITING DEVICES WE
HAVE DISCUSSED IN CLASS INTO YOUR OWN WRITING, LOCATING SCENES THAT ENHANCE YOUR
CHARACTERS AND IDEAS WHILE BALANCING INTERIOR MONOLOGUE. YOU WILL ALSO TURN IN
YOUR FIRST AND SECOND DRAFTS SEPARATELY FROM THE PROJECT SO I CAN SEE YOU
TOOK YOUR WRITING THROUGH THE CORRECT PROCESS.
Below is a list of the vignettes we have done as a class, as well as some other ideas you may want to use if you
feel you still have more to tell about the story of your life:

My House

Hairs

My Name

My Neighbor

A Role Model

An Argument

My Father

Someone Mysterious

Being Trapped

My Mother

Saying Goodbye
DUE DATE________________________________________
EXTRA REMINDERS:
-
Lesson Plan:
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior
Monologue to depict the characters‘ feelings.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
Student 1st drafts of autobiographical narratives
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Identify the different writing techniques in their own writing
-Reflect on what their writing is missing
-Write a 2nd draft that improves upon their first draft
Teacher modeling of how to edit
On an overhead, bring up a first draft you have already written, either one you did in front of the class or a piece
you wrote for this lesson. It should be a short autobiographical narrative that took you about 10-15 minutes to
write. Ideally you modeled it in front of the class and they copied it down with you, in which case they can get that
out. If not, you should make copies and hand it out. At Teach 4 Real we are very big on teachers sharing their own
stories, and teachers modeling their own writing in front of the students. Try and share a story that will blow their
mind about who you are—like backpacking through Tibet, or some other crazy adventure.
Read it out loud, and as you read it, stop and label the story with the LETTERS according to the T4R Editing
Handout. Every time you come across figurative language, put an ―F‖. Every time you locate a scene, put an ―S‖ in
the margin. Put a ―D‖ where you include dialogue. By the end of the piece, your page (and theirs), should be
peppered with little letters (see example). At the bottom of the piece, use the letters that suggest things you are
missing, like NF and NW. Talk to them about the things you want to improve in this piece, and then write a couple
of sentences at the bottom that will remind you of the things they need to improve.
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Editing a Draft
-Now tell students to get out a first draft. It can be any piece they would like to start with, but do let them know we
will be editing 10 pieces (or however many your project will require, our Vignette Project in this unit requires 10).
-They should do the exact same thing you just did in front of them. Every time they come across a simile or
metaphor, they should put an ―F.‖ Any time they use dialogue they should label a ―D‖. Every time they locate a
scene they should put an ―S‖ in the margin to the side of it.
-When they have done so, draw their attention to the fact that they don‟t have too many letters on their papers.
DON‘T WORRY! They are young writers and their first drafts are not very good. Tell them this is okay and
remind them that the writing process is all about revision. Good writers aren‘t good at first drafts either, what
separates good writers from others is their ability to EDIT. After they see all the things their paper DOESN‘T
have, have them write the letters that start with ―N‖ at the bottom of their paper, like ―NF‖ if their piece Needs
Figurative Language (they should have many of these). They also need to write a sentence or two reminding them
of the things they are going to want to include in the next draft.
-When everyone is done, announce that they are now going to rewrite this piece. Have them get out a fresh sheet of
paper and rewrite it, adding in all the things their 1st draft DOESN‘T have. Tell them their first drafts are a page,
maybe a page and a half, and their second draft is now going to almost double it. They can copy most of it word
for word, but what they need to ADD is ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS, as well as all the writing techniques they are
missing, like alliteration, personification, dialogue. The labeling process is designed to show them visually what
they need to improve in their writing. Their second drafts should build on what they see they are missing.
You can do this activity daily for the next week, using a different piece every time. Now that you have established
a structure for EDITING, they can now label and rewrite at home for homework. You will see this in the Pacing
Guide labeled as ―Label 1st Drafts/Rewrite‖.
See also Writing Workshops for an extension of this activity
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Identify the different writing techniques in their own writing?
-Reflect on what their writing is missing?
-Write a 2nd draft that improves upon their first draft?
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___________
st
We will edit our 1 Drafts in three parts before you begin your Rewrite.
1) The letters below show us how we are going to edit our 1st drafts and improve upon them before we write a
second draft. As you read your first draft, you should label your paper with the letters below every time you come
across something you did right (Notice this is similar to how we Mark Up a text). For example, when you see a
simile, you should put a big ―F‖ next to that sentence to show that you used Figurative Language.
2) Once you have labeled your piece, you need to take a look at it and see all the letters you are missing. Whatever
letters you don‘t have on your paper, you need to write at the bottom of the piece with an ―N‖ in front of it. For
example ―NW‖ means you Need to add more Writing Techniques like alliteration or repetition.
3) Once you have labeled your paper with the things you have and the things you don‘t have, write a
reminder/reflection to yourself about the new scenes, writing techniques, and general ideas you have about how to
improve this piece.
Things I Have
F= Great job with Figurative Language (simile, personification, hyperbole), this is a well-thought out line that is
not a cliché and captures your thought perfectly.
W= Great job of using Writing Techniques like alliteration, assonance, repetition, and other non-FigLang lines.
C= Good Characterization, by using dialogue, description, or interesting actions or gestures that capture the
essence of a character.
I= Great use of Description, especially Imagery, that gives the reader a picture in their head, or a great use of the 5
senses.
D= Great Dialogue- this is really capturing the people involved, and is helping the scene show the deeper ideas
behind your piece.
S= Great Scene location, a correct use of a scene that captures a character, idea, or the importance of something or
someone in your life.
Things I Need to Add
NF= As a writer you Need to use more Figurative Language, and where I inserted the comment might be a good
place to put it, or if it is in the margin, it means this piece in general is lacking Figurative Language.
NW= This piece Needs more Writing Techniques, like alliteration, repetition, imagery.
NC= You Need to Characterize the person in this piece using what they say, what they do, what others say about
them, what you think about them.
NI= You Need to include Imagery—descriptive language that puts a picture in the reader‘s mind, which could also
include using any of the 5 senses.
ND= Here would be a good place to insert Dialogue, you Need Dialogue to set up a scene.
NS= You Need to include a Scene that shows the importance of what you are talking about. It should be narrated
―play by play‖, and should appropriately mirror the idea you are trying to get across.
WS= Wrong Scene- this scene does not capture anything important or significant in your life. It does not capture
the heart of your relationship with the person involved, or does not properly capture the idea at the heart of the
vignette.
DS= Don’t Spell It Out for us- show, don‘t tell. If I put a DS, this was probably accompanied by a line or two
being crossed out. You don‘t need to end stories with, ―And that is why I love my mom.‖ You should end it with a
scene or idea, such as, ―So we spent the rest of the night on the couch, her fingers playing in and out of my hair
until I fell into a sweet sleep.‖
Lesson Plan:
This is designed to give you a protocol for doing group work. One thing you can‟t do in urban education is
put students into groups without very clear directions about what they are supposed to do and how they are
going to get it done. This is a quick, easy, structure that doesn‟t take the students weeks to learn, and will get
them into peer-editing groups and working on second and third drafts.
CA Standards Focus:
2.1 Write biographical or Autobiographical narratives or short stories:
a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the Significance of the events to the
audience.
b. Locate Scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with Concrete Sensory Details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and
the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use Interior
Monologue to depict the characters‘ feelings.
Evaluation and Revision
1.9 Revise writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling
perspective, the precision of word choice, and the tone by taking into consideration the
audience, purpose, and formality of the context.
Materials:
HOMS
Paper
Pencil
Bright colored pen
1st Drafts
Writing Workshop Handout
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
-Identify the different writing techniques in their own writing
-Reflect on what their writing is missing
-Write a 2nd draft that improves upon their first draft
-Be prepared to write a final draft based on reader response
Group Members will be able to:
-Read 2nd drafts from their partners
-Give their partners feedback in the form of editing and questions
:
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OBJECTIVE ON BOARD:
Today we are editing FOUR 1st and 2nd drafts in groups in preparation for our third and final
drafts for our Vignette Project.
-Before you put students into groups, pass out the T4R Writing Workshop Handout, and go over as a class.
Make sure the students understand how to fill in the paper (they can already fill in parts of it), and what they
are expected to do. Students can do one of three things which you should have written on the board.
-Label 1st drafts with Annotations, and write their reflective paragraph about what they need to improve
in each piece.
-Rewrite 2nd drafts according to the changes they need to make from Annotating the 1st drafts.
-Read four 2nd drafts from each partner. Yes, that would be 12 stories they need to read (Hammer this
point home).
-You should also have the feedback protocol written on the board:
Have 4 first drafts labeled- have four 2nd drafts rewritten, and have all 2nd drafts read by all group
members who will give the following feedback:
-Circle any words or phrases that are wrong in spelling or grammar
-Underline Golden Lines
-Ask One Question at the end of the piece you still have about the story or give One Suggestion on
how the author could improve the piece
-Put them into groups and Work the Rows.
With five minutes left in class, return to regular desks and remind students of the following: They are going to
have 10 pieces in their Vignette Project, and before they type it up (hopefully you have a computer lab you
can take them to for their final drafts, table of contents, dedication etc.) they need two drafts, and both those
drafts should be marked up. Remind them they will also be turning in these first and second drafts with their
projects (in a separate pile). This reinforces the importance of the writing process.
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
-Identify the different writing techniques in their own writing?
-Reflect on what their writing is missing?
-Write a 2nd draft that improves upon their first draft?
-Be prepared to write a final draft based on reader response?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read 2nd drafts from their partners?
-Give their partners feedback in the form of editing and questions?
Final Thoughts for you the Instructor
This is a very simple protocol for group work. As the instructor you can make all kinds of changes to
something like this, and you probably should. Depending on how much time you have to get through the book
and get the projects done, you can delve a lot deeper into the things they need to improve about their writing.
One thing we find consistent across the board is we are pressed for time and don‘t have as much time as we
would like to work on 1st, 2nd, and third drafts. That is why this process is so basic, so it gives you room to
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expand, and if you don‘t have the time, it is something that will take them through a basic writing process that
really should improve upon their first drafts. Lets be honest, we could have the 2nd draft readers do more than
circle misspelled words and ask one question, but in a real classroom, sometimes that is all you have time
for—especially at the beginning of the year when you are just trying to show them writing is more than
writing one draft.
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_____________
We will be doing Writing Workshops over the next few days as we take our narratives through the writing
process. Below are the requirements for each draft, and directions for how to work in our Writing Groups:
1st Drafts:
-Should be labeled with Editing Annotations all over the paper as you identify good writing techniques. For
example, when you have an excellent description, it should have an ―I‖ next to it, which means you included
Imagery.
-Should have Annotations at the end that start with ―N‖ for example ―NF‖ means you need to include more
figurative language.
-A Reflection of a sentence or two at the bottom that reminds you what you need to do to improve that piece.
2nd Drafts:
-Should be much longer than your first draft, and should show you added all the things you were missing
based on your Annotations and reflection.
-Should have been edited for spelling and grammar by your group members, and should include their feedback in
the form of questions or suggestions.
Final Typed Drafts:
-Will be typed in 12-point size in any legible font you would like to use.
-Does not need your name or date, just a title and the story. Each piece must have a title!
-Should show significant revision from your first and second draft, showing you took each piece through the
writing process, and worked on all the writing techniques we‘ve learned in class.
-Should be single-spaced in your booklet.
Vignette Project Due ____________________________
Cover___
Title Page____
Dedication____
Table of Contents____
1st Draft-W/ Annotations
and reflection
1. Done
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
EC
EC
2nd Draft- Much longer/
has peer feedback
Final Draft in Project
Sandra Cisneros‘, The House on Mango Street, is a story that depicts the challenges of the narrator, Esperanza, as
she struggles to grow up in her inner-city neighborhood. As the story developments, so does Esperanza‘s
understanding of the effects of her surroundings on her identity! In a literary analysis essay, students will write
either a character or a thematic analysis based on the Esperanza‘s physical, emotional and intellectual growth.
Themes:
1) Identity
2) Effects of Poverty
3) Gender Roles
 Identity: How does Esperanza‘s identity, her feelings about herself and who she is, change over the course of
the story?
Body Paragraph # 1: How does she feel at the beginning of the novel?
Body Paragraph # 2: What forces or characters impact how she feels during the course of the novel?
Body Paragraph # 3: How has Esperanza changed by the end of the novel
 Effects of Poverty: How is Esperanza affected by the poverty of inner city Mango Street?
Body Paragraph # 1: How does poverty affect Esperanza and her family?
Body Paragraph # 2: How does poverty affect Esperanza‘s friends on Mango Street?
Body Paragraph # 3: How do the effects of poverty on Esperanza‘s family and friends shape her view of
both her neighborhood and her obligations to return to Mango Street and help others transcend the lack of
hope, opportunities, and success?
 Gender Roles: How do the distinct expectations between genders affect how Esperanza feels as a woman over
the course of the book?
Body Paragraph # 1: How does Esperanza feel as a girl at the beginning of novel?
Body Paragraph # 2: How does Esperanza‘s family and friends influence her to think differently about the
role of women in society? …the role of men in society?
Body Paragraph # 3: How has Esperanza outlook of herself and the expectations of men and women on
Mango Street changed by the end of the novel
Your essay will be 5 paragraphs long, including an Introduction with a Thesis Statement as the last sentence, 3
Body Paragraphs, which will each have two quotes to support your analysis, and a Conclusion that enhances your
discussion of theme or character.
This essay is due on ________________________________________
Good Luck!
Using Quotes
Name_________________________
Period_______
Date_______
Thesis
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Topic
__________________________________________________________
Sentence __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
1st Point
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Quote
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Explain __________________________________________________________
Significance_________________________________________________________
Of Quote __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
2nd Point __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Quote
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Explain __________________________________________________________
Significance_________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Concluding__________________________________________________________
Sentence __________________________________________________________
–
Author of paper:________________________
Readers: 1________ 2________ 3________
(Score 1-5 1-low 5-high)
R1
R2
R3
Intro
1. ___ ___ ___Introduction is interesting/grabs attention.
2. ___ ___ ___Topic is clearly introduced/Author and title are mentioned
3. ___ ___ ___Thesis statement is clear and is the last sentence
Body
4. ___ ___ ___The three reason paragraphs each start with a topic sentence.
5. ___ ___ ___ Paragraphs provide adequate analysis including at least two quotes in each
body paragraph
6. ___ ___ ___ Each point has sufficient elaboration, especially the quotes
7. ___ ___ ___Paragraphs end with a concluding sentence and/or transition that
brings that paragraph to an end and/or moves to the next point
Conclusion
8. ___ ___ ___Summarize the key aspects of the essay
9. ___ ___ ___Restates Thesis statement
10. __ ___ ___Ends with an intensified insight or resolution incorporating theme
Other
11. __ ___ ___Quotes are properly backed up by citation of page number
12. __ ___ ___A variety of sentence patterns is used/grammar and spelling are
correct.
Total___
____ ____
The most important thing to work on to improve this essay is:
R1___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
R2___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
R3___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
/50 points
Name__________________________
Class_____Date______
House on Mango Street Final Exam
I.
Character Matching- Match the Character with the correct description. (1 point each)
1.____Nenny
2.____Rachel
3.____Sally
4.____Esperanza
5.____Marin
6.____Alicia
7.____Geraldo
8.____Rafaela
9.____Minerva
10.___Elenita
II.
A. Sees a home in Esperanza‘s heart
B. Went north and disappeared
C. Shares poetry with Esperanza
D. Likes to name clouds
E. Father doesn‘t hit her hard
F. Kind of like Rapunzel (―Rapunzel let down your hair‖)
G. High-heels go to her head the most
H. Is told to come back to Mango St.
I. Has green apples for eyes
J. Does dead mother‘s chores
Multiple Choice- Circle the correct answer (1 point each)
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What does Esperanza want more than anything?
To grow up
To fall in love
A real house
A good job
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
“Ready and waiting like a new Buick with the keys in the ignition.” This quote is an example of:
metaphor
simile
abstract noun
symbolism
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
According to Esperanza, her barrio is:
A wealthy community
A normal place composed of familiar people
A dangerous place
100% Latino
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
In the vignette “A Family of Little Feet,” high heels symbolize:
womanhood, sexuality
childhood innocence
evil
wealth, money
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
One theme in Mango Street is:
loss of innocence
gang violence
wealth
bums
6.
a.
b.
c.
d.
“Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine.” This quote is an example of:
simile
metaphor
symbolism
personification
7.
a.
b.
c.
d.
“Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.” This quote is an example of:
simile
metaphor
abstract noun
personification
8.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Esperanza thinks Sally got married because:
She was in love
Sally‘s father wanted her to.
She didn‘t know any better
She wanted to escape
9.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Esperanza writes because:
Her teachers make her
Her father wants her to
She wants to express herself
That‘s what Latino women are expected to do
10.
a.
b.
c.
d.
The end of “No Speak English” is ironic because:
Mamacita realizes her son is singing in the language she hates
She and her husband fight a lot
She can‘t go down the stairs
She paints the apartment pink
11.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What is ambiguous in the vignette Red Clowns?
Where Sally went and why she left Esperanza
What actually happened to Esperanza
Who it was that caused her torment
All of the above
12.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Even though Mango St. is a work of fiction, it is autobiographical also because:
Sandra Cisneros also wanted a house of her own
She had to rise against what her culture expected of women
It was all completely true
a and b
13.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What is a prose vignette?
A novel comprised of short stories
A short story that stands on its own, written in ordinary language
A short story that stands on its own, written poetically
An autobiographical narrative
14.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Esperanza’s Chanclas symbolize:
Her low self-esteem
Her love of the boy who watches her dance
Her embarrassment of her mother who drank too much
Her happiness with her uncle, who made her dance
15.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What character traits do we know about Sally?
She is beautiful
She is more grown up than Esperanza
a and b
none of the above
III. Quote Identification- for the next three quotes I have provided you with a quote, tell me what is the significance of the
quote, especially related to one overall theme of the story. (2 points each)
Concrete Detail (CD)
Commentary (CM)
1) ―I have inherited her name, but I don‘t
want to inherit her place by the window‖
(11).
1)
2) ―It wasn‘t as if I didn‘t want to work. I
did. I had even gone to the social security
office the month before to get my social
security number. I needed money period‖
(53).
2)
3) ―What do you want me to do she said, call
the cops. She kept ironing‖ (97).
3)
IV. Literary Analysis Paragraph- Choose one of the quotes above and write a literary analysis paragraph that relates the
quote to a theme. How does this quote relate to the bigger issues in the novel and Esperanza’s life? Don’t summarize,
analyze!! Use TS/CD/CM/CM/CS (5 points each)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
V. Narrative—The Lost Vignette. Use a separate sheet of paper. (14 points)
Imagine Sandra Cisneros sent her novel to the publisher, and the publisher printed the novel. But when she received her first
copy, she noticed one vignette was missing—and it was important to one of her themes!!! You are going to write that missing
vignette, incorporating all your knowledge of both Autobiographical Narratives and Literary Analysis. Some things to
consider:
-What theme would your vignette enhance in the overall novel?
-What character do you feel we need to hear more from?
-Make sure to use figurative language, imagery, and locate a scene as you write in the first person, only this time—YOU
ARE ESPERANZA!
Lesson Plan:
/
There are a lot of vocab strategies we could give you, and chances are, this is the area where you need the least
help. Here is a fun, easy way of doing vocab that engages the students and really does get them to learn the words.
It is also based specifically on Vocabulary and Concept Development Standard 1.2.
CA Standards Focus:
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
Students apply their knowledge of word origins to determine the meaning of new words encountered in reading
materials and use those words accurately.
Vocabulary and Concept Development
1.1 Identify and use the literal and figurative meanings of words and understand word derivations.
1.2. Distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words and interpret the connotative power of
words.
Materials:
HOMS
Dictionary
Pencil
T4R Vocab Handout
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
- Develop fluency and systematic vocabulary
- Identify literal meanings of words
- Distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words and interpret the connotative power of
words
Frontloading Vocabulary:
With the handout, plug in your vocab words before you read, and a good homework assignment or class time killer
is filling out the denotation and working with others to come up with connotations. You are probably going to want
to provide them with the definition of denotation and connotations on the board to begin. Also, let them know the
dotted line on the right side is for them to fold their paper to study, so that they can hide the definitions and only see
the words on the left. The assumption of this lesson is that students come in with the entire worksheet filled out at
the beginning of class.
Vocab for sections of HOMS can easily be Googled, we are simply providing you with a blank worksheet so you
can reuse it.
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Warmup/Cooldown Quiz
- At the beginning of class, get them quiet and announce they have one minute and thirty seconds to study the
words, both denotation and connotations, before their quiz (give them more time, but giving specific secondcountdowns creates a sense of urgency). Remind them to fold the paper over on the dotted line to hide the
definitions to help them memorize.
- After you feel they have had enough time to study, tell them to put their papers away. Use the Participation
Handout to randomly call on students. You can begin with Denotation, then ask for both. Try to get to every
student, calling on them in a random order. You can repeat words that have already been defined. You can switch
between denotation and connotations or ask for both. The scoring is very simple, if they get it right, they get a
point. If they get it wrong, they get a negative point. Tell them this scoring sheet is their daily quiz and will go in
the gradebook at the end of the week. Each week (or section of the book), you can give them new words and begin
the process all over.
-Go fast- don‘t give them too much think time, they either know it or they don‘t. Keep them on their toes.
Especially important is to say the WORD FIRST, not the student‘s name. If you say the word first, it gives
EVERYONE time to think, and they will because they don‘t know who is being called on. Then call a name.
-This is a good filler activity to start class with and end class with too. If you find you have three minutes before the
bell rings, just pull out your participation sheet and start going around the room giving out points.
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
- Develop fluency and systematic vocabulary?
- Identify literal meanings of words?
- Distinguish between the denotative and connotative meanings of words and interpret the connotative power of
words?
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________________
Denotation:
Connotations:
word
denotation
connotations
Student Name
Positive Participation
Negative Participation
Emergency Lesson Plan:
CA Standards Focus:
Grammar and Mechanics of Writing
1.3 Demonstrate an understanding of proper English usage and control of grammar, paragraph and sentence structure, diction, and syntax.
Manuscript Form
1.4 Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct use of the conventions of
punctuation and capitalization.
1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies
Comprehension
1.1 Formulate judgments about the ideas under discussion and support those judgments with
convincing evidence.
Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications
1.11 Assess how language and delivery affect the mood and tone of the oral communication
and make an impact on the audience.
Materials:
White Board
Paper
Pencil
Objectives:
All students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of proper English
- Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling
- Formulate judgments about the ideas under discussion and support those judgments
- Assess how language and delivery affect oral communication
All Group Members will be able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner
-Listen to their partner‘s written piece
-Provide feedback to their partner in the form of Golden Lines
Prewriting:
-Students make a list of the five most successful people they know
-Students then list the five most unsuccessful people they know.
-Students then list five people in between.
Activities:
Instructor writes the following list on the board:
Super Ghetto= SG
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Very Ghetto= VG
Ghetto= G
Kinda Ghetto= KG
Not Ghetto at All= NG
Instruct the students to label the people on their list according to their Ghettoness. Yes, you heard right,
Ghettoness. As the students laugh and label, write the following prompt on the board.
―Can you be Ghetto and successful?‖ I tell them they can‘t talk about drug-dealers, rappers, athletes, or other
entertainers- we‘re talking about real careers. I don‘t want to hear about Lil‘ Wayne‘s ghetto success. I give them
ten minutes.
Give them 5-10 minutes to get some thoughts down.
Reader Response: Pair/Share
-When students are finished, tell them to get ready to Pair/Share.
- Remind them that they need to read their piece out loud. THEY CANNOT SWITCH PAPERS AND READ
SILENTLY, THEY READ THEIR OWN PIECE OUT LOUD. They need to read their own writing with their
own voice.
-As students read, Work the Rows, and make sure they are sharing, reading out loud, and listening. When you
hear the lull, remind them to switch papers and underline their favorite line from their partner‘s piece.
Class Discussion
-Then bring it back to whole class discussion. Clearly you want to question them about the relationship between
being ghetto and being successful. There are some truths you want to lead them toward, like the importance of
using Standard English and Code-Switching. To read an elaborate first person experience using this lesson, read
Matt‘s Ed Blog Balancing Your Ghetto, which is included in this packet.
Extended Activity: If you have time after group discussion, have them go back and write another paragraph
answering the following question:
What did you learn about language today? Why is Standard English important? If you want to be
successful, what are you going to have to learn how to do?
Assessment of student learning:
Were all students able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of proper English?
- Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling?
- Formulate judgments about the ideas under discussion and support those judgments?
- Assess how language and delivery affect oral communication?
Were all Group Members able to:
-Read their piece out loud to a partner?
-Listen to their partner‘s story?
-Provide feedback to their partner in the form of Golden Lines?
Read the following Blog Post to hear how Matt does it in a REAL classroom!
www.teach4real.com
4
A Lesson on Urban Identity
I taught a seminar for seniors this week while their regular teacher was out having babies. It was a
class full of low-income urban students trying to get into college. I decided to do three days on
Identity, and get them thinking about who they are as urban students heading to higher education.
I started with something very familiar to all of them: Ghettoness.
I knew some of them as former students of mine, but for the most part they didn’t know me. I
introduced myself briefly, told them about my college path, and then immediately went into
Prewriting. This is what I told them to do: “Write down the names of the five most successful
people you know. By success I mean that they are completely happy with their life as it is. They
have the career they want, the house they want, the car they want- they are not striving for a better
job, or working toward changing their situation. They are satisfied with where they are, they make
a good living, and can be called successful. Go.”
They began their lists. Some of them sat and thought- it was 7:15 in the morning and the sun was
just coming up in my lone, jail-cell window. They asked me about the difference between
happiness and success, and I gave them quick answers like, “Whatever you consider success,” or,
“If where they are is exactly where they want to be.” After a couple minutes I had them skip a line
and write down the five most unsuccessful people they know. They have to be out of high school,
but no older than their parents. Unsuccessful means they don’t like their job, they don’t live in the
apartment or area they wish they did, they want a new car, they are still working to achieve
something more in their life. Maybe they are stuck there.
Then I had them list five people in between. The whole thing took about 5-10 minutes. Then I
turned it up a notch.
I said, “Now I want you to rate them on a scale of… GHETTONESS.” They stare at me. Some of
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them giggle. All of a sudden they are really paying attention. First I ask them to define what we
mean by the word “Ghetto.” I get a ton of hands. We define it as a way you dress, the neighborhood
you live in, a certain way you act, the language you use. I continue, “Okay, now rate the people on
your list based on this scale right here,” and I say each word out loud as I begin to make a list. This
is the list:
Super Ghetto
Hella Ghetto
Ghetto
Kinda Ghetto
Not Ghetto at all
By the time I finish my list they are all with me. They are smiling, laughing, and begin to take a
new interest in their lists. They begin to rate them. As they write, I clarify the differences between
the levels on my Scale of Ghettoness (“Hella” is a word used in Northern California that means “a
lot of”, it is one level below Super, which is the most).
There are some murmurings going on about my scale, and they decide I am missing one more
independent yet related layer. “You need Mexican Ghetto on there too,” they tell me. The class is
over half Mexican, and other Latino groups. I ask them to clarify as I write it to the side of my list.
They tell me Mexican Ghetto can straddle every category. Yet there are nuances. You can be
Mexican Ghetto, or you can be a Mexican who is just Hella Ghetto, or Super Ghetto. Just because
you’re Mexican doesn’t make you Mexican Ghetto. The wanna-be gangsters on campus are just
Hella Ghetto or Super Ghetto. Mexican Ghetto is more “Paisa” they tell me, like the Mexicans who
wear boots and listen to Banda music. Some are Super Paisa, others are simply Hella Paisa or
Paisa. Basically you can substitute “Paisa” for “Ghetto”. This is good, and super funny- they
continue rating the people on their list.
We then look for correlations between success and Ghettoness. Obviously, we come to the
conclusion that people who are “Super Ghetto” or “Hella Ghetto” are more likely to be on the
Unsuccessful list, and people who are “Not Ghetto At All” or “Kinda Ghetto” are more likely to be
successful. I ask for volunteers, they tell us about the people on their lists and how ghetto they are.
Surprisingly, one girl’s Grandmother is “Super Ghetto.” Another student’s mother is successful,
but Hella Mexican Ghetto. Their regular teacher seems to hover around straight “Ghetto.” That is
why he is such a good teacher, they tell me.
But like the girl’s mother, and their teacher, there are anomalies- some people are Ghetto but still
on the successful list. Before I elaborate on these, I ask them to write. I tell them to answer one
question and I write this on the board:
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“Can you be Ghetto and successful?” I tell them they can’t talk about drug-dealers, rappers,
athletes, or other entertainers- we’re talking about real careers. I don’t want to hear about Lil’
Wayne’s ghetto success. I give them ten minutes.
Time passes and I have them turn to a partner and discuss their thoughts. What they come up with
is just what I was hoping for. I go around the room and discuss as a class. I am quoting their
writing below, but their verbal responses were the same.
“I think it is possible to be successful and ghetto. This is possible if you can control or limit your
“ghettoness” around professionals.”
“It is possible because being Ghetto is a culture and just like every other culture it does not define
what one can accomplish.”
“Most people who grow up Ghetto strive for a better future than what they were provided, but
they never lose their past. Most successful Ghetto people know how to turn on and off their
Ghettoness.”
On kid even quoted Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: “One of the characters said, „You must
know how to act at the work place and at the home, and you keep them separately.‟”
As a class we agreed that there is a time and place for being ghetto, and a time to be professional.
We also talked about who was more likely to balance these two opposing forces. Here are some
more of their thoughts:
“I suppose there is a possibility to be successful and ghetto. It‟s not something we hear all the
time though, because usually the ghetto people don‟t try to be successful.”
“The people on my unsuccessful list are there because they can‟t be anything but ghetto.”
At this point the conversation is right where I want it, and I start doing most of the talking again. I
define Code-Switching, write it on the board and have them add it to their papers. I then talk
about the Language of Power, and how in this country it is Standard English. I define these things
and continue to elaborate. Urban students need to be able to Code-Switch from Ghetto to
Standard English. If you’re Super or Hella Ghetto, you probably have a harder time switching to
the latter. Being able to Code-Switch is important, but so is having a mastery of Standard English.
I call it “White People English”, and they laugh in agreement. They need to understand that
language has historically been in the hands of White people, and in order to be a part of that, they
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need to get with the Dominant Discourse. Blah, blah, blah, I can talk forever when I want to.
At this point, my hour is running low. If I had them for more than a few days I would probably
take this pre-writing and turn it into a longer Reflective Essay on Identity, but I don’t- so I don’t. I
have them add some more thoughts about the new terms I threw at them, and also ask them to
come to a final solution to the original question. They turn it in, and we’re done for the day.
When all is said and done, I think this is an important conversation to have with our urban
students. These are the kinds of things they are going to struggle with in the real world- who they
are as an individual from a low-income area- How will they fit into the dominant culture? This is
something that will really come into focus on a college campus when a majority of the students are
NOT like them. For the first day, I think I grabbed their attention, and I think we came to some
valuable conclusions as a class.
No matter the grade level, I think this lesson is a solid one in an urban classroom, and is a good
starting point for a Unit, because lets face it: Many of our students are Hella Mexican Paisa Super
Ghetto—but that doesn’t mean they can’t be successful.
-Matt Amaral
www.teach4real.com
4
Working the Rows
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When you increase class sizes, you are reducing the
number of teachers who can do the job right. There are a lot of teachers out there who can
effectively teach a class of 20 urban youth. There are a hell of a lot fewer who can do that with a
class of 35.
Case in point- I was talking to my colleague who I consider to be one of the best teachers I
know. I was chastising him for being so impossible to get a hold of during school hours. He
doesn’t check his email, he unplugs the phone in his classroom, and his cell phone is off. I
asked him how he could live like that, and he shrugged and said, “I’m in there teaching.”
This is true. He is up there in front of his class, on his feet, one hundred percent of the day.
This is what people don’t get when they claim teachers have three months off so we can’t be
working that hard. What other jobs out there ask you to basically entertain a crowd on your
feet for eight hours? Even Glenn Beck has only a three-hour radio show and an hour on tv. We
have to come up with twice as much material on a daily basis to an audience that can aptly be
described as hostile. My colleague rarely sits. He is an agent away from being a stand-up
comedian. He drinks coffee by the saucer, and doesn’t even remember there is an outside world
until 3:30 in the afternoon.
“Anyways,” he adds, “If something really bad happens that I need to know about, the fire
alarms will go off.”
Now I’m not saying every teacher out there should be crazy like my buddy. He runs hot, and
even he admits what he is doing is unsustainable. Like many great teachers, he is thinking of
moving on to administration, or a doctorate (he already has a Master’s from Cal). So in the
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spirit of those of us who plan on being here for awhile, and in lieu of doing cartwheels in front
of every class every hour of every day, I would like to focus on one aspect of this strategy that
can work without running so hot that you don’t cool down until almost four in the afternoon.
I call it Working the Rows, and it really is captured quite well by the graphic I have pictured
below. One way to capture the spirit of how my colleague teaches without burning yourself out
is this: For every three minutes you spend in front of the class, spend a minute IN the class.
Yes, in the class. Work your way through the rows of desks on a daily basis, holding students
accountable, making yourself available for those with questions, assisting struggling learners,
and getting them to show you care about them as an individual.
One example of this would be pacing the rows as you lecture. You don’t have to sit in front of
the class as you recite facts and statistics. If you’re one of those people who is big on
Powerpoint, this will work perfectly. You’re probably using a remote control anyway, so why
not get in the rows to make sure students are copying everything down correctly?
I have a policy that I never assign homework we haven’t started in class. Usually how this
works is the regular prescription- I begin the assignment, they try it individually, then work
with those around them to get as far as they can before the bell rings and the rest is homework.
Now, once I’m done with the teacher-led part, I start working the rows. I go to each student
individually, asking them if they understand the assignment. I ask them if they have any
questions, and if I see they need help- I’ll grab their paper, check out their work, make
suggestions, and maybe even throw around a few answers.
One of the best results of this approach is not only the individual attention each student gets,
but after a few rows, I can see what they are getting and what they aren’t. So usually when I’m
about a third of the way through the classroom, I’ll bring everyone back to me up front to
address the issues they’re having with the assignment. It’s a great way for me as the instructor
to see how the lesson is going.
Another strategy I use is standing behind them as they take a quiz. It is impossible to cheat
when the teacher is behind you. Try it out, for real.
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Another great way to work the rows is by getting on their level. I’ve been meaning to do this for
years now, but I know of teachers who have those little rollie-stools they go up and down the
rows in. This puts you at eye level with the student, and in perfect position to help them with
their work (I really need to go to Office Max tomorrow).
Another great thing about working the rows is that the students you haven’t gotten to know
you’re coming, and therefore are good about staying on task. Conversely, those you’ve already
gotten to think they are off the hook sometimes, so you might want to vary your approach,
going up one row, then down another a few rows away, then doubling back.
The important thing is that you get to every student individually. I hear of too many teachers
who haven’t set foot in their rows all year. They assign things from the front of the class, then
go to their desk and expect the kids to figure it out. Maybe some people don’t realize it, but real
teaching takes place at the desks of the students. If you’re not finding ways to get to each one
of their desks, you are not finding ways to reach each one of their minds.
Some days I get to the desks of every single one of my 150 students. Most days my colleague
gets to all of the desks of his students. If you want to teach them at their level, you need to do it
at their desk. And it would help if you got a stool, so you could get to their perspective.
I realize this is easier said than done, but it is as solid advice as I can give. Work the rows. Look
each one of them in the eye, and let them know you are trying.
And do it soon. If class sizes keep increasing, there might be a time in the near future when you
could be on your feet from eight to four and still not get to all your students. I said earlier, there
are a lot of teachers out there who can effectively teach a class of 20 urban youth, and there are
a hell of a lot fewer who can do that with a class of 35. If this country keeps picking on teachers,
you might as well not even have any, because if we cram any more kids into our already
crowded classrooms, the number of teachers able to deal with that situation might be zero. You
can only work the rows if there is space to walk, and room for their roots to grow.
-Matt Amaral
www.teach4real.com