House on Mango Street--cont.

In your reading groups, read aloud pg. 49-61 (4 stories) in House on Mango Street.

Discuss these questions after you read each story and post a comment for your reading group.

"Hips"



1. What are the girls doing as they talk about hips? What are hips good for? What does their conversation tell you about their ages?

"The First Job"

Why does this story have a misleading title? What happens to Esperanza on her first day at work? What does this episode tell you about her family and their expectations?

"Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark"
Why does Esperanza's father cry? How does his crying make her feel?

"Born Bad"
What happens to Aunt Lupe? Why does Esperanza believe she deserves to go to hell? What special relationship did Esperanza have with her aunt?

Focus on Themes, Mood, Setting, and Conflict.  How will your stories connect and convey theme, mood, setting and conflict?

Major Themes
Maturity 

The main theme of the book is Esperanza’s increasing maturity. It is in evidence throughout the book, as Esperanza talks to older female characters, trying to determine who her role models will be, or as she overcomes her insecurities and learns about her own strengths and weaknesses.

Home and Identity

Throughout the book, Esperanza attaches meaning to where she lives: she takes it personally as an extension of herself. Thus, the fact that she is unhappy and ashamed at her Mango Street house is a major point of contention in the book, and her dreams of another home parallel her dreams of becoming who she wants to be.


Minor Theme Love

Though it is not discussed directly in the book, love of different kinds, between different characters, holds many relationships together. Family love is contrasted with romantic love, and mistaken ideas about what love is (particularly as concern Marin and Sally) are prominent in the book.

MOOD

The mood of the story is highly influenced by Esperanza’s own mood, and the mood of the story is uneven to reflect Esperanza’s uneven moods. When she is happy, as in "Our Good Day," the mood is joyous, relaxed, and untroubled. When she is frightened or hurt, as in "Red Clowns," the mood reflects that. Esperanza has a complex personality, so the mood ranges from childish temper tantrums to solemn thoughtfulness. In general, this indicates Esperanza’s place in the world: intelligent, but not yet fully grown up. The mood is childish and adult by turns.

SETTING

The setting of the story is a poor Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago. Judging from the cars people drive, it is probably the 1960’s. The neighborhood is very close-knit, full of immigrants who do not speak English well and rarely leave the neighborhood.

Conflict

Protagonist / Antagonist

Esperanza, the protagonist, has no real antagonist except, perhaps, herself. The story concerns her journey to maturity. Conflicts in the story often arise because of Esperanza’s misunderstanding of herself. For example, she makes fun of her sick aunt, then realizes how much she values her aunt’s friendship, and feels terrible about what she has done. Her shyness is another aspect of her immaturity that forces conflict upon her: she wants to be like bolder girls she knows, who have secret meetings with boys, but does not have the courage. Additionally, Esperanza must mature enough to discover her own identity, and understand how the Mango Street she hates so much fits into her life.


Period 4
Continue working on your own stories.

House on Mango Street

Reading Schedule

1. In the vignette “The House on Mango Street,” Esperanza mentions that her family moved several times before they arrived on Mango Street. How do you think moving to several places affected Esperanza and her family? How would you feel if you had to keep moving from place and place?

2. Esperanza states that the “house on Mango Street is ours” (3). She then compares living with a landlord to home ownership. Are there any benefits to having a landlord? Being a homeowner? How do the responsibilities of being a landlord differ from the responsibilities of being a homeowner?

3. Elements of Esperanza’s life mirror those of the book’s author, Sandra Cisneros. Read a biography of Sandra Cisneros. Watch Sandra Cisneros’s Interview. In what ways are the lives of Esperanza and Cisneros similar? How do they differ? What elements of Cisneros’s life are evident in “The House on Mango Street?”
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/sandra-cisneros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pyf89VsNmg 

4. Some of the vignettes in “The House on Mango Street” deal with immigrating to the United States from other countries. Can you find evidence in the book about the factors that were instrumental in causing people to immigrant to the United States? If not, why do think they immigrated to the United States.

5. Esperanza’s description of the neighborhoods she has lived in is “poverty-stricken.” Many of the neighborhood’s residents are immigrants. Given that many people immigrate to the United States to find a better life, how might their lives have been in their home countries? Is there evidence in the story to show their lives have improved?

6. Does the fact that Cisneros and her protagonist, Esperanza, share similar backgrounds make “The House on Mango Street” more real or relatable? If not, how could Cisneros make the story more relatable? Use examples from the text to support your points.

7. In The House on Mango Street, Cisneros uses stereotypes to describe some of the characters. In your journal, write short responses on the following topics: (1) Are stereotypes bad or good? Include three reasons to support your answer. (2) Why do people use stereotypes to describe groups of people? (3) Have you ever categorized someone based on a stereotype?

8. In an interview, Cisneros stated that The House on Mango Street was inspired by a house on “Campbell Street” but she didn’t want to use the name because it sounds like the soup company. How does changing the name to “Mango” Street impact the story? If the title were The House on Campbell Street, would you expect its contents to differ?

9. Authors can use literature as a response to issues affecting society. How does Sandra Cisneros use The House on Mango Street as a response to the roles of women in society? Explain two ways the novel could differ if it were written in the present day.

10. The House on Mango Street differs from other forms of literature because it is written in vignettes. Why did Cisneros choose this form? How would the form differ if she wrote the story in the 1960s? 2000s?

Continue to work on writing your own "House on Mango Street" 
8-10 Vignettes modeled on the book but based on your own life, family, friends, neighborhood
Title your vignettes

Eleven by Sandra Cisneros/Barbie-Q

AGENDA

1, For classwork credit:

Read the following two stories by Sandra Cisneros.

Then discuss the questions for Barbie-Q with a partner and post a comment on the blog answering the questions (you can cut and paste them).

2. Think about the "chapters of your life" by filling out high and low points, dreams, and things you do daily on the handout.

What people have been significant in your life?  Can you write vignettes about them?

3. Continue to work on your vignette.

4. HMWK: For Tuesday, read to page 48 in House

Eleven

By Sandra Cisneros

What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything’s just like yesterday, only it’s today. And you don’t feel eleven at all. You feel like you’re still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.

Like some days you might say something stupid, and that’s the part of you that’s still ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama’s lap because you’re scared, and that’s the part of you that’s five. And maybe one day when you’re all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you’re three, and that’s okay. That’s what I tell Mama when she’s sad and needs to cry. Maybe she’s feeling three.

Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That’s how being eleven years old is.

You don’t feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don’t feel smart eleven, not until you’re almost twelve. That’s the way it is.

Only today I wish I didn’t have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box. Today I wish I was one hundred and two instead of eleven because if I was one hundred and two I’d have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the red sweater on my desk. I would’ve known how to tell her it wasn’t mine instead of just sitting there with that look on my face and nothing coming out of my mouth.

“Whose is this?” Mrs. Price says, and she holds the red sweater up in the air for all the class to see. “Whose? It’s been sitting in the coatroom for a month.”

“Not mine,” says everybody. “Not me.”

“It has to belong to somebody,” Mrs. Price keeps saying, but nobody can remember. It’s an ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope. It’s maybe a thousand years old and even if it belonged to me I wouldn’t say so.

Maybe because I’m skinny, maybe because she doesn’t like me, that stupid Sylvia Saldivar says, “I think it belongs to Rachel.” An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. Price believes her. Mrs. Price takes the sweater and puts it right on my desk, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out.

“That’s not, I don’t, you’re not . . . Not mine,” I finally say in a little voice that was maybe me when I was four.

“Of course it’s yours,” Mrs. Price says, “I remember you wearing it once.” Because she’s older and the teacher, she’s right and I’m not.

Not mine, not mine, not mine, but Mrs. Price is already turning to page thirty-two, and math problem number four. I don’t know why but all of a sudden I’m feeling sick inside, like the part of me that’s three wants to come out of my eyes, only I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember today I am eleven, eleven. Mama is making a cake for me for tonight, and when Papa comes home everybody will sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you.

But when the sick feeling goes away and I open my eyes, the red sweater’s still sitting there like a big red mountain. I move the red sweater to the corner of my desk with my ruler. I move my pencil and books and eraser as far from it as possible. I even move my chair a little to the right. Not mine, not mine, not mine.

In my head I’m thinking how long till lunchtime, how long till I can take the red sweater and throw it over the schoolyard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up into a little ball and toss it in the alley. Except when math period ends Mrs. Price says loud and in front of everybody, “Now, Rachel, that’s enough,” because she sees I’ve shoved the red sweater to the tippy-tip corner of my desk and it’s hanging all over the edge like a waterfall, but I don’t care.

“Rachel,” Mrs. Price says. She says it like she’s getting mad. “You put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense.”

“But it’s not—“

“Now!” Mrs. Price says.

This is when I wish I wasn’t eleven, because all the years inside of me—ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one—are pushing at the back of my eyes when I put one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese, and then the other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts me and it does, all itchy and full of germs that aren’t mine.

That’s when everything I’ve been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk, finally lets go, and all of a sudden I’m crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I’m not. I’m eleven and it’s my birthday today and I’m crying like I’m three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms. My face all hot and spit coming out of my mouth because I can’t stop the little animal noises from coming out of me, until there aren’t any more tears left in my eyes, and it’s just my body shaking like when you have the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast.

But the worst part is right before the bell rings for lunch. That stupid Phyllis Lopez, who is even dumber than Sylvia Saldivar, says she remembers the red sweater is hers! I take it off right away and give it to her, only Mrs. Price pretends like everything’s okay.

Today I’m eleven. There’s a cake Mama’s making for tonight, and when Papa comes home from work we’ll eat it. There’ll be candles and presents and everybody will sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you, Rachel, only it’s too late.

I’m eleven today. I’m eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one, but I wish I was one hundred and two. I wish I was anything but eleven, because I want today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it.

From Woman Hollering Creek Copyright © 1991 by Sandra Cisneros. Reprinted by permission of Susan Bergholtz Literary Services, New York. All rights reserved.

Barbie-Q

By Sandra Cisneros

Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail.  Striped swimsuit, stilettos, sunglasses, and gold hoop earrings.  Mine is the one with bubble hair.  Red swimsuit, stilettos, pearl earrings, and a wire stand.  But that’s all we can afford, besides one extra outfit apiece.  Yours, “Red Flair,” sophisticated A-line coatdress with a Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat, white gloves, handbag, and heels included.  Mine, “solo in the Spotlight,” evening elegance in black glitter strapless gown with a puffy skirt at the bottom like a mermaid tail, formal-length gloves, pink chiffon scarf, and mike included.  From so much dressing and undressing, the black glitter wears off where her titties stick out.  This and a dress invented from an old sock when we cut holes here and here and here, the cuff rolled over for the glamorous, fancy-free, off-the-shoulder look.

Every time the same story.  Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and your Barbie steals him, okay?  Kiss kiss kiss.  Then the two Barbies fight. You dumbbell!  He’s mine.  Oh no he’s not, you stinky!  Only Ken’s invisible, right?  Because we don’t have money for a stupid-looking boy doll when we’d both rather ask for a new Barbie outfit next Christmas.  We have to make do with your mean-eyed Barbie and my bubblehead Barbie and our one outfit apiece not including the sock dress.

Until next Sunday when we are walking through the flea market on Maxwell Street and there!  Lying on the street next to some tool bits, and platform shoes with the heels all squashed, and a fluorescent green wicker wastebasket, and aluminum foil, and hubcaps, and a pink shag rug, and windshield wiper blades, and dusty mason jars, and a coffee can full of rusty nails.  There!  Where?  Two Mattel boxes.  One with the “Career Gal” ensemble, snappy black-and-white business suit, three-quarter-length sleeve jacket with kick-pleated skirt, red sleeveless shell, gloves, pumps, and matching hat included.  The other, “Sweet Dreams,” dreamy pink-and-white plaid nightgown and matching robe, lace-trimmed slippers, hair-brush and hand mirror included.  How much?  Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, until they say okay.

On the outside you and me skipping and humming but inside we are doing loopity-loops and pirouetting.  Until at the next vendor’s stand, next to boxed pies, and bright orange toilet brushes, and rubber gloves, and wrench sets, and bouquests of feather flowers, and glass towel racks, and steel wool, and Alvin and the Chipmunks records, there!  And there!  And there!  And there!  and there!  and there!  and there!  Bendable Legs Barbie with her new page-boy hairdo, Midge, Barbie’s best friend.  Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend.  Skipper, Barbie’s little sister.  Tutti and Todd, Barbie and Skipper’s tiny twin sister and brother.  Skipper’s friends, Scooter and Ricky.  Alan, Ken’s buddy.  And Francie, Barbie’ MOD’ern cousin.

Everybody today selling toys, all of them damaged with water and smelling of smoke.  Because a big toy warehouse on Halsted Street burned down yesterday—see there?—the smoke still rising and drifting across the Dan Ryan expressway.  And now there is a big fire sale at Maxwell Street, today only.

So what if we didn’t get our new Bendable Legs Barbie and Midge and Ken and Skipper and Tutti and Todd and Scooter and Ricky and Alan and Francie in nice clean boxes and had to buy them on Maxwell Street, all water-soaked and sooty.  So what if our Barbies smell like smoke when you hold them up to your nose even after you wash and wash and wash them.  And if the prettiest doll, Barbie’s MOD’ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left foot that’s melted a little—so?  If you dress her in her new “Prom Pinks” outfit, satin splendor with matching coat, gold belt, clutch, and hair bow included, so long as you don’t lift her dress, right?—who’s to know.

Discussion questions for Sandra Cisneros‘s “Barbie-Q”

1. What could Barbie’s wardrobe, e.g. Red Flair, Career Gal, Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat, Prom Pinks, suggest about a woman’s status in society?
2. What values and ideals does Barbie represent/symbolize in the story? What does she offer the two girls in the story?
3. Do you believe that Cisneros has some feminist concerns in Barbie-Q? If yes, explain what these concerns could be.
4. What could the image of flawed/damaged dolls signify?
5. Do you believe that Cisneros voices some racial concerns in Barbie-Q? If yes, explain what these concerns could be. Comment on the origin of the protagonists.
6. What could the story tell us about the influence of hegemonic culture over the dominated?
7. Discuss whether Barbie is the embodiment of women’s oppression or liberation.
8. Why does Cisneros associate the title of the story with a cooking technique?

 

House on Mango Street--Vignettes

AGENDA:

1.  Grammar Warm-up

Grammar Exercise: Correct the following sentences
The students found it very hard to believe Mrs Snodwhumple had ever been a teenager herself, in fact they found it hard to believe that she was human at all.

The envelope enveloping the leter (complete the fragment)

The nieghbors supposebly had a pet dodo bird that excaped but I no that dodo birds are extinct.

The star athlete turned out to be a alien. From the newly discovered planet gezbarkawda.

My brother, Sundar, he puts catsup and maple syrup on everything.

It is supposebly difficult to pat your head rub your stomach and chew gum at the same time.

Who's idea was it to allow students to ride skateboards in the hall.

A even-toed ungulate which is better known as a camel keeps the sand out of it's eyes with 3 eyelids.

After Lee took a break to walk his Iguana and pet his Python he went back to work on his marshmellow sculpture.

The mall closed it's doors lifted into the air and flew off into space with a large and handsome truck stop.

2. The House on Mango Street

vi·gnette

vinˈyet/

noun

noun: vignette; plural noun: vignettes

1. 1.

   a brief evocative description, account, or episode.
2. 2.

   a small illustration or portrait photograph that fades into its background without a definite border.

   • a small ornamental design filling a space in a book or carving, typically based on foliage.

verb

verb: vignette; 3rd person present: vignettes; past tense: vignetted; past participle: vignetted; gerund or present participle: vignetting

1.

portray (someone) in the style of a vignette.

Four Skinny Trees

"Four Skinny Trees" is an excerpt from the book by Sandra Cisneros entitled The House on Mango Street. "Four Skinny Trees" is found on pages 74 and 75. Copyright Sandra Cisneros, 1984 and published by Vintage Contemporaries, 1991.

"They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city. From our room we can hear them, but Nenny just sleeps and doesn't appreciate these things.
"Their strength is secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.
"Let one forget his reason for being, they'd all droop like tulips in a glass, each with their arms around the other. Keep, keep, keep, trees say when I sleep. They teach.
"When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be."

http://writingfix.com/Chapter_Book_Prompts/HouseonMangoStreet2.htm

http://writingfix.com/Chapter_Book_Prompts/HouseonMangoStreet4.htm

Presentation of movie trailers for The First Part Last

AGENDA:

1. Present iMovie trailers of First Part Last and discuss

2. Writing prompt--Natalie Goldberg's  "Test 1"--Using Sensory Details

Finish and Present iMovie trailers of First Part Last

AGENDA:

Period 3:
Finish your iMovie project today. If you have finished, go over the following discussion questions with your partner. Does your iMovie address the plot, character, and structure of the book?  Does it make a reader want to read the book?  What information do you need to provide to interest a potential reader?
Proofread your text for spelling and grammar errors!

1. Plot in The First Part Last: What is the central conflict in the novel?  Explain.
2. Story structure in The First Part Last: How does the author structure the novel?  What is the effect of this structure?  Explain.
3. Character in The First Part Last: What internal conflicts does Bobby face in the novel?  What external conflicts does he face?  Explain the source of each.
   
4. Plot in The First Part Last: What happened to Nia during the delivery of Feather?  How is this foreshadowed throughout the chapters in the book?  Explain.
5. Plot in The First Part Last: What important decision does Bobby make at the end of the book?  Why?  Do you think this was the best decision?  Explain.

Period 4:
iMovie presentations

First Part Last

AGENDA:

Warmup: Accept/Except  quiz
http://homepage.smc.edu/quizzes/cheney_joyce/AcceptExcept.html

Linking verbs:
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/linking_verbs/quiz522.html


1. Work on the questions from the last class and post your answers on this blog post for credit

2. Continue to work on your iMovie trailer for First Part Last with your partner