Blog post
KATHLEEN INTERVIEW
During The House on Mango Street unit, students read Sandra Cisneros’s vignettes, annotating for figurative (show-don’t-tell) language and changes taking place for and within the protagonist.Then, in their Mango Street five-paragraph essays, students independently analyzed the dynamic characterization in the novel, highlighting three major takeaways regarding one of the following prompts: 1) ways protagonist Esperanza Cordero transformed throughout the narrative arc of the novel; 2) the manners in which they recognized themselves in the character/story (a la ‘mirrors’); OR 3) the true societal/interpersonal inequity issues they learned about in reading about the fictional character and setting (a la ‘windows’). The goal in reading and responding to the novel was to help students appreciate that personal style in self expression (through such devices as similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, repetition, rhyme, sensory imagery, and breaking grammar / usage rules for effect and style) can be compelling and impactful, to both invite readers in to worlds, experiences, identities that they might not be familiar with (windows) and to allow them to see themselves in the humans written about on the page (mirrors)
The artistic license was chiefly a fun but perfunctory activity that pushed students to think about what’s important to and special about themselves, to celebrate their uniqueness while unlocking or warming up their creative juices. The mini project is also a social experience, with students processing the guidelines together, considering aloud what to include, and sharing their final projects. The project helps reinforce themes/messages in Mango Street, that humans are interconnected and similar in a multitude of ways and we are also wonderfully unique in our features, experiences, perspectives, and sensibilities.
The boxes, new this year, asked students to consider (early on) and include 1) what they are good at; 2) what they care about; 3) what problems they want to solve; and 4) what gives them joy. The goal was to give them something that would make them happy and proud to look at, which also functioned as a place to store the keepsakes from the unit – their essay, their vignettes, and their artistic license. They also had the opportunity to see their classmates’ artwork and sources of pride, interests, and passions.
With all projects in 8th grade English, I always hope students feel engaged, challenged, and supported. I hope that students remember being excited and joyful – if nervous or apprehensive or shy – to acknowledge and celebrate the significance of their true individuality, to process what they deem to be unjust, to relive memories, and to articulate personal hopes and dreams, and to do all of this in a manner that is slightly or very much outside their comfort zone, via unrestrained (but also purposeful) language.
STUDENT INTERVIEWS
Quinn Burke (8th grade)
Adyana Gresham (8th grade)
Quinn: We are doing a project where we are writing vignettes. It was told through short vignettes, which are kind of like poems, it’s a way of writing that is a bit more loose, kind of meant to be metaphorical.
Adyana: Our whole point was to make meaning behind everything. Intentionally bending the rules. If you didn’t want to capitalize your “I”s or have run off sentences, you can do that, but it has to have meaning
Adyana: In the start of the unit, we created boxes of things we loved and problems we want to solve. Basvially we did all of that and put it on the box. We also took random facts about ourselves like birthdays and pet peeves and quotes we like and we put it on something important to us. I put it in the foot part of my first tap shoe.
Adyana: I really liked it, it made em learn about myself as a write and how I can push myself out of my comfort zone.
Quinn: For me, the biggest challenge was going outside of my comfort zone and writing in a new way to write
Adyana: I think it’s one of those things all writers should do to learn how to be a good writer. It’s almost like the extra credit everyone n needs to take to make images.
Quinn: Even if you don’t write like that all the time, it’s nice to know how to do it