The House
on Mango Street

The House
on Mango Street

Essential question:
Where does our sense of identity come from?

Related questions:

• How does environment shape identity? Which identities, if any, are permanent, and which do we have the power to change? What roles do community and Family play in shaping who we become?

Learning Skill Goals:

• -To identify and differentiate among topic, theme, and thematic topic
• -To identify elements of a Writer's "craft"
• -To understand how craft can create mood and convey tone and theme
• -To write our own vignettes that employ "craft" and convey theme

Thematic Topics

• Identity The future: hopes, dreams, waiting, plans Discrimination (racism, sexism, classism) Poverty and social class Hard work/success Gender roles Friendship Home and family

Esperanza

• 12-years old
• Mexican-American
• Aspiring Writer
• Belongs to a large Family
• Name means "hope" in Spanish
• The book chronicles a year of her life on Mango Street

Format

• A series of First-Person Vignettes

Write Away:
HOME

Vignette

a small impressionistic work focusing on one particular moment or giving an impression about an idea, character, setting or event

A vignette is neither a plot nor a full narrative description, but a carefully crafted verbal sketch

IN other Words...

• Vignettes are Small but concentrated-they pack a powerful verbal punch.

Craft:
The way an author uses language to express ideas

Just as a woodworker uses tools and techniques to craft a piece of furniture, a skilled author uses tools and techniques of language to craft a piece of writing.

When talking about "Craft" or "voice"

diction: the author's choice of words

words create the color,texture, and feeling of a written work

good writers use clear, specific, and exact diction

A coat:
ripped or tattered?
Revenge:
Do they "want" it?
or are they "thirsting" for it?

Similes

makes a comparison between two unlike things and uses the words "like," "as," or "than."

My papa's hair is like a broom.

Metaphor:
first Cousin to the simile

"Until then I am a red balloon. a Balloon tied to an anchor."

Sensory Detail

Sensory details include sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Writers employ the five senses to bring The reader into the world They are creating.

"You could be in there a long time before your eyes notice a pair of gold glasses floating in the dark."

"Marin Screamed and we ran down the block to where the cop car's siren spun a dizzy blue."

Personification

Giving Human Traits to Something non-human

"Maybe the sky didn't look the day she fell down."



"But I think diseases have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, just anyone."

syntax: the way words are arranged within sentences.

These all affect voice:

• word order
• sentence length
• repetition
• punctuation

Repetition:
"But my mother's hair, my mother's hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles...sweet to put your nose to when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe"

Craft mini-lesson:
"My Papa Who Wakes up Tired in the Dark"

We will use the first page of this vignette as a "mentor text"

Pay attention to cisneros' "Craft" as you use her vignette as a template.

HERS:
My papa, his
(Adjective)

Yours:
My (loved one) his/her/Their
(Adjective)
(Physical feature)

and (Adjective) (item of clothing)

Hers:
"Who Wakes up Tired in the Dark"

Yours:
who (action verb) (adjective/adverb) in the (PLace or time of day)

Hers:
"Who combs his hair with water, drinks coffee, and is gone before we wake"

Yours:
who (Specific habit), (another habit),

and is (another specific detail)

Hers:
"today, is sitting on my bed"

Yours:
today is (Specific action)

Hers:
"And I think, if my own papa died, what would I do? I hold my papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him."

Yours:
And I think (something about what this person means to you)

And I (something you do to show you care)

Read, tweak, share

Reflect:
What do you notice about Cisneros' craft? What do you notice/Like about what you wrote modeled off of her vignette?

Write Away:
Choose 2 thematic topics from our list,

Thematic Topics

• Identity The future: hopes, dreams, waiting, plans Discrimination (racism, sexism, classism) Poverty and social class Hard work/success Gender roles Friendship Home and family
• Community

then, create an Original simile or metaphor to describe it

e.G. "Leaders are like tea bags; you never know how strong they are going to be until they are in hot water."

"MInds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open."

My Name

• In English my name means
• In it means

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