Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage, 1991. Print.
The House on Mango Street is the story of Nenny and her quest to find what she thinks is her dream house, but she is really looking for a home. Through the book we discover that Nenny is poor, has moved several times, and is trapped in the world between being a girl and being a woman. We meet her friends and family, as they play, suffer tragedy and grow up. There is a strong sense of feminism and what it means to be independent that runs throughout the book.
This is a great book to teach to struggling readers. I like this book because the chapters are short and easy to do popcorn reading as well as partner reading. I like that the main characters are low income and Hispanic. This book could reflect some of the things that my students may be encountering in their lives. The writing can be difficult, but it is very poetic and beautiful and the themes can be very adult. There are ample opportunities to teach symbolism, characterization, and setting.
Nice addition to the other book that you described. It sounds like you have books that reach both females and males. What kind of writing might you do along with this book? When students are reading aloud, what do they do while they listen?
ReplyDeleteI was told they're supposed to follow along, but that does not happen, so I am open to suggestions. I ended up getting a bit rushed while teaching this book and I didn't have time to do a lot of activities because exams were crushing down on us, but there's a chapter called "Hair," and she sort of shows how all her family's personalities can link back to their hair. I tried to get my students to think of a physical feature on them and how it related to their personality and they didn't get it and I didn't do a good job modeling it.
ReplyDeleteI would do just a lot autobiographical writing or I guess I could have them do one of those dialogue journals but maybe a debate about kids versus parents or staying a kid versus growing up.