Text Name: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
What it's about:
Chapter 4 focuses on Esperanza reflecting on her name. During the process, she reveals “marks” of her identity: how she identifies herself, what she values, where her family is from, and other topics that are relevant to this project. She talks about how she does not like her name and that others could pronounce it correctly. The name means. “hope” but to her it means sadness.
Rationale for why I chose this text and how will I use it in my planning.
I plan to focus on the chapter, “My Name” with the intention to use it as a context to help students think about the various factors that shape our identities (essential question 2). The text also introduces …show more content…
I think this book will help students see ways that systems try to make us behave a certain way. Also, I think this book, with its captivating illustrations, will allow for us to examine the idea that civilization often imposes labels, and roles onto us- and often, without thinking twice about it, we adhere to those roles. This book then allows us to explore how we react to society’s impositions.
Text Name: “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1896)
What it's about: I found this poem to be hardest to explain concisely what it is about. Essentially, the poem is about how African Americans used a “mask” to hide their true feelings at a time of severe explicit inequality. This poem focuses on 1896, but is still relevant to this day.
Rationale for why I chose this text and how will I use it in my planning
Dunbar’s words exemplify the universal experience of all people who have used a “mask” to hide their true stances. This text serves as the foundation for when the students and I will explore the question, “What Facets of Our Identities Do We Demonstrate to Others?” Despite the fact that the poem was written over a hundred years ago, students will still be able to draw meaningful connections to how we share certain parts of ourselves to others in order to avoid scrutiny or …show more content…
Seuss
What it's about:
In this poem, Sneetches with stars on their bellies have more importance than those without stars. Also, when plain-bellied Sneetches eventually get stars on their bellies, they are still deprived of entrance into the community of star-bellied Sneetches. Eventually, the Sneetches realize that appearance does not matter and they are all members of the same community.
Rationale for why I chose this text and how will I use it in my planning
This poem has been used for years as a warning against judgment and prejudice. I plan to use this poem because it connects all the essentials questions I plan on using. It exemplifies how the structuring of community through specific categorizations of similarity can ultimately exclude those who are different. This text shows how concepts that formulate identity and community are very similar. It also demonstrates how identities and communities constantly change. The story of the Sneetches will serve as the benchmark for the