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= **The House on Mango Street** = toc

This interesting novel mainly talks about Esperanza Cordero, a young latin girl and her adolescence in Chicago. In the first chapter, Esperanza tells how her family arrived to Mango Street. After a bunch of incidents occurred at their previous apartment, they had to move with her parents, brothers, Carlos and Kiki, and her sister, Nenny, to a new house in Mango Street. Esperanza had been always dreamed of living in a big white house with many free spaces and bathrooms, but their new house on Mango Street has only one bathroom and a bedroom. She states through the novel that this is not what she has already visualized as the place she wants to live in. Even though her parents tell her the situation is only momentary, she doubts to move soon. Also, a nun made Esperanza felt embarrassed of the place she was living in as she asked, "Do you live there?" Definitely, the house on Mango Street is better than what she had, but this is not the house Esperanza wants to call as hers. Throughout the novel, some of her neighbors or people around her are presented along with their stories. Esperanza observes and analyzes everything in order to pursue her big wish; to leave the house on Mango Street.
 * Plot Summary**

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**Main Characters** ** Sally ** - A young girl Esperanza befriends the same year she moves to Mango Street. Sally is the same age as Esperanza but is sexually bold and seems quite glamorous to Esperanza. She is not a good friend to Esperanza, abandoning her time and again to go off with boys. She has a physically abusive father and runs off before eighth grade to marry a man who won’t let her see her friends or leave the house. Esperanza feels protective of Sally.** Nenny ** - Esperanza’s little sister. Nenny, whose real name is Magdalena, is a pretty, dreamy little girl for whom Esperanza is often responsible. Since Nenny is immature, she is often a source of embarrassment for Esperanza when the two of them play with Rachel and Lucy.** Marin ** - A young woman from Puerto Rico who lives with her cousin’s family. Marin spends most of her time baby-sitting and so cannot leave the house. She sells makeup for Avon and teaches Esperanza and her friends about the world of boys. Although she has a fiancé back in Puerto Rico, she also dreams about American men taking her away from Mango Street to the suburbs. At the end of the year, her cousins send her back to Puerto Rico.** Papa ** - Esperanza’s father. Originally from Mexico, Papa is less domineering than the other father figures in the neighborhood. He works most of the time and is rarely home. ** Mama ** - Esperanza’s mother. Mama grew up in the United States. She is one of the strongest-willed and smartest women in the novel, yet she seems to influence Esperanza very little. She is sometimes a source of comfort for Esperanza. All of her admirable attributes are lost on Esperanza because Mama has not escaped Mango Street to live somewhere nicer.** Alicia ** - Esperanza’s friend who attends a local university. Since Alicia’s mother died, her father forces her to take over the family’s domestic chores. Alicia is a rare example of a neighborhood girl who has not tried to escape the neighborhood through marriage, but instead works hard and hopes to change her life from within.** Cathy ** - Esperanza’s first friend in the neighborhood. Cathy’s family moves out the week after Esperanza’s family moves in. She discourages Esperanza from becoming friends with Rachel and Lucy. She is one of the few characters who is not from Mexico or Latin America.
 * Esperanza ** - The novel’s heroine and narrator, an approximately twelve-year-old Chicana (Mexican-American girl). Esperanza is a budding writer who wishes for a home of her own. // The House on Mango Street //chronicles a year in her life as she matures emotionally and sexually. The name Esperanza means “hope” in Spanish.
 * Rachel and Lucy ** - Esperanza’s best friends. Rachel and Lucy are Mexican-American sisters who live across the street from Esperanza. Lucy, the older sister, was born in Texas, while Rachel, the younger, was born in Chicago. Esperanza eventually chooses a more sexually mature friend, Sally.

=**ELD** = **Standard**: Apply knowledge of language to analyze and derive meaning/comprehension from literary texts
 * __ Learning Objective: __** Students will identify the elements of a story

Migrating to the United States without knowing the aspects of the culture can be very difficult. Second language learners tend to be shy and not participative because they are exposed to face in many occasions, the barrier of racism. Therefore, // The House on Mango Street // is a perfect book to implement in the ELD classroom because students can definitely relate to Esperanza´s experiences. Many of these students migrate to this country with a different cultural background in which traditions, beliefs, and language among others are one of the barriers students have to deal with. On the other hand, the author uses the perfect vocabulary for students who are learning English as a second language. The easy vocabulary words are helpful for students to find an interest on reading this book. Also, there are several words in Spanish which may help students to create a better image of the development of this reading. Consequently, this book will not only help them to learn to apply knowledge of language to analyze and derive meaning/comprehension from literary texts, but will definitely leaves them an important moral: It does not matter where you come from or what your background is, but putting your best effort into your dreams will always help you succeed.

1. Learning how to understand and comprehend a reading...  A **Story Map** is a visual graphic organizer that will help students who are learning English as a second language to identify the settings or the sequence of major events and actionof story characters. The visuals will help students to easily identify what is being asked for in the graphic organizer. By doing story mapping, students will be able to understand the elements of literary books and to understand better the development of a story.

1. Students will complete the following worksheet called "**Story Map**." The visuals in the worksheet will guide students to understand what is important for them to know about the story.
 * Activity:

2. Later, students will work on a **Storyboard** in order to create their own story in which they will be the main character. They will have to pick some of Esperanza´s experiences with which they relate to in order to make a connection with the reading.

= Spanish = The program requires prospective teachers of languages other than English to demonstrate knowledge of literary and cultural texts and traditions. Prospective teachers study major literary and intellectual movements, genres, writers, and works and use literary and cultural texts from a variety of media.
 * Standards 14 :** Literary and Cultural Texts and Traditions

**Objective:** The goal of this assignment is to explore their own cultural background and others cultural background and to connect the collected information to the book The House on Mango Street, as well as to discover information about themselves. They will reinforce their writing skills and communication skills in Spanish.

Spanish control of Mexico led to the dominance of Spanish, the official language. The family is at the centre of the social structure. Outside of the major cosmopolitan cities, families are still generally large.The extended family is as important as the nuclear family since it provides a sense of stability. Mexicans consider it their duty and responsibility to help family members in everything that they can. Most Mexican families are extremely traditional, with the father as the head, the authority figure and the decision-maker. Relating this fact to the book The House on Mango Street Esparanza’s great grandmother didn’t want to get married, but was forced by her father. Also, into marriage in these families, when the mother dies the oldest female child, not the father, takes over responsibility for raising the children, which is why Alicia wishes there were someone older to do the work. Mothers are greatly revered, but their role may be seen as secondary to that of their husband. Esperanza decides she does not want to be like those women. No woman rebels against the men or calls for them to change. She mentioned that Mango Street is full of women who are trapped by their husbands, fathers, children, or their own feelings of insufficiency. Esperanza believes both the Chinese and the Mexicans discourage women from being strong. Writing keeps Esperanza spiritually free, because putting her experiences into words gives her power over them.
 * Mexican society and culture **

**Video- Gaining a Better Understanding of Mexicans and Mexican Culture.**

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 * Activity for students**
 * Students will do an interview to a family member that has known them since their birth (in Spanish). They have to ask questions about their cultural background, how they grew up and what they were like as a child, memorable personal experiences in her/his family.
 * They have to write an essay about their life including the interview that they realized to their family member by comparing and contrast his/her life with Esperanza’s life in the book The House on Mango Street.
 * Students have to create a poster with photos, drawings, etc. regarding his/her essay.
 * They have to do a presentation about their cultural background and their life using the poster. [[image:http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTuwTeJGFdXEhYrmGvVwO75UDnAHPhucBw4E4iCRMjjti9usym7]]

The goal of this assignment is to explore their own cultural background and others cultural background and to connect the collected information to the book The House on Mango Street, as well as to discover information about themselves. They will reinforce their writing skills and communication skills in Spanish.
 * The students will demonstrate their knowledge about cultural background, and paragraph, sentence structure, grammar and mechanics of writing by completing an essay.
 * They will show their oral communication skills in Spanish by doing the final project which is their oral presentation.

=Math =

**Standard: 1.5**- Represent quantitative relationships graphically and interpret the meaning of a specific part of a graph in the situation represented by the graph. **Objective:** Students will understand how to interpret a graph

Throughout some of the stories that are in the book we are presented with the story of a women who is beat by her husband. Since students will now be aware that abuse occurs amongst women, you can get statistics that are based on real-life situations. I provided some statistics that are based on women in the United States. With these graphs you can show students how to interpret the data that is on the graph. Not only can you include graphs from the entire United States but you can also compare between two different states: the state in which you live in and another state that you are talking about.You can also compare your country to another country.

women in the nation.With this graph you will explain all the parts of the bars that are on the graphs. You will also have to explain what the numbers represent. ||
 * On this activity, I provided a graph of violence against


 * 1) First explain the parts of the graphs. (Each bar graph represents an age group)
 * 2) The numbers on the left side represent the Rates per 1,000 females

Activity Once you have explained the graph and what it represents you can ask questions about it. Questions that you might ask:
 * What age group had the highest number? And what was the number?
 * What age group had the least number of violence?
 * What is the total number?
 * What is the difference between the age group of 20-24 year old and 35-49 year old?
 * What is the difference between the highest number of violence and the least number of violence?
 * Where is there a bigger difference, between the age group of 16-19 and 12-15 or between 35-49 and 50 years and older?

There are many things that you can possibly ask. All this will show if students will understand how to interpret data that is provided within a graph.

After you have let some of your students do some of the problems on their own, you should go over them as a class. And you can also get volunteers so that they share on the board how they did their work.

This activity can lead to another one:
 * you can let students come up with a topic
 * with this topic, they ask questions
 * with the questions they are going to come up with numbers
 * with the data that they have, they will have to create a graph of their own.

= Applying it to the Social Sciences. =

//Chronological and Spatial Thinking//

**Standard 2:** Students analyze how change happens at different rates at different times; understand that some aspects can change while others remain the same; and understand that change is complicated and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs.

__** Learning Objective :**__ Using the book, students will develop their own time line, and critically analyze what events in their lives have shaped who they are today. How they have changed over time (values and beliefs), and how their culture has played a role in their self-identity. (Applying technology to do so)

Using Esperanza as a guide line, students can appreciate what aspects influenced the change we see takes place thorough out the story. And how culture played a role in Esperanza's development of her self-identity. For example:
 * 1) We have the **power of language** present. Throughout //The House on Mango Street//, particularly in “No Speak English,” those who are not able to communicate effectively (or at all) are relegated to the bottom levels of society. In the book, this vignette leads Esperanza to observe the people around her and realize that not knowing or not mastering the language creates powerlessness, she realizes that having the ability to manipulate language will give her power.
 * 2) We have **family roles** and their effect on individuality. Mango Street is full of women who are trapped by their husbands, fathers, children, or their own feelings of inadequacy. Esperanza’s long-dead great-grandmother married unwillingly and spent her whole life sitting sadly by her window. Esperanza is determined not to become a woman sitting by a window, and she understands there is something amiss among the women in her world.
 * 3) We observe Esperanza as being part of a **collectivist culture** . As a child, Esperanza wants only to escape Mango Street. Her dreams of self-definition don’t include the fact that she has any responsibility to her family or to the people around her, and she wishes to leave them all behind. Once Esperanza has become familiar with the people in her neighborhood, however, she begins to feel affection and, ultimately, responsibility for them. She no longer sees herself as an individual striving for self-determination. Instead, she recognizes herself as a member of a social network who must give back to her community in order to break the cycle of poverty that plagues the neighborhood. With a look into where Esperanza lives, and what problems surround her neighborhood we also get a glimpse of **societal problems**, and these also affected Esperanza's sense of identity.

We can observe how this book paints a picture of how geography, and culture plays an immense role in shaping an individual's self-identity. We can see how Esperanza develops over time and we can chronologically trace back the events which had a huge impact in her life, and who changed her forever. This book helps students see themselves not only as individuals, but as part of a changing society, where rules can be, and should be challenged and analyzed. They will at the end of this activity be able to identify which part of their cultural, and family roles they agree with and which ones they disagree with. It will give them a deeper understanding of who they are, and of the world around them. **__Activity:__** To create the time line students will also use technology. In class we will create a time line for Esperanza from "the House on Mango Street". Students will learn to use word, or power point to create a timeline, and have fun with it! This will help students develop a sense of what information is relevant to the activity, and key to how Esperanza came about finding herself. Students then will be assigned a homework to do their own time line, using what we created in class as a model. Learning to use new technology! Dipity.com

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