House on Mango street project

I found this creative writing project online that I think I would like to adapt for the final project for this book. Creating your own book? Sounds good to me!

CREATIVE WRITING PROJECT





Sandra Cisneros tells her readers that she decided to write her novel, The House on Mango Street, because "you will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are." The purpose of this project is to create your own book which will help you remember what you know, as well as show others who you are.



Your book must have the following items:

* An Original Cover (10 points)

* Title/Title Page (5 points)

* Dedication (5 points)

* Table of Contents (5 points)

* 10 Chapters (see below) (10 points each)



TOTAL POSSIBLE: 125 points



Note: You will NOT receive ANY POINTS AT ALL for any book that is turned in that has less than 5 completed chapters.



Your chapters must be chosen from the following subjects:



§ Your Name

§ Your Neighborhood

§ Games or Favorite Toys from your Childhood

§ A Time You Got Into Trouble

§ A Time You Saw Someone Else Get Into Trouble

§ Advice From an Adult

§ A Positive Story From Your Experiences at School

§ A Negative Story From Your Experiences at School

§ A Special Family Member

§ A Happy Time For You

§ Going to Work

§ A Special Holiday

§ A Special Birthday

§ The Big Game

§ A Birth

§ Life in southern Illinois

§ 1 Additional Chapter on anything you wish



Chapter length: A chapter under 100 words will be considered underdeveloped and will not receive the full 10 points per chapter.



The chapters can be in any order you choose as long as it follows your Table of Contents. The project is worth 125 points and should reflect a great deal of effort. While we will spend some time in class, you should expect to do most of this project at home.

House on Mango street

I thought the book House on Mango Street was a very intense book. It's interesting to see the ups and downs of Esperanza. It's interesting to get to know the life of someone in her situation. I think it's important to know about your students surroundings, and adjust to it with necessary literature. I think this is true with wherever you are. Whether you are at a big suburban school or an inner city school. I think that this would be a great book to use if you were in an area that was heavily populated with Hispanic students, I think it would help them connect with literature easily, and I think it would help let them know that you understand the struggle of some of those students.
I hesitate to say that this would be a great book to use at a suburban predominantly white school. In this class, we constantly discuss culture and how to use this approach in our classrooms. We talk about a cultural awareness, and I always wonder what exactly we mean by this? I know that we want our students to be aware of their own culture, but what is the move on educating about others culture? For instance, it was really hard for me to connect to this book. You've got a poor, hispanic girl, although I can appreciate the story and I thought it was a good read, I didn't really connect with it.
I am obviously a white suburban student, so it was hard for me to find similarities between Esperanza and myself. I am always constantly evaluating what I read and why I think it is a good read, or a not so good read. When I think about what I used to like to read in High school and what I did not like to read. A lot of the stuff that we read in class was on the Canon, and I always had a hard time making a connection between myself and the characters. I think it was because they took place in the past and a lot of stuff they would reference would be stuff I didn't get. I always connected better to readings that applied more to myself. Stuff that took place in 2000's. Either way, I still was able to appreciate the readings we did because of their significance to our culture. In this respect, I think a book like House on Mango street would be great to use in a white suburban classroom.
As I understand it, there was a heated discussion between some people last Thursday about Majority and Minority in the classroom. Well, when it comes down to it some students will love what you read, others will not. It's up to you to realize what most of your students need to read.
So, with that being said, tying it all back together now- I think House on Mango Street could be one of those books that you could read in almost any classroom.

Blog number 7

I thought the article "Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Using Latino Children’s Literature in Teacher Education." was a very interesting read. It essentially claims that using books that pertain to ones culture helps the teacher make more connections with the students. Was this Allens suggestion? It sounds like it's right out of his roledex of beliefs! Obviously it is a good thing to do this, I just wonder what are they best ways to do this?

My Heritage bloggin

I'm from a mix of German and Dutch descent. My Ancestors on the Teman side came over from Germany before the American Civil War and the male on that side fought for the North. They were actually Jewish-German, so it is a good thing they left there when they did. I don't really know much about german culture, although I found it kind of funny that Germany is sometimes referred to as das Land der Dichter und Denker, also known as the land of poets and thinkers.
As far as the Dutch side of my family, I don't have as much information. I did find this bit of information though-
If you are dutch typically:
You own a telephone and a TV. Your place is heated in the winter and has its own bathroom. You do your laundry in a machine. You don't kill your own food. You don't have a dirt floor. You eat at a table, sitting on chairs... Yep I do all those things! Sign me up.

panel

I was very impressed with the one man who was able to come in and describe exactly how El Sol works. A bilingual Education could be very beneficial on many different levels. I think it would be be really good if all schools adapted this. Unfortunately, this would be a very tall task in America. I'm wondering how students in other countries develop their second languages, is it similar to the el sol model? hmm

Bloggin bout class 3/16

It seemed that in class a lot of numbers and statistics were thrown out at us. However, it seemed the main point I took away from all the presentations was the fact that Hispanics are in school and they are not doing well. It makes me wonder why? Well, in class it seemed that everyone was at the consensus that they were not at very good schools or as we referred to them "Dropout factories." Earlier I talked about my friends being Mexican. My one friend from home was not the best student in school. Most of the time he didn't care I think more because no one really expected a lot of him. I think also, he wasn't a great student because he didn't create that much drama in class. A lot of times students don't want to do work, and they learn that some teachers will let them get away with not doing work if they are quiet and not disruptive. I saw this all the time in my pre-intern class with some students. One kid in particular, would not do work and would not talk. When I would walk over to him and ask him what was wrong he would just think he was getting in trouble and would always defensively say "I'm not doing anything wrong!" Well it was true, I think in some classes teachers are able to let those students slip by because they may have bigger discipline issues with other students. So I think that knowing my friend and knowing his personality, a lot of hispanic students probably find that it is easy to slip by if they are quiet and not disruptive.

bloggin tres'

I like how the second article that we had to read starts to discuss an American Literature Text, and claims that there is not one page of hispanic american literature found in it. It made me reflect on all my american literature classes I have had in college. That being only two american lit 1 and american lit 2. I also had black-american lit, but I wouldn't expect hispanic literature to be in that class. Anyway, I realized that there was no hispanic lit taught in American Lit 1. However, I wonder how many hispanic-americans were in the country at that time? In American Lit 2, we had a lot of different cultures texts that we read. I remember we read one story, for the life of me I can't recall the title of it. However, when we discussed it in class there was a latina student who absolutely loved it and said she thought it was great to finally read something that was along the lines of TS Eliot or Faulkner. Keep this in mind......