Teacher's Mango Pages

Hey all-
Jim shared this link with me:
Notes for The House on Mango Street
What does everyone think of this teacher's ideas for teaching Mango?

-What do you think of the assignments?  Any you really like or dislike?
-What do you think of the questions for each vignette?  Are they worth discussing?
-What do you think of the idea to compare THOMS to Little Red Riding Hood?
-What do you think about talking about the introduction, themes, and whether or not this novel is a novel on this site?  Are these notes our students need to have?

Has anyone come across any teacher websites that you want to share for THOMS?  If you get a chance, maybe we could all browse around and link one in a comment for future reference!

Four Skinny Trees - Pictures

"Four who do not belong here but are here"

"Ferocious roots"

"Violent teeth"

"Raggedy excuses planted by the city"

"They'd all droop"

"Four who grew despite concrete"

"Four who reach and do not forget to reach"

"Four whose only reason is to be and be"

Two cool ones:

Am I Mango Street? - Esperanza's Journal

Dear Diary,
Why does everyone keep telling me I'm Mango Street?  I don't get it!  First, it was Rachel and Lucy's aunts, telling me that I will always be Mango Street.  Then today I was talking with Alicia on Edna's steps, and she told me that if I like it or not, I'm Mango Street, just like she's Guadalajara.  She says one day I'll come back here, because this is where I come from.  The three sisters told me that I had to remember to come back one day, and help the others who can't leave as easily as I can.  But I don't think I ever want to come back here. 

I told Alicia I wanted to undo the year that I've lived here.  I guess I was okay with it here until the thing at the monkey garden happened and then that thing at the carnival.   I tried to save Sally from the boys in the monkey garden, so that they wouldn't do anything to her, and she told me to go home.  But then when I needed her to save me at  the carnival, she wasn't around and didn't even care when she heard me calling her name.  All I wanted to do was help her.  All I wanted was her help.  I don't get why no one wants to help each other.  Even Tito's mother didn't want to lift a finger when I came to get her when the boys were taking Sally's keys!  Why am I supposed to come back to help everyone when no one will help me, when no one will help each other?

I guess I am the only one who can help.  Rachel, Lucy, Sally and Nenny will go off and get married, mama will never get over the fact that she could've been someone, and the women on this street will keep doing what their men want - sitting in the house, looking out the window, and waiting.  But not me.  I never want to sit next to a window and just look.  I want to do!  I want to live!  I want to be!  I don't want to get married, not yet at least.  I want to be and be.  And I guess I'll have to come back to Mango Street, because I'm the only one who will get free.  I guess the only one who can come back to visit is me.

xo Ranza

Keep, Keep, Keep - Post 5

Listen along on my Voice Thread to my found poem:

"Keep, Keep, Keep"

a found poem from The House on Mango Street

by Hannah Welch

This is how they keep.

Their strength is secret.

Push, pull, push pull -  dizzy.

Straight ahead, straight eyes.

Blinds are always closed.

Roses that cry a breath of mold and dampness.

Do you feel it, feel the cold?

Make your blood freeze.

Ain’t it a shame?

Is that it?

What difference does it make?

Wonder, shrug, remember.

I’ll jump out of my skin!

All at once she bloomed,

beautiful like the Emperor’s nightingale.

Wonderful, wonderful

Excited tinkling

Lovely things everywhere-

Leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma.

She just laughs. 

I’m me!

Alive

This is how they keep-

appreciate these things-

they, who reach and do not forget to reach,

whose only reason is to be and be.

A home in the heart – this is home.

We are home.

 I chose lines from our 3rd portion of the book, pages 58-78.  My most important lines came from the vignette "Four Skinny Trees," in which Esperanza describes 4 trees in her front yard that don't fit the neighborhood, that have to fight against the odds to stay standing.  The title "Keep, Keep, Keep" and the repeated line "This is how they keep" came from that vignette.  I thought this was a powerful idea to relate to not only this section but the entire story, because I see two things at work: the outside, surface existence of these people - it's rough, not easy, and often unpleasant - "roses that cry a breath of mold and dampness."  We know there's struggle, ugliness, and pain in their lives.  But the major message that I've seen is the beauty underneath this - the strength of these people - their abilities to love, celebrate, enjoy life, and make the most of what they've got.  That's where the shift in the poem comes from - the second half is quite happy, my favorite line being "Leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma," which, along with many other lines, came from the vignette "The Earl of Tennessee." I think the ultimate message of my found poem is that happiness and Esperanza's home are not physical things, or things that one can observe on the surface - they are in the heart, these pieces of happiness and beauty that so many of the characters lift up and celebrate.  This home is about finding yourself, being yourself, and loving the person you are and the life that you live.  Once Esperanza is able to come to this realization, she finds, finally, that she "is home."

SIDENOTE: The House on Mango Street is full of SO MUCH beautiful language, much of it figurative, which really made this assignment fun for me.  I loved going back and picking out these phrases that I smiled at while I read and giving them new life and meaning, so that I could appreciate them in new ways.  This was a really fun response to do, and I LOVE how the Voice Thread felt like a poetry performance or a poetry slam - it feels like within our voice threads, we're creating our own little coffee shop and using our voice to bring our poems to life.

PS:  If you put your name in your label each time you post, we won't have as much confusion about who's posting what and we don't have to put it in the title- just a thought!!!

"No Speak English" - "We Speak No Americano"

Have you guys heard this song?  The title is "We Speak No Americano" and as I reread the "No Speak English" vignette I was reminded of the title.  There really aren't many lyrics, but it's sort of interesting to listen for the English words that pop through, as if the singer is trying to find his "English" - just as Esperanza's Papa did with "hamandeggs" and now the wife of the neighbor is working with her few phrases - "He no home" "No speak English" and "Holy cow!"  Be careful...the beat is catchy!  Just wanted to share!

Esperanza's Father - Post 4

I chose to focus on Esperanza's father.  Check out the Wordle I made from all the things Esperanza says about him - I included any sentence that she mentioned him in up until page 86. 

There are so many characters in this book, so it's sort of difficult to get attached to many of them, because they'll pop up and here and there and not come back into the story again.  But the way Esperanza talks about her dad reminded me a lot of the way I feel about my own dad.  Her feelings for him weren't really clear until the vignette called "Papa Who Wakes up Tired in the Dark," where it clearly shows that she loves him and that they are at least growing closer, if not close already - "I have never seen my Papa cry and don't know what to do" - he feels comfortable showing emotions in front of her about his father dying - and later, she says, "And I think if  my own Papa died what would I do.  I hold my Papa in my arms.  I hold him and hold him."  She realizes how much he means to her and this was a powerful moment.  I also got a sense that Esperanza really appreciated her dad in this passage, when she talks about all of the things he sacrifices to work a job - one with gardens as she later describes (never told what he does) - and provide for his family: "He wakes up tired and in the dark [and is] gone before we wake."  Her mom is mentioned a great deal more in the story, which makes me think that her father is often off working, but when he does have free time - like Sundays - "Papa's day off" (p 86) - he spends them with his family.

My dad and I have a really close bond and I love and appreciate him a great deal.  He works hard - as a foreign accounts manager at Citigroup - at he job he doesn't love, but he gets up every morning to do his work and provide for his family.  Even though I'm sure he's tired, he has always made our time together special - with bike rides at Delaware Park, letting me "do his hair" as a young girl, and lots of weekend trips to see things in the city.  Now that I'm older, we still walk at Delaware Park on the weekends in the summer, and we walk the dogs together every night (unless I'm in class).  He's still my greatest source of advice, always talking me through different things, and he confides a lot in me, just like Esperanza's Papa does in the vignette about him.

My wordle definitely paints her father as a hard working man - with phrases such as "tired" and "wakes" coming up larger and "brave" and "works" coming up smaller.  I love the "Hamandeggs" phrase and how that pops up as a big word, too - this section on learning to speak English (about a neighbor's wife) was comical, but also shows her father as a bit of a risk-taker and trailblazer.  He was willing to struggle through not being able to communicate until he learned the language so that he could live in Chicago and make a better life for his family - again pulling it all back to his willingness to sacrifice for his family.  "Hamandeggs" was the only phrase he knew when he first moved here, so he ate hamandeggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The fact that he could laugh about this with Esperanza also reveals a comical side to him as well.  I like how large the name turned up, because until I did this wordle, I did not focus in on her father, and could not have told you what she called him.  Other tiny words that pop up - lottery, snoring,  Sundays - also remind us of little pieces of his character that we might have overlooked otherwise.  I love that Esperanza pointed out that he snores.  For her, this was comforting, but whenever I go somewhere and stay overnight with my mother, I have to bring earplugs - not comforting at all!