What’s better to middle and high school students than a game/competition/individual challenge? (The answer is nothing). That’s why I wanted to create an extension activity and figurative language activity that would engage my eighth graders and let them have a little fun. Continue reading
Students need a break from the same-ole-same-ole. That’s why I wanted to create a comic activity to spice things up! My students were reading “Those Who Don’t,” one of the shortest vignettes in House on Mango Street. Instead of a discussion, I wanted them to think deeply about the theme in the vignette and create a comic representation of what was happening–my goal was to get them to think critically and create their own visual! Continue reading
My students finish assessments at different points–this is a given–but it makes it essential to create extension activities and keep them busy and focused on the classroom curriculum. For an extension activity once my students were finished with their I Am Assessments, I created this–a reading and writing activity for the vignette “Darius & the Clouds” which we were not reading as a large group. Continue reading
I’m excited for today’s activity! For the past two weeks I’ve worked with my eighth grade students on understanding figurative language. They did Notes, the My Figurative Language Family assignment for practice, and now this will be their actual assessment–but a fun one! Continue reading
The role of women is a huge theme in House on Mango Street, even in the early vignettes. Today’s lesson focused on “Marin” and “Alicia Who Is Afraid of Mice” and my eighth graders compared/contrasted the two girls and related their stories to the already existing theme of the degradation of Mexican women. Continue reading
Today my eighth graders read “Louie, His Cousin, and His Other Cousin.” In this vignette, we’re introduced to a family of cousins that live on Esperanza’s block (one of which is Marin, the oldest, who we will talk about tomorrow!) and one of them is the unnamed cousin who one day shows up with a brand new, shiny, yellow car. Continue reading
Standards-Based Grading can be crazy, but it’s something been completely thrown into and have to accept 🙂 It’s not so bad on the teacher end once you get started with it. It’s just very individualized. And can be quite a lot of work. Continue reading
Today I had my eighth graders focus on the idea of friendship–What is friendship? What does friendship mean to us? What defines a solid friendship?–I had my students write their ideas all over the white board in a silent-discussion format and then we talked through them. Continue reading
The next section I had my students read in House on Mango Street was “My Name,” a vignette where main character Esperanza talks about her name, family culture, and wrestles with her identity. Continue reading
