As my eighth graders were finishing up their collaborative discussions on people who have persevered, I wanted to transition into the next unit–House on Mango Street–so I created a WebQuest that they could work on when they weren’t discussing with their groups! A great time-saver and way to have them learn independently and still be productive towards finishing their previous unit.
I created the WebQuest through Google Docs and linked several YouTube videos of interviews with Sandra Cisneros (author of House on Mango Street) so they could not only about her, but hear from her directly.
The WebQuest focused on author background information, influences, and some of the main ideas surrounding the book. It was a great way to introduce them in a way that wasn’t a lecture!
Here is one of the videos I linked for the students to watch:
We went over the WebQuest the following day in class and I discussed some of the main points
- Sandra Cisneros’ culture
- that the book pulls memories and stories from her life and lives of others but she is not Esperanza
- one of the themes is Esperanza’s quest for a ‘place to be’ or a home, literally and metaphorically
- coming of age story
To see/download the full WebQuest and answer key, click here!