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"Home - is where I want to be / But I guess I'm already there
I come home - she lifted up her wings / I guess that this must be the place" - David Byrne
Finding Home - Poems before The House on Mango Street: Actually, 11 poems, 1 song, and many quotes. There are many themes and ideas in this gem of a book - and I wanted to introduce as many of them as possible in the verse that we would go over today. The fact that the unit is less than two weeks and never - unlike most of the books that I taught in World Literature, accompanied by a film. So planting some ideas of what this novel could be about is largely accomplished in today's poetry class. I also tried to find - in addition to thematically linked poems - poems that were written by or about women. The approach is the same of most of our poems before classes. The students get with a partner or trio and quickly take a look at the poem - then we come back to read the poem aloud and tell us what they thought it meant. We read the quotes and listen to the song together.
Lesson Overview (see also poems with notes)
Lesson Overview (see also poems with notes)
No quiz today and you need to get started right away. I usually stand at the door and give the handout with the poems to the students as they enter (and tell them to start looking at it right away). For more specifics on the actual poems and songs - see the notes below next to the Poems & Songs handout and the notes on my Lesson Notes on the Poems (in my handwriting - also found below)
As with most (though not the last) Poems Before, break the students into small groups (it is usually best and quickest if you do this by just pointing. There are 9 poems to be distributed, and some of the poems are large - you will need to purposefully make the groups for those poems larger (perhaps 3-4 students instead of the usual 2). You should encourage those larger groups to split the especially long poems (and give these more students) into sections - tackled by mini-groups within their group. There are also a few poems, quotes, and a song that you will do together as a class
Give the students about 5-8 minutes to prepare their poems - you will need the rest of the time to go over them (and listen to the songs) as a class. Once they are done (or time is up) - you can begin tackling the poems together. By now, being the 7th time I've done poems before a book this way - the students are much more comfortable - and you'll be surprised how quickly they get through it - but even more - how intelligent their interpretation is.
Once you begin the discussion, remind students that they are to write notes directly on their handouts as the group is reading the poem aloud (always how they should begin their presentation). Anything is fine - but as always with poetry - What is the story? What is taking place? See my page On Poetry. They can link it to other things - but first we need to figure out what's happening in the poem. Here are the poems and songs See the PDF of my copy of the Poems with my Notes - for my take on the poems - the things I'd be sure to bring up.
"House" by Pablo Neruda - we usually skip this poem all together as we did it earlier (when we studied Pablo Neruda) but I still want the students to glance at it and to have it as they read The House on Mango Street.
"The Valley Wind" by Lu Yun - the first poem done by students - Group 1
"The Guest House" by Jelaluddin Rumi (Rumi) - Group 2
"Happiness by Robert Hass - Group 3
"Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes - usually skipped as students read it in an earlier year - but want students to have it.
""In My Craft or Sullen Art" by Dylan Thomas - Group 4
"Sad Women" by Daria Mateja Domitrovich - Group 5
Longfellow Quote - read together
"An Apple-Gathering" by Christina Georgina Rossetti - Group 6
"The Myth of Innocence by Louise Gluck - Group 7 (large group)
"Guilt" by e e cummings - very small, read together
"The Deserted House" by Alfred Lord Tennyson - Group 8
Anita Baker quote - read together
"Stations" by Audre Lorde - Group 9
"This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) - song to be listened to together
Matsuo Basho quote - read together
The bookmark for this novel has the titles of the poems on it - so it will bring this class - these ideas to the forefront as they are doing their reading. At the end of class, remind them of what is due - there will be a quiz - and to follow their bookmarks (which have those titles from the poems on them) and read ahead.
The Poems (and songs) with my notes see below for student handout
The Poems (and songs) with my notes see below for student handout
The Poems with my Notes: PDF - This is made from a combination of earlier incarnations of the poems, along with the most recent. You will find poems repeated as there are different editions of the handout. Obviously, every teacher, just as every student will have a different take on these poems and songs (just as I would expect them to add and subtract their own verse). I believe these poems and song compliment what is happening in the next lesson - note there are no notes for the last page of this packet as they are revisited poems (and a text).
Handout - Poems & Song
Handout - Poems & Song
Poems before The House on Mango Street Handout: Docx PDF
The novel, The House on Mango Street, has many ideas, and many themes. The poems - as always - cover some of the ideas and themes that will be encountered in the book. Some of these include - what exactly is "home", the idea of the "other", women's place in society, find our true path
In most of my handouts that have text to be analyzed - I make sure to leave a wide margin for the students to write notes (both as they're reading and as we talk about the texts as a class). I will usually have these on a desk by the door and students will grab or be given one as they enter the room. These poems are given plenty of room for students to take notes on.
Bookmark with Poem Titles Docx PDF
"This Must be the Place" Song
"This Must be the Place" Song
This is the song that we play at the end of the lesson (the lyrics are on the handout) - some years when I knew time would be at a premium - I played it as the students were entering the classroom - before the bell rang or alternatively after the bell rang - as the students were leaving. Use every second.
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
These poems - really work well in a Remote setting. You do have to make sure that you have remote grouping set up.
poemsbeforeMangoHouse20170428.mp3Class Recordings
Class Recordings
Audio of our discussion of Poems before The House on Mango Street
Audio of our discussion of Poems before The House on Mango Street
As we usually do with poems before novels - we divide into groups and then come back and read and report what we've learned from the poems. We read some wonderful, sad, beautiful poems - as a prologue to our unit on The House on Mango Street. The poems are about houses, homes, innocence, women who wait and many of the other themes that will be encountered during our time with Sandra Cisneros's masterpiece.
Mango House 2 - The Anchored Balloon - An Opening Discussion :
Mango House 2 - The Anchored Balloon - An Opening Discussion :
Though I have included a Group Work for this lessson - I urge you go ahead with a Class Discussion. I may have been gone that day or we may have been plagued with so many absences due to AP Testing that I made a Group Work. To have an opening discussion when more than a few students are absent was, to me, a not worthwhile task. In any case, in our discussion we cover all the chapters through page 32. As always, the students have done the reading for homework - and this time - they are happy to discover that the reading takes (generally) less than 20 minutes. In addition to talking about what happens in each of these vignettes (this is a Ring Master Teacher type discussion as most opening (and closing) classes are), we also talk about what the "house" (ideal desire for Esperanza or other characters) is for each Chapter.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
You will hear and see this book, The House on Mango Street" referred to (by me) as Mango House. It's a long story, but it comes down to that in one of my first years of teaching I had a student whose name very much resembled Mangohouse - and all these years later, it still sticks, I still call her that and she uses it for her nickname as well.
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