Page 129 - ELA_CA_HighSchool_Sampler_Flipbook

A Symbolic Perception of Self
ACTIVITY 1.10
Learning Targets
• Analyze a literary passage for diction and imagery.
• Convert a visual image into a written vignette, using imagery and symbols.
Preview
In this activity, you will read and analyze a literary vignette to understand the author’s use of images and symbols. Then you will use one of your own personal photographs depicting a specific memory as the basis for an original vignette.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the vignette, write an exclamation mark next to words or phrases that create striking visual images.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
Vignette
Four Trees Skinny
by Sandra Cisneros
They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city. From our room we can hear them, but Nenny just sleeps and doesn’t appreciate these things.
Their strength is secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.
Let one forget his reason for being, they’d all droop like tulips in a glass, each with their arms around the other. Keep, keep, keep, trees say when I sleep. They teach.
When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be.
GRAMMAR USAGE
Stylistic Devices
Polysyndeton is a stylistic device in which coordinating conjunctions—usually and— are used in rapid succession. The device not only creates rhythm in writing but also conveys emotion. Notice
how Sandra Cisneros uses polysyndeton in this passage: “They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger.” Underline the conjunctions she uses.
Think about Cisneros’s
use of polysyndeton. What personal emotions does she convey through this intense description of the four trees? How would the effect of the passage be different if she had simply written her ideas as several sentences?
raggedy in poor condition
ACTIVITY 1.10
Literary Terms
A vignette is a picture or visual or a brief descriptive
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Chicago in 1954, Sandra Cisneros was the only daughter in a family of seven children. Although she was expected to assume a traditional female role in her patriarchal household, Cisneros successfully struggled to articulate the experience of a Latina woman, publishing the poetry collection Bad Boys (1980) and then gaining international acclaim with her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1983).
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
L.11–12.3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different
contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Additional Standards Addressed:
RL.11–12.4; W.11–12.2a; W.11–12.3a; W.11–12.4; W.11–12.10; L.11–12.3a; L.11–12.6
1 Read the Preview and the Setting a Purpose for Reading sections with your students. Help them understand that a vignette can be a visual or a brief descriptive literary sketch.
2 FIRST READ: Based on the complexity of the passage and your knowledge of your students, you may choose to conduct the first reading in a variety of ways:
• independent reading • paired reading
• small group reading • read aloud
Text Complexity Overall: Complex
Lexile: 690L
Qualitative: Moderate Difficulty Task: Moderate (Analyze)
3 As students are reading, monitor their progress. Be sure they are engaged with the text and marking vivid images with an exclamation mark. Evaluate whether the selected reading mode is effective.
4 After the first reading, direct students’ attention to the Grammar & Usage box. Have them pay attention to the use of polysyndeton in the vignette during their second reading.
5 Based on the observations you made during the first reading, you may want to adjust the reading mode for the second reading.
6 SECOND READ: During the second reading, students will answer the text-dependent comprehension questions. You may choose to have students reread and work on the questions in a variety of ways:
• independently
• in pairs
• in small groups
• together as a class
LEARNING STRATEGIES:
Visualizing, Brainstorming, Marking the Text, Think-Pair- Share, Drafting, Self-Editing / Peer Editing
Unit 1 • Perception Is Everything 35
PLAN
Materials: Ask students to bring in a photograph that presents a specific memory (e.g., birthday party, softball game, family wedding).
Suggested Pacing: 1 50-minute class period
TEACH
9781457304682_TCB_SE_G12_U1_B1.indd 35
10/2/15 11:08 PM
Focus Standards:
RL.11–12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
W.11–12.3d: Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
literary piece.
Unit 1 • Perception Is Everything 35
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.