Intro:

In The House on Mango Street we follow the main character Esperanza during her formative years as she is growing up and figuring out who she is. Throughout the book, we see her identifying with her name, some aspects of her appearance, her house on Mango Street, her family and her cultural heritage. Her environment, the places, the things, the people, becomes a part of her and makes her who she is. We will now connect some of the vignettes with the process of building identities and answering the BIG question: Who are we? 

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ENGAGE

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Story of My Name (15 min.) 

Tell the students that we will start today by sharing a brief story, with a partner, about some aspect of our name. They can choose to tell the story of their first, middle, last name, or a nickname. If they can’t think of a story/history or the meaning behind your name, they can be creative and invent a story that could be used to introduce the story of their name (they can use the vignette My Name as a model for inspiration – the meaning of the name; good or bad luck, family history, etc.). The Facilitator provides an example. For the next two minutes, on a piece of paper the students write down some of the key aspects of their story and any specific details they want to remember. They will be sharing these stories with one partner, so they should keep that in mind as they decide what to share in the story of their name. 

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Divide the group into pairs. Have them choose a group member A and a group member B. Partner B will share first. After two minutes ask the pairs to switch and the second person shares their story. After each person in the pair has shared, the full group comes back together to reflect on the activity. Each person in the pair offers a short phrase to capture their partners’ story (without having to re-tell the whole story). Once everyone has shared begin reflection.

 

Reflection: 

• Did we see any common themes between the stories/histories of our names?

• What do names tell us? Are they important? Why or why not?  

 

Transition: Our names are just one of the things that define who we are. So thank you for sharing the stories/histories of your names. Today we are reading “My name” from The House on Mango Street. 

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EXPLORE

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Punctuation to Punctuation (10-15 min.) 

Let’s take time to read “My Name” together out loud. 

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• (Round 1) A designated participant will begin to read the text aloud; they will stop when they arrive at a punctuation mark (-- : ; , . ! ?). Then, the next participant in the circle will read until they reach a punctuation mark. This may mean that a person reads only one word, e.g., or an entire sentence. Keep reading around the circle, punctuation to punctuation, until everyone gets an opportunity to read and the text has ended. Re-start the text again from the beginning if necessary.

• (Round 2) Next, the text is re-read from the beginning, changing readers at each punctuation, but this time participants also say “Stop!” if there is a word that is confusing or not understood. When stopped, the group works together to make meaning of the confusing word or phrase; continue until the full text has been read and all “Stops” are answered.

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After finishing reading “My Name” ask students: What does Esperanza think of her name; What/who does she associate it with? What connections can we make between our stories of our names and Esperanza’s story of her name? 

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Transition: Now we are going to consider how identity markers influence more than our names. We will look at how our identities shape our perspective of others and ourselves. 

 

Iceberg of identity (15 min.)

Invite students to brainstorm a broad range of identity communities based on a range of markers (e.g., religious communities, race/ethnicity groups, socioeconomic status, familial relationships, and/or hobby/vocation). Based on these identity communities, ask each student to compile an individual, written list of  “identity markers,” which society may use to describe them (e.g., female, black, liberal, daughter, girlfriend, young adult). Each student chooses five markers from their list – that they feel comfortable sharing – and writes one marker each, on 5 different post-its or individual pieces of paper with tape. Draw a picture of a large iceberg outline in the water on a chalk/white board. It’s important the drawing includes parts of the iceberg formation above and below the water level. Invite students to place each of their 5 individual “markers” onto the iceberg image based on whether the identity marker is seen (placed above the water) or can be hidden (placed below water level) from others. Afterwards, ask students to observe where identity markers are placed. Engage in dialogue about what markers are placed where and why. To close the strategy, invite students to reflect on the ways individual and group identities are seen and not seen in this learning community and why this might be.

 

Reflection

• How did it feel to write down ideas about your identity? What categories of identity markers did we choose to include/exclude? 

• What identity markers are similarly/differently placed? Why do you think that happened?

• How do identity markers impact Esperanza and the other characters in The House on Mango Street?

 

Transition/Closing: Thank you all so much for sharing your ideas and artistry with me today. Let’s give ourselves a round of applause. I hope that by sharing your stories and these pieces of your own identity, we learned a little bit more about who we are and what factors shape our identity.