Identity - ealteachers.files.wordpress.com file · Web viewIdentity and Community. Name: _____

2E English Ms. Usiskin

Identity and Community

Name: ___________________________

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/lessons-and-units/identity-and-community

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What does the word identity mean?

What makes up someone’s identity?

Draw an identity chart for yourself below.

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My Name

By Sandra Cisneros from The House on Mango Street

Reading by the Sandra Cisneros at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJCu5tZdD-M

In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.

My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it.

And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window.

At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as sister's name Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least- -can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza. would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJCu5tZdD-M

Esperanza


1. Who gave you your name?

2. Does your name have any special meaning?

3. Create an identity chart for Esperanza.

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Journal #1:

Look over your identity chart. What aspects of your identity are most important to you? Choose one characteristic from your identity chart and write about why it is an important part of defining who you are.

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Writing a Bio Poem

A bio poem is a 10 line poem that describes a person. In the standard bio poem structure, a person is described based on their experiences, their hopes for the future and their accomplishments.

What does experience mean? What does accomplishment mean?

How to write a bio poem

Step 1: Brainstorming Ideas

1. List at least seven adjectives that you would use to describe yourself.

2. List three important relationships in your life (e.g. friend, brother, daughter, or nephew).

3. List five things, people or ideas that you love.

4. List five memoires you have and describe you felt at those times.

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5. List five of your fears.

6. List three accomplishments or things that you have achieved.

7. List five wishes or hopes for the future.

8. Where are you from and where do you live now?

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Step 2: Use your brainstorm to write a rough copy

Here is the structure for your bio poem

(Line 1) State your FIRST name

(Line 2) List three or four adjectives that describe you

(Line 3) Give three important relationships (e.g. daughter of…., friend of….)

(Line 4) List two or three things, people or ideas that you love (who loves….)

(Line 5) Give three feelings that you have experienced (who felt….)

(Line 6) List three fears that you have had (who fears….)

(Line 7) Say your accomplishments (who won, who performed, who learned)

(Line 8) Give two or three things that you want to see happen or experience to (who wants to, who hopes…)

(Line 9) Give your residence (who lives…)

(Line 10) State your LAST name

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What words or labels would you use to describe these people?

Write below their pictures.

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What words or labels would you use to describe yourself?

What words or labels might others use to describe you?

What words or labels might others use to describe you that you might not choose for yourself?

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The Bear That Wasn’t

By Frank Tashlin

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/readings/bear-wasnt

Once upon a time, in fact it was on a Tuesday, the Bear saw that it was time to go into a cave and hibernate. And that was just what he did. Not long afterward, in fact it was on a Wednesday, lots of workers arrived near that cave. While the Bear slept, they built a great, huge factory.

As winter turned to spring, the Bear awoke and stepped out of his cave. His eyes popped. Where was the forest?

Where was the grass?

Where were the trees?

Where were the flowers?

WHAT HAD HAPPENED?

“I must be dreaming,” he said. “Of course, I’m dreaming.” But it wasn’t a dream. It was real. Just then the Foreman came out of the factory. “Hey, you get back to work,” he said.

The Bear replied, “I don’t work here. I’m a Bear.”

The Foreman laughed, “That’s a fine excuse for a man to keep from doing any work. Saying he’s a Bear.”

The Bear said, “But, I am a Bear.”

The Foreman stopped laughing. He was very mad.

“Don’t try to fool me,” he said. “You’re not a Bear. You’re a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat. I’m going to take you to the General Manager.”

The General Manager also insisted the Bear was a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat

The Bear said, “No, you’re mistaken. I am a Bear.”

The General Manager was very mad, too.

The Bear said, “I’m sorry to hear you say that. You see, I am a Bear.”

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The Third Vice President was even madder.

The Second Vice President was more than mad or madder. He was furious.

The First Vice President yelled in rage.

He said, “You’re not a Bear. You’re a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat. I’m going to take you to the President.”

The Bear pleaded, “This is a dreadful error, you know, because ever since I can remember, I’ve always been a Bear.”

And that is exactly what the Bear told the President.

“Thank you for telling me,” the President said. “You can‘t be a Bear. Bears are only in a zoo or a circus. They’re never inside a factory and that’s where you are; inside a factory. So how can you be a Bear?”

The Bear said, “But I am a Bear.”

The President said, “Not only are you a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat, but you are also very stubborn. So I’m going to prove it to you, once and for all, that you are not a Bear.”


The President packed his vice presidents and the Bear into a car and drove to the zoo. The Bears in the zoo said the Bear was not a Bear, because if he were a Bear, he would be inside a cage.


So they all left the zoo and drove to the nearest circus.

“Is he a Bear?” the President asked the circus Bears.

The Bears said no. If he were a Bear he would be wearing a little hat with a striped ribbon holding onto a balloon and riding a bicycle.


When the President and his vice presidents returned to the factory, they put the Bear to work on a big machine with a lot of other men. The Bear worked on the big machine for many, many months.

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After a long, long time, the factory closed and all the workers went away. The Bear was the last one left. As he left the shut-down factory, he saw geese flying south and the leaves falling from the trees. Winter was coming, he thought. It was time to hibernate.

He found a cave and was about to enter when he stopped. “I can’t go in a cave. I’m NOT a Bear. I’m a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat.”

As the days grew colder and the snow fell, the Bear sat shivering with cold. “I wish I were a Bear,” he thought.

Then suddenly he got up and walked through the deep snow toward the cave. Inside it was cozy and snug. The icy wind and cold, cold snow couldn’t reach him here. He felt warm all over.

He sank down on a bed of pine boughs and soon he was happily asleep and dreaming sweet dreams, just like all bears do, when they hibernate. So even though the FOREMAN and the GENERAL MANAGER and the THIRD VICE PRESIDENT and the SECOND VICE PRESIDENT and the FIRST VICE PRESIDENT and the PRESIDENT and the ZOO BEARS and the CIRCUS BEARS had said, he was a silly man who needed a shave and wore a fur coat, I don’t think he really believed it. Do you? No indeed, he knew he wasn’t a silly man, and he wasn’t a silly Bear either.

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Plot Chart

What is a plot chart?

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Assignment ______/ 15 marks

1. Draw a plot chart for the story The Bear That Wasn’t. (5 marks)

2. What words does the bear use to describe himself? (1 mark)

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3. What words did others use to describe him? (1 mark)

4. How does the identity of the bear shift (change) over time? (3 marks)

5. What is the message or point that the author, Frank Tashlin is trying to make in this story? (2 marks)

6. Which do you think has a bigger effect on our identity - the labels we give ourselves or the labels others give us? Why? (3 marks)

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Farewell to Manzanar Excerpt

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

In her book Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston tell the story of what it was like to be a Japanese American in California during the 1940s. Jeanne was born in California in 1934, the youngest child of parents who had immigrated to the United States from Japan. In 1945, she started sixth grade in a new school.

That afternoon, during a reading lesson, [the teacher] finally asked me if I’d care to try a

page out loud. I had not yet opened my mouth, except to smile. When I stood up, everyone

turned to watch. Any kid entering a new class wants, first of all, to be liked. This was

uppermost in my mind. I smiled wider, then began to read. I made no mistakes. When I

finished, a pretty blond girl in front of me said, quite innocently, “Gee, I didn’t know you

could speak English.” She was genuinely amazed. I was stunned. How could this even been

in doubt?

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1. What do the experiences of Jeanne and the Bear have in common? How are they different?

How are they the same? How are they different?

2. Describe a time when you have been labeled by others. How did it feel? How did you respond?

3. Describe a time when you labeled someone else. Why did you do it?

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4. Why do you think we are quick to put labels on each other?

Identity Masks

Mask Making Preparation Worksheet

1. What aspects of your identity would you like to present to others?

Biographical information:

Experiences and accomplishments:

Hopes and fears:

Likes and dislikes:

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2. What labels or adjectives would you like others to use when they think about you?

3. What are some aspects of your identity that you may not present to others but that you still want them to know about you? (These are ideas you might want to include on the inside of your mask.)

We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurance Dunbar (1896)

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, -

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Chirst, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

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But let the world think other-wise.

We wear the mask!

Glossary

Guile: Deceitful, sly

Myriad: many

Subtleties: meanings; can be meanings that are difficult to define

Vile: gross, immoral

Who Am I? Who are We?

Take a walk around the room, look at everyone’s identity charts, biopoems and masks.

Record what you notice.

What do we share?Record notes about qualities your

classmates share or have in common

What makes us unique?Record notes about qualities that make

your classmates unique or different

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What is a community?

Discuss the following questions in your groups. Write down any ideas that your group talks about.

1. Do you think this class is a group? Why or why not?

2. Do you think this class is a community? Why or why not?

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3. What is the difference between a group and a community?

Chunking Worksheet: What is a community?

Communities are not built of friends, or of groups with similar styles and tastes, or even people who like and understand each other. They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is bigger than themselves; a shared goal or enterprise, like righting a wrong, or building a road, or raising children, or living honourably, or worshipping a god. To build community requires only the ability to see value in others, to look at them and see a potential partner in one’s enterprise.

Suzanne Goldsmith, in her memoir called A City Year

What does this sentence or phrase mean? Rewrite the main ideas in your own words

Communities are not built of friends, or of groups with similar styles and tastes, or even people who like and understand each other.

They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is bigger than themselves…

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a shared goal or enterprise, like righting a wrong, or building a road, or raising children, or living honourably, or worshipping a god.

To build community requires only the ability to see value in others…

to look at them and see a potential partner in one’s enterprise.

Four Corners of the Room DiscussionWhat is your opinion? Circle one and then give a reason for your opinion.

Communities should only include people who are friends and who like each other.

Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

Why?

Unlike Goldsmith’s definition, I think that sometimes communities are made up of people who aren’t working towards a common goal.


Why?

Members of a community feel responsible for one another.


Why?

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Communities are a kind of group, but not all groups are communities.


Why?

Our classroom is a community.


Why?

A community has certain rules about who can be a member. Not everyone can belong. Some people must be excluded in order for a community to exist.


Why?

Now write your own definition for community.

Community is:

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Communities that I belong to are:

_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

Now choose two of these communities and answer the following questions.

What do I have in common with other members of this community?

What responsibilities do members of this community have?

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Who does not belong to this community? Why?

We and They

The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss

Pause #1: Before Sylvester McMonkey McBean enters the scene on page 8.

1. What communities are represented in the story?

2. How is membership defined? Who is included in these communities? Why is excluded?

3. Why did the Sneetches make these distinctions?

4. Do you think all Sneetches agreed with these rules of membership?

5. This is a children’s story. Do you think it represents anything that exists in the real world? Does this story remind you of anyting you have experienced or hear about?

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Pause #2: When the star-bellied Sneetches remove their stars on page 18

1. Why do you think the star-bellied Sneetches decide to remove their stars?

2. How have the rules of membership changed? Why have they changed?

3. What do you think will happen next?

After you finish the story discuss with a group:

1. What are three ideas this story tells or reveals about communities, membership and belonging?

2. The media always show teenagers as forming cliques. Compare how the Sneetches treat each other to the way teenagers treat each other. How are they the same? How are they different?

SAME DIFFERENT

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3. Whom do you respect more, the Sneetches at the beginning of the story or the Sneetches at the end? Explain why.

4. Often stories are written to express a moral or to teach a lesson. What is the moral of this story?

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Documents

Identity - ealteachers.files.wordpress.com file · Web viewIdentity and Community. Name: _____