Unit Plan ideas: Female self-identity

Rationale: I will be using House on Mango Street, Maggie, and "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath because all three of these texts offer insight into the multiple approaches that artists to take to record their thoughts about their surroundings, the people in their imaginations as expressions of effects of the world's circumstances. Artists, particularly through written text, use their medium to explore identity through their characters and the scenarios that they construct Each also uses their work to explore the gender issues of their contemporary times in particular. This is valuable for students when seeing how far our own society has come or how far it still has to come, but also for adolescents looking to discover themselves and understand their own changing role in society as they look to further their educations after high school or enter the job market. 

Theme: Female Self-Identity: I want students to use all three texts to see how females have developed a sense of self in a variety of cultures and historical contexts. They will find that society often  confines of female self-discovery by dictating the circumstances under which ambition and freedom are exercised.  

Essential Questions: How do women come to know themselves?

How do societal norms affect a female's self perception as she grows up?

What does it mean to be a fully grown woman?

Objectives:  Students will be able to write from multiple perspectives (through various writing assignments given to them), have a greater understanding of similes/metaphors, satire, and poetic devices, and be able to explain how authors interpret their worlds through their work. 

Yale Initiative and final unit plan

The Yale Initiative takes a very historical approach to teaching Maggie and House on Mango Street together, which I can respect. I think putting to two texts under the umbrella of immigration can be an enlightening way to view both of their themes. However, when I think of incorporating Twelve Angry Men into the mix, it seems like a disservice to only talk about the historical context and commentary their contemporary time. The Yale unit is fully developed, but I naturally gravitate towards the idea of teaching each text as a way to get at the idea of literature for social change, not just for reading into the time period it was written in.

For my own unit, I would like to focus on larger themes that deal with human nature as a whole. Students are likely to be disinterested in texts if we tell them that they are historical pieces that can or should only be viewed in light of their historical surroundings. I want students to read these texts and identify themselves in the theme that each present: self-identity. Immigrants, upon moving to a new country or even neighborhood, are forced to rediscover themselves in relation to their surroundings. Students will find that they will always need to be doing this, whether in college, in a workplace setting, in a new neighborhood of their own. Knowing oneself, one's beliefs and experiences, can help a person discover how best they can contribute their skills to society. Issues of morality, perception (self or others'), justice, and assimilation are all at play in each of the three texts that I will be engaging with.  Hopefully, I will be able to tweak some of my previous activities, brainstorm new  and better ones, and help students understand the texts, the themes, and themselves in beneficial ways.

#similes in HOMS

Meme Ortiz's house: "Out front there are twenty-one steps, all lopsided and jutting like crooked teeth (made that way on purpose, Cathy said, so the rain will slide off)..."(22) #yourhouseneedsbraces #smilinggirl #homeisnofriend


Louis' cousin: "The nose of that yellow Cadillac was all pleated like an alligator's and except for a bloody lip and a bruised forehead, Louie's cousin was ok" (25).  #SeeYaLaterAlligator #InaWhileJuvenile #drivinglesson


Rosa Vargas' kids: "The kids...dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases you can't replace. They think its funny. They are without respect for all things living, including themselves" (29). #parentswhereyouat #comequick #bringsomeselfworth


Darius: "That one there. See that. That's God, Darius said. God? somebody little asked. God, he said, and made it simple" (34).  #discipledarius #OneNationUnderGod #andtherewaslight


"And what about the kind that looks like you combed its hair? Yes, those are clouds too" (36). #cloudsarepeopletoo #appreciatedifferences

12 Angry Men presentation ideas

I will deal with prompt B: helping students to read the play by “making connections to: personal events and situations”

Essential questions: How do human beings value one another? What does it mean to be part of a group? What is the “power of perception”?

GOAL: to have students appreciate people’s differences

Frontloading activity: Cliques in HS

1. Have students raise hands and name all the groups of social hierarchy in HS; I’ll list them on the board as they are named
   (jocks/athletes, nerd, musicians, loners, thespians, hipsters, rockers, geeks, emos, preps, etc.)
2. Have students list in their journal what group they think they fit into best; then have them list any other groups that they may fit into
3. Ask students: what makes someone a member of a group? What makes them stay in one group/ are there pressures associated with leaving a group?....class discussion

Then…kinesthetic survey

1. I will hand out “survey sheet” where students will list their name, their classmate’s name, and what it is they have in common
2. Students will then get up and go around the room filling in the sheet until they have found at least one thing in common with every classmate.
3. Talk about what we found/ have a few students share out….different threads of commonalities could include: appearance, family, home, life experiences, hobbies, interests, foods, cultures, goals, etc. But I will push them to think of other similarities that go below the surface of a person

Journal: write about one connection with a classmate that was unexpected or surprising to you. What was it, and most importantly, why is it important? Were you from different social groups? Better yet, did different social groups find something in common?

Acting Reflection & Frank's "Americans"

The acting class that we had this past week was good for getting the entire class comfortable with portraying emotions and acting out brief scenarios. The warm-up games that we played brought the class together and also gave us some ideas of what we might do as kinestetic mini-lessons or classroom community builders for our own future classrooms. Having us practice two-person tableaus, and then larger group tableaus, was a good way to get us comfortable with the concept and purpose of such an exercise. When it came time to construct the jurors for our whole class tableau, I liked how we took turns in pairs of who would act as a juror and who would position them. it seems more educational to have another person position you rather than you doing it on your own; that way we got feedback from the class and made sure that everyone had input in the final product. Remembering who each juror was sometimes difficult. Perhaps telling students to bring in props, or come up with a symbol for each juror could be an enhancement to the final picture.


While researching Robert Frank's book The Americans I found that his photos are not a  linear narrative, but rather his aim was to deal with larger themes in American society. As one source stated, "The Americans is constructed in four sections. Each begins with a picture of an American flag and proceeds with a rhythm based on the interplay between motion and stasis, the presence and absence of people, observers and those being observed" (National Gallery of Art). The website noted that " Frank reveals the politics, alienation, power, and injustice at play just beneath the surface of his adopted country."
It was interesting to research the photos and find these themes when looking at them. In my case, this research served as a "pre-reading" activity so that I could further understand what I was going to be looking at and why. I might employ a similar approach when having my students consider Frank's photography in light of Twelve Angry Men. I might have them research the most famous photos of his, and then have them write what themes they pick out in each and how they might relate to each other. Rather than just having students say that two photos both have an American flag in them, I would push them further to identify and think about the weight that the flag carries in relation to the people in the photos. 



Work Cited:
National Gallery of Art. http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/robert-frank/the-americans-1955-57.html

Twelve Angry Men #jobs

10th Juror: "You're just letting yourself get bulldozed by a bunch'a what d'ya call 'em- intellectuals."
#You'reSoBlueCollar



7th Juror: "Well, if that isn't the livin' end! What are you basing it on? Stories this guy made up. He oughta write for Amazing Detective Monthly. He'd make a fortune." #sarcasm #Joke'sOnYou #WritersAreActuallyAwesome



9th Juror:"...This is a quiet, frightened, insignificant old man who has been nothing all his life, who has never had recognition, his name in the newspapers....nobody seeks his advice after seventy-five years..." #JackofNoTrades #DoesHeEvenMatter?



2nd Juror: "Well, gee, I don't know. I remember I was arguing with the guy I work next to at the bank a couple of weeks ago; so he called me an idiot; so I yelled at him..." #dumbbankers #GoBacktoCountingMoney #NotPeoplePeople


10th Juror: "Did hear the scream. Didn't hear the scream. What's the difference? They're just little details. You're forgetting the important stuff." #perspective #ClearlyNoArchitect

12 Angry Men: characters

We do not find out who the jurors really are until they begin arguing with each other; the evidence and testimonies seems to bring it their true nature. We see how each juror reacts to the argument of the 8th juror, and this when we also get the most conflict between characters because we see all of their prejudged certainties and assumptions. 

As the first act progresses, we find out the occupations of the jurors, and we see that his has a lot to do with the way they see their world. As the 3rd juror points out, "You sat in court and heard the same things I did" (11). But just because each person heard the same words does not mean that they understood the same way. The 11th juror, who is clock maker with a German accent, said it perfectly: 

"Facts may be colored by the personalities of the people who resent them" (36). 

We find out about the pasts of some jurors and how those experiences have affected their perceptions. For example, the 3rd juror goes on a rant about "kids these days" and how they can't be trusted. His own prejudice stems from his experiences with his own son. He also works for a messenger service, "The Beck and Call Company," so his main profession is basically spreading rumors. The 8th juror is an architect, which means he must have a trained eye for looking at smaller elements and how they fit into a bigger picture. This explains why he was the first skeptic and the first one to look at the boy's past to understand how he is now. The clock maker must also have a similarly trained eye for detail, given that his occupation  requires the incorporation of small gears to work together in a larger machine. To students looking to move on to college after high school, this play and the themes of perceptions that it deals with in relation to occupations and personal skills may be particularly interesting to them; I could see some great activities and lessons stemming from this.  

Peer Interview w/ Steven

1.What were the main themes that you would want students to explore in Maggie?
1. I think the two main themes I would want students to explore are somebody or/vs nobody and sense of meaning. I feel that while the two are similar, they are different enough where if one was teaching it a compare and contrast paper could be done. Throughout the book Maggie considers her self a nobody and is striving to become a somebody. When she is taken to the play with Pete she wants to become the people she is surrounded by, but at the same time she is discussed by the way these "high class" people see "lower class" people. She then thinks about here sense  meaning and where she stand in the world. Meanwhile, she is also wondering if she really wants to be a somebody. 

2.What class activity helped you the most in understanding Maggie? 

2. The activity that helped me the most was comparing the book to the Emily Dickson poem. This was also the poem that I had to teach to the class. I feel like the activity opened up or showed me the theme of nobody vs somebody and how the characters in the novel view themselves as such. It made me go back and re-read some of the passages that I did not quite understand the first time around and helped me better understand certain themes in the novel. I then took those themes with me throughout the rest of the novel which help me better understand it as a whole. 

3. What is one activity you would do with film/pop culture in Maggie?/ How would you relate the characters to people today?

3.I could see myself using an old Frankenstein film because the book at least was published around the same time. I am not one-hundred percent sure on all the character, but I would have the students relate Maggie to the Monster himself. I would bring in the theme of nobody vs somebody and ask my students how the Monster and Maggie view themselves and how the students view them. Then I would most likely turn it into a compare and contrast paper. 

Wrapping up Maggie

I originally thought Maggie would have never been taught in a public school because it was so short and difficult to read (not to mention its content of prostitution and abuse): why would teachers even try to teach it? Between the "immigrant vernacular" and the obscure narration, the plot of the story was likely to get lost while a child was reading. But after exploring the main themes, I found some redeemable traits in the text. Point of view, symbolism, imagery, setting and characterization led us to see the value in a text that may have otherwise been boring, unrelatable, or difficult for students. But by focusing on the specifics in the text, we got at a bigger picture.
Through engaging students in both top-down methods and student-led discussions we can hope to teach the lessons that Maggie has to offer today's younger generation. When taught properly, the book can teach students that just because people are from a different time period does not mean that they are somehow different from us. Theatrics, appearances, and gossip are prized above anything else in the world of Maggie. Maggie teaches us what it means to start from nothing and fight in an environment where onlookers are all talk and no action.
That being said, a few essential questions for Maggie might be:
1. What does it mean to be a member of a community in this book?
2. Who is responsible for ensuring that children are raised well?/ What makes a successful parent?
4. How effective is irony and satire in stimulating change?
5. How does Darwinism fit into a social structure like Maggie's?

Symbolism at Maggie's end

If I were teaching Maggie in a classroom, I would definitely want students to delve deeper into the symbolism associated with Maggie's shoes at the end of the book; it's important not only in understanding the final scene but also the effect of Maggie's actions on her family (particularly her mother). It also says something about childhood in a society that has all these strange points of view being expressed. 

Maggie's mother immediately recalls Maggie's shoes from when she was a child upon hearing that her daughter is dead. She tells Jimmy to put them back on Maggie, and Jimmy responds like a cold-hearted observer and points out that they obviously won't fit anymore. I want students to see, first off, these two differing points of view and then hopefully have them realize that these shoes could possibly stand as symbols of childhood and innocence. They act as a vehicle for forgiveness because the mother wants to show Maggie's true nature, who she was as a child and how innocence and pure her daughter is on the inside. The condition of the shoes speaks to what childhood was like in those times, similar to Jacob Riis's photographs of poverty-stricken children in the street. But at the end of the book, the beat up pair of shoes representing Maggie's true character as perhaps a victim of uncontrollable circumstances like so many children were at the time. Maggie's mother feels guilty and sorry for the way Maggie was brought up and how she ended up; her mother takes responsibility for the life that Maggie was condemned to, which is what Steven Crane most likely wanted: for people to start caring about whats going on around them, not just observing. 

Hashtags for Maggie

Metaphor
"She vaguely tried to calculate the altitude of the pinnacle from which he must have looked down upon her" #HighandMighty #boysrule #jktheydrool

Metaphor
"Very infrequent tipsy men, swollen with the value of their opinions, engaged their companions in earnest and confidential conversation" #TheyThinkTheyreBetter #Narratorknowswhatsup

POV/Simile
"She began to see the bloom upon her cheeks as valuable"  #useitorloseit #werkit #blossomedinapuddle

Simile"The mother and son began to sway and struggle like alligators" #urbanjungle #TroubleAtTheWateringHole #MaggieandJimmiegotohell

Setting/Personification
"A chair or two and the table, stood uncertainly upon legs" #CleanTheCrimeScene #PeteTheHouseGuest #MakesMaggieWeak

Points of View in Maggie

Crane includes multiple points of view to show us the power of an outsider's perception. We get at least nine different spectators in the first chapter  , each with their own view of their environment. The book's third person narration even gives us a point of view to view the other points of view through. It acts as an objective outsider looking at the world, narrating it for us. It describes people by their physical attributes first; for example, Pete's character arrives on the scene, being introduced to us as "a lad of sixteen years" who boastfully saunters down the avenue. Jimmie's father is similarly introduced as "a man with sullen eyes." Interestingly enough, we are not given people's titles like "Jimmie's friend Pete" or "Jimmie's father." Rather, we get to know characters through their physical characteristics and actions; who they are is directly linked to what they do and how they interact in their environment (a very naturalistic phenomenon).  


Jimmie challenges this in chapter four while being a truck driver. After his father and brother died, "he menaced mankind at the intersection of streets" (19). He is becomes a truck driver and disregards any conventions in society that demand him to respect others. He purposefully picks fights, drives on sidewalks with no care whether he will hurt anyone; in summary, he thinks the world revolves around him, rather than being one working part in a functioning community. He doesn't care what people think of him, and picking fights and getting arrested don't seem to bother him either. Maggie, in contrast, is the quiet observer who lets the world act around her. Her chapter is interjected by one-word paragraphs that describe the two men's interactions in a clinical, matter-of-fact tone; for example, "He was telling tales to Jimmie" or "The two held a technical conversation." The outsider's point of view that Crane returns to in chapter five is meant to be ironic. We are observers of the "technical" conversation between the two men, which is really just a rant session of one man's stupidly selfish story about proving his strength to men that walk into his bar.

Entering History through Visual Culture

This painting, along with the text of Maggie, seems to depict the late 19cenury as a time that prized violence, or at least the spectacle of violence. In the baroque style of the painting, we are shown the true brutality of the act. The focal point of the piece is the white man wearing green shorts with a red, bloodied face. The black man is heaving all his force into taking down the other fighter, showing a superior athleticism that has the crowd on their feet craning their necks to see the show. But there are also two men about to enter the ring to seemingly break up the fight that has been escalating.

Students will most likely pick up on the shared physicality of the text and painting. They may also not that in a time when poverty is rampant, the sport of boxing brings people of all backgrounds and classes together. Taking both of these themes and putting them together in relation to Maggie might help students understand why Maggie’s family does not talk about the abuse but allows it to continue. I would have students consider the role of the onlooker; maybe they could form a text-to-self connection between who they might be in the painting: a member of the crowd, the man jumping into the ring to break up the fight, or one of the two fighters. They could even do the same thing with characters in Maggie; who would the father be in this painting? Or where would the old woman fit into this painting? Shock seems to be another theme that could be explored. Are audience members shocked by who is winning the fight?  We could also tie in race and see how this violent culture that is at times filled with bystanders deals with racial tensions, if it does at all.

Maggie and Jago: Teaching Classics

Jago notes in his few pages that the classics are worth teaching because they help readers wrestle with some of the most complex of human conditions. She also says that we need to stop kidding our students; we need to be real with them and tell them that not all reading is going to be easy. Struggling is part of education. It is also what makes the classics worth reading. Its all about finding connections between people from the past and relating to people in the present. What makes these people who they are, and why should we care about them?


The language of Maggie is not particularly difficult to comprehend, but the time jumps and setting changes may pose the most difficulty for readers. There are a lot of characters introduced in the first few chapters that may be hard to keep straight. From the very beginning we have to sort characters into "good" and "bad" during the street-fighting scene. We have to know who is punching who and what happens to them. Having students outline characters and their key characteristics may help students get their footing in preparation for the rest of the text. It would  be interesting to have them focus on the family dynamics in particular; the old woman's comment at the end of chapter II of "who's beating who now" tells a lot about the home environment and who's living there.A family tree could serve this purpose. Have students outline who is in the immediate family, who is an outsider of the family, and then examine each character's role in the functioning of the dysfunctional family unit.


In relation to the family dynamics, we should also ask students what they know about Maggie right now. How is she portrayed in the beginning? What does her  role in the family shenanigans say about her character? After all, the book shares her name; why might that be? All these questions could help students understand the characters' actions so far and reflect on their own family dynamics and what it means to be a family.

Cookie Monster morals

Cookie monster first plans to control his impulses, but then he began seeing what he wanted to see (things as only cookies-sheriff's star, stop sight-signs of authority that ensure that the community runs smoothly). Why didn't he read the stop sign and think, "I should STOP myself from eating that stop-sign-shaped cookie"? It goes back to interpretations and what those interpretations mean for an individual in a community.
All interpretations are valuable, but they are not necessarily deserving of the same value. Sometimes it's more conducive to the community that an individual's interpretation match another individuals interpretation; it ensures that the right morals and ideals are preserved. Cookie Monster worked hard to make such delicious cookies to bring to the cookie contest. He used his talents in an efficient way, creating a beautiful product that could be shared, but then he lost them, or rather self-destructed them, and could no longer contribute his best to society. Cookie Monster, and those that interpret meanings for themselves outside the context of a community, may find themselves with no cookies left at the end of the day. As teachers, it is our job to ensure that students think for themselves but still ultimately arrive at the most conducive interpretations of texts so that meaning does not get lost and society still functions on proper morals.