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.