Module 3A - Unit 1, Lesson 6:

Introducing The Lost Garden and Finding Evidence of

Laurence Yeps Perspective on What Its like to Fit into
Another Culture on Pages 6667 of Dragonwings

What are our learning

targets for Lesson 6?
I can find the gist of the opening excerpt from Yeps
autobiography The Lost Garden.
I can identify details that affected Laurence Yeps
perspective on what its like to fit into another
culture.
I can infer how those details affected Laurence
Yeps perspective on what its like to fit into
another culture.
I can identify evidence of Laurence Yeps
perspective on what its like to fit into another
culture in Dragonwings.

Think-Pair-Share

What is an
autobiography?
Think

Pair

Share

An autobiography is
the story of
someones life
written by him or
herself. Auto means
self, and biography
means life story.

Think-Pair-Share

What does
culture mean?
Think

Pair

Share

Culture is the way a

group of people
does things, based
on that groups
beliefs, attitudes,
ideas, and actions.

Think-Pair-Share

What does
perspective
mean?

Think

Pair

Share

It means how you

see something,
based on your
background and
your previous
experiences.

Take a look at
your Opening
Excerpt of The
Lost Garden.
Follow along as I
read it aloud.

Something else happened

instead. Almost everyone I
knew whether they were
white, yellow, or black
came from a single
background. They were cut
from one pattern of cloth.
However, I was a bunch of
different pieces that had
been dumped together in a

I was the Chinese American

raised in a black
neighborhood, a child who
had been too American to fit
into Chinatown and too
Chinese to fit in elsewhere. I
was the clumsy son of the
athletic family, the grandson
of a Chinese grandmother
who spoke more of West

When I wrote, I went from being a

puzzle to a puzzle solver. I could
reach into the box of rags that was
my soul and begin stitching them
together. Moreover, I could try out
different combinations to see which
one pleased me the most. I could
take these different elements, each
of which belonged to something
else, and dip them into my
imagination where they were
melted down and cast into new
shapes so that they became

The first advice a beginning writer gets

is to write about what you know; but that
doesnt mean that the subject has to be
in the same form you saw it. My first
science-fiction novel, Sweetwater, grew
out of my memory of our living room in
the Pearl Apartments. One day, as the
light was rippling over the ceiling the
way light reflects from the surface of a
pool, I began to imagine what it would be
like if the streets outside our apartment
had been flooded - along with the rest of
San Francisco.

My father, the kitemaker,

became Windrider in
Dragonwings. As I said, he had
come to America at the age of
ten but he did not like to talk
much about the tough time he
had had adjusting to life here.
Writing Dragonwings was a way
of stepping into his shoes.

Think-Pair-Share
What do you learn
about Lawrence Yep in
the Opening Excerpt?
Think

Pair

Share

Now, take a look

at your Gathering
Evidence of Yeps
Perspective
graphic
organizer:

With your triad,

complete the
second column of
the graphic
organizer. You have
10 minutes.
End

Take a look at the

third column of
your graphic
organizer.

Think-Pair-Share

What does it
mean to fit into
another
culture?
Think

Pair

Share

To fit into another

culture means you
are familiar with the
way things are and
the way they work
and you feel people
accept you and you
belong there.

With your triad,

complete the third
column of the
graphic organizer.
You have 10
minutes.
End

Turn to page 66 in
your copy of
Dragonwings.
Silently read from
The first time we
went out to
until the knuckles of
my hands were

With your triad,

complete the
fourth column of
the graphic
organizer. You have
the rest of class to
finish.