Neva McConnaughey

ENGL 381
3/19/12
Demo Lesson

Title: Of House and Home (Part 1)

Abstract: This lesson serves as an introduction to the book The House on Mango Street.

Overview

This lesson is intended to illustrate how surroundings and a sense of place affect who we
are, and who we become. The House on Mango Street is a story in which a young girl
discusses the different houses on different streets that her family has moved to. Students will be
able to relate to the story differently, depending on where theyve lived. They will draw a map of
the place they currently live, which could comprise their cul de sac, the distance between a house
and school, or the entire town. Drawing the map after the story helps them think of the subtly
important places and things they encounter daily, like the library they visit every Tuesday or a
Thai restaurant they pass by but havent been to. This activity should inspire them to consider the
impact these things have on them individually.

Beginning:
Start the conversation with a reference to Pixars film Up. Discuss the importance of
the house in the film as a primer for The House on Mango Street. Show a video clip to
illustrate the point. This should take around 5 minutes.
Introduce the first chapter of the book. One copy will be handed to each student, and they
will be given 5-10 minutes to read it.

Middle:
Talk about the chapter briefly, as a class. The following questions will be used to guide
the discussion:
Why do you think a real house is so important to Esperanza?
What is the difference between a house and a home?
Ask student to draw a map of where they live, with no other guidelines than that. Show
your example map and mention a few specific things about it. Students will have around
10 minutes to complete this task.

End:
When they are finished, ask a few people to show off their finished maps and talk about
why they included certain things. The following questions will be used to guide the
discussion about what makes these places home to us.
What is so important or significant about these places that you would
include them in your map?
When you look at your map as a whole, what makes THIS place home
to you?
Grade Level: 10th grade

Lesson Type: Demo Lesson

Estimated time: 45 Minutes

Standards:
Common Core Standard 2 under Reading Standards for Literature
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its
development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is
shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the
text.

Student Objectives:
Goals:
Discuss home versus house, and explore what it means to the idea
of place.

Objectives:
Determine the central idea of a text
Make connections to real world examples