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a black leather mother buys him gift certificate to use for buying one
jacket. an ugly vinyl
jacket. article of clothing. If possible, have
students look through clothing
Meet the Author
M catalogs to find and discuss items
G
Gary Soto writes poetry, fiction, they would and would not choose.
aand nonfiction. Soto was born in Have students tell why they prefer
1
1952 in Fresno, California, to a
certain styles. If it is not possible for
M
Mexican-American family. The family
sstruggled to make ends meet when he them to look at catalogs, simply have
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was growing up. There were times when students describe clothing styles they
SSoto had to wear cardboard in his shoes
7+;/+<
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today he is best known for his writing for young people. 245+
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THE JACKET 

Words in Use KEY TERMS

30/07 11:09:27 AM MEMOIR, 263
Preview Selection Teaching AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL, 263
Vocabulary Words Words POETRY, 263
vinyl, 265 profile, 265 eyewitness, 263 SEQUENCE OF EVENTS, 263
swoop, 266 terrorist, 266 significant, 263 PLOT, 263
vicious, 268 gagged, 268 unfortunate, TONE, 265
mope, 268 eagerly, 268 269 CLUSTER CHART, 265
inclusion, 269 NARRATOR, 265
indicate, 269 SENSORY DETAIL, 265
CHARACTER, 265

THE JACKET 263

0258-0283_Lit3eG6_U03_ATE.indd 263 7/8/09 2:40:42 PM

 ::6C
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Teach the Model 

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Summary !

Gary Soto tells a story from his own

,)%'/)8
youth. He recalls his enthusiasm for
getting a new jacket when he outgrew
his old one. Soto’s vision of the perfect
jacket was a black leather biker’s-style
jacket. Unfortunately, his mother had
different ideas. She surprised him with
an avocado-colored jacket with a
mustard yellow lining. Soto was
embarrassed to wear the jacket but
had no choice. In this humorous
memoir, he recounts the mishaps and
misfortunes of his middle school years, 78%6)(%8
all of which he blames on the fact that
he had to wear what he considered a 8,).%'/)8,
less-than-fashionable jacket.
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W The Mirrors )2)1=,
IRRORS & Windows
W INDOWS questions at 8,-2/-2+
the end of
the story focus on the theme of
remembrance. Before they begin
&%(8,-2+7
reading, ask students to think
about their past. Are there
decisions that they would change,
knowing what they now know?

More by This Author

Students who like “The Jacket” might
enjoy other stories by Soto. Examples
include Taking Sides and Baseball in
April and Other Stories.

A Memoir by Gary Soto



Program Resources 0258-0283_Lit3eG

Planning and Assessment Meeting the Standards

Program Planning Guide, Selection Lesson Plan Nonfiction: Unit 3, Reading Model, pp. 19–27
E-Lesson Planner
Assessment Guide, Lesson Test
ExamView
Technology Tools
Interactive Student Text on CD
Visual Teaching Package
Quiz
Audio Library
Mirrors
&
Windows

mirrorsandwindows.com

264 UNIT 3 NONFICTION

0258-0283_Lit3eG6_U03_ATE.indd 264 7/8/09 2:40:46 PM

 Teach the Model
='038,)7,%:)*%-0)(1)I remember the green "

coat that I wore in fifth and sixth grades when you either danced like Analyze Literature
3'1>?+
/9+7'9:7+
a champ or pressed yourself against a greasy wall, bitter as a penny +24/7
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Autobiography Explain that an
toward the happy couples. @3/A
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When I needed a new jacket and my mother asked what kind I person’s life written by the person.
wanted, I described something like bikers wear: black leather and The writer tells about events and
silver studs with enough belts to hold down a small town. We were situations that will be interesting to
in the kitchen, steam on the windows from her cooking. She listened readers. Have students brainstorm
so long while stirring dinner that I thought she understood for sure other experiences fifth and sixth
the kind I wanted. The next day when I got home from school, I graders have that might be interesting
discovered draped on my bedpost a jacket the color of day-old to retell in an autobiography.
guacamole. I threw my books on the bed and approached the jacket
slowly, as if it were a stranger whose hand I had to shake. I touched Analyze Literature
the vinyl sleeve, the collar, and peeked at the mustard-colored ;/@3>1
O©¼¶GJE
adj.
>9?12
Memoir Answer: It is written from
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lining. the first-person point of view. The use
From the kitchen mother yelled that my jacket was in the closet. of the pronouns I, we, my, and so on
I closed the door to her voice and pulled at the rack of clothes in the show that the memoir is written in the
closet, hoping the jacket on the bedpost wasn’t for me but my mean first person. A
brother. No luck. I gave up. From my bed, I stared at the jacket. I
wanted to cry because it was so ugly and so big that I knew I’d have Use Reading Strategies
to wear it a long time. I was a small kid, thin as a young tree, and it Visualize Answer: Details include
would be years before I’d have a new one. I stared at the jacket, like “color of day-old guacamole,”
an enemy, thinking bad things before I took off my old jacket whose “vinyl sleeve,” and “mustard-colored
sleeves climbed halfway to my elbow. lining.” B
I put the big jacket on. I zipped it up and down several times, "

and rolled the cuffs up so they didn’t cover my hands. I put my "8+
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hands in the pockets and flapped the jacket like a bird’s wings. I ./>+36=
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stood in front of the mirror, full face, then profile, and then looked /@95/
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you read aloud the first page. Tell
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over my shoulder as if someone had called me. I sat on the bed, B them to close their eyes and picture in
stood against the bed, and combed my hair to see what I would look their minds what you are reading.
like doing something natural. I looked ugly. I threw it on my Then ask students to open their eyes
brother’s bed and looked at it for a long time before I slipped it on and describe the main events they
and went out to the backyard, smiling a “thank you” to my mom as I visualized. Finally, have them record
passed her in the kitchen. With my hands in my pockets I kicked a in sketches and/or words events that
ball against the fence, and then climbed it to sit looking into the have happened so far in the story. As
alley. I hurled orange peels at the mouth of an open garbage can and students read on, continue to have
when the peels were gone I watched the white puffs of my breath them add notes on what they
thin to nothing. visualize.


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THE JACKET 

30/07 11:09:28 AM Differentiated Instruction

0258-0283_Lit3eG06_U03.indd 265 11/30/07 11:09:30 AM

Reading Proficiency English Language Learning

Be sure students understand the beginning of the
story. Use a reader’s theater approach with students
working in pairs. Have one student play the role of
the mother and the other of the boy. Ask pairs to
act out the events that happen on the first page.
Read aloud the description of the jacket. Have
students draw the jacket and use colored markers or
pencils to color it as described in the selection. Then
write the words jacket, sleeve, collar, and lining on
the board. Have students use these words to write
titles and captions for their drawings.

THE JACKET 265

0258-0283_Lit3eG6_U03_ATE.indd 265 7/8/09 2:40:48 PM

 Teach the Model
Use Reading Strategies
Visualize Tell students that as they
visualize what is happening in a story,
one thing they can picture is the
expression on the character’s face.
Model by reading aloud the sentences
telling about Brownie ripping the
jacket. Look surprised and horrified
when you tell about the rip. Look
depressed as you tell about sitting on
the bed with the ripped jacket. Reread
the other incidents in the middle of
the story. Have students imitate the
facial expressions they visualize. A
Analyze Literature
Tone Answer: The writer uses an
informal, humorous tone. For example,
he exaggerates the danger of Frankie
T. by calling him a terrorist. He also
lists the offense of his best friend,
Steve Negrete, as eating an apple
while looking at him, which is clearly
an innocent action that is taken as
offensive by the hypersensitive
narrator. B
Use Reading Skills
Identify Sequence of Events
Suggest that students use their story
strip to keep track of events in the
story. Which events are important
enough to include? Which events can
be left out?
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B played kickball in a thin shirt, my arms feeling like Braille from
I jumped down, hands in
my pockets, and in the
backyard on my knees I
teased my dog, Brownie, by
swooping my arms while
making bird calls. He jumped
at me and missed. He jumped
again and again, until a tooth
sunk deep, ripping an L-
shaped tear on my left sleeve.
I pushed Brownie away to
study the tear as I would a cut
on my arm. There was no
of fuzz. Dumb dog, I thought,
and pushed him away hard
when he tried to bite again. I
got up from my knees and
went to my bedroom to sit
with my jacket on my lap,
with the lights out.
That was the first afternoon with my new jacket. The next day I
wore it to sixth grade and got a D on a math quiz. During the
morning recess Frankie T., the playground terrorist, pushed me to
the ground and told me to stay there until recess was over. My best
friend, Steve Negrete, ate an apple while looking at me, and the girls
turned away to whisper on the monkey bars. The teachers were no
help: they looked my way and talked about how foolish I looked in
my new jacket. I saw their heads bob with laughter, their hands
half-covering their mouths.
Even though it was cold, I took off the jacket during lunch and
goose bumps. But when I returned to class I slipped the jacket on
and shivered until I was warm. I sat on my hands, heating them up,
while my teeth chattered like a cup of crooked dice. Finally warm, I
slid out of the jacket but a few minutes later put it back on when the
fire bell rang. We paraded out into the yard where we, the
sixth graders, walked past all the other grades to stand against the
back fence. Everybody saw me. Although they didn’t say out loud,


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 NONFICTION

Differentiated Instruction
0258-0283_Lit3eG06_U03.indd 266 11/30/07 11:09:31 AM 0258-0283_Lit3eG

English Language Learning Enrichment

List on the board any verbs you think may be
unfamiliar to students. For example, you may
include whisper, bob, shiver, chatter, and parade.
Act out each word and discuss its meaning. Use the
word in a sentence. Then have students make up a
sentence using each word. Have them act out the
meaning as they share their sentence with the class.
Ask students to work in pairs. Have one student in
each pair role-play being Gary Soto as a sixth grader
and the other role-play being a guidance counselor,
teacher, principal, or other person who is good at
advising young people. Tell Gary to explain his
problems to the counselor. Ask the counselor to give
Gary advice.

266 UNIT 3 NONFICTION

0258-0283_Lit3eG6_U03_ATE.indd 266 7/8/09 2:40:50 PM

 Teach the Model
“Man, that’s ugly,” I heard the buzz-buzz of gossip and even laughter
that I knew was meant for me. Make Connections
And so I went, in my guacamole-colored jacket. So embarrassed, Answer: Answers will vary. A possible
so hurt, I couldn’t even do my homework. I received Cs on quizzes, answer might be that the student
and forgot the state capitals and the rivers of South America, our "
 feels sorry for the narrator because he
friendly neighbor. Even the girls who had been friendly blew away '0+
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I wore that thing for three years until the sleeves grew short and 8+<<+>9<
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my forearms stuck out like the necks of turtles. All during that time Analyze Literature
no love came to me—no little dark girl in a Sunday dress she wore Characterization Ask students:
on Monday. At lunchtime I stayed with the ugly boys who leaned “Gary says his mother was cheap. Do
against the chainlink fence and looked around with propellers of you think that was true? Why do you
grass spinning in our mouths. We saw girls walk by alone, saw
couples, hand in hand, their heads like bookends pressing air &0%1)8,%8 think Mrs. Soto bought the jacket?”
Have students discuss other details
together. We saw them and spun our propellers so fast our faces .%'/)8*36 from the story that relate to his
were blurs. growing up poor. D
I blame that jacket for those bad years. I blame my mother for 8,37)&%(
D
her bad taste and her cheap ways. It was a sad time for the heart.
=)%67 Analyze Literature
With a friend I spent my sixth-grade year in a tree in the alley, Hyperbole Explain that when a writer
waiting for something good to happen to me in that jacket, which E wildly exaggerates something on
had become the ugly brother who tagged along wherever I went. purpose, he or she is using hyperbole.
And it was about that time that I began to grow. My chest puffed up Say: “When Soto says he spent his sixth
with muscle and, strangely, a few more ribs. Even my hands, those grade year in a tree in the alley with a
fleshy hammers, showed bravely through the cuffs, the fingers friend, do you think he really stayed
already hardening for the coming fights. But that L-shaped rip on the there the entire year? How does this
left sleeve got bigger, bits of stuffing coughed out from its wound statement affect the tone of the
after a hard day of play. I finally Scotch-taped it closed, but in rain
writing?” Have students find other
or cold weather the tape peeled off like a scab and more stuffing fell
examples of hyperbole in the
out until that sleeve shriveled into a palsied
arm. That winter the
"
 memoir. E
elbows began to crack and whole chunks of green began to fall off.
"8+
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stove with steamed-up glasses, and she said that there were children 37+1/=
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in Mexico who would love that jacket. I told her that this was describe the way the jacket looks now
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America and yelled that Debbie, my sister, didn’t have a jacket like
include: “stuffing coughed out from its
mine. I ran outside, ready to cry, and climbed the tree by the alley to
wound,” “Scotch-taped,” “tape peeled
think bad thoughts and watch my breath puff white and disappear.
off like a scab,” and “sleeve shriveled


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THE JACKET 

30/07 11:09:31 AM Writing Skills

0258-0283_Lit3eG06_U03.indd 267 11/30/07 11:09:33 AM

Description that use comparison. Then ask students to write

Tell students, “I am really enjoying Soto’s writing. their own description of a piece of clothing they
One reason is because he does such a good job of strongly like or dislike. Ask them to tell about size,
describing things. I like when he says his jacket was color, texture, and decorations. Encourage them to
the color of day-old guacamole. I can just picture an use comparisons in describing.
ugly gray-green color.” Ask students to point out
descriptions in the piece that they like. Point out the
comparisons Soto makes, such as “he was as thin as
a young tree.” Have students find other descriptions

THE JACKET 267

0258-0283_Lit3eG6_U03_ATE.indd 267 7/8/09 2:40:52 PM

 Teach the Model
Use Reading Skills
Identify Cause and Effect Point out
that Soto thought he was unpopular
because of his ugly jacket. Ask: “Do
you think that is the real reason he
was unpopular? For what other reasons
might a person feel unpopular?” Point
out that there can be many reasons.
Have the class collaborate on a cause-
and-effect chart brainstorming some
reasons a middle school student might
not feel popular.

Analyze Literature
Memoir Answer: Students may say
the tone has grown more accepting or
less angry. A
But whole pieces still casually flew off my jacket when I played
;/@)/4:8
OB¼¶LAL
adj.
hard, read quietly, or took vicious spelling tests at school. When it


W You may -<?/6
03/<-/
became so spotted that my brother began to call me “camouflage,”
IRRORS want to ask I flung it over the fence into the alley. Later, however, I swiped the
W INDOWS students to jacket off the ground and went inside to drape it across my lap and
write a 245+
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,/
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mope.
journal entry or quick write, or 38
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I was called to dinner: steam silvered my mother’s glasses as she
divide students into discussion said grace; my brother and sister with their heads bowed made ugly
groups or lead a whole-class faces at their glasses of powdered milk. I gagged too, but eagerly ate
discussion about this question.
Answer: Answers will vary.
Students may have experienced
something that would have
totally changed their lives if it
had gone differently. The
reasons for this might include
that we are often faced by
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A jacket, that green ugly brother who breathed over my shoulder that
big rips of buttered tortilla that held scooped-up beans. Finished, I
went outside with my jacket across my arm. It was a cold sky. The
faces of clouds were piled up, hurting. I climbed the fence, jumping
down with a grunt. I started up the alley and soon slipped into my
day and ever since. 


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TEACHING NOTE
Differentiated Instruction Ask the Author 0258-0283_Lit3eG

Divide the class into small groups. Have each

Reading Proficiency
Have students review their completed story strips.
Explain that the strips show details from the story.
To be sure students have the big picture, help them
create a statement of the main idea of the memoir
based on the story details they have recorded.
group brainstorm and list some questions they
would like to ask Gary Soto. Have each group
pass its questions to another group, which will
then pretend to be the author and answer in the
way they think Soto would. Have groups
share some of the questions and answers
with the class. Model a question: “What
other clothing item have you owned
that deeply affected your life?”

268 UNIT 3 NONFICTION

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Rubrics for Writing Options
30/07 11:09:33 AM 0258-0283_Lit3eG06_U03.indd 269
You can adapt this as a checklist for students to
use as they write.
Creative Writing
N Is the diary clearly written from the perspective
of a sixth grade boy?
N Does the diary entry clearly set out the writer’s
feelings about getting rid of his old jacket and
buying a new one?
N Does the diary entry include original examples
of colorful language and hyperbole?
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THE JACKET
Expository Writing
11/30/07 11:09:37 AM
N Does the paragraph indicate a grasp of how
Soto’s tone reveals his feelings?
N Does the paragraph give examples of how Soto
creates the humorous tone?
N Does the paragraph indicate that the narrator’s
feelings may have changed over time?
Review the Model
Find Meaning
1. (a) He wants a jacket like a biker’s,
black with lots of studs and belts.
(b) The narrator thinks the jacket is
ugly and not at all like the biker’s
jacket he wanted.
2. (a) Answers may include he got Cs
and Ds on quizzes, was bullied and
stared at, and could not do his
jacket caused any of these things.
Make Judgments
3. (a) The narrator is unhappy
about his jacket but does not feel he
can complain. He takes out his
unhappiness on his dog. (b) Teasing
Brownie made things worse because
the dog tore a hole in the jacket.
4. Answers will vary. Students may
infer that he does not want to hurt
her feelings or that he knows she
can’t replace the jacket.
5. The narrator still does not like his
jacket and sometimes tries to go
without it, but he has accepted the
fact that it is in his life.
Analyze Literature
Memoir Answer: Student charts may
include examples of Soto’s use of
exaggeration and sensory details that
add to the humorous tone, such as
describing the color of the jacket as
like “day-old guacamole.”

Program Resources
For further instruction, refer
students to the following extension
activity: Collaborative Learning:
Compare Opinions, Exceeding the
Standards: Extension Activities, p. 8.
THE JACKET 269
7/8/09 2:40:57 PM