STEREOTYPES AND

English 11B
AMERICAN BEAUTY Unit 4
Lesson 2
 AGENDA

Unit Overview

U4 Portfolio -
Slam Poetry Instructions

Stereotypes

American Beauty

Unit Test Essay Questions

 UNIT 4 - THREE WEEKS

WEEK 1:
Monday 4/27 Lesson 1
Thursday 4/29 “Mortals” Quiz
WEEK 2:
Tuesday 5/4 Rough Draft
Thursday 5/6 Memoirs Quiz
Friday 5/7 American Beauty Quiz
WEEK 3:
Tuesday 5/11 Unit Test (Essay question prep today)
Thursday 5/13 Final Draft (Slam Poetry today)
Study Guides [LINK]
You need to know about the Weekly Notes!!! [LINK]
 THE UNIT 4 PORTFOLIO

Rough Draft - Tuesday 5/4 Final Draft - Thursday 5/13

Ms. Cuevas, Mrs. Lopez-Fuentes and Mrs. Workman are not

requiring the Unit 4 Portfolio!

Two options:

Personal Narrative [LINK]

Slam Poetry [LINK]

 SLAM POETRY

Instructions [LINK]

◼ Your topic should not be something that will offend

or hurt any particular person or a group of people.
◼ You should have a clear message about your topic (theme)
that you wish to share with the audience.
◼ The rough draft outline contains optional activities to help you
write your poem.
What is required?
Video: Chris Loos “Disorder” (3:40)
What beliefs about ADHD does Loos challenge?
 CONTEMPORARY POSTMODERNISM

◼ Much like a kaleidoscope, America is a country full of depth and color.

◼ The contemporary postmodernist literary movement embraced the

cultural diversity of Americans and advanced different writing genres
such as memoirs, metafiction, nonfiction novels, and nontraditional
poetry. 1970’s through the 2000’s
 STEREOTYPES

Stereotypes: overgeneralized beliefs we have

about a group of people
Prejudice: negative assessments of those groups

Video: Stereotypes About Americans (2:45)

Listen for both positive and negative stereotypes.

What stereotypes did

you hear?

“Just a Girl” lyrics [LINK]

STEREOTYPES

◼ On the Padlet, please

write down one
stereotype you have
heard about yourself or
someone close to you.
[LINK]

◼ After I read the

responses, please
comment under the
posts how you think a
person would feel if they
were stereotyped in this
manner.
 STEREOTYPES

How can we dismantle stereotypes?

Video: “What Would You Do?”

Pay attention to how many

different groups of people
are stereotyped in the video.

What is Dewey’s advice at the

end of the video?

Let’s revisit our Padlet.

 UNIT 4 TEST ESSAY QUESTION

(16 points)

Explain the impact of female writers during the

Postmodernist literary period. Using the stories I Want
to Be Miss America and The Struggle to Be an
All-American Girl, explain how stereotypes were
discussed in literature during this time period. Use two
examples from either of the stories to support your
response.

Use Page 4 on this study guide to start writing your answer

to this question. [LINK]
 JULIA ALVAREZ

“That’s still the ongoing question in the United States, of people

coming into this country with a whole different culture and
expectations. How do they honor both sides of who they are and
who they are becoming?” ~Julia Alvarez

● Moved to NY with her

family in 1960
● Ten years old
● Dominican Republic National Medal of Arts 2014
 PASSAGE ANALYSIS

Although we wanted to look Title: “I Want to Be Miss

like we belonged here, the America”

four sisters, our looks didn’t Author: Julia Alvarez

seem to fit in. We complained Mood:
about how short we were,
about how our hair frizzed, Important Images:

how our figures didn’t curve Author’s Purpose:

like like those of the bathing Theme:
beauties we’d seen on TV.
What does this passage
say about stereotypes?

Story [LINK]
ELIZABETH WONG

◼ Born in 1958 in Los

Angeles

◼ “The Struggle to Be an
All-American Girl” was
published in the LA Times
in 1996

◼ Award-winning
playwright
 PASSAGE ANALYSIS

Title: “The Struggle to Be an

The language was a source of All-American Girl”
embarrassment. More times
Author: Elizabeth Wong
than not, I had tried to distance
Mood:
myself from the nagging loud
voice that followed me Important Images:
wherever I wandered in the Author’s Purpose:
nearby American supermarket
Theme:
outside Chinatown. The voice
belonged to my grandmother. What does this passage say
about stereotypes?
(241)
Story [LINK]
 CONCLUSION

I thought of myself as multicultural. I preferred tacos to egg

rolls; I enjoyed Cinco de Mayo more than Chinese New Year.

At last, I was one of you; I wasn’t one of them.

Sadly, I still am.

“The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl” (242)

PARTING THOUGHTS