Lesson Plan Activities:
a. What makes a good friend?
b. Which of these qualities does this song highlight?
1. Quick Summary: Compare friendships in “House on Mango Street” to friendships often idealized in society, like those highlighted in the song:
a. Is this a realistic portrayal?
b. Are these true friendships?
2. Circuit Popcorn Activity: As an entire class, popcorn the excerpt from 'The Circuit'. Compare this type of friendship to those relationships in Cisneros' life.
a. Which type of friendship is better?
b. Why are these relationships so dysfunctional?
c. How do your friendships influence your identity?
3. Realistic Vows: Rewrite the wedding vows to become friendship vows. Have students think about the their friendships. Purpose the following questions:
What would you want to commit to? What would you expect?
Be funny, be creative, be yourself. These should be unique to you.
They must be at least a half page long!
Have students write in quiet, then ask for a few volunteers to read their work. This is the exit slip at the door. Be sure to give let students know periodically how much time they have left to finish this assignment (ten minutes, five minutes, etc).
Implications:
In this case, the media clip is not the center of the lesson, but rather a stepping off point for discussion. Students are able to generate a working definition of a 'good friend' based on what is higlighted in this song and their personal experiences. When the lesson progresses to deaper reading ("The Circuit" excerpt), students are still able to discuss friendships in this reading based on their discoveries from the music clip. Ultimately, this use of media scaffolds, or builds, the students' understandings; this allows them to tackle more complicated texts with a level of ease that would have otherwise been missing from this lesson.
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