Congratulations on accessing this web site, and thanks for your interest!

Your children will be reading The House On Mango Street for the next week as part of their English 1 class. They will have nightly reading assignments of about 25 pages in length. This book is extremely "readable"…students love it because of the honest and open way in which it is written. The narrator is a young Mexican girl living in Chicago. She describes her life in short, "slice of life" stories that remind you of reading someone’s diary.

Students have all been issued books, and should be bringing these home every night. They are required to write in their Reflective Journal every night (I’ll be giving them topics on which to write). For example, they will be asked to write about their names…so they may be asking you why you chose their name, where it came from, etc. Thanks for your help! (If you’re interested in more information, click on the link "Trace The Origin Of Your Surname" and it’ll help).

They will also be creating their own book cover and writing 2 short stories. The title of their book will be "The House On (fill in your street name) Street". They may draw an illustration of your house, or they may take a picture of your house for their book cover. So, if they ask for the camera you'll know why!!! For their stories, they can write about their neighborhood or their families. If they’re asking about details of

your family’s history, please help jog their memories!

We’ll be spending 2 days in the computer lab looking at web sites related to this unit.

Use these links as references if you or your children are interested in further info:

UCLA Chicana Studies (profiles of Chicanas, Latinas, organizations, folklore,etc.)

Hispanic Online (America Online’s center for Latino issues and interests)

Women On The Verge (profiles of four contemporary Latina writers)

The Cultural Gazette (an example of a high school writing project)

After we finish our first week of reading, discussion, and activities I hope to have time to move into other projects related to The House On Mango Street. These many include designing and printing our own cultural newsletter, enjoying the talents of class members who sing or dance, establishing a pen pal network, or directing and producing skits for videotaping. I’ll keep you informed.

As always, I appreciate your interest and your help. If you’d like more information or have questions, you may email me:

smokeyandellie@hotmail.com