House on Mango Street Close Reading - "Minerva Writes Poems"

Prepare students in the classroom and in distance learning contexts to critically analyze texts at the high school level with this close reading of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (the vignette titled “Minerva Writes Poems”). This assessment promotes high-order thinking that is consistent with high school English Language Arts standards. The variety of question types will also help prepare students for standardized testing scenarios: main idea questions, detail questions, author’s craft questions, and more. Copyright restrictions do not allow for the novel’s content to be included, so the purchaser is responsible for providing students with the text. The resource will be delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.

This resource may serve as the basis for small-group discussions. Through these discussions, students decode language and pose/respond to questions relating to plot, broad topics, and character development, demonstrating an ability to analyze how complex characters transform and advance the plot and themes by applying logic and citing compelling, meaningful textual evidence. They will also evaluate their peers’ reasoning and use of rhetoric to advance claims, clarifying or challenging unclear ideas. Using this resource for structured guidance, students, ultimately, will present information, conclusions, and supporting textual evidence clearly, concisely, and appropriately, thereby helping their peers comprehend their thinking.

By completing this exercise, students will:

• Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
• Cite textual evidence in support of claims
• Write with clarity and precision
• Apply knowledge of various literary devices including situational irony and oxymoron
• Apply basic knowledge of Roman mythology to the character of Minerva to discern and explain the irony of the character’s name
• Articulate the significance of the pancake dinner detail, taking into consideration Minerva’s financial distress
• Analyze what Minerva’s behavior reveals about her psychological state
• Make logical inferences about characterization in context
• Analyze the author’s craft, articulating the intended effect of figurative language
• Identify and explain an example of double denotation in the text
• Discern the tone of a given excerpt
• Analyze how Minerva influences Esperanza’s outlook on her future