House on Mango Street Close Reading - "Edna's Ruthie"

Support the development of high school close reading skills with this set of analysis questions for The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros with emphasis on the vignette titled “Edna’s Ruthie.” The variety of question types also helps students prepare for standardized testing scenarios: main idea questions, detail questions, author’s craft questions, and more. An answer key is included. Materials are 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.

Copyright restrictions do not allow for novel content to be included, so the purchaser is responsible for providing students with the text.

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
• Analyze how the author uses direct and indirect description to develop a sympathetic character in Ruthie
• Make logical inferences about the relationships between characters
• Determine the tone of a given passage
• Analyze the author’s language to discern and articulate the intended effect
• Analyze what a character’s actions reveal about their psychological state
• Articulate the significance of reading and writing in Esperanza’s life
• Articulate the significance of the fact that Ruthie no longer reads and writes
• Compare characters from two texts to articulate what they share in common, using Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Nightingale” for reference