Curriculum  /  ELA  /  7th Grade  /  Unit 11: American Poetry (2020)  /  Lesson 15

American Poetry (2020)

Lesson 15
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ELA

Unit 11

7th Grade

Lesson 15 of 18

Objective

Explain how Anzaldúa uses contrast to develop her theme.

Readings and Materials

  • Poem: “To Live in the Borderlands” by Gloria Anzaldúa 

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Target Task

Writing Prompt

How does the poet’s use of contrast enhance her theme? Make sure to use at least one example from the poem in your answer. 

Key Questions

  • Make sure students can identify and analyze the examples of contrast, metaphor, simile, hyperbole and personification. 
  • Why does the poet use both Spanish and English?
    1. To illustrate the history between the United States and Mexico 
    2. To describe the similarities between English and Spanish in the southwestern part of the United States
    3. To show that she thinks and communicates in both languages because she lives between two worlds 
    4. To highlight the importance of bilingualism
  • Reread stanza 2, "that mexicanas call you rajetas,*/ that denying the Anglo inside you/ is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black" Based on these lines, how is the poet metaphorically on the border? 
    1. She is not just Anglo or Mexican. She is a combination of Anglo, Indian, Black, Mexican and American.
    2. She identifies with being Black more than Anglo, Indian, or Mexican.
    3. She is upset about what the Anglo people did to her people and doesn’t want to deny them any longer.
    4. She feels excluded by her Mexican relatives. 
  • Based on Stanza 4, why does the author use contrast? 
    1. To show she is a combination of things that are seemingly different 
    2. To suggest that she no longer uses Mexican slang 
    3. To indicate the racism of the officials on the border checkpoints 
    4. To express her embarrassment of her accent
  • List at least three examples of contrast in stanza 4.
  • Based on the last stanza, the poet would probably agree with which of the following statements? 
    1. You must define yourself and live without these fake borders that try to define who you are. 
    2. You must ignore your past in order to understand your future. 
    3. You must always try to live up to your family’s expectations. 
    4. Be faithful to your family no matter what happens in life. 
  • Which diction best supports the answer to the question above?
    1. Living in the Borderlands means you fight hard to/ resist the gold elixir (medicine) beckoning from the bottle,
    2. To live in the Borderlands means knowing/ that the india in you, betrayed for 500 years,/ is no longer speaking to you,
    3. To live in the Borderlands means/ the mill with the razor white teeth wants to shred off/ your olive-red skin
    4. To survive the Borderlands/ you must live sin fronteras* be a crossroads.

Common Core Standards

  • RL.7.2 — Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • RL.7.3 — Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).

Next

Explain how the author uses metaphor to develop the theme.

Lesson 16
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