Unit Plan Overview

         Using all three texts, students are going to explore the idea of classism in American society, and how our views of the lower class are shaped by the stories about them. In different ways for each book, we will touch on point of view and how it shapes a story. Students will then be allowed to reflect on their own life and study how p.o.v. can impact their stories as well. We will trace the theme of classism through each book, pulling out details about the perceptions of the lower class, and the perceptions those in the lower class have.

Essential Questions:

• Are we stuck in the situation we’re born into?
• What is class mobility?
• What is the difference between middle and lower class?
• Is it possible? For Maggie? For Esperanza?

• Does our economic situation impact our fate?
• What is fate?
• Can we change it?
• How do our “protagonists” see fate?

• How does society feel about the lower class?
• What are the effects of oppressing an entire group of people?
• What is the glass ceiling? Does it exist?
• How do the jurors feel about the lower class?

• Do outside perspectives change the way we see ourselves?
• How do society and the media portray the different classes?
• How do different points of view change a story?
• How did it affect Esperanza’s? The accused kid? Maggie’s?

Objectives:

Students will be able to....

  - Apply different points of view to the same story

- Analyze the sources of information (how it's manipulated and why)

- Determine how a society/themselves perceive people in different classes