Carolyn L. Streets
I teach at a public school in a large urban district and my content area is middle school English Language Arts (ELA). Students are tracked according to their math scores and placed in 50 minute A/B blocks with five classes per day. Students rotate core classes of ELA, Math, Social Studies, Engineering, and Science with each semester divided into four quarters. There are no AP course offerings in the middle school. The ELA curriculum is aligned with Common Core Reading and Writing State Standards with performance and significant tasks for each quarter. Performance tasks are mini-projects students complete throughout each quarter, graded formatively, leading up to a culminating a significant task which is graded summative. There are four core texts to be read quarterly within each grade level throughout the district. Core texts, performance, and significant tasks are selected, suggested, and designed by the district’s Literacy Department. My classroom is a literacy rich environment complete with its own classroom library. Students are expected to independently pleasure-read in addition to the core texts, articles, and resources included in daily instruction. There is usually extra time in the quarter to incorporate additional novels which are read as a class. My classroom library is curated as an extension reflective of culturally responsive teaching that values students’ lived experiences, learning styles, ethnic history, and accomplishments.7 Within the library, students will find books that speak to their cultural identities.
In my school context, I have autonomy over the established ELA curriculum. As a member of my school’s literacy department, I work collaboratively in vertical teaming to build more content into the established curriculum, build stronger alignment with my school’s magnet theme, and create support structures within my content area to encourage and support high student achievement. The autonomy I have allows me to create additional curricular opportunities for students like this unit.
Ekphrastic poetry and culturally responsive pedagogical instruction:
I chose ekphrastic poetry as a means for novel study because I imagined my students would appreciate an alternative way to analyze the novel. Using the ekphrastic poetry framework, this unit seeks to develop best practices that enhance analysis skills and help students take a deeper dive in identifying and understanding how systems of power (the main systems evident in the novel’s plot line are those of socio-economic status and gender inequality) favor or work against the status of marginalized communities, and how those communities orient themselves to those forces. For this unit, instructional approaches will specifically examine systems of power through the lens of Esperanza, the main character in the novel, to investigate how she navigates her coming of age within these systems. Also, within the characters’ experiences a key theme of identity emerges, therefore student understanding must reflect viewpoints on identity. So, instructional outcomes will encourage students to think broadly about their own identities. The main character identifies and defines herself with the meaning of her name, her cultural heritage, the societal expectations versus her own expectations as related to her gender, and where she lives, to name a few examples. For instance, this is immediately seen in the first chapter, “There...I lived there...I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.”
In my English Language Arts classroom, the novel study approach traditionally encompasses the process of reading and studying a novel as a class while incorporating skills readers use for comprehension, building fluency, and applying literacy concepts. Incorporating the ekphrastic poetry framework differs from past novel study. This is an instructional approach that renders questions about how arts integration can align with or diverge from past instructional moves to create a critical remix of the traditional novel study approach. While developing this unit, I came to appreciate Chalmers’s critical examination on ethnocentric ideologies, and how those ideologies can perpetuate and reproduce notions of superiority in art education.8 Although this unit is not about traditional forms of art integration, it can be incorporated as an instructional strategy and from this, I began thinking about my own instructional practices. On first glance, it seems like culturally responsive teaching and arts integration are disconnected, separate entities. Culturally responsive frameworks affirms students racial and ethnic backgrounds,9 while arts integration is a means in which students construct meaning through an art form. However, issues of diversity, race, class, and power have been addressed by numerous art educators,10 and can be used as an instructional strategy. To better frame this, I draw upon three examples that I believe strongly connect to Cisneros’ work. The first is seen in a poignant example of the creation of an ekphrastic poem in Robert Hayden’s “Middle Passage.”11 Hayden’s work is widely revered as the primary example of how an ekphrastic poem uses a multitude of literacy techniques to convey meaning to the reader. The first lines in stanza one are gripping: “Jesús, Estrella, Esperanza, Mercy/Sails flashing to the wind like weapons/sharks following the moans the fever and the dying/horror the corposant and compass rose.” Hayden notes his intent of the poem was to, “contribute toward an understanding of what our African-American past had really been like.”12 Using adaptations of ship logs, testimony, prayer and song the poem created both a visceral and lyrical description of the Atlantic slave trade. The second recognizes contemporary works of art created by various artists for an exhibition presented by the National Museum of Mexican Art that “are based on some of the central topics brought to light in this consciousness-raising novel.”13 Of note is the work of artist Alejandro Romero (b. 1948) who produced the artwork for the first edition of the novel. An examination of the images, placement of those images, color choices, and why Cisneros chose this particular image to represent her book for example provides for rich analysis beyond traditional questions “what do you notice about the book’s cover?” during novel study. The artists included in this exhibition are extensive and their collective works illuminate how artistic interpretations merge with literature and can be used to engage in novel study through fresh perspectives. The third considers Whitehead’s exploration of the works of Kerry James Marshall. Whitehead notes that Marshall’s body of work, “confronts political and social invisibility of African Americans,” and are best described as “emotional images of the African American urban experience.” Additionally, Whitehead points out how Marshall’s work calls upon the notion of “psychological invisibility associated with the American mindset toward African Americans.”14 Arguably, this notion is similar to Cisneros’ approach in House on Mango Street where the author herself notes that the novel was written as a counter to the dominant narratives that excluded voices of color. Thus, analysis of artistic interpretations as they connect to character analysis is apropos to the key purposes of this unit. I draw upon this and other works as a guide which are further elaborated upon in the objectives and strategies section of this unit.
An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or a work of art where the observer narrates and reflects on the elements of a painting or sculpture. Through this process, the observer amplifies and expands its meaning. A working definition of this process can be understood as an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. This approach goes beyond my past instructional practices of arts-enhanced English Language Arts skills, like incorporating a multimedia component into a paper or presentation. An arts-enhanced curriculum is important in its own right and providing instructional opportunities for students to employ an art form to showcase their understanding can satisfactorily address learning objectives. The argument for educators to “reconsider their basic assumptions about art and its relationship to society to guide inquiry in the field”15 is understood in the purposes of this unit. I seek to draw a distinction between arts-enhanced and a newly considered approach to arts-integration. Although both forms mutually reinforce connection between the reader and subject, art-integration through the ekphrastic poetry frameworks offers new possibilities for subject area learning and addresses gaps in past instructional approaches through art-integration.
The novel was chosen for this unit because the author’s work established a distinct voice within the canon of adolescent literature. Cisneros explains that the “meaning of literacy success is that I could change the way someone thinks about my community, or my gender, or my class.” It addresses complex societal issues like racism, gender, and classism. It is written in short vignettes using literacy concepts like theme, symbolism, and figurative language. The story’s relatable subject matter about coming of age has universal appeal and is widely embraced by students.
This novel is a part of my classroom reading list and is read annually during novel study. Most importantly, Cisneros is a writer-poet whose work is an example of how the artist, through the works of art, challenges the dominant narrative. With this in mind and having taught this novel for several years, it is important to consider new ways to approach learning objectives with the goal of sourcing increasingly sophisticated and creative tools placing students at the center of their own learning. There is a wealth of resources within the visual arts exploring women-centered points of view which can be used strategically to enhance students’ understandings about the main character’s viewpoints within the novel, starting with the novel’s own cover art. In fact, there are at least seven versions of the novel’s cover art rendering a multiplicity of artistic interpretations of the novel’s key purposes. By centering arts-integration within traditional English Language Arts skills, students will be better positioned to engage in a creative process of the ekphrastic poetry framework while developing higher ordered character analysis skills. This is an instructional shift that addresses curricular objectives and an approach not previously considered in past instructional approaches.