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Lesson 7

We will analyze the first 15 pages of Chapter 11, “María Teresa, March to August 1960,” through the Marxist lens.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I read historical fiction with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension?

  • Can I recognize and interpret language, sentence elements, and structures to deepen my understanding?

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas (characters, setting, tone, point of view, structure, development, etc.) within texts?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write – Discuss

We will review what we know about the marxist lens and analyze the text through that lens.

Step 1

With a partner, review the information you collected on your Marxist Lens Note-Taking Tool and during the hierarchy activity. Respond to the following question:

  1. How are hierarchies displayed in the novel based on money, power, and social class?

Step 2

With a partner or in a small group, discuss the following question:

  1. How does Mate’s experience in jail (i.e., her relationship with the guards and the jail system) illustrate a hierarchy based on power?

Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

Activity 2: Write

We will analyze the text through the marxist lens.

Use the following guiding question on an Analyzing RelationshipsTool to analyze In the Time of the Butterflies through the Marxist lens:

  1. What does the text say about economic or social power? Who has power and who does not?

In the first Attend to Details column, write down the following quote from Mate’s March 17th entry:

"The fear is the worse part…. I’m tempted to curl up in the corner like a hurt animal…. But I know if I do that, I’ll be giving in to a low part of myself, and I’ll feel even less human."

Activity 3: Write – Discuss

You will independently complete the remaining three Attending to Details Tool entries.

Step 1

Identify additional details from the text that answer the guiding question and address the text through the Marxist lens on your Analyzing Relationships Tool.

Step 2

As a class, discuss the following questions:

  1. What social hierarchies are illustrated in the text and how do they impact characters?

  2. What hierarchies are based on money and how do they impact characters?

  3. How do hierarchies based on power impact the characters’ lives?

Activity 4: Read – Write

For homework, we will finish reading chapter 11.

For homework, finish reading Chapter 11.

As you read, respond to the following questions from the Section 4 Question Set in your Learning Log:

  1. What are some of the rumors circulating around the prison, and how do the sisters react to them?

  2. Why does Mate slip the note to OAS but choose not to share her diary entry?

  3. What do you think the scene looked like when the OAS got the sisters released from prison?

  4. What does the torture scene depict about Mate and Leandro?

Write new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.