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Lesson 3

We will analyze the beginning of The Book of Unknown Americans, with a focus on setting, plot, and conflict. We will also use text-dependent questions to closely analyze the text in order to build our text-analysis skills.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I use questions to establish and deepen understanding of texts and topics?

  • Can I work productively in various roles with other participants?

  • Can I recognize and interpret language and sentence structures to deepen my understanding of texts?

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas within texts?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • The Book of Unknown Americans, Cristina Henríquez, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss – Present

We will review the text we read at home to ensure comprehension.

Step 1

With a partner, discuss the entries you made in your Literary Elements and Narrative Techniques Note-Taking Tool and Vocabulary Journal.

Step 2

With your partner, select one entry from the Literary Elements and Narrative Techniques Note-Taking Tool to share with the class. Be sure to support your analysis with details from the text.

Activity 2: Read – Write

We will read aloud from The Book of Unknown Americans in class and choose a quote to collect in our literary elements and narrative techniques Note-Taking Tools in order to ensure comprehension and engage in continual data collection.

Follow along and annotate the text as you listen to a read aloud of pages 24-26. Pay close attention to how Henríquez uses dialogue to convey conflict.

Select a compelling example of dialogue, and make an entry in your Literary Elements and Narrative Techniques Note-Taking Tool.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write

We will explore literary elements through text-dependent questions.

In your small group, answer and discuss the text-specific questions below. These questions can also be found on the Section 1 Question Set. Write down your answers in your Learning Logs. Provide evidence from the text to support each of your answers.

  1. Consider the text on pages 1-26. What is one conflict involving Alma? Describe the conflict.

  2. How does Garrett Miller create conflict for Mayor? How does Henríquez introduce this conflict?

  3. On page 23, the author uses setting to develop a conflict. Closely reread page 23 and explain how she accomplishes this. What is the effect on the reader?

  4. Pages 24-26 describe the setting of Arturo’s job. Closely reread pages 24-26. What conflict is present? How does Henríquez develop the conflict?

  5. How do the descriptions of each character’s homeland differ from the descriptions of where they live now? How does Henríquez use setting to develop conflict in the story?

    1. Are any of the phrases you chose examples of figurative language?

    2. What is the impact of these phrases on the meaning of the text?

Activity 4: Discuss

We will connect with the characters in the text by discussing the impact of a quote from the text.

Discuss the following quote from the perspective of Alma. How does it make you feel about the characters and their situation? Why?

Someone in line shouted impatiently. Arturo turned to look but didn’t say anything. What must we look like to people here? I wondered. Speaking Spanish, wearing the same rumpled clothes we’d been in for days. (p. 9)

Write down the quote and your analysis in a new entry on your Literary Elements and Narrative Techniques Note-Taking Tool.

Activity 5: Discuss

We will read the next section of the novel for homework.

For homework, read and annotate The Book of Unknown Americans, pages 26-47, paying close attention to the settings, conflicts, and plot. Write down three entries in your Literary Elements and Narrative Techniques Note-Taking Tool, one for each element.

Be sure to write down new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.