The Tortilla Curtain - Conceptual Skills Assessment

Here is the link to today's writing assignment.

The Tortilla Curtain - Close Reading Skills Assessment

Here is a link to today's assessment

I will post information about Thursday's work later in the period.

Here is a link to a handout about Thursday's writing

The Tortilla Curtain - Review

During our work with this novel, here are just some of the types of reading and writing you’ve done (look back at the individual handouts / prompts for more details by clicking on the ones that have links):

• Gathered our personal thoughts and ideas about immigration before we started the novel
• Collecting evidence about a character to inform a first impression
• Selecting textual evidence based on a prompt
• Wrote blog posts about character and theme development
• Analyzing a quotation based on a close look at words / phrases within it
• Commenting on the meaning of the textual evidence within a specific context and across the novel as a whole
• Focusing on and interpreting a symbol / image based on textual evidence
• Comparing / contrasting different viewpoints to reach an overall meaning
• Discussing questions and text to help interpret a character
• Revisited earlier thoughts about characters and key moments
• Discussed major themes and symbols, including ways in which they developed over the course of the novel

The Tortilla Curtain - Bringing it all together

Today in class I shared with you the Final Assignment for The Tortilla Curtain

Please be sure to note the required prep work for Monday!

After that we discussed several major symbols, based on the charts you completed Thursday. Your work with them was excellent and hopefully helped you to feel more prepared for the work you'll do with the text this coming week in terms of both looking closely at the language of the text and determining the themes it contains.

The Tortilla Curtain - Start of Part 3

Today we took some time to read - either to catch up or work on tonight's assignment.

Each person then wrote about these two things:

• A character - choose a character who interests you for whatever reason.
• why did you choose him / her? 
• name a particular piece of the text linked to this
• A specific moment or detail not directly related to this character
• describe it
• what is it about this moment / detail that interests you?

The Tortilla Curtain - Start of part 2 - "El Tenksgeevee"

For today's work you will be in groups of three (see below).

• Alleman - Alyssa - Andrew
• Ashley - Celestina
• Ying - Charlie T - Chloe
• David - Elizabeth - Emma
• Evan - Jack B - Jack D
• Jacob - Kellen - Kevin
• Matt - Nate - Nicolette
• Nir - Penelope - Rachel
• (absent - Billy, Charlie K)

Please go to this document and follow the directions there: The Tortilla Curtain - Part 2, Chapters 1 & 2

The Tortilla Curtain - In-class work for Monday, March 10th

Give yourself about 15 minutes to respond to each of these questions in writing on your blog. Try to answer with detail and specificity, pointing to particular moments in text and bringing some of that text into your writing to support and develop your ideas. 

1. Part 1, Chapter 7 includes a second meeting between Delaney and Cándido, this time with Jack and Jack Jr. there as well. How are Delaney’s thoughts, feelings, and actions similar to the first meeting?  How are they different? What seems most important about this second interaction between the two characters? 

2. Part 1, Chapter 8 is a tough chapter; just as Cándido is beginning to feel human again, América suffers a tremendous amount of trauma and pain. Look carefully at the chapter, particularly at what is happening to her.  What does she do for the first time in her life? What does she notice when she sees herself in the mirror, and when she looks at her hands? What does she dream about? Use the text to help you here.  

3. Considering The Tortilla Curtain’s Part 1 as a whole, why might Boyle have begun with Delaney and Cándido's original collision and end with América's rape?  How do these events frame the first 8 chapters? Make an argument for an interpretation here.

After writing, go visit the blog of the person just above you on the class blog list.  Comment on their post, either by:

• Affirm and continue developing – validate the speaker’s position and ideas, and point to another moment in the text to explain.
• Doubt and support – provide another way of looking at the question, character(s) or idea(s) and support that thinking with the text.

The Tortilla Curtain - Day 3

Today, based on your questions, we read the end of chapter 4 together, trying to answer the question about who did this destruction and why.

It led us back to the end of chapter 3 and we discussed the ways in which the chapters work together, often mirroring each other.

Then we took a quiz, focusing on the language in some key quotations. If you need to make up the quiz, you can find it here: The Tortilla Curtain quiz 1

The Tortilla Curtain - Day 2

Today we'll examine the ways in which Boyle introduces us to the characters in the novel. We'll consider how those details help to inform our first impressions.

We'll us this sheet to keep track of our observations: Tortilla Curtain chapters 1 & 2 handout (Please be sure to bring your completed sheet to class tomorrow)

The Tortilla Curtain - Day 1

We started our next novel - T. C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain - in class today.  You can find the calendar under the "calendars" tab at the top of the page or here.

We wrote short responses to these questions and shared some opening thoughts:

1. First thoughts about "immigration"
2. Why might people want to immigrate to the United States?
3. Why might people in the United States want others to immigrate here?
4. Why might people in the United States not want others to immigrate here?

I read chapter 1 out loud (all but the last page!).

Tonight you are reading chapter 2 and writing your first journal response - keep track of the main characters and the setting. You can find a list of the journal prompts and dates under the "resources" tab on the blog home page.