5. Novel for Latino/a literature:
Julia Alvarez How the GarcÃa Girls Lost Their Accents
Questions, before: How would you show the confusion of a family moving to a new country? How would keep the reader off balance, as the girls are off balance?
Questions, after: Why is there so much pain in the book? Where does the mental illness start? How does the story resolve? Could you tell the story in chronological order? What would be lost by doing that?
Research topics: When did the United States encourage, fairly forcefully, the loss of accent and native language in immigrants? How was this done? What was the end result? How has that changed? Why? What is the result of the changed policy? What were the advantages and disadvantages of the old policy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new policy?
Other sources:
Penguin discussion guide
Tacoma Reads Together discussion guide
ENoteslesson plans, available for $30