I think that the House on Mango Street is a great book to read in the classroom! Personally, I never read it in high school but some of my friends read it. I think it’s a great book to read in middle or high school because the themes are very relatable. I also think depending on where this book is taught, the themes and content can be extremely relatable. If you’re teaching a class of ESL students or even just students of a Hispanic background, this book would work very well. As we talked a little bit in class, I think this really would be a good book to use in the classroom. I think that this book would give many of the students the ability to get creative with their assignments and maybe even look into their own history and cultures. This book can open so many doors for students in so many different ways and I think this is a great book to use in the classroom.
We also discussed a lot about students and how their writing has been changing over the years. I really do agree that things have changed and it truly is not okay. Students take the easy way out most of the time and they are sometimes even too lazy to write out “because.” I think the fact that kids are texting all the time does affect this, but I personally mostly think it’s the fact that kids are lazy. Computers and technology pretty much do almost everything for students when needed so they feel like they don’t have to try most of the time. I believe that this is what truly affects their writing. But then again, technology is not going to go away anytime soon and students are always going to be using it every day.
Victoria Dempsey 