Poet Presentation: Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros

Biography:
1. Born in Chicago in 1954
2. Studied at Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Iowa
3. Worked as:
a. teacher and counselor
b. Artist-in-Schools
c. college recruiter
d. arts administrator
e. visiting writer at many universities
4. Currently:
a. Founder and president of the Macondo Foundation - an association of socially engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity and honor their communities.
b. Writer-in-Residence at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio

Publications:
1. Poetry
a. Bad Boys (1980)
b. My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987)
c. Loose Woman (1994)
2. Collection of Stories
a. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991)
3. Novels
a. The House on Mango Street (1991)
b. Caramelo (2002)

Awards:
1. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1995)
2. Texas Medal of the Arts (2003)
3. National Endowment of the Arts Fellowships for fiction and poetry (1988 and 1982)

Philosophy of Writing:
1. Button Boxes:
Grandmothers keep buttons "just in case" they will one day need them.
The process of writing is like making a garment, and Sandra makes buttons long before she knows which piece they will go with or look like. She often writes, first, without sequence or worry, just getting ideas out and saving them for later. "Grandmothers know: Never throw anything away. It might be just what you need someday."


Source Information:
http://sandracisneros.com
Updated 17 Jan. 2010
Accessed 18 Feb. 2010







"Night Madness Poem" by Sandra Cisneros

How I would use it in my class

Objectives:
1. Students will examine images and phrases for emotional connotation.

Activities:
1. Students will participate in a "Mixer"
a. Each student has an index card with a phrase or line from a poem.
b. Students walk around the room, saying only their line to other students.
c. After a few minutes, students regroup and list the words or phrases as a group
d. Students then relate an emotional response/ reaction to some or all of the phrases
Sentence Stems:
1. ______________ reminds me of _______________ because…
2. ______________ makes me feel _______________ because…
e. As a group, students discuss and try to guess the possible meaning and emotion behind a poem
f. Students then read the poem and determine whether they think they got the meaning and emotion right


For This Class:

Choose your weapon Both black as gun I have the magic of words

It's no secret Swoop Circling Delighted with her disasters

Crazy lady they warned you about High on tobacco and holy water

Too many cups of coffee A sadness in my heart

Night Madness Poem, by Sandra Cisneros

There's a poem in my head
like too many cups of coffee.
A pea under twenty eiderdowns.
A sadness in my heart like a stone.
A telephone. And always my
night madness that outs like bats
across the Texas sky.

I'm the crazy lady they warned you about.
The she of rumor talked about - -
and worse, who talks.

It's no secret.
I'm here. Under a circle of light.
The light always on, resisting a glass,
an easy cigar. The kind

who reels the twilight sky.
Swoop circling.
I'm witch woman high
on tobacco and holy water.

I'm a woman delighted with her disasters.
They give me something to do.
A prefession of sorts.
Keeps me industrious
and of some servicable use.

In dreams the origami of the brain
opens like a fist, a pomegranate,
an expansive geometry.

Not true.
I haven't a clue
why I'm rumpled tonight.

Choose your weapon.
Mine - - the telephone, my tongue.
Both black as gun.

I have the magic of words,
the power to charm and kill at will.
To kill myself or to aim haphazardly
And kill you.

Midterm: Three Lesson Plans

These three lesson plans are meant to be taught in any order. I think that if I taught them, I would keep them in their order. The first is to help them loosen up and use their own knowldege and ideas to write. The second is to help them come up with new language for writing poetry, not the same old, same old. The final plan is to allow students some freedom in their writing by letting them try their hand at a list poem. All of the lesson plans are based on ideas from the class text. More specifically, the use of images to convey emotion and meaning, the use of figurative language and the list poem.

Assignment 1
Objectives:
1. Students will use word association to brainstorm ideas for a poem.
2. Students will write a poem based on the form for the "Where I'm From" poem.

Directions:
1. Introduce students to the idea of word association through large group discussion.
a. List a common word and have a student say the first thing that comes to their mind. Some examples are school, lunch, family, homework, etc. When introducing this technique keep the words common and simple, so that most, if not all students will have some prior knowledge with which to connect.
2. When students are opened up a bit, share that they will be writing about themselves, their family and their homes.
3. Model how to use word association to create a web. For example, start with the word "home" in the center. Shooting off of that, I would place Mom and Dad, the beach, my apartment, etc. Then I would show how one idea, like "Mom" can lead to other ideas, such as "Sarie Lou" and "pots of coffee." I would model more links to my web, asking students for ideas when I get stuck. I would also model that in brainstorming, it can be messy and bad, but I don't erase any ideas or censor myself yet.
4. Students will create a web of their own, using "home" as the center. They should list all ideas that come to them, building off of items on their list.
5. Once students all have ideas on paper, we would read the model of the "Where I'm From" Poem by George Ella Lyon. We would look at the items and people she associates with where she is from. We would also look at the way she uses concrete objects, quotes and memories to show where she is from.
6. With input from the students, I would model how to write a "Where I'm From" poem by rearranging, adding to and cutting some of the ideas from my web.
a. First, choose 3-5 items or images that stick with me or the class.
b. Start placing those in line form.
c. Add phrases or connecting images and ideas to the originals from the web.
d. Look at line breaks, rhythm and figurative language when I'm done, trying to add to the "poetic nature" of what the class and I have written.
7. Students will then use their own webs to create a poem about where they are from. They should focus on line breaks, rhythm and figurative language to try to enhance their ideas. Students are often most pleased with their work after they have read it aloud to hear the piece.

Where I'm From

I'm from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush,
the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I am from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments-
snapped before I budded-
leaf-fall from the family tree.

- By: George Ella Lyon

Assignment 2
Objectives:
1. Students will practice using reference texts by using a thesaurus.
2. Students will rewrite common words and phrases using new and poetic words from the thesaurus.

Directions:
1. Introduce the idea of the cliché by listing some on the board.
a. Some to use are easy as pie, tough as nails, give me a break, no pain, no gain.
2. Have student help you list as many clichés as the group can think of.
3. Ask students what it would be like to write a poem of only clichés. Why wouldn't that be effective?
4. Hand out to students a list of commonly used words and phrases from poetry.
a. Some to use are colors, emotions, weather, etc.
5. Have students add 5 items from the board to their list.
6. Model for students how to rewrite some of the ideas or words using a thesaurus. Tell students to put their ideas into a phrase or line, something that they might read or want to write in poetry.
a. For example, the sheet says "sunny". I might write the warm buttery rays dripped off the sun and fell onto our afternoon walk.
7. Students will rewrite the ideas and phrases on their list, trying to think creatively to come up with a new way to say the old idea.
8. When students are done, they will have a duel to see who has the best phrases. The moderator will read the item on the sheet. Then, students who think they have a good rewrite will come up to the front. They will all read their items. A class applause-off will determine which rewrite is the best. The student with the most wins will be dubbed "The Cliché Killer" and given a handsome reward (of candy).


Assignment 3
Objectives:
1. Students will use a wheel graphic organizer to brainstorm ideas for a poem.
2. Students will write a list poem.

Directions:
1. Students will begin by reading an excerpt from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson labeled "10 Lies They Tell You in High School."
2. Students will discuss some of the elements that make this a poem, even though it is from a novel.
a. Some items to discuss are rhythm, repetition, imagery and figurative language.
3. Students will work as a large group to list some of the "They" in high school
b. For example, teachers, friends, jocks, popular kids, guidance counselors, etc.
4. I then model how to create wheel, writing down things I have heard people say that turn out to be untrue. The lines should come out of each they group. I often enlist students help when I am stuck.
5. Students will then create their own wheel listing lies that they have heard or that they know about for each they.
c. Examples are, we are here to help, everyone is going to the game on Friday, prom is the best day ever, etc.
5. One students have created a wheel, they will choose some of the items to use to create a list poem. When they are writing they should focus on the order of the items, word choice, rhythm, repetition and figurative language. They should practice reading the poem aloud to get a better feel for the rhythm and music of the poem.