INTRO TO THIS WEEK’S LESSONS
This minu unit will last the month of May! It will focus on food, cultural identity, and poetry. Basically, we will be reading poems and articles about food and making connections to more complex ideas associated with identity, culture, lifestyle, pleasure, and process. This unit was inspired by all the cooking I’ve been doing with my family (my homemade salsa is getting legit!), the Netflix TV show Ugly Delicious (check it out! It’s a cool show, it’s funny, and you can learn a lot from it), and this poem about a “Cuban Thanksgiving” by one of my favorite poets. Each day you will read a poem, react to it, and then respond to guiding questions which dive into what the poem is expressing about a topic. This week, you’ll have some options of poems to read and analyze! Yu can read the options first then decide, or simply choose the title you like best and commit to engaging with that one! Good luck and please email me during office hours to text or video chat!
KEY VOCABULARY
- Culture: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.
- Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.
- Cultural identity: Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group or groups. It is part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality, or any kind of social group(s) that has its own distinct culture.
Task: Choose one poem to read and engage with it by doing steps 1-5. Look up words unfamiliar to you to better understand the poem.
| CHOOSE ONE OPTION TO FOCUS ON TODAY:
China by Priscilla Lee Oxtail Stew by David Dominguez The Abuelita Poem by PAUL MARTÍNEZ POMPA Ramadan by Khaled Mattawa Perhaps the World Ends Here by JOY HARJO |
1- What do you predict the poem will be about from the title?
2- What food, ingredient, object, or idea is central to the poem? Why do you think the poet chose that? (should be related to food/eating)
3- What word or phrase stands out?
4- What do you think is the central message of the poem?
5- Create a question.
| Ramadan by Khaled Mattawa
1) I predict the poem will be about the holy month of Ramadhan, which is a period during which the Muslims fast. 2) Special and flavored meals are usually prepared during this period. There is the mention of the lamb soup that is flavored with mint and spiced fava beans. Mattawa chose this food type to show how special the occasion is to the Muslims. 3) “mawals” in stanza 2, which is a traditional genre of vocal Arabic music. 4) The central message of this poem revolves around the practice of Ramadhan. In this case, the various activities and events as they unfold during this period are captured. For instance, there is the aspect of fasting and breaking the fast, among other events that are evident during Ramadhan. 5) Why do the belly dancers cover themselves during Ramadhan? What is the hidden meaning in the failure of the neighbor to touch the breasts of neither of her wives? |
*Sample response:
| América by Richard Blanco
1- I predict the poem will be about someone’s perspective on the United States who speaks Spanish.
2- Thanksgiving dinner with pork instead of turkey. Richard Blanco chose this food tradition to show how traditional foods can be replaced, mixed, or fused into other traditional settings — and further using this as metaphor for how he feels in the U.S.
3- “gladiolus” in stanza 5, which is a flower that symbolizes moral integrity.
4- The poem’s central message revolves around the idea of clashing of cultures for the speaker. They are using food and Thanksgiving to try to understand their two selves and how they connect, mesh, and are one. The Thanksgiving dinner, with both “American” and Cuban” food, reveals how he feels inside.
5- Why does the poem end by saying “an appropriate darkness” filled the room? What does the darkness symbolize? |