Southwest Children's  Literature

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Esperanza Rising

A group of eighth grade-students at Emily Gray Middle School read Esperanza Rising for a pre-AP language arts class. They then engaged in an online discussion of the book via a wiki that they designed.


The students had a lot to say about the characters in the book.

courtneys-egjh: "I think the author does a really good job of describing the characters. I love how she describes father and mother on page 5. I think she does a good job of giving you a mental picture, even though a few important details were missing. The author said that Esperanza's mother was tall, elegant, and had her hair braided as a wreath. I can create a mental picture with those facts."

kenzac-egjh: (about Esperanza) "I mean it seems like she really cares about a lot of other people. It is debatable whether she was pampered too much. Just because her parents did well and she didn't have to do work everyday doesn't mean that she is too spoiled."

clairee-egjh: "In Esperanza Rising, I think that Esperanza is kind of a spoiled child, until the death of her father. She has always been comforted by both of her parents and never had to deal with any money issues before."

laurac-egjh: "This was one of the only things Esperanza had left of her Papa, the earth's heartbeat. She was so scared, out of place, in America, and she missed her old life. So, when she got on the ground to hear the beat of the earth, I could only pray for her that she would hear it, because it was truly one of the only things of her life before the tragedy that she still had."

One of the assignments for the class was a vocabulary elaborator where they discussed words they may not have known previously as well as the language of the book.

laurac-egjh: "I do feel these words add a lot to the story; each one of them took the story a step further. They are examples of the type of words the author uses to add lots of detail to paint a picture in the readers head. Without these words the story would be dry, and not nearly as wonderful and exciting to read."

Note: Students' spelling and punctuation were corrected in order that readers could understand their thoughts.

For more of their conversation and artwork, access their wiki at: http://esperanzarising.wikispaces.com/