1.

Comparing Characterization
a. Students are tasked to read “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel
Garcia Marquez alone, first.
b. After their initial reading, students annotate in pairs for moments of
characterization that reveal the character’s beliefs surrounding the old man. When
and how do we learn who each of the characters are? What are some actions or
descriptors that reveal how the character believes the old man should be treated?
c. As a class, brainstorm moments when we learn the beliefs of various characters in
Bless Me, Ultima, focusing on the characters who think they have Antonio’s best
interest at heart. Students are tasked in pairs with finding those moments in the
text, with each pair focusing on a different section of the text. Students then
provide page numbers for the teacher to record on the board.
d. Finally, as a class, students make a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting
characterization in the novel and short story. How do the characters develop their
beliefs? Are there similar descriptors? What are some moments of not-quite-
plausible (magical realism) descriptions?
e. Once the Venn Diagram is completed, a class discussion can ensue addressing the
author’s intention behind the characterization choices made. Do the similarities
serve a similar purpose? How do the contrasting choices affect the mood of the
story? Are there patterns in the beliefs of the people surrounding Antonio and the
old man? What contributes to the beliefs of the characters in both stories?

2. Breaking Boxes:
a. Students identify the external expectations they feel in their own lives.
b. On a blank sheet of paper, students draw five concentric squares with enough
space to write a few words in between each square. (Teachers can also standardize
this with a printable.)
c. Inside the most exterior square, the teacher instructs students to write what they
feel expected to do, or who they feel expected to be, from the pressures of their
state/country.
d. After a few minutes, the teacher then instructs students to answer the prompt
again inside the fourth largest square, but from the pressures of their
extracurricular or social communities (church, athletic teams, etc).
e. This continues again with the third square containing expectations from parents
and/or family, the second from close friends and peers, and lastly from
themselves.
f. Students star the expectations they think are realistic and helpful, and place an X
by the expectations they feel are unrealistic and hurtful. They can then turn to a
partner and share one starred expectation and one X expectation, and whether or
not they felt surprised by any of the expectations they realized (Idea credit:
https://compassionresiliencetoolkit.org/media/Schools_Section5_Intro.pdf ).
3. Expectation Conversation Poetry
a. In pairs, students select two characters who are in conversation with one another
within the text, explicit or implicit. It can be as explicit as Antonio and Cico,
Antonio and Ultima, Gabriel and Narcisco. It can also be as implicit as God and
the Golden Carp. (Groups of three are also possible: Antonio-Maria-Gabriel,
Antonio-Ultima-Maria, Ultima-Maria-Gabriel, Antonio’s brothers, etc.)
b. Each student selects one of the characters and then writes a poem using primarily
found text from Bless Me, Ultima from the perspective of that character. Any
language that surrounds the character, from dialogue or description, is available
for use.
c. In their pairs, students then share and discuss their poems, and how they can be
shaped to combine into one poem. Students can expand the poems with or without
text from the novel. They can combine lines and stanzas in any way they choose,
whether that means strictly alternating, reading one complete poem after the
other, or a combination of chunking pieces.
d. Once the poems are combined, the pairs practice reading their poem and then
present it for the class. After each performance, students can comment on striking
choices that the presenters made, and how it clarified the expectations and/or
beliefs that the characters held. Students can also reflect on how the characters
influence each other. Do the characters support each other or resist the influence
they each have?

4. Letters Home
a. Students write a letter to Maria and Gabriel from Antonio when he is a young
adult. The prompt is, “Antonio is around 18 years old. In a letter, he is writing to
his parents about how he feels now about the conflict that was so present in his
life during the time that Bless Me, Ultima takes place. What happened recently in
his life? How did their relationship grow and evolve over the past decade? Does
the conflict feel more resolved, about the same, or worse? What feels clearer now
that some time has passed? What feels more challenging? How does Antonio
foresee the rest of his life playing out?”
b. After writing the letter from Antonio, students in small groups pass their letters.
They then respond from either the perspective of Maria or Gabriel: “Are they
proud, disappointed, excited, conflicted? Do they openly say how they feel, or do
they disguise their true feelings?”
c. Students pass the letter one more time to someone who did not write the first
letter from Antonio. Students then read both letters and reply to Maria or Gabriel
from Antonio’s perspective.
d. After the final round, letters are returned to the original writer. Students write on a
separate page (as an exit slip or in their notebooks for record keeping) what
 textual evidence they used to inspire their writing, and what evidence they found
in the responses their peers wrote. Did they use similar evidence? How so? Does
the student agree with the way that Antonio is navigating his parents’ expectations
in these letters?

5. Collecting Wisdom
a. Students interview an adult in their life about a moment they felt conflicted on
their life’s journey or had to forge their own path by adopting or rejecting hurtful
external expectations.
b. After the interview, students reflect and connect the conflict Antonio feels to what
they learned from the interview, to conflict that they feel in their own lives.
Students first write a short reflection piece making the connections between the
novel, the interview, and their own experience.
c. An alternate option could be: students then choose a quote from the novel, the
interview, and a personal statement from their reflection paper and place them
together in an artistic representation. (This can be physical, with markers/paint on
paper/canvas, or electronic in programs like Canva.)