TEXT: HAIRS

 Text info: This text is one of the chapters from the book by Sandra Cisneros The
House on Mango Street, Bloomsbury Publishing. 1992.
 Why this text? I love this book and one of the main reasons is represented in this
chapter: Cisneros manages to describe things in such a simple but beautiful way that
you become captured by it in a moment. But the most wonderful feature is that most
of the issues she talks about are familiar tiny things like this: the hair.
 Teaching aims: show students another way to describe things physically but also from
the inside. Show them a new answer different to: “how is your mum’s hair?” “Oh,
she’s got a long brown hair”.
 Timing: one hour lesson can be enough.
 How can be used? / Directions: In my opinion a good way to start the topic would be
asking students about their relatives, friends or idols hair. Then I would ask them how
important do they think the hair is for a person, not only the person who owns it but
for the people who likes this person. We can comment on for instance if they think
that in some cases like in famous artist the image is everything or more concretely the
hair. An option here would be to watch the video where Britney Spears (famous pop
singer) cuts off her hair at the minimum and the impact this had resulted in. Then after
the debate I would deliver them the text by Cisneros and we all would read it. We
would draw a table together in the blackboard classifying the different types of hair
Sandra describes and volunteers can be called to blackboard for drawing them.
Finally, we will discuss how some person’s feature can drive you into a world of
sensations, for instance: a hug, a look, a touch, etc. Students would be encouraged to
write a short paragraph about the sensations you feel when that happens. Finally we all
would listen to other’s output.
 Possible students’ reaction: I expect students to answer firstly in the way they have
been taught to describe things: just what you see. But then I expect them to open their
look beyond when describing something.
 Diversity: This text can be adapted to different levels. With lower levels you can
concentrate only in the vocabulary related to the hair and work with them and
drawings to relate concepts. Within higher levels you can go beyond the world of
feelings through physical features and work with it in terms of vocabulary and
strategies to describe.
 Links or proposals: There are other chapters profitable for this kind of activities in the
same book.