Under The Mesquite

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Reflect on stories you have read—stories that mirror your own experiences and stories about identities different from your own. How did it feel to see yourself mirrored in a story? What did you gain/learn by reading books about people of other identities?

Teaching Suggestion: This discussion may be continued by asking students to reflect on the value of reading stories about characters with cultures that are different from their own. After sharing the author’s personal experiences on which she bases her characters, you might ask if they have read or watched stories from similar perspectives.

• This interview with the author by Books in Common covers several potential topics of interest including the author’s inspiration, writing process, and audience.
• Teacher resource (not student-facing): This article from the SIGNAL Journal is lengthy, but it’s an insightful piece both about how Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s personal experiences shaped her novel and about its role within the broader genres of Chicana and multicultural literature.

2. What is the novel-in-verse, or verse novel, genre? What characteristics are evident, and how does a novel written in verse impact the reader’s experience?

Teaching Suggestion: If this is students’ first encounter with a novel in verse, or verse novel, this question can be prefaced with a short discussion or reflection activity in which students consider the two genres separately, and then predict what characteristics of each the hybrid genre might include. Students may also be prompted to reflect on emotional connections to past poems they’ve read and how poetry provides a more visceral communication of emotional experiences.

• A blog published by a professor at Ohio State University about poetry in the YA genre explores the significance of poetry in the classroom. This page discusses the verse novel genre as an intersection between novel, poetry, and drama. The YouTube video included in the page may also be helpful for introducing the genre.
• Mike Cadden’s “The Verse Novel and the Question of Genre” is a scholarly article that approaches the question of genre more in depth (teacher resource; not student-facing).
• This short but informative guide to reading and analyzing poetry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison offers students a clear and structured approach for reading and analyzing poetry, which may be a good resource for preparing students to notice and evaluate language use and structure in McCall’s writing.
• SuperSummary’s Guide to Poetry provides students with a full overview of poetry as a writing form and resources on how to approach it critically.

Short Activity

Choose a physical object that represents your personality, interests, strengths, family, or other aspects of your identity. Write a free verse poem that vividly describes this object and its connection to you. Include a poetic device such as symbol, imagery, or figurative language in your poem.

Teaching Suggestion: It may be helpful to review poetic terms like symbol, imagery, motif, figurative language, metaphor, and simile with students before beginning this activity if they are unfamiliar with basic poetic devices. Reviewing the conventions of the free verse form may also be helpful to establish expectations around their own poems.

• SuperSummary’s Free Verse Guide is a comprehensive explanation of the free verse genre with examples, terminology, notable poets, and other resources.
• These poetry activities from Edutopia.org (teacher resource; not student-facing) may be helpful as strategies for getting students to think creatively about language, structure, and ideas they want to express in their free verse poem.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who struggle with abstract thinking, or who have difficulty expressing complex ideas in the English language, it may be helpful to provide a completed sample for this activity and to break it down into shorter steps, utilizing aids such as graphic organizers or word banks. For less advanced students or learners of the English language, it may be beneficial to offer a suggested outline for them to use that offers blanks such as “It is as _______ as a _________.” This activity could also be adapted to be a collaborative activity in which the entire class selects an object and participates in creating lines.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Think about a time in your life when you experienced a significant loss. How did that loss shape you? How did it change you and your goals in life? What helped you cope with the loss and find strength in the face of challenges?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt has the potential to elicit sensitive or emotional responses; if these kinds of responses are not preferred, the prompt may be shifted to focus on the second half, wherein students connect to outlets and modes of expression for difficult emotions. The prompt may also be adapted to more generally ask students to reflect on what things have shaped their development and identity up to this point in their life, without specifically mentioning loss or challenges. The prompt in both its original or adapted format will prepare students to make connections to the Identity and Coming of Age and Adapting to Change themes in the novel.