“Eleven”
by Sandra Cisneros
Similes, Point of View & Internal / External Conflicts
Essential Questions:
In Your Journal:
Our first Essential Question is:
How do writers make their stories interesting and engaging?
In your journal add a list of 3 ways that writers make their stories interesting and engaging.
In Your Journal:
Think about a time when you had a hard / bad or difficult time on your birthday or another holiday.�
Write a quick description about how you felt and what you did. Be sure to include details such as:
Turn to another student and share stories.
What is a Simile? Why Use Them?
What is a simile?
What do you already know about similes?
A simile is a way to compare something you know with something you may not know. The writer uses the words "like" or "as" to link the comparisons.
In this story Cisneros uses similes to help you understand how the narrator feels.
Examples of Similes:
When he broke up with me I felt like a tomato that someone stepped on.
“Life is like an onion: You peel it one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” ~ Carl Sandburg, poet
He was sweating so much that his head looked like a cat left out in the rain.
Your Turn (in Your Journal):
Please write a few of your own similes.
Complete the following sentence stems using a simile:
My room is ________________________
My ex is __________________________
My best birthday was _______________
My worst birthday was ______________
My dream car is ____________________
(Your own idea_____________________)
Sentence Structure ~
Reader’s Speed & Attention
Writers use punctuation to control the speed (tempo) of your reading. Using a variety of sentence lengths helps keep the reader’s attention and help you know what to focus on.
Paragraph 1:
“What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.”
Paragraphs 1-2:
Read paragraphs 1-2.
Simile ~
Paragraph 3
“ Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That's how being eleven years old is.”
Cisneros wants you to
feel or know about how
Rachel feels when she
uses this simile?
Figurative Language - Similes ~
Paragraphs 1-5
5 “Only today I wish I didn't have
only eleven years rattling inside
me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box.”
using this simile?
Synthesis and Evaluation ~
Paragraphs 1-5
Cisneros has given us a lot of information about how the narrator feels about being eleven.
Inferring ~
Paragraphs 6-9
Using Context Clues ~
Paragraph 9
Use context clues to figure out what you think "raggedy" means in this sentence.
“An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. Price believes her.”
Figurative Language & Inference ~
Paragraphs 6- 18
Visualization ~ Page 2
Draw an image from the descriptions on page 2.
(Do this on the back of the paper.)
Sensory Imagery ~
Paragraph 19
“That’s when everything I’ve been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk, finally lets go, and all of a sudden I’m crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I’m not. I’m eleven and it’s my birthday today and I’m crying like I’m three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms. My face all hot and spit coming out of my mouth because I can’t stop the little animal noises from coming out of me, until there aren’t any more tears left in my eyes, and it’s just my body shaking like when you have the hiccups and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast.”
Style Imitation ~
Paragraph 19
Take a close look at how Cisneros wrote paragraph 19.
Notice:
In your journal, think about an emotional event and write about it using paragraph 19 as a model for how and what kinds of things to include in your paragraph.
Inference, Synthesis & Evaluation ~
Paragraph 20
“Today I’m eleven. There’s a cake Mama’s making for tonight, and when Papa comes home from work we’ll eat it. There’ll be candles and presents and everybody will sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you, Rachel, only it’s too late.”
Evaluation & Making a Personal Connection ~
Simile ~
Paragraph 22
In paragraph 22 Cisneros writes,
" because I want today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it. "
Essential Questions ~
Add to Your Journal ~
Point of View | Definition and Clues | Pro’s and Con’s | Examples |
First Person | | | |
Third Person Objective | | | |
Third Person Limited | | | |
Third Person Omniscient | | | |
Point of View Posters ~
____________________ Point of View
Definition and Clues = (rewrite the definition I gave you. Write about the pronouns the writer uses that help you know what the point of view is.)
Pro’s (what kind of things will the reader know?)
Con’s (What is the down side/the bad part about this point of view?)
Examples (movies, stories, books, etc.)
Sample (rewrite a part of “Eleven” from this POV. Do this is Google Docs and share it with twelshon@jeffcoschool.us
Add to The Chart in Your Journal ~ Point of View
First Person Point of View
Definition and Clues =
Pro’s
Con’s
Examples
Sample (Rewrite a part from “Eleven”)
Add to The Chart in Your Journal ~ Point of View
Third Person Objective Point of View
Definition and Clues =
Pro’s
Con’s
Examples
Sample (Rewrite a part from “Eleven”)
Add to The Chart in Your Journal ~ Point of View
Third Person Limited Point of View
Definition and Clues =
Pro’s
Con’s
Examples
Sample (Rewrite a part from “Eleven”)
Add to The Chart in Your Journal ~ Point of View
Third Person Omniscient Point of View
Definition and Clues =
Pro’s
Con’s
Examples
Sample (Rewrite a part from “Eleven”)
Take Notes in Your Journal ~
Who are the round and flat characters in “Eleven”?
Add to Your Journal:
Indirect Characterization
We learn about characters through:
S = Speech
T = Thoughts
E = Effect on Others
A = Activities
L = Looks