Mexican Christmas Rolls
The book I chose to read for my content area text is entitled Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel. I had originally planned to read this book with my twelfth grade English class during the time I was student teaching. However, the first two books we read took up the entire semester and we never got up to this one. I chose this book from the literature list which the school provided for the twelfth grade level. I had never read or heard of any other pieces by Esquirel, however my cooperating teacher had advised me that this was a good book to choose.
Like Water for Chocolate is a piece of fictional literature. The setting of the story is Mexico, during the turn of the twentieth century. The story focuses on a character named Tita De La Garza, the youngest daughter of the De La Garza family. Although Tita is in love with a boy named Pedro Muzquiz, she cannot be with him because of the fact that her role as youngest daughter, in the Mexican tradition, requires her to refuse marriage and live at home in order to take care of her mother until she dies. To make matters worse, her mother has offered Tita's sister to Pedro and Pedro has accepted.
The story is structured in monthly installments. The story takes place over the span of one year and each of the twelve chapters is titled with one month out of that year. Each chapter also begins by describing a traditional Mexican recipe. Food and cooking are significant to both Tita and the story. In essence, this book is both a novel and a Mexican cookbook.
The author, Laura Esquirel, was born in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1950. Aside from her work as an author, she was also a kindergarten teacher and a screen writer of children’s television shows during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Other works by Esquirel include, The Law of Love (1996), Swift as Desire (2001), and Malinche (2006).
The section of the book which I chose to work with is chapter one, entitled “January (Christmas Rolls)”.
Images
Above I have included three images. I have included these images because my partner, Matt, has stated that he prefers to use the metacognitive strategy- visualizing, when he is reading a text. I thought these images might help him visualize this particular text.
The first image is of the Mexican flag. This story is about a Mexican family and takes place in Mexico. Mexican traditions are very significant to the story. Therefore, I thought this was an appropriate image for this text.
The second image is of Mexican Christmas rolls, which are described in the chapter I am working with. Food is very significant and so is the process of cooking. This is why I chose this particular image.
The third and final image is of the book cover. The book cover illustrates Tita, the main character. In my experience it is nice to have an idea of how the main character looks. This usually helps to better visualize the text. Also, in this illustration, she is cooking, this helps demonstrate the importance of cooking in her life. Lastly, her facial expression is one of agony, this may provide further insight into this character and her struggle.
Rachael,
ReplyDeleteI think your idea of providing a background to the text is so crucial to understanding how one reads. Information about the author, setting, and plot is crucial to understanding what the author is trying to convey. I always found that teachers that utilized this method always got the most out of their lessons.