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Lesson 2: One Dinner, Two Worlds: “Fish Cheeks”
50 min
California CCSS: Focus Standards
California CCSS: Supporting Standards
ELD Standards
Student Lesson
Lesson 2: One Dinner, Two Worlds: “Fish Cheeks”
Student Learning Objectives
1
Content
Students will determine a central idea and analyze how Amy Tan develops it through details and shifts in perspective in “Fish Cheeks.”
2
Language
Students will explain how words connected to identity and emotion shape meaning using evidence-based discussion and writing frames.
3
Foundations
Students will use context and word parts to determine and spell key words from the text.
Essential Question
What is culture, and how does it shape our identity and sense of belonging, especially when we move between more than one world?
Connections to
Knowledge-Building:
Students continue building understanding of bicultural identity by examining how one family scene reveals tension between belonging and home.
Enduring Understanding:
Identity is shaped by many kinds of connections, including cultural and emotional ones, and literature helps us see how these layers come together.
Future Lessons:
Students will carry this idea into Red, White, and Whole as they analyze how Reha is pulled between two selves in the poem “Two.”
Unit Performance Task:
Today’s work prepares students to write a literary analysis explaining how details in a text reveal an important connection.
Lesson Pacing
| Lesson Flow | Purpose of Learning Experience |
|---|---|
Launch5 Minutes | Students will think about duality and connect homework reading to the unit question. |
Literacy Lab10 Minutes | Students will learn how key words in the ending of “Fish Cheeks” shape tone and central idea. |
Learning in Action30 Minutes | Part A: Tracking the Two Selves (RI.7.3) Students will use a literary analysis organizer to connect details from the dinner scene to Amy’s divided identity. Part B: From Shame to Pride (RI.7.2) Students will discuss how the final lines reframe the dinner scene and deepen the text’s central idea. |
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Addressed in Lesson
- different
- not the same; set apart in some way
- shame
- a painful feeling of embarrassment about yourself
Vocabulary for Additional Support
- belonging
- the feeling of being accepted and includedheritage: the culture, traditions, and history passed down through generations
- duality
- having two parts in one, such as “two selves”
- bicultural
- connected to two cultures
Material List
- Unit 4 Lesson 2 Student Edition
- 3-Column Chart Graphic Organizer
- Red, White, and Whole, by Rajani LaRocca
Routines
- Think-Pair-Share
- Morphology & Vocabulary
- Graphic Organizer Deep Dive
- Quick Write
Lesson Sequence
Lesson Texts
Short-Form Text
Fish Cheeks
Amy Tan
Read text
