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Lesson 2: Building Background Knowledge: Understanding Bicultural Identities and Experiences, Part 1
California CCSS: Focus Standards
California CCSS: Supporting Standards
ELD Standards
In this lesson
Today you will
Determine a central idea and analyze how Amy Tan develops it through details and shifts in perspective in “Fish Cheeks.”
Explain how words connected to identity and emotion shape meaning using evidence-based discussion and writing frames.
Use context and word parts to determine and spell key words from the text.
Essential Questions
What is blood, and how does it work as a symbol of both family ties and our shared humanity?
What is culture, and how does it shape our identity and sense of belonging especially when we move between more than one world?
Texts used in this lesson
Novel
Red, White, and Whole
Rajani LaRocca
Short-Form Text
Fish Cheeks
Amy Tan
Read text
Lesson Sequence
Think-Pair-Share
Directions: In Lesson 1, we compared poetry and prose and started talking about the idea of duality: feeling as if you have “two selves.” Today, we are looking more closely at how Amy Tan illustrates duality in “Fish Cheeks.” This will help us get ready to explain how a writer uses details to reveal identity in our final literary analysis. Use the Think-Pair-Share routine to discuss your Journal entries; share one detail that shows the narrator wants to belong and one detail that shows she is connected to home. Then talk about why both details matter.
What detail did you find in “Fish Cheeks” that shows the narrator wanting to belong, and what detail did you find that shows the narrator’s home self?
Morphology & Vocabulary
Directions: The final paragraphs of “Fish Cheeks” are key to understanding the essay. We are going to slow down and study the last sentence of the story to help us understand the meaning of the dinner scene. Write down the words, different and shame in your personal dictionaries. Look up each word in a dictionary and write a definition in your own words.
“You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
Using Word Meaning to Unlock Central Idea
Use these related words to help you talk about being different or feeling shame. As we review them, pay attention to what each word means.
different
differ (to be different)
difference (a quality that is different)
shame
shameful (bringing shame)
ashamed (feeling shame)
What does it mean to be different? Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or neither?
What does it mean to have shame? Is it a good feeling, a bad feeling, or neither?
What does it mean when Amy’s mother says that her only shame would be to feel shame? What did Amy seem to feel shame about?
How do the words different and shame work together to help you understand the true meaning or theme of the essay?
Check for Understanding |
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In your Personal Dictionary, write different and shame, mark the word parts in different, and add one sentence explaining how one of the words helps you understand the ending. |
Part A: Tracking the Two Selves
Graphic Organizer Deep Dive
Directions: Use your 3-Column Graphic Organizer to record evidence that answers the following prompt:
How does one dinner scene reveal so much about Amy’s duality?
Modeling Literary Analysis with a Pattern of Details
Directions: Work with your partner and add at least two more details from different parts of the essay. Use at least one of today’s words, different or shame, in your analysis.
Which details from different parts of the essay reveal Amy’s two selves, and how do those details build the central idea?
Pulse Check |
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Which statement best explains how Tan develops the central idea that identity can feel divided when someone is trying to belong?
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Part B: From Shame to Pride
Think-Pair-Share
Directions: We have discussed how the final paragraphs reframe the dinner scene. You have recorded details from the essay and made notes explaining what they reveal and how they connect to the central idea or theme. Now, work with your partner to discuss the prompt and draft a short response to the following question.
What does the mother’s final advice make Amy understand about the dinner and about herself?
Reflection | |
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Use the Reflection routine to reflect on your ability to explain how the ending of “Fish Cheeks” changes the meaning of the dinner scene with two details from the text | |
Quick Write
Directions: When you can trace details across a text and explain what they mean, future reading and writing get easier because you are doing more than finding evidence, you are building an interpretation. Write 2–4 sentences in response to the prompt, using at least two specific details from different parts of the essay to support your thinking.
What central idea about identity or belonging does Tan develop, and how do at least two details build that idea?