Lesson 3: Building Background Knowledge: Understanding Bicultural Identities and Experiences, Part 2

Think-Pair-Share

Directions: Open your Journal to your notes on the poem, “Two.” Share ideas with your partner in response to the prompt:

• Which line from “Two” best demonstrates the poet’s feeling that she is split between two worlds, and what does that line reveal about one of her selves?

Language Study

Directions: Use a 3-column chart to analyze the following lines. Use the left column for noting important word choice, the middle column for summarizing meaning and the right column for explaining the function of the words in the poetry.

“...I swim in a river of white skin”

“I float in a sea of brown skin and black hair…” (p.1)

Reading Connotation and Compression

• How does the contrast between swim and float shape the tone of these lines?

• How do the images of a river and a sea do work that a plain sentence could not do?

• How do the line breaks affect how you read the poem?

Part A: Tracking a Central Idea Across Time

Group Accountability Share

Directions: As you read “Youth: Bicultural Identity: Then & Now,” look for how the author shows both change and continuity. In the first section, notice what bicultural identity looked like for earlier generations. In the later section, notice what has shifted and what has persisted for young people now. Be ready to agree on one central idea sentence with your partner.

Tracing Central Idea Across Sections

A central idea is not just a topic, such as “bicultural identity” in this article. The central idea is what the author wants us to understand about that topic.

• What central idea does the article develop about bicultural identity across generations?

• How does the title phrase Then & Now shape your understanding of the article before and during reading?

Part B: Comparing Two Ways of Showing Duality

Think-Pair-Share

Directions: With your partner, use the Venn diagram to compare how the poem and the article present living between two worlds. Put details from “Two” on the left and details from “Then and Now” on the right. Use the middle column for details and ideas shared between both texts.

Comparing Form, Evidence, and Emphasis

• What idea appears in both texts, and how does each author shape that idea differently?

• How does the poem’s form let LaRocca show a feeling that the article explains more directly?

Quick Write

Directions: Write a short reflection answering this question. Use at least one specific detail from “Two” and one specific detail from Bicultural Identity: Then & Now.

• Is duality a burden, a gift, or both? Explain your thinking with evidence from both texts.