Blogger #9, Katherine Lenshin, Period 1, 2/26/20, Day A

 Aim: How can the use of annotations aid in analyzing the figurative language, tone and conflict in “My Name,” by Sandra Ciseneros?

Do Now:

What does your name mean? If you don’t know, look it up.  Do you feel any connection to this meaning?

For the do now we had a class discussion where we shared the meaning behind our names and our affiliations with them. Most students had to look it up. Eleanor’s name meant “bright/shiny light”, and Annies stood for “grace”, which she could relate to because of her open and optimistic nature. My name meant “pure” which I guess I could connect to as I try to be clear and straight-forward, as well as morally correct.

We then watched a video on the purpose and techniques of annotating ‘How to annotate text while reading’. The video had a nice guide to the four benefits of annotating, as well as 11 tips and techniques to annotate a text. The video also covered the idea of annotating, which means to take notes.

4 Reasons Why You Should Annotate:

-It keeps you awake and engaged.

-It helps you process what you’re reading as you read it.

-It slows down your reading, which is good!

-It acts as a bookmark when you need to go back to the text.

Some Annotation Techniques:

-Circle unknown words and look up the definitions.

-Paraphrase each chapter right after you read it. Write only a few sentences.

-Color code your notes. Use different colors for definitions, questions, thought, etc. 

-Write down questions as they arise. No question is too small.

After the video, Ms. Peterson provided some more of her techniques which she has come to use and like. For instance, you can ‘chunk paragraphs’ to separate them by using a sentence to summarize any long bundles of text.

Following the video and additional notes, we had a conversation with our assigned groups about the backstories of our names.

Do you know why your parents chose your name? Who chose it? Were you named after a particular person? Why were you named after him or her?

There were multiple responses, and all participants had something different to add as their name origins all differed. Jonathan’s name was Hebrew, and he was named after a Nathan. Ivan was named after his dad’s grandfather. In contrast, my name had no significant meaning for my family, it just worked in both Russian and English, and sounded fluent. 

Next, the main focus of the lesson was on the spirit reading of “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros, an excerpt of the first chapter from the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

The class took turns reading each paragraph, while everyone had to take some annotations using the techniques we just learned about. We had to annotate for figurative language, diction, syntax, tone, and  anything else that stood out.

*Figurative language: Any use of language where the intended meaning differs from the actual literal meaning of the words themselves. There are many techniques which can rightly be called figurative language, including metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, verbal irony, and oxymoron.

After the reading, we again got split into our groups where we had to discuss and answer two questions. After a given amount of time, the class regrouped and shared out their responses, listening and taking notes from each other.

1. How does Esperanza describe her name using figurative language? Refer to your annotations and cite some examples from the text.  

Esperanza uses multiple types of figurative language when depicting her name. She uses a lot of metaphors when comparing her name to “the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.”. The narrator also uses similes when comparing the grandmother to a chandelier “as if she were a fancy chandelier.” And when describing the pronunciation of her name, Esperanza uses a simile to compare the “syllables which were made out of tin which hurt the roof of your mouth” to describe the struggles people experienced when voicing her name. In addition, personification is used when Esperanza says that her name is uglier than her sister’s. And provides a human trait to an inanimate object, a name.

2. What is Esperanza revealing to us about her feelings about herself, her life and her dreams for the future through the discussion of her name? 

a. How does she establish a conflict of identity? 

She seems to associate the name Esperanza with negative emotions and experiences. However, Esperanza also wants to prove the name wrong, as her grandmother, who shared her name, never had any control over her own life. She was married off, and Esperanza wants to lead a different kind of life, and not sit by the window as her grandmother had. Her life’s goal is to be who she wants to be, a strong independent woman. Towards the end of the excerpt Esperanza she even seems to want to change her name, to better fit her identity and her person.

To end off the lesson, each student had to refer back to the do now and aim, and write about their own name. Taking inspiration from Sandra Cisneros’ writing, we wrote our own ‘Name Paragraphs’, where we had to answer the following bullet points.

• What is your whole name?

• What does your name mean? Share what your name actually means and define what it means to you by using figurative language. 

• Are you named after someone? Who are they and how do you feel about them?

• What does your name remind you of?

• Does your name reflect who you are? 

• Do you wish you had a different name/have you ever wanted to change your name? 

My whole name is Katherine Lenshin. I don’t have an official middle name, although if I required one it would be after my fathers name, so something close to Vladimiravna. My name is a historical Christian name which relates to the associated meaning of pure, clean, chaste. The word reminds me of a dove, a white clean bird, who is free and calm in nature. From my knowledge I am not named after someone, although I do share a name with multiple historical queens, which relates to the name also having a regal meaning. Therefore, my name also reminds me of a queen, and I try acting in a respectable manner worthy of royal ties. I believe my name could reflect who I am, and the fact that there are many nicknames and versions of my name I could change to, to reflect my personality also gives me a sense of freedom and belonging to the name.

A fun place to learn about your names “meaning” from other people is on Urban Dictionary. Here's mine

Reflection on the lesson:

At the end of the day, today’s lesson was very useful in terms of giving me a clearer understanding of the purpose of annotation, which might even encourage me to annotate the texts I read on my own time. I learned some different annotation techniques that will also prove useful in the future. In addition, I learned more about my classmates, specifically their names, and how a name can affect someone. The excerpt “My Name” was encouraging in its message that you can change the history of a name and make it your own. You can choose to live your life the way you want to, and you can form your own identity, separate from your given name if that is what you want. I believe this lesson’s purpose was to give us a better understanding of annotating as well as what the meaning of a name can stand for, and how you can build your own identity. Ironically, this lesson also gave me a personal gain when it comes to learning about the meaning behind my name and how it fts towards me.