Day 6

Title: Sold and Figurative Language

Week 2/3

Day: 6/15

Standard

I can statement

Checking for Understanding

W.11-12.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

W.11-12.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

I can develop and organize clear and straightforward writing which is appropriate for a specific task, purpose, and audience.

I can develop and strengthen my writing by planning, revising, editing, and rewriting.

I can address what is most significant for a specific purpose or audience.

Free Write: Write about a time you’ve felt trapped in first person and present tense. That means that you are using the word “I” and pretending like it’s happening right now instead of in the past. This can be real or fake. This can be a physical, mental, or emotional trapping. Try to use as much detail of what this place looks like, smells like, tastes like, etc. Who is there? Who is missing? What will you do to escape?

Revision: Include at least three different figurative language devices in your writing. Highlight them so I know where to find them.

Lesson

Silent Reading

Students will read a book that they checked out at the media center for 20 minutes.

Mini-Conference

I will meet with students to go over their goal that they made in their Google Form survey, and to follow up on the book they chose in the media center. I want to know if they like it, what’s happening in their book, and what challenges or successes they’ve had with reading or writing in class.

Mentor Text

As a class, we will read Sold by Patricia McCormick. We will discuss their thoughts and opinions on this piece.

Free Write

Students will be told the following: Write about a time you’ve felt trapped in first person and present tense. That means that you are using the word “I” and pretending like it’s happening right now instead of in the past. This can be real or fake. This can be a physical, mental, or emotional trapping. Try to use as much detail of what this place looks like, smells like, tastes like, etc. Who is there? Who is missing? What will you do to escape?

Figurative Language Review

Given a Figurative Language Cheat Sheet, students will be given 8-10 minutes to go over figurative language terms and definitions independently before preparing to play our Figurative Language Game.

Figurative Language Game

Students will be split into groups of four and will be given a literary term and a task. Students will have to act out, sing, define, or draw their literary term according to the task they’ve been assigned. Students can use their cheat sheet for this game.

Revision

Students will be instructed to do the following: Include at least three different literary devices in your writing. Highlight them so I know where to find them.

After revising, students will share their revisions with a peer, and I will ask for one or two volunteers to share with the class by writing their before and after sentences on the board. If it is incorrect, we will revise it together.

I'm wiping the makeup off my face when the dark-skinned

girl comes in.

"What do you think you're doing?" she says.

"I'm going home."

Her tear-shaped eyes grow dark.

"There is a mistake," I tell her. "I'm here to work as a maid for

a rich lady."

"Is that what you were told?"

Then Mumtaz arrives at the door, huffing, her mango face

pink with anger.

"What do you think you're doing?" she says.

"Leaving," I say. "I'm going home."

Mumtaz laughs. "Home?" she says. "And how would you get

there?"

I don't know.

"Do you know the way home?" she says.

"Do you have money for the train?

Do you speak the language here?

Do you even have any idea where you are?"

My heart is pounding like the drumming of a monsoon rain,

and my shoulders are shaking as if I had a great chill.

"You ignorant hill girl," she says.

"You don't know anything. Do you?"

I wrap my arms around myself and grip with all my might.

But the trembling will not stop.

"Well, then," Mumtaz says, pulling her record book out from

her waistcloth.

"Let me explain it to you."

"You belong to me," she says. "And I paid a pretty sum for

you, too."

She opens to a page in her book and points to the notation

for 10,000 rupees.

"You will take men to your room," she says. "And do whatever

they ask of you. You will work here, like the other girls, until

your debt is paid off."

My head is spinning now, but I see only one thing: the number

in her book. It warps and blurs, then fractures into bits that

swim before my eyes. I fight back tears and find my voice.

"But Auntie Bimla said -- "

"Your 'auntie,' " she scoffs, "works for me."

I understand it all now.

I blink back the tears in my eyes. I ball my hands into fists.

I will not do this dirty business. I will wait until dark and

escape from Mumtaz and her Happiness House.

"Shahanna!" Mumtaz snaps her fingers and the dark-skinned

girl hands her a pair of scissors.

This Shahanna leans close and whispers to me, "It will go

easier on you if you hold still."

There is a slicing sound, and a clump of my hair falls to the

floor. I cry out and try to break free, but Shahanna has hold

of me.

Mumtaz draws back, the jaw of the scissors poised at my

neck.

"Hold still," she says, her teeth clenched. "Or I'll slice your

throat."

I look at Shahanna. Her eyes are wide with fear.

I stay very still, looking at the girl in the silver glass. Soon

she has the shorn head of a disgraced woman and a face

of stone.

"Try to escape with that head of hair," Mumtaz says, "and

they'll bring you right back here."

And then they are gone, leaving me alone in the locked-in

room.

I pound on the door.

I howl like an animal.

I pray.

I pace the room.

I kick the door.

But I do not cry.