Habitacao

Maria’s family had owned and operated the family business for decades. As a little girl, she helped to prepare vegetables, desserts, cleaned the counters, and even helped with customers as needed. Her entire family works at the restaurant in Brazil. Her father, brother, and uncles work the grill and her mother, aunts, and sisters help with the cleaning and waiting of tables. The restaurant is known for their Brazilian barbeque. Habitacao is hung on the wall of the restaurant. This Portuguese word translates to mean comfortable house. This business had always been like home to Maria. What makes a home? Family? Yes, of course her family was here. Her family was here all of the time. But at what cost? The business is not what it used to be. It was starting to not feel like home to Maria.

The men are always telling stories in the barbeque pit about how the family business was more than just a restaurant. The business created more than just food. It created an environment where people could come together and enjoy each other’s company. The customers were like family… a true habitacao. However, when Maria takes a step back and looks around at the tables, she sees a totally different story.

Her family is still working hard. Her mother, working above the barbeque pit cleaning counters and making sure the customers’ needs are met, looks exhausted and empty. Her father at the grill, working tirelessly to be sure that all of the orders are correct, seems as though he is longing for the old days. Now, the orders are more complicated and less appreciated.

The family and neighbors that used to fill the seats to enjoy good food and conversation are now filled with tourists. Even the families and friends that dine here are strangers at their own table. Instead of laughter, cell phones fill their tables. Instead of conversation, rushed meals occur so that the customers can get to the next to-do on their schedule for the day. The customers don’t see the hard work and love Maria’s family has poured into their meal. Instead, they see a bill and decide a fair amount for a tip that still won’t be enough to fix the leaky sink at home or buy Maria’s son the new fancy sneakers he wants for school.

The lovers at the best table in the house should be enjoying a private atmosphere filled with good conversation. Instead of holding hands, they are holding their cell phones. They haven’t noticed the homemade decorations that are hung around them to help make this restaurant feel like home. At the end of a long shift, Maria does what she always does. She stands on her feet, punching in tickets with her handheld calculator, ensuring that customers have the correct ticket and pay the correct amount. At the end of the day, Maria is also counting up the money to see how much profit has been made. The thoughts of her family’s needs flash through her brain with each calculator punch. Exhaustion floods her body. Maria knows that her family is what matters most.

After all, hanging on the walls of the restaurant is that one word. Habitacao. A comfortable house. Where has that house gone? The times have changed since Maria was a little girl. Maria writes that word down at the bottom of her last receipt for the night. Times have changed, but her family has not. She must focus on what matters the most and continue to love the community that has given her family so much.

Photo analyses and photographical sequencing could be extremely beneficial in the classroom. As a second grade teacher, there are several different content areas that these types of exercises could be used to help deliver the curriculum in my classroom. I often use photograph analysis in social studies so that students can critically think about all of the parts of a photograph to depict the time period, context, and environment the photograph was taken in. This exercise allowed me to broaden this idea by adding multiple photographs to the activity. We also focus on a reading standard, RI.9 in which students compare and contrast topics. This could be assessed in several ways, but students could compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the images that are shown.

Two of our science units in second grade include the life cycle of different organisms (S2L1), as well as phases of the moon (S2.E.2). These units came to mind because students could be exposed to different visual sequences before we study the actual units. Students could discuss any similarities or connections they notice among the photographs of either the organism changing throughout a life cycle or the moon changing throughout its phases.

Lastly, these exercises could be very engaging for students to use throughout our writing standard, W1. This standard states that students should be able to write a narrative story. Oftentimes, students struggle with this standard because they cannot come up with an idea for a story. Visual sequences would provide the students a starting point. The visual cues would be beneficial for struggling writers, as well as ESOL students. This could also help students when working on transition words because they would visually see the sequence of the narrative in the photographs. I have listed many educational benefits of analyzing visual texts across all of the content areas. I am excited to implement them in my classroom this August!