Elena Valdez

May 9, 2007

English 112B

Dr. Warner

INSPIRATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR OUR

ADOLESCENT YOUTH

INTRODUCTION

Adolescents face many struggles and obstacles in life, whether in school, in the home or in the streets. As a teen, self-identity and peer pressure issues have grown in recent years and the choices have become few for some. Teens need inspiration and need encouragement about real stories that they can easily identify with. �They need timeless themes of troubles with parents, issues with authority figures, loyalty among friends, and the confusion that plagues the mind surrounding moral choices.� (www.eastside dreams.com) East Side Dreams, is a hook for teens who instantly relate to Art Rodriguez�s world and his struggles. This book inspires them to READ whether they are good readers or reluctant readers and to become better at it. More importantly, inspires them to better people and see the promising future that lies ahead.

East Side Dreams by Art Rodriguez is the debut and memoir of a Mexican-American man who survived growing up on the rough side, who survived with a strict father, and who once was an inmate of the California Youth Authority--a prison system for young lawbreakers. Reflections on both happy and miserable times of his childhood, growing up, learning maturity and finally making a comfortable life for himself are revealed in a heartfelt, personal testimony. I choose Art Rodriguez�s life story because his writing is simple but sincere in tone, and the reminiscences and descriptions are powerful and authentic to life. This inspirational story

derived from the memories of a teenager (who is now a mature and successful businessman) touches your heart as you read his passionate book of self-taught lessons. His message for young readers is clear. It is possible to survive and over come injustices and hardships. As a teacher, I truly believe that many young teens are forgetting that aspect of life-that it possible to survive injustices and hardships.

SUMMARY OF HIS LIFE

Growing up in San Jose, California, Arturo Rodriguez and his brothers and sister endured an abusive father, their parents' unhappy marriage, and their father's absence after he returned to Mexico. Rodriguez coped as best he could, but his drinking and drug use, hanging out with friends, fighting, and being in the wrong places at the wrong times led to his incarceration in California's prison system for young offenders-California Youth Authority. Against all odds, he put his past behind him, married and had a family, and worked hard to overcome injustices and start a successful business. This memoir, East Side Dreams, explains how he grew to understand his father and other relatives whom he loved despite their flaws. And, how he overcame all the obstacles and struggles that endured his life while growing up on the east side of San Jose, California in 1966.

LAUNCHING THE UNIT

1. Buy music CDs from 1960�s. Play the song, �Those Oldies but Goodies.� Ask the students to think about the lyrics and what is it referring to? Have them listen to the music that was listened to in the east side which was very different from the west side of San Jose. Compare and contrast the songs/music/lyrics of the two.

2. Before discussing East Side Dreams, ask students what east side San Jose was like in 1960�s. Have photos, maps, music, places of entertainment of that era set up in your classroom. Gather as much resources as you can, the more visual representation the better for those who did not grow up in east side San Jose. One assignment can be to have students conduct an interview with a parent, teacher or another reliable source that remembers San Jose in the 1960s. Maybe they know or heard of Art Rodriguez.

3. There will be students who already heard about Art Rodriguez and his books. This is prior knowledge--use it! Ask them what they know, what they think they know and what they would like to learn.

4. Have the title, East Side Dreams, written on the board or on a overhead. Ask students what this means to them? What are dreams? What is the east side?

5. Have words on the board like: Choices, Hope, Peer Pressure, Gangs, Abuse, and Delinquent , Prejudice or find your words in the book that have meaning or importance to your own classroom.

6. Talk about gangs and peer pressure. What are gangs? What is peer pressure? Were there gangs back then? Are the gangs the same or different from today? Does anyone know someone who is in a gang?

7. Do a poem activity. The � I am� poem we did in class because it is very good for students to help them build upon their self-worth. Read the poem, �Time Somebody Told Me� (have it on transparency for students or a handout) by Quantedius Hall. Have students interpret the poem. What do you think he means? What is the message? Who is the voice?

8. Ask these questions: What are three major transitions the author makes in his life? Are these transitions easy for Arturo? How do the other characters in the novel help What are three examples of how Arturo experiences prejudice? What prejudices does Arturo have? How does he learn not to be prejudice?

9. This novel is also about relationships. Talk about the relationships that the students have with one another and family. Discuss the heartbreaking relationship between Arturo and his father. Have them keep a personal journal with the struggles they might have with a family member or friend.

10. Abuse is a constant occurrence for Arturo and his family. What is abuse? What resources are available to those who are being abused?

EXTENDING THE UNIT

1. Read other young adult novels that have similar backgrounds that students can relate to. Especially, those novels that are true to life or personal narratives that have subjects of interest to the young reader.

2. Do a class project on the history of San Jose. This can be done by doing a web quest or a power point presentation. Find topography maps of what San Jose looked like in the 1960s and locate the places that Art Rodriguez talks about.

3. Make the novel into a play or readers theatre. His novel is basically broken up into short stories of his childhood. Choose one of his childhood memories and make it into script. There is lots of dialogue that can be condense into a short, but powerful play on making the right choices such as joining a gang and being in desperate situations.

4.One of my own students suggested writing a letter to the author and asking him to make his book (or books) into a movie. This student got this idea from the book, The Outsiders, which middle school students in Fresno County wrote to the S.E. Hinton and asked her the same request.

5. Show movies that can relate to some of Mr. Rodriguez�s struggles as a teen such as �The Outsiders�, �West Side Story�, and �Freedom Writers�. Have them do a movie review.

6. If you have the money or your district pays ..invite Mr. Rodriguez to your classroom.

I met him in person recently at a staff development meeting and he is such a gentle man. It was very hard for me to believe this was the same person from this novel.

He is truly a good, powerful speaker that speaks from the heart.

CONCLUDING THE UNIT

Finally, at this end of this unit or journey about facing difficult obstacles and enduring a life of uncertainties. Students will know that there is hope when nothing else seems possible. Students will WANT to keep reading Mr. Rodriguez�s novels and learn the life lessons that he shared while struggling with the same difficulties that overwhelm adolescents. I would ask them to write down and express the difficulties they face and the choices that are sometimes forced to make or freely make willingly.

Find a childhood memory or situation that relates to them in someway and reflect on that. Did they make a different choice that Arturo? What would they do if they were in his shoes? How would they change their life if they had to? DO they see a promising future for themselves after reading his story? And, the most important question to me as a teacher is, DO they want to change their life?

Young Adult Literature Selections

Forgotten Memories by Art Rodriguez: Are your students having difficult teenage years? Do they need help to know life gets better? Travel with Art Rodriguez as he takes you through his teen years. You will see that even though life appears confusing and harsh at times, it does get better. You will enjoy his stories of growing up in San Jose, California. He will take you for a stroll and as he does, you will experience with him fun times and hard times. (www.eastsidedreams.com)

Those Oldies But Goodies by Art Rodriguez: Follow this young adult when he is released from the California Youth Authority. Read and see as he marries and only finds sadness and hurt. Go with him as he becomes a businessman and at the same time toying with organized crime. Does he find the woman of his dreams? Did this young man survive his ordeal with the difficulties of life? If you go through related events in your life, can you endure? (www.eastsidedreams.com)

Buried Onions by Gary Soto: Eddie struggles to avoid gangs in avenging the murder of his cousin. Eddie can always smell onions in the air--the sharp bitter odor of hopelessness and anger that haunts the poor side of Fresno. Eddie tries to escape from the poverty and gang society that surrounds him by taking vocational classes and staying away from his old "cholos," (gang friends). But when his cousin is killed, his aunt urges him to seek out and punish the murderer. To avoid the pressure building in his neighborhood, Eddie takes a landscaping job in an affluent suburb. But this too goes awry when his boss's truck is stolen while in his care. In the end, with his money gone and a dangerous gang member stalking him, Eddie's only choice is to join the military and hope that they can give him a better future than the one Fresno seems to offer. (Annotation taken from Amazon.com)

Petty Crimes by Gary Soto: In this sharply honed collection of stories, Mexican American children on the brink of adolescence are testing the waters, trying to find their place in a world ruled by gangs. Some characters are already on their way to becoming juvenile delinquents. Others have chosen a straighter path. Most, however, are caught somewhere in the middle, swimming against a current of violence. With a rare mix of compassion and irony, Soto crystallizes moments signifying the loss of innocence. His pithy last liners ("The vatos locos walked slowly away, their heads directed toward the future, and their bodies already half dressed for their funerals") will stop readers in their tracks, leaving them to digest the meaning of his words and ponder the fates of his protagonists. (Annotation taken from Amazon.com)

Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. by Luis J. Rodriguez:

Rodriguez wrote this novel for his son, Ramiro, as a warning to stay out of the gang life. This autobiography tells of Rodriguez�s life as a youth and how he and his four friends created many gangs. His life was focused on gangs until a mentor offered him a way out. This novel is a true description of what gang life entails in L.A. It chronicles his struggles, which lead to the gang life style and how he leaves that life behind. Rodriguez gives a voice to a different side of Mexican Americans. He tells a darker story those whose lives have been scared by poverty, racism and violence. (www.luisjrodriguez.com)

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos: In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer desperate for adventure, college cash, and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents finally caught up to them in a bust at the Chelsea Hotel. For his part in the conspiracy, the twenty-year-old Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison. ( Annotation taken from www.jackgantos.com)

Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida by Victor Martin: Dad believed people were like money. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person -- even a ten-, five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies. Fourteen-year-old Manny Hernandez wants to be more than just a penny. He wants to be a vato firme, the kind of guy people respect. But that's not easy when your father is abusive, your brother can't hold a job, and your mother scrubs the house as if she can wash her troubles away. In Manny's neighborhood, the way to get respect is to be in a gang. But Manny's not sure that joining a gang is the solution. Because, after all, it's his life -- and he wants to be the one to decide what happens to it. (Annotation taken from Amazon.com)

WORKS CITED

Freedom Writers. ( 2007). DVD, Richard LaGravenese, director. Starring: Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, et al.

Gantos, Jack. (2002). Hole in My Life. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young

Readers.

Martin, Victor. (1996). Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida. New York: Harper Trophy.

Rodriguez, Art. (1999). East Side Dreams. California: Dream House Press.

Rodriguez, Art. (2007) Forgotten Memories. California: Dream House Press.

Rodriguez, Art. (2005). Those Oldies but Goodies. California: Dream House Press.

Rodriguez, Luis. J. (1994) Always Running: La Vida Loca Gang days in LA. New York: Curbstone Press.

Soto, Gary. (1997). Buried Onions. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.

Soto, Gary. (1998). Petty Crimes. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company

The Outsiders. (1983) VHS, Francis Ford Coppola, director. Starring: Matt Dillion, C.Thomas Howell, et al.

West Side Story. (1961) DVD, Jerome Robbins, director. Starring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, et al.