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Text Analysis – “Geraldo No Last Name” from
The House on Mango Street
Close Reading
Grade Eight
Skill Focus
Levels of Thinking
Remember
Understand
Close Reading
Reading Strategies
Annotation
Inference
Apply
Grammar
Analyze
Composition
Analysis of a Text
Meaning and Effect related to syntax
Literary Elements
Character
Detail
Diction
denotation
vocabulary
Tone
Materials and Resources
• “Geraldo No Last Name” from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Time Frame: A week, possibly longer
Lesson Introduction
Day One: Hand out copies of the text
• Read it aloud to class or ask a volunteer to read. Ask the students to highlight and annotate
the text as it is read aloud. You may want to read the text aloud more than once.
• Divide the class into small groups who will discuss the text to decide what the piece is
about. Each student in the group will write three inference questions about the text.
Day Two: Form a large group
• Give each group an opportunity to tell what the piece is about. (Members of other groups
may disagree, but ask them to wait their turn and write questions or comments.)
• Give everyone the opportunity to speak and to ask the questions they have written to be
discussed by the large group.
Day Three: Detail and Inference Practice (in student activity) small group exercise
Day Four and Five: In-Class Writing Assignment (described in student activity section). If two
days are not needed for writing, use the second day for peer scoring of the paragraph, using a
rubric the teacher has created
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Close Reading
Question One: Describe Geraldo, using the details in the passage. Tell what the details reveal
about him.
• green pants and Saturday shirt
• no name, no address
• rented two-room flat
• didn’t speak English
• worked at a restaurant
• he went north
• weekly money orders sent home
• not from this country
• nothing in his pockets
• they met at a dance
• ones he left behind are far away
Inference: No one knew who he was, but there was much to know
Question Two: Explain Marin’s feelings as they are described in this passage. List and
comment on the details in the passage that support your inferences about her feelings.
• likes to dance
• somebody she didn’t even know
• met that night
• last one to see him alive
• hours and hours
• out at 3 AM
• surgeon didn’t come
• lost so much blood
• sent her home with “jacket and aspirin”
Inference: She was disturbed and upset.
Question Three: Sandra Cisneros’s style in “Geraldo No Last Name” is characterized by a
combination of complete sentences mixed in with sentence fragments. How does this syntax
reflect the nature of the story?
• The sentences are choppy and interspersed with fragments like one’s thoughts when
something is disturbing.
• The syntax creates an atmosphere of chaos, possibly helplessness.
• The style is conversational but like random, disjointed thoughts.
Question Four: Answer Cisneros’s question: What does it matter?
• …that we don’t know his name
• …that the surgeon didn’t come
• that the ones he left behind will wonder
Student answers will vary.
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Close Reading
Teacher Notes for the Writing Assignment
Some suggested responses to the questions in the writing assignment are included as teacher
notes herein.
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Text Analysis – “Geraldo No Last Name” from
The House on Mango Street
Close Reading
Grade Eight
Small Group Practice with Detail and Inference
1. Number each paragraph of the selection from The House on Mango Street.
2. Have the group’s recorder divide a sheet of paper into two columns.
3. Label the left column Details and the right Inference.
4. Find all of the details in the text and make an exhaustive, numbered list for each paragraph.
5. Write the following inferences in the right-hand column:
• He is dead.
• She is upset.
• He is from another country.
6. Find the details that support the inference and list their numbers below the inference.
In-Class Writing Assignment
Write a fully developed paragraph in response to each of the following four questions.
You may use your notes from class discussion and your annotated text.
Question One: Describe Geraldo using the details in the passage. Tell what the details reveal
about him.
Question Two: Explain Marin’s feelings as they are described in this passage. List and
comment on the details in the passage that support your inferences about her feelings.
Question Three: Sandra Cisneros’s style in “Geraldo No Last Name” is characterized by a
combination of complete sentences mixed in with sentence fragments. How does this syntax
reflect the nature of the story?
Question Four: Answer Cisneros’s question: What does it matter?
• …that we don’t know his name
• …that the surgeon didn’t come
• …that the ones he left behind will wonder
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Close Reading
Close Reading
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