Courtney Alexander

Cisneros, S. (1994). Hairs/Pelitos. New York, NY: Knopf: Distributed by Random House
This book represents Mexican-American culture: showing the closeness of the families,
the use of vivid colors throughout their culture, and is also a book written by a popular

Mexican-American writer.
I feel this book is good for a multicultural library because it is a bilingual book, the
events in the book share about Mexican-American culture, the author is a Mexican-

American woman, and the book is good for showing the similarities between cultures.
I believe this book is so special, for the following reasons: it is beautiful to look at, it is
written by an author who shares the culture that is represented, it reflects diversity even
within a family, and it reveals the tight bond that Mexican-American families usually
exhibit.

Courtney Alexander
Multicultural Book Lesson

Hairs/Pelitos- 2nd Grade Adjective Lesson

Objectives

We will learn how adjectives help readers to visualize what we are writing about.
I will draw a picture of a classmate and write 5 adjectives that describe their hair.

Focus/Anticipatory Set
Go over what the word adjective means. Write the definition on a piece of chart paper.
Ask students to come up with some words to describe your hair.
Guide them with questions such as: What color is it? Is it curly, straight, or wavy? Is it
thick or thin? Is it easily controlled or stubborn? Is it short, medium length, or long?
Give each student (or group of students) a hand-held mirror.
Ask students to observe their hair and come up with words that are adjectives for their
hair and write it on a graphic organizer.
Ask students to share the adjectives they came up with. Emphasize that those words are
adjectives, or words that tell about, their hair.
Point out that while some students may have the same color, type, or length of hair, each
person's hair is unique, or special to them.
Relevancy

The purpose of this lesson is to get students to learn to accept those who look different,
for students to learn a little about Mexican-American culture, and for students to learn
that using adjectives makes it easier for the reader to visualize their writing.

Explanation/Teaching Strategies & Modeling

Tell students that you will be reading them a book about a young Mexican-American girl
who is describing the hair of each member of her family.
Challenge students to pay particular attention to the sensory words (smell, feel, see,
touch) that the author uses to describe the hair of the family members.
Mention that the author, Sandra Cisneros, is a popular Mexican American author who
writes stories that share about the Mexican-American culture.
Read Hairs/Pelitos by Sandra Cisneros, stopping at the end of each page to get the
students to visualize and predict what each persons hair will look like, based on the
descriptions given by the author. (You will have to cover up the pictures prior to reading
the book, in order to reveal if the predictions were accurate.) You might even want to
quickly sketch each prediction, for visual learners.
Teaching: Checking for Understanding

Question students throughout the lesson.

Have students generate more descriptive words/adjectives for each family member in the
book.
Have students generate adjectives for a classmates hair.

Questioning Strategies

Knowledge- What is an adjective?

Comprehension- How do adjectives help our writing?
Analysis- Comparing the family in the book to their own families.
Synthesis- Generating a list of adjectives for a classmates hair.

Guided Practice
Ask students to recall some words from the book that were used to describe the hair of
each family member. Make a list of the words on chart paper/the board.
Go back through the book and have students develop more words to describe the hair of
each family member.
Ask students what they noticed about the family. Then, challenge students to compare
and contrast their families to the family in the book. Discuss what the book tells about
Mexican-American culture.
Closure

Discuss how adjectives make their writing more interesting.

Independent Practice

Have students draw another classmate and write 5 adjectives to describe his or her hair
around the picture.

Materials- Hand-held mirrors, graphic organizer, pencil, book (Cisneros, S. (1994).

Hairs/Pelitos. New York, NY: Knopf: Distributed by Random House), chart paper, markers,
whiteboard, Venn diagram for comparing/contrasting, copy paper.
Duration- 45 minutes-1 hour