57 pages 1 hour read

Pam Muñoz Ryan

Esperanza Rising

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2000

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Before Reading

Reading Context

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How do you mark the passage of time? Do you count weeks, months, seasons, years? What are some other ways to mark time or talk about how much time has passed that you have heard of or learned about—either from ancient societies, your family culture, or cultures other than your own?

Teaching Suggestion: Throughout the novel, Esperanza refers to time based on what fruits or vegetables are in season while she works at the company camp. This is a change from her normal way of counting years, and it is deeply embedded in the structure of the novel. This question is meant to engage students in some outside-the-box thinking about time and changes over time. Students who need some prompting to think about this question might benefit from the resources below.

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