VOLAR

VOLAR

by Judith Ortiz Colfer

Lesson Standards

9.3

9.5 (D)

9.1(A)

9.4(E)

9.5 (G)

9.2(A)

9.2(B)

9.4 (F)

9.5 (H)

9.9 (C)

9.2(C)

9.5 (C)

Lesson Objectives

After an initial reading and discussion of the short story, students will be able to identify and describe character traits and setting details and to make inferences about the roles these play in developing the story’s theme.

Language Objective

I will articulate their understanding of the story's themes and literary elements using appropriate academic language, including literary terms and figurative language.

Learning Intention

Today, we will explore the story "Volar" by Judith Ortiz Cofer to gain a deeper understanding of its themes, tone, and literary devices. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to analyze and discuss the poem's cultural significance and its use of language and symbolism.

Success Criteria

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify the central theme and tone of the poem "Volar."
• Identify and explain at least two literary devices used in the poem.
• Discuss the cultural context and significance of the poem.
• Participate in a meaningful class discussion using appropriate academic language.

Do Now:

What superpower have you ever fantasized about having, and why?

Write your thoughts in the chat.

The Legion of Super-Heroes” was a popular American comic book series by DC Comics, which began in the 1950s. It focused on the adventures of a team of superheroes, with Superboy as the star. The characters came from different planets and together built a multicultural team. The series stands out because the comic book industry has historically lacked cultural diversity. While there have been some Latinx characters, such as Marvel’s White Tiger/Hector Ayala, the first Puerto Rican superhero, the comic book industry has been slow to add new Latinx characters.

Intro

• “Supergirl” was another DC Comic about Superman’s blonde cousin. One of Supergirl’s special powers was flying. Supergirl and the possibilities provided by flight feature prominently in Judith Ortiz Cofer’s short story “Volar,” about an avid young comic-book reader and her mother.
• Judith Ortiz Cofer (1952–2016) was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Paterson, New Jersey, when she was four years old. She spent much of her childhood traveling between the two places until her family moved to Augusta, Georgia, where she attended high school. Her work spans many genres, including poetry, fiction, autobiography, and creative nonfiction, and she received numerous honors and awards throughout her career, including a fellowship at Oxford University and a place in the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. “Volar,” like much of her writing, explores gender relationships in American culture and the influence of her Puerto Rican heritage.

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Intro

Vocabulary

• Avid- eager, passionate

• Ermine- the fur of a small weasel-like mammal

• Incongruous- strange because of being unexpected

• Recurring- happening continuously
• Refuse-anything thrown away as worthless or useless; trash

Within your family, to what extent are imagination and creativity valued? How does this compare to school or other communities you are apart of? Where in our society do you see imagination and creativity accepted or not?

Volar

Relating to the palm of the hand in Spanish

Background

When she was twelve, Judith Ortiz Cofer was obsessed with comics, often spending each day’s allowance on issues of Supergirl. Back then, she would often have the same dream. In it, she’d climb the stairs to the roof of her apartment building, transforming as she went, her limbs growing longer and leaner, and her hair turning blonde. From the roof, she would soar off into the sky, flying high over her barrio, and use her X-ray vision to look in on people who fascinated her. Then, in the morning, she would wake up returned to normal, with her curly hair and skinny legs. She’d lie in bed, listening to her parents talking in the kitchen, not wanting to disturb their private time. She could hear her mother suggest flying to Puerto Rico to visit family, but her father would reply that there wasn’t enough money and he couldn’t take time off work. Then she’d hear her mother coming to wake her.

At twelve I was an avid consumer of comic books— Supergirl being my favorite. I spent my allowance of a quarter a day on two twelve-cent comic books or a double issue for twenty-five. I had a stack of Legion of Super Heroes and Supergirl comic books in my bedroom closet that was as tall as I. I had a recurring dream in those days: that I had long blond hair and could fly. In my dream I climbed the stairs to the top of our apartment building as myself, but as I went up each flight, changes would be taking place. Step by step I would fill out: my legs would grow long, my arms harden into steel, and my hair would magically go straight and turn a golden color. ...Supergirl had to be aerodynamic. Sleek and hard as a supersonic missile. Once on the roof, my parents safely asleep in their beds, I would get on tip-toe, arms outstretched in the position for flight and jump out my fifty-story-high window into the black lake of the sky. From up there, over the rooftops, I could see everything, even beyond the few blocks of our barrio; with my X-ray vision I could look inside the homes of people who interested me. Once I saw our landlord, whom I knew my parents feared, sitting in a treasure-room dressed in an ermine coat and a large gold crown. He sat on the floor counting his dollar bills. I played a trick on him. Going up to his building’s chimney, I blew a a little puff of my super-breath into his fireplace, scattering his stacks of money so that he had to start counting all over again. I could more or less program my Supergirl dreams in those days by focusing on the object of my current obsession. This way I “saw” into the private lives of my neighbors, my teachers, and in the last days of my childish fantasy and the beginning of adolescence, into the secret room of the boys I liked. In the mornings I’d wake up in my tiny bedroom with the incongruous —at least in our tiny apartment—white “princess” furniture my mother had chosen for me, and find myself back in my body: my tight curls still clinging to my head, skinny arms and legs ...unchanged.

In the kitchen my mother and father would be talking softly over a café con leche. She would come “wake me” exactly forty-five minutes after they had gotten up. It was their time together at the beginning of each day and even at an early age I could feel their disappointment if I interrupted them by getting up too early. So I would stay in my bed recalling my dreams of flight, perhaps planning my next flight. In the kitchen they would be discussing events in the barrio. Actually, he would be carrying that part of the conversation; when it was her turn to speak she would, more often than not, try shifting the topic toward her desire to see her familia on the Island: How about a vacation in Puerto Rico together this year, Querido? We could rent a car, go to the beach. We could... And he would answer patiently, gently, Mi amor, do you know how much it would cost for the all of us to fly there? It is not possible for me to take the time off ...Mi vida, please understand. ...And I knew that soon she would rise from the table. Not abruptly. She would light a cigarette and look out the kitchen window. The view was of a dismal alley that was littered with refuse thrown from windows. The space was too narrow for anyone larger than a skinny child to enter safely, so it was never cleaned. My mother would check the time on the clock over her sink, the one with a prayer for patience and grace written in Spanish. A birthday gift. She would see that it was time to wake me. She’d sigh deeply and say the same thing the view from her kitchen window always inspired her to say: Ay, si yo pudiera volar.

Discuss

The author uses Spanish phrases and words throughout the story. What effect does this have on the story?

Based on the narrator’s dream, what can you infer about the landlord?

The narrator stays in bed so that her parents can have time in the morning alone together. What does this show about the narrator?

Venn diagram

You are going to create a Venn Diagram o compare and contrast the ways in which the narrator and her mother are characterized in “Volar.”

Quiz

THANKS