Dominicana

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Ana’s Obituary”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of context and characterization by writing an obituary for Ana.

When Ana is grieving over her brother’s death, one of the ways she copes is through writing imagined obituaries—including her own. Now that you have finished the book, what do you imagine her real obituary might someday say?

Gather Information

• Make a T-chart.
• On one side, list evidence from the text that demonstrates what Ana’s hopes and dreams are and details that show what kind of a person Ana has matured into by the end of the story.
• On the other side, list any obstacles that might get in the way of Ana achieving her hopes and dreams.

Write the Obituary

• Look at some examples of obituaries so that you know what kind of information they usually contain, how they are structured, and what tone they generally use.
• Use the information in your T-chart to write an obituary for Ana. You can imagine any future for her that is logically consistent with the information in the text and what you know about the real world.

Share and Reflect

• Share your work with a partner.
• Write a paragraph-length reflection about how your writing choices differ from your partner’s—what do your choices show about you as a reader, as a writer, or as a person?

Teaching Suggestion: This assignment offers students a creative way to write their own epilogues to Ana’s story, demonstrate their understanding of her character and her circumstances, and practice writing in a new format. However, for students who have recently been affected by a death the primary aims of the assignment can be fulfilled by having them simply write a more standard epilogue. Students will benefit from access to example obituaries in order to successfully format their work. If your students do not have internet access in class or if you are concerned with whether they are mature enough to independently research obituaries, you might present them with a few pre-prepared examples.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with anxiety-related conditions or who have depression may be adversely affected by reading and writing obituaries. If you have students in this situation, you might allow them to write standard epilogues instead. English language learners, students with dyslexia, and those with attentional or executive function differences might be allowed to work with a partner or small group to fill out the t-chart, to reduce the amount of text they must review while looking for evidence.