Choices: Building Your Portfolio
Salvador Late or Early
Writer’s Notebook
1. Collecting Ideas for an Essay Analyzing a Character
Focus on actions. Salvador seems to be in perpetual motion. If you want to get an idea of the many actions we watch Salvador carrying out, list the verbs that describe him or his movements, beginning with
runs and continuing in the first paragraph with lives, shakes, ties, combs,
feeds. In fact, Cisneros eventually drops the subject of her sentences (Salvador) and just opens with verbs—Salvador’s actions. Take notes on Salvador’s important actions and what they tell about the kind of boy he is. Save your notes for the Writer’s Workshop found in this collection.
Speaking
2. A Dramatic Reading
Prepare Salvador’s story for an oral reading. As a reader, you will have to be aware of effective verbal and nonverbal strategies. Decide when you will pause, when you will raise or lower your voice, when you will read fast or slow. You will also have to decide how you will present your reading to the class. Some dramatic readings are done in costume. Some readers sit on stools; others stand. After your presentation, write a brief reflection on your experience.
Creative Writing
3. A Vignette
Using “Salvador Late or Early” as a model, write a vignette—a short literary sketch or portrait—of your own. Think of a character who will catch your readers’ interest. Then, put him or her into an interesting situation. Use colorful verbs to show readers what your character does all day—early and late.
4. Salvador’s Poem
Suppose someone asked Salvador: “who are you, little i”? (See below). Write Salvador’s answer. You might have Salvador answer in a poem called “i am salvador,” using each letter of his name as the first letter of the first word of each line.
who are you,little i
E. E. Cummings
who are you,little i
(five or six years old)
peering from some high
window;at the gold
of november sunset
(and feeling:that if day
has to become night
this is a beautiful way)
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