A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan

Link to story: 

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/4ffc7e71e4b036a61fbe24a3/t/52cc19ace4b0a14ddad6dbb7/1389107628306/A+Pair+of+Tickets.pdf

 San Francisco to Guangzhou

Jing Mei's Journey to her half sisters from Guangzhou to Shanghai (about 700 miles)

Rationale for piece: This piece is useful for students to understand their heritage. After we analyzed the story and discussed different themes that are present. I think it would be interesting to do an "heritage" activity where students would research their family trees and find out where they came from. This would take a relatively long time in class, so this would need to be done in an extensive unit. It would take a long time to analyze and then do the heritage activity. I think, however, that students would actually have fun figuring out their background. After everyone has done some research, I would like students to then research the countries the came from. The unit would end with a presentation from each student. I think that this would be fun for students, but also helps them learn more about each other and the varying backgrounds. They could compare it to Tan, and talk about how if they have ever been there and felt themselves "becoming" their certain heritage. I think this would be a new approach to studying literature and help the students see how the stories we read relate to everything they do outside of the classroom.