THE CIRCUIT

SETUP

Show the kids at least half of this 4-minute video of strawberry picking, so they can see how it’s properly done.

Note that the berries must be chosen for just the right ripeness, and packed with care into the plastic packaging.

Point out that workers are running to and from the trucks because they’re paid by volume per hour—more berries in a shorter time pays better. A reporter who tried strawberry picking for a day thought he was doing pretty well at two flats per hour, despite his sore back and exhaustion. Then he found out he’d have to pick five flats just to make minimum wage.

DIRECTIONS

Once you’ve shown the kids how to pick, have them crouch down and pretend to pluck berries as they move down an imagined row (e.g., wall to wall or any 20-30' space).  They won’t get far before they realize it’s much, much harder than it looks. Those who make it to the end of the "row" and back will be feeling it. And they’re not outside in the heat, or dealing with bee stings, rats, snakes, pesticides, or many other hazards! (For other hard facts and deeper detail about risks, here's a 2022 study of California farmworker conditions by the University of Merced's Community and Labor Center.)

Now ask them to imagine doing that all day long. Farm workers today spend long hours bent over rows of low-growing produce, often in extreme heat, and most suffer from chronic back pain. Tell your kids they have the power to help make positive changes even now, as children.

One of the most poignant scenes in The Circuit is when Papá gives Mamá the handkerchief she had wanted him to buy from the man whose wife had made it. That couple had so desperately needed the 25 cents they were asking, but Papá had said no at the time, because he couldn't afford it.  Somehow, later, though, he'd made it work. It's a scene where we see that a little can go a long way into the heart.

On the other hand, the sadness the kids felt about only getting candy for Christmas is heartbreaking.  To symbolize the poverty and the love that supersedes it, have the kids tie up a handkerchief of candy with a ribbon, as a gift for their own mom or another special woman in their lives.


SUPPLIES

• embroidered white cotton handkerchiefs

• ribbon

• brightly wrapped chocolates—we like that these are called Promises (Mama probably wouldn't want strawberry candies, but they too would make an excellent connection to this story)

• paper for writing the excerpt—we haven't included the excerpt in our printables, to respect the copyright, but you could have the kids handwrite it out to create the tag—besides, they'll remember it longer that way:

At dawn, my brothers and I scrambled to get the presents that had been placed next to our shoes. I picked mine up and nervously tore at the butcher-paper wrapping: a bag of candy. Roberto, Trampita, and Torito looked sadly at me and at each other. They, too, had received a bag of candy. Searching for words to tell Mamá how I felt, I looked up at her. Her eyes were full of tears. Papá, who was sitting next to her on the mattress, lifted its corner and pulled out from underneath the white embroidered handkerchief. He tenderly handed it to Mamá, saying, “Feliz Navidad, vieja.”- Ch. 6

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First, explain to the kids that character is  what people have come to expect of you, based on your actions. 

Though Francisco Jiménez grew up to earn a Ph.D in Latin American Literature from Columbia and to win many prestigious awards for his teaching and writing, he has made it very clear, in The Circuit and elsewhere, that character matters more than experience or education. His own character was developed in large part by the adults who taught him, and not just at home and at school, “I have learned a lot from people who are well educated, who are teachers and university professors,” he says. “But I’ve also learned a lot from people like Gabriel [the man who refused to plow like an ox] who don’t have a formal education. And dignity is a lesson I learned from him.” 

DIRECTIONS

Read the scene in Chapter 10 wherein Gabriel refuses the contratista's order to pull the plow. Ask the kids to name at least two important things that were at stake for Gabriel (at a minimum, his family's welfare and his dignity). Hold a discussion about the repercussions of keeping and losing each of those.

Why did Gabriel choose to refuse the plow, even though the cost was so high?

Not every character lesson is so clearly delineated. To help kids see the other character lessons “lived out” in this story, ask them for adjectives describing Francisco's family: patient, hard-working, sharing, kind, persevering, unselfish, etc.  Have each student write these out, with examples from the story, or make this a class, partner, or group discussion and writing activity.

SETUP

At the Santa Maria dump, Francisco finds a little blue notepad, a librito in which he writes things he wants to learn or remember:

I was behind in English, Miss Martin's favorite subject. Every day she would write a different English word on the blackboard and ask the class to look it up in our dictionaries as fast as we could. […] So I got the idea of writing the words down in my note pad, long with their definitions, and memorizing them. I did this for the rest of the year. And after I left Miss Martin's class, I continued adding new words and their definitions to my note pad. I also wrote other things I needed to learn for school and things I wanted to know by heart, like spelling words, and math and grammar rules. I carried the note pad in my shirt pocket and, while I worked in the fields, memorized the information I had written in it. I took my librito with me wherever I went.  -Ch. 11

When Francisco loses his blue notepad in the fire, he feels he has lost his education. But as Mamá tells him, the knowledge is still in his mind—and he's learned the value of writing things down. Later, to memorize the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Francisco rewrites the entire thing in his new, black pocket notepad. 

(To help kids understand the precious meaning of the Preamble, your might want to pause here to do our "Right to the Heart" paraphrasing worksheet.)

So have your kids rewrite the Preamble too, in their own new, black pocket notepads:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   

They'll appreciate the fact that they aren’t just rewriting a well-known paragraph as a copy exercise; they're actually doing exactly what Francisco did.  And not a fictional Francisco, but a real one, the real author, in real life. Someone for whom that Preamble had had extra valuable meaning. This imbues writing time with a reverent quality, creating a quiet mood of respect and diligence.

“Doing what Francisco did” helps kids keep his purpose in mind, too: to memorize it for recitation. In our own classroom, when the kids finished, several of them asked if they could recite the Preamble, which inspired the others to try and do the same.

A whole room full of students eager to recite from a critical American document?  And all without “making” them do that? YES!! That’s the power of The Circuit.

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This project begins with a “fishbowl of friendship,” evoking the little minnow Francisco rescues from a puddle, and its home in a bowl with his neighbor’s goldfish, El Angel del Oro. The bowl gets covered with copies of the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, which Francisco had been ready to recite when the U.S. Border Patrol officers entered his classroom.

Over this text, thematic words from the story are collaged, such as compassion, family, equality, and sacrifice.


Then a single strawberry is planted inside the bowl, while you talk about the hard work of harvest and all the summers Francisco and his family spent bending over these plants in fields throughout California—the long days that whole families still spend bent over crops. Your kids can eventually transplant the strawberries outdoors, then use the collaged bowl as a pencil holder. As such it will serve as a reminder of how important education was to Francisco (and still is—in fact, he’s a highly esteemed, award-winning professor).  

TALKING POINTS

Besides the many talking points mentioned and linked above, our "Big Ideas Bowl" layers lots of big concepts: 

• friendship (the bowl)

• circuits and cycles (the shape, the plant)

• farm workers and migrant life (the strawberry plant/transplant)

• freedom and independence (the Preamble text)

• big-hearted ideas (the theme words)

• unity (the way it all comes together as one—as should we!)

• education (the pencils, after the strawberry is gone)

SUPPLIES

• 4" goldfish bowls 

• collage papers (Preamble and theme words), write your own or use those in our printables set 

• parchment paper (for printing collage papers)

• Mod Podge

• scissors

• strawberry plants

• potting soil

DIRECTIONS 

1. Cut or tear the Preamble into 1-2″ pieces.  (Cringe cringe!  Remind yourself it’s just a copy!) It will be easier to cover the curves using smaller pieces.

2. Cut or tear out the theme words.

3. Paint or smear ModPodge on the bowl one section at a time, then cover with the Preamble pieces. 

4. Top that text with the “theme words.”  By the time you’re all done, no glass should be showing (except on the bottom and inside). Your kids will have fun getting pretty messy with this, using their fingers to get the whole bowl covered in goo and the papers glued down.  

5. Cover the entire project with a thin layer of ModPodge, which will dry clear and prevent loose flappy corners or wrinkly gaps. 

6. When the bowls are dry, set the plants inside and surround them with potting soil. Water the plants but not too much, as there’s no hole in the bottom for drainage. 

Tell the kids that once they’ve enjoyed tending their plants for a bit, and have soaked up all the symbolism, the strawberries should be transplanted to a sunny pot or to a garden spot. These plants will remain fruitful year after year, making a complete circuit from season to season.

At that point, the fishbowl will become a pencil jar, representing friendship, education, and the power of words—including the words that fill this powerful book.

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TALKING POINTS

California crops used to be harvested mainly by immigrant Chinese workers in the late 1800s, followed by Japanese, Filipino and, more recently, Mexican laborers. The history worksheet in our printables set gives an overview of the Bracero Program.

Ask the kids what comes to mind when they think of farm workers, or take this quiz together as a class.  Talk about the conditions they work in and the challenges they face.  Growing and harvesting crops takes a lot of muscle and sweat in all kinds of weather, right? So it’s not surprising that most of us think of strong adult men. But the truth is that across the United States our food is harvested by a work force that includes hundreds of thousands of teens and children. (You might want to share this 5-minute video about children working in the fields.)

Farm workers face so many serious issues, and there are many ways to help make a difference. Or perhaps there’s another population of deserving but under-served workers in your area, such as those in factories, mines, or other low-paying, labor-intensive industries. If your kids are inspired to effect change, as ours were, encourage them to volunteer, donate goods, and/or raise money as a class or group project.

You can discuss the narrative arc in any of these three ways; we've found the first to be the most engaging, because it breaks up the discussion into bite-size chunks.

1. Introduce the concept of the narrative arc up front, but save the story's scenes to discuss as you go, pausing to "do what the characters did" in fun hands-on ways, while weaving in discussions and other worksheets.

2. OR introduce the concept and complete the worksheet before the activities, so kids have a review of the story fresh in their heads first, and you can remind them "where we are" on the arc as you go.

3. OR at the end of your activities, introduce the concept, then help kids figure out where the different parts of this story fit on it.

The narrative arc worksheet in our printables set summarizes the story by plot point, and has kids fill in some blanks.