The author, Elizabeth Acevedo, is a National Poetry Slam champion and her poems have been published in many places. Like Xiomara she uses her voice to reckon with her own silence. Have you ever felt silenced? How do you use writing to discover yourself and your voice? Watch and read this poem, “Afro-Latina” by Elizabeth Acevedo and respond with your own poem that speaks to who you are, where you come from, and what you represent.

Once you have finished revising your peer’s essay, continue to demonstrate your understanding of grammar and punctuation by writing an essay containing all of the grammatical concepts outlined above. your essay should be short, just 250 words, and it can be written on any subject. it should contain an example of parallel structure, an example of every type of phrase and clause outlined in this lesson, an example of two independent clauses connected by a semicolon, and an example of a colon. if you are struggling to come up with an idea for an essay, consider writing it about the themes present in one of the texts you have read already.

Which two pronouns in the paragraph have unclear antecedents? cleaning the closet yesterday i cleaned my closet and dusted it thoroughly. i found receipts in a few of my jeans. i folded them neatly and put them in my drawer. i found an old box decorated with ribbons and a pink bow. it still looked pretty and new. in the bottom drawer, there was a bottle of perfume that mom bought in sweden. the perfume is old, but it still has a fresh, flowery scent. next to the perfume there was an old postcard that dad sent when he visited china.

What key advice did the old-timer give him?