Peaches by Adrienne Su | CommonLit | Paired Texts

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by Adrienne Su 2015

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

In "Fish Cheeks," which is about a Chinese American girl who feels embarrassed by her family during dinner, Tan explores how culture can be essential to a person's identity.

Pair “Fish Cheeks” with “Peaches” and ask students to discuss how Amy Tan and the speaker of the poem feel at odds with their Chinese identity. What similar experiences do Tan and the speaker of “Peaches” have as children of immigrants? What is the significance of food in the two texts?

6th Grade Short Story 910L

Julia Alvarez

In Julia Alvarez's short story "Names/Nombres," the author explores the various names she has received over the years.

Pair “Names/Nombres” with “Peaches” and ask students what people mean when they ask Julia Alvarez and the speaker of “Peaches” “where are you from.” How do students think this question makes them feel and why?

6th Grade Memoir 960L

Shel Silverstein

In Shel Silverstein's poem "Underface," a speaker describes the face they show to the world and the one that hides underneath.

Pair “Underface” with “Peaches” and ask students to discuss how both poems explore the complexity of identity. How do both poems explore multiple aspects of a person’s identity? What do students think is the speaker’s “underface” and “outside face” in the poem “Peaches”?

Joseph O. Legaspi

In Joseph O. Legaspi's poem "Amphibians," a speaker uses an extended metaphor to compare immigrants and amphibians.

Pair “Peaches” with “Amphibians” and ask students to describe how immigrants are portrayed in the two texts. How does the speaker of “Peaches” describe their parents’ lives in America? How does this compare to how the speaker of “Amphibians” describes the experiences of immigrants? How do students think the experiences of immigrant parents compare to the experiences of their children?

Standing out in the Herd

Cecil Dzwowa

In the informational text "Standing Out in the Herd," Cecil Dzwowa explains how a giraffe came to be a part of a herd of cows.

Pair “Peaches” with “Standing Out in the Herd” and ask students how the speaker of the poem and Toro experience life with two identities. How do these dual identities impact the speaker and Toro? How do both Toro and the speaker in the poem differ from their parents? Could either survive in their parents’ world? Why or why not?

5th Grade Informational Text 890L

Free at Last: A Kurdish Family in America

Karen O'Connor

In Karen O'Connor's "Free at Last: A Kurdish Family in America," O'Connor talks to a Kurdish family about their experiences as refugees.

Pair “Peaches” with “Free at Last: A Kurdish Family in America” and ask students to discuss how both texts explore parents’ experiences coming to a new country. How do the experiences of parents in America compare to their children? Why do students think that parents have a different experience than their children?

5th Grade Non-Fiction - General 830L

Sol Painting, Inc.

In "Sol Painting, Inc.," a young girl faces a new and challenging reality and gains a new perspective of her family and herself.

Pair “Peaches” with “Sol Painting, Inc.” and ask students to consider how the parents provide for their children in each text. How do the children in each text realize something new about their parents? Discuss how the line “Their lives were labor, they kept this from the kids,” from “Peaches” is true in both texts. Why do parents keep their own struggles or realities of life a secret? How does a person’s upbringing affect how they view the world?

7th Grade Short Story 710L