This is more of a class discussion than an assignment, but it did really help with engagement. I asked students to reflect on just the title of Anzaldua’s “How To Tame a Wild Tongue.” We spent probably 20 minutes thinking about how “tame” relates to “wild”, for instance, and what the implications are within that relationship. We also talked about “How To” as a genre (“it’s like an instruction manual,” a student said), and how thinking about that genre could be useful–or not–for thinking about what the text is trying to say. Really slowing down and thinking about the title’s six words helped some students feel less overwhelmed, I think, and gave them a model for how to read by focusing on specific details and the thoughts and feelings those details provoked.