The God of Small Things - Day 12

Greetings! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving break!

Today we'll begin our look at the end of the novel and the book as a whole.

In addition to receiving the two formative pieces of writing, you'll spend time today exploring some of these potential themes:

• Family
• Society and Class
• Versions of Reality
• Memory and the Past
• Guilt and Blame
• Traditions
• Power
• Innocence
• Love 
• Fear
• Identity
• Death and Mortality
• Silence
• Big things / Small things

Special Grandparents Day activity - poetry!

On the day before Thanksgiving, and even for the grandparents who joined us 6th period, you wrote a poem. I gave you a list of prompts to help you generate a list of words you use to identify yourself, including your ethnicity, nationality, religion, talents, passions, interests, names, nicknames, and favorite foods. From that you chose one and then wrote a poem with the title "What It's Like To Be A ______ For Those Who Aren't." The results were excellent - I hope to post a few of them here!

The God of Small Things - Day 11

On the Monday before Thanksgiving break I asked you to gather your thoughts about the section of the book you just read. You completed this set of questions in class and we shared some initial observations. We will use this as a guide when we return from Thanksgiving.

• The God of Small Things - questions for chapters 15-18

Also, I announced revisions to the calendar, including an additional weekend to complete your essay / project for this novel. Check the calendar for your class period for details.

The God of Small Things - Day 10

Today, we had time for in-class reading, and Mr. Rigler or Mrs. Phillips checked in your journals.

Also, Mrs. Phillips’s classes filled out a reflection survey, providing feedback on both the Hamlet unit, and her practices as a teacher.

You can find a link to the survey here: Hamlet / Mrs. Phillips Reflection Survey

The God of Small Things - Day 9

Today, we talked about the #hashtags you came up with in your groups to link characters’ concerns to major themes.

Also, we completed an in-class writing assignment about the character Velutha. You can find a link to the Velutha writing assignment here: Velutha Ch. 8 Writing Assignment

After completing the writing assignment, we discussed how other characters view Velutha, and his role in the novel overall.

The God of Small Things - Day 8

Today you'll share the drawings you created with your group. We'll first look at the ones from chapter 6, and then the ones from chapter 8. You'll use this sheet (or your notebook) to keep track of details from other groups.

• Chart for chapters 6 & 8 illustrations

Then we will turn our attention to this list of themes. With your group you will explore the ways in which two different characters potentially connect with them.

• The grotesque (fantastically ugly or absurd; unnatural; bizarre)
• Loss of innocence
• Silence / making noise
• Big issues lurking below the surface
• Subconscious connections between characters
• The Love Laws
• Big Things and Small Things
• How information we’ve learned previously about a character reappears and helps shape our understanding of that character

The God of Small Things - Day 7

Happy Monday!

Today you worked with your group to use the Rules of Notice to create illustration of two characters in two different scenes. Here is a link to today's handout.

• Rules of Notice - Illustration activity

The God of Small Things - Day 6

We started today with some writing about childhood friends - people we knew back when we were 3-6 years old. This can include neighbors, people you knew from different programs, cousins you saw only at special events, or just about anyone of a similar age as you at the time.  After that you wrote about a specific story / experience you shared. Then I asked you to identify particular lessons / thoughts you take away from those early experiences.

For the weekend of reading, I recommend you look back at pages 70-75 for background information about Velutha.

The God of Small Things - Day 5

Close look at opening moments of chapter 4

• Rahel, Ammu, and Baby Kochamma in HERS
• Estha in HIS

We used this handout in our look at the "Rules of Notice" - things readers do and skills to continue to improve upon to become a stronger reader

• "Rules of Notice" - The God of Small Things

You worked in small groups to examine the challenging scenes in chapter 4 - Estha's encounter with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, and the scene in the lobby afterwards when Ammu yells at Rahel

The God of Small Things - Day 4

On Monday (1st and 6th period) or Tuesday (8th period) you worked in your groups to explore an assigned character and theme from chapters 1-4. This sheet contained guiding questions for you, and included the study guide questions from the reading day at the end of last week.

• The God of Small Things - group work for chapters 1-4

Then we worked to create a basic timeline of events, as we have them so far:

<------- (1969) ------------------------------------------- (1992) --------->

1969

• Family drives to Cochin airport
• The Sound of Music and events at Abhilash Talkies theater
• Sophie Mol's death
• Estha "Returned"

1992

• Estha "re-Returned" back to Ayemenem
• Rahel returns to Ayemenem
• Baby Kochamma and Kochu Maria live at the family home
• Check lives in Canada
• Ammu is dead

The God of Small Things - Day 3

For the first 40 minutes of class today you read silently.

Then you got into your new groups for the last 15 minutes to work through the questions on this handout:

• TGST Chapters 1 & 2 study questions

Over the weekend please be sure to keep up with the reading - check the calendars posted under the "TGST" tab.

The God of Small Things - Day 2

I started class today by reading the poem "The Writer" by Richard Wilbur

• "The Writer"

Then  you each wrote a poem about yourself as a writer, trying to use figurative language like Wilbur does in his poem. I gave you a list of nouns and asked you to use 1 or more of them in each line of a 6-8 line poem.

• Nouns for metaphors / similes

Next I gave you this handout as a way of looking at Roy's use of figurative language in the opening pages of the novel. One side of the handout is a matching game, the other side are the answers.

• Matching game

Lastly we looked at the opening pages of the novel together to explore the ways in which Roy incorporates figurative language into her descriptions of the setting and introductions of the characters.

The God of Small Things - Day 1

After you shared your creative projects for Hamlet we will turn our attention to our next book, The God of Small Things.

You'll have a new small group to work with, and for today you will complete this background research project.

• The God of Small Things - background research project
• Research - 1st period
• Research - 6th period
• Research - 8th period