Unit Rationale

In 2015, Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature.  Her monumental oral history Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets was published in translation this year (2016).  I have provided here a sketch of a mini-unit that would allow advanced high school or early college students to approach one chapter of the book.  I have also included (in the tabs above) lists of vocabulary and names in the reading.

This unit assumes the teacher has a copy of Secondhand Time, and that s/he can make copies of the first chapter for students.

I designed this unit to respond to the following essential questions:

• How do people respond to rapid political change?
• How can writers represent multiple perspectives in one work?
• What contradictions did former Soviet subjects face as the Union crumbled?

I am a language arts teacher and envision using this unit with 11th or 12th grade students; it could also have a place in a history classroom.  As tensions between Russia and its neighbors (and, by extension, the United States through NATO) grow, American students need a better understanding of the complex history of the region and of the emotional reactions that shape leaders' decisions.

Furthermore, Alexievich's work deserves study for its literary merit.  She weaves many voices together in a narrative that challenges both fiction and non-fiction forms.  Themes like salami and kitchens knit hundreds of interviews together in a masterful stream-of-consciousness approach. I quote from her narrative to describe her technique:

I didn't realize right away that I should turn on the tape recorder so as not to miss this transformation of life--everyday life--into literature.  I'm always listening for it, in every conversation, both general and private.  Occasionally, my vigilance flags-a "fragment of literature" may sparkle into sight at any moment, even in the most unexpected places. (pg. 377)

Studying this transformation will, I hope, allow students to connect story and history in innovative ways.  A possible cumulative activity would require them to create their own oral histories, interviewing family members or friends to understand how people might respond differently to the same event.

Day 1: Introduction

Journal Prompt:  NEWS FLASH! The United States is collapsing!

• Why might this collapse be happening?
• Who would be affected by this crash?

Lesson goal: Students will understand the timeline of the Soviet Union's collapse and connect it to U.S. history.

Discuss the journal prompt with  students.  You might record responses in a chart or on the board.  Then explain that the USSR actually did collapse, and that citizens of the Soviet Union had to cope with many intense changes in a very short period of time.

Distribute the guided notes and ask students to look at the timeline along the side.  Ask if anyone can identify why those dates might be important; most students should be able to recognize 1941 and 1945 (beginning and end of WWII for Russia), and if you have been studying the USSR, they may also recognize 1917 and 1991.  The rest of the dates will become obvious during the presentation.

The attached PowerPoint highlights some of the relevant historical background to help students understand excerpts from Secondhand Time. Every two slides has a moment for a Write/Pair/Share in the form of a thought question connecting the Soviet experience to the American experience.

The final slide has an exit ticket for use with an index card.

Guided Notes

Note: Fake news generated at Newspaper Clipping Generator

Day 2: Oral History

Goal: Students can define oral history and articulate why it is an effective way to capture moments of great change.

Text focus:  Secondhand Time pages 19-32

Journal Question: What do you think an oral history is?

After students write for a brief period, discuss to arrive at or near the following definition: technique of interviewing witnesses to an event and recording their words directly.

Alternatively: Have students watch the following video focusing on Secondhand Time and write answers to the questions "How does Alexievich write her books?" and "Why does she use oral history?"

Hand out copies of Chapter 1: Snatches of Street Noise and Kitchen Conversations (pages 16-38) to each student.  Teacher should have students skim the text and identify the following text features:

• Headings: explain topic
• Ellipses: show where words or phrases have been left out
• Dashes: indicate a change of speaker
• Footnotes: give information specifically for English language readers, explain concepts that a Russian reader would probably know but Americans probably do not
• Italicized paragraphs: direct statements from the author, not from interviews

Think-aloud: Teacher may want to read aloud the first two pages of the chapter, modeling how to use footnotes and using context clues to interpret unfamiliar vocabulary. 

Small groups or individual work:

Instruct students to divide a piece of notebook paper in four parts.  Assign students to read pages 19-32.  While reading, they should fill the four parts with notes:

1. List five changes that Soviet people experienced through the fall of the USSR.
2. List three questions you have.
3. Draw a picture of an image from the text.  Write the relevant quotation underneath it.
4. Explain three ways the oral history is different from a newspaper article.

Day 3: Polyphony

Objective: Students will be able to identify how the text represents multiple viewpoints.

Text focus: Secondhand Time pgs. 19-32

Introduction: Have students get into groups of 3-4 students and get out their assignment from the previous day. They should ask their questions to the group. After 4-5 minutes, return to a whole class setting. Ask each group to submit their unanswered questions to teacher and whole class.

Make a connection: the first chapter returns to the kitchen over and over again as a motif. What might the most symbolic room of an American home be? Why?

Write or project the Nobel committee's statement about Svetlana Alexivech on the board:

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".

Discuss this word "polyphonic," noting its roots of many-voiced.

Look at three concepts from the text using a "guided release" model (teacher models, students work in groups, students work independently).

• How does the text represent multiple views of capitalism?
• Possible quotations

• Capitalism descended...90 rubles became 10 dollars.  It wasn't enough to live on anymore. (page 19)
• The black marketeers and money changers took power. Contrary to what Marx predicted, after socialism, we're building capitalism. (Page 23)

• Capitalists are fat and scary--that's what they'd been telling us since we were little kids...[She laughs]. Our country was suddenly covered in banks and billboards. A new breed of goods appeared. Instead of crummy boots and frumpy dresses, we finally got the stuff we always dreamed of: blue jeans, winter coats, lingerie, decent dishware... (page 27)

How does the text represent multiple views of Gorbachev? Find three or four quotations and discuss them in your group.  How do these different views relate to what you know about Gorbachev from history class or previous discussions? What is the overall impression you get of Gorbachev from this chapter?

Individual work/ check for understanding: How are books and reading represented from multiple viewpoints? How did the fall of the Soviet Union change attitudes towards books? Respond to the question by writing two paragraphs that discuss at least three quotations.

Day 4: Executioners and Victims

Goal: Students will understand the complexity and difficulty of the former Soviet citizens' relationship to the USSR's bloody past.

Text focus: Second hand Time pages 32-38

There are some obscenities in this section of the text to handle as the teacher sees fit.

Journal prompt: Write about a time when you or someone you loved was betrayed. How did you feel?  Do you still talk to the person who betrayed you?

Usually I have a short time to share responses to journal prompts; with this particular topic, I would be very cautious in asking students to share. 

Explain that many Soviet people had lived through and participated in a particularly brutal dictatorship under Stalin. Read aloud pages 32-33 with the students, asking them to write down the betrayals they hear about in the text. This section addresses a man's discovery that his dad's neighbor and niece informed on him, resulting in a prison term from which he never returned.

This section is very dark and will require some unpacking with the students. Teacher may want to address the role of fear and the need for self-preservation. I would probably discuss the McCarthy hearings at this point.

Make a connection:  Ask students to write down an episode from America's past that betrayed our ideals. Does that episode make them sad to be American? How do you separate ideals from inconvenient facts?

The next several pages of text, with brief snippets of dialogue, lend themselves well to impromptu theater.

Before reading, draw attention to Alexievich's explanation of context for these sections (at a May Day parade).

Number the lines of dialogue and assign a line to each student; have them stand up and come to the front of the room as they speak to imitate a gathering mob.

After reading, have students return to their seats. For an exit ticket, ask them to explain three contradictions Soviet citizens face(d) in dealing with their past.

Day 5: In-class Essay

Students will demonstrate their learning by writing a five-paragraph essay response to one of the following questions. A good response will have at least three quotations correctly incorporated.

1. What changes and challenges did citizens of the former Soviet Union face as the USSR dissolved? Include a connection to a challenge or change that Americans have faced.

OR

2.  How does Alexievich use the genre of oral history to represent multiple voices? How does the polyphony of the text affect its meaning?