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.