Rigorous! Thought-provoking! Discussion-based! This 20-page EDITABLE curriculum has everything you'll need for profoundly stimulating lessons on Jhumpa Lahiri's extraordinary short story, "A Temporary Matter"! Invite your class to engage in student-driven discussions without compromising on intellectual rigor. The reading quiz, discussion questions, and analytical writing assignment will challenge your students to dig beneath the surface of the text and generate profound interpretive insights!!

Hold your students accountable for completing the homework by beginning class with a quick reading quiz. Then facilitate a dynamic discussion that motivates students to become attached to the thrill generating shared knowledge. Challenge students to explicate textual details using a wide range of interpretive lenses: formalist, psychoanalytic, cultural studies, etc.

Here are some highlights from this 20-page curriculum:

• Reading Quiz: The reading quiz contains 10 questions focused on important details from the plot of "A Temporary Matter." For this story, I chose to create a fill-in-the-blank quiz that takes the form of a summary of the story's plot. There are 10 blank lines within the summary where students are expected to provide a missing word, name, or number. As a result, grading this quiz is simple and quick. Answer key included. (2 pages)

• Discussion Question Handout: One double-sided handout featuring 12 discussion questions on Jhumpa Lahiri's "A Temporary Matter." The discussion questions are the divided into 5 sections, each of which focuses on a different literary element or theme: characterization, setting, sharing secrets, etc. As with all of my resources, the discussion questions are the beating heart of this lesson plan. Every question is grounded in concrete textual details and challenges students to arrive at lucid interpretive insights! (2 pages)

• Discussion Question Answer Key: This unit features a detailed answer key that's informed by many of the best scholarly essays on "A Temporary Matter." But please note that there is rarely a single "correct" answer for any question. Rather, the discussions questions are designed to foster lively exchanges and interpretive debates among students. They challenge students to build interpretive arguments that require the support of carefully selected textual evidence! (8 pages)

• Analytical Writing Assignment: Challenge students to take their interpretations one step further by writing an analytical paper on Lahiri's wonderfully complex story. Let students choose from one of two thought-provoking sample topics — or invite them to develop a similar topic of their own. Rubric included. (4 pages)

My store is called “Rigorous Resources” because all of the units feature rigorous, content-rich lessons guaranteed to boost your students' close-reading and critical-thinking skills. What distinguishes this unit is how the discussion questions and writing assignment are designed to help student arrive at an abundance of interpretive insights!!

This entire unit will come to you in two separate formats: Word doc *and* PDF. Because the Word doc is fully editable, you'll be able to CUSTOMIZE the materials to suit your teaching style and/or your students' skill levels — year after year! If you don't have Microsoft Word, you'll still be able to access the unit as a PDF — which is easy to navigate and quick to print. Click on the green “preview” button to see exactly what you’ll get....

Thank you for choosing “Rigorous Resources”!!

Happy teaching!

Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.

adamjernigan@gmail.com

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