These lessons will cover the time in the novel when life really begins to get hard for Rukmani and her family. Here you may find lessons discussing themes revolving around why Ira has returned home. You also may find lessons that seek to address the following questions: What role does the tannery play in Rukmani’s new found poverty? How does her family handle the hardships? What role does prostitution play here?


Jeffrey Proctor LESSON: Symbolism of the weather

Materials needed: overhead projector/chalk/whiteboard, markers/chalk

This lesson will fulfill Michigan English Language Arts Content Standards 2.2.3 and 3.1.1.

Objectives: Students will be able to define the weather in terms of moods by the end of the lesson. Students will be able to set an emotional tune of a story by the end of the lesson.

Introduction: Not before in the story is weather an issue – everything is fine and the family has food. However, we can see how the weather influences emotions. What does the introduction “It was a dark and stormy night” make you feel? (Show on overhead a comic of Snoopy writing his famous lines, “It was a dark and stormy night.”) (5 minutes)

Procedures/Activities:
1. Right now, I’d like you to write five sentences to introduce five different stories using the same style. (10 minutes)

2. Let’s read some introductions and get some feedback on what emotions are in the sentences. (create list on board of type of weather and emotional response). (10 minutes)

3. Life in developing nations is dependent upon the weather. If there’s too much water, then the crop dies; if there’s not enough water, then the crop dies. Kenny often berates Rukmani because it is the custom to collect dung for use in the house instead of letting the nutrients go back into the earth. Can anyone think of topics in American history in which fields were overworked? (Dust bowl!) How dependent are we on the weather? (15-20 minutes) (Topics to address: forest fires in California, floods through Louisiana, hurricanes through South Carolina)

Closure: So now, we can check out the weather and figure out what’s going on, at least for the majority of the people. So what are people feeling if… it’s 110 degrees and dry out? It’s 72 and sunny? It’s negative 40 and windy? It’s raining nonstop for four days? It’s gray for three weeks straight? (10 minutes)

Katie Beagle, Struggles in the Work Force, Grades 8-11, 60 Minutes

Objectives: This lesson is designed to inform students about the issues that poverty creates. Students should have an understanding the problems that people living in Third World countries face. One of the most important factors that effect people in poverty is the type of work that they take on. Students will examine and be able to critically analyze the importance of the jobs that the characters in Nectar in a Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya, take.

Michigan Standards: 2.1, 3.2

Goals: The goal of this lesson is for students to gain an understanding of the types of jobs that people in Third World countries are faced with and why they have to take this low paying, terrible jobs.

Procedures: 10 Minutes: Introduce students to the activity. Each student lives in India. This can be modern times. They will each be given a profile. In this profile will include their martial status, possible family, age, religion, and most importantly occupation. Each student will randomly be given one of these cards. Have them study it, then divide them up in the classroom based on their occupation. For example, in one corner of the room is the stone quarry, so everyone who works at the stone quarry goes to this corner. The same thing with a tannery, prostitution, farmers and have one or two landowners.
20 Minutes: Each group (each occupation) will come up with a written description of what their lives are like. They will describe their work, how much money that they have, and how difficult (or not difficult) it is for them to get by on their salary.
15 Minutes: Groups will then share with the class what they have come up with.
15 Minutes: For the last few minutes of class we will discuss what we have learned through the activity. Students should see how difficult living in poverty is and why these low paying jobs exist.


Assessment: Students will be assessed on participation and on the group writing that they will turn in at the end of class. Emma Farr