Lessons for the Classroom on A Long, Long Time Ago

My first group work on Brigid Pasulka's novel - I try to have the students bring together the two separate narratives and to connect them to the life of Baba Yaga.  In other words, how the past and the future of Poland are also a force working on her character as well.  Specifically, I ask the students to tie one chapter to the next (the past and present stories alternate in the novel) - and then ask them to find specific connections that extend across those pages.

This group work covers chapters 29-34 (and 29-40 in a revised edition), and examines the ideas of drifting, restlessness, and hope that occur in the novel.  Students are asked to connect one chapter to the next - and one narrative to the next.   I try to have the questions link to each other and to build on each other as much as I have them link the ideas within the text.  One question asks students to consider the camera that Baba Yaga has on her shelf - and that reminds her of her own life that she feels has also been put on the shelf.