Life is filled with choices and those choices determine how your time is spent. By planning in advance, the time given can be used effectively. This week’s readings took me to Latin America where magical realism was first introduced into literature. Magical realism is when magical elements are introduced into a realistic storyline. In “And of clay are we created” by Isabel Allende, there is an urgency of time. A young girl is trapped in a mud pit and the world watches as her situation continues to grow dire as time passes. Time drags on endlessly leaving everyone around her feeling helpless. The choices of Rolf Carle are undermined by the choices of others. He desperately needs a pump to help save this girl, but resources are limited, and government officials chose to send those resources to others. Jorge Luis Borges explains in the short story “The garden of forking paths”, that time is infinite. The Labyrinth in the story is a metaphor for time and how the outcomes of timelines change by each decision we make. We are each given the same amount of time every day, but our ability to finish our tasks depend on the choices we make. By choosing to go left a person is faced with different obstacles than if they chose to go right. Dr. Albert explains to Yu Tsun that time is a never-ending cycle with endless possibilities. The characters are continually on the same path but within separate timelines. The choice Yu Tsun makes at the end, ripples throughout the future and affects many lives. Had Yu Tsun selected a different path the outcome of the story would have been very different. We all get the same amount of time a day, how will you choose to spend yours?
Painting by Tomek Setowski, 1961
Lesson 1 - Understanding magical realism
1 - Share the above video with students.
2 - Ask students to discuss what they think when they hear the word magical.
3 - Provide magical realism short stories for the students to read.
Example of stories to share are:
I speak of the city by Octavio Paz
Central Park by Octavio Paz
Walking Around by Pablo Neruda
And of Clay we are Created by Isabel Allende
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges
Death Constant Beyond Love by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
4 - Have them write a 250-word essay comparing and contrasting two of the stories.
Lesson 2 - Develop Time Management skills. The full lesson can be found here.
1 – Introduce the concept of time management.
2 – Hand out time management worksheet to your students.
3 – Share this video on time management with your class.
4 – Break into small groups to discuss strategies learned. 5 – Have students record their time in a time-log for one week.
6 – Discuss the strategies they used
during their week of logging.
Readings for Topic 6 - Latin American Literature: Realism and Magical Realism from Norton Anthology of World Literature.
I speak of the City and Central Park by Octavio Paz, Volume 2
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges, Volume 2
Walking Around by Pablo Neruda, Volume 2
Death Constand Beyond Love By Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Volume 2
And of Clay we are Created by Isabel Allende, Volume 2
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