2-WEEK UNIT PLAN: Collected Stories of Gabriel García Márquez
Enduring Understandings:
 The context of Marquez within the Latin American Boom literary movement
 Magical realism's characteristics and critics
 Representation and interpretation of magical realism in art and film
 The impact of publishing post-colonial literature
Skill Goals: Students will...
 Be able to think critically about cultural, historical, and political contexts of literature
 Develop an understanding of how to approach literary criticism
 See a connection between literature and art as forms of expression
 Develop close reading skills (looking at not just broad themes, but also voice, word
choice, etc.)
Essential Questions:
 How do Márquez's works comment on truth and perspective in history?
 How can literature preserve culture and tradition?
 How may magical realism have been influenced by prior literature? What is its legacy on
following literature and art?
 What authors and forms does Márquez draw on to create his narratives?
Pennsylvania Department of Education – Academic Standards for Reading, Writing,
Speaking, and Listening in Literature and Composition
 Purpose of reading: apply appropriate strategies to analyze, interpret, and evaluate
author's use of techniques and elements of fiction for rhetorical and aesthetic purposes
 Vocabulary development: Analyze textual context to determine or clarify the meaning of
unfamiliar or ambigious words and to draw conclusions about nuances or connotations of
words
 Comprehension and interpretation: Demonstrate comprehension/understanding of a wide
variety of appropriate literary works from different cultures and literary movements,
including classic and contemporary literature
 Fact and opinion: Distinguish among facts and opinions, evidence, and inference across a
variety of texts from public documents and all academic content areas by using accurate
information and supporting arguments
 Essential and nonessential text: Examine the author's explicit and implicit bias and
assumptions, beliefs about a subject, use of fact and/or opinion, and/or the author's
argument or defense of a claim as related to essential and non-essential information
 Analysis and Evaluation: Examine the impact of diverse cultures and writers on the
development and growth of literature. Describe how an author conveys intent and
perspective in contemporary and historical writings.
 Literary elements: Analyze the relationships, use, and effectiveness of literary elements
(characterization, setting, plot, theme, point of view, tone, mood, foreshadowing, irony,
and style used by an author in a genre
and more...TBC
Broad Overview:
Students will read 3-4 stories from Big Mama's Funeral and 3 stories from The Incredible and
Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother. Each class will be led by 2
student presenters, who are responsible for the story of the day.
Lesson prior to starting the unit:
 Hand out packet containing materials for this unit:
1. quotes from various sources and Márquez on magical realism
2. unit schedule, directions for reading response journals
3. tips and guidelines for leading class
4. description for final creative project
5. Gabriel García Márquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1982)
6. reading response journals
7. vocabulary list from “Big Mama's Funeral”
 Explain expectations for all assignments that are assessments. This includes the reading
response journals (collected for completion), leading class discussion (combination of
self and teacher evaluation), final creative project (teacher evaluated), vocabulary quiz,
and class participation. Allow room for questions, comments, and concerns.
 Transition into asking students when and in what context they might have heard of
Márquez (prior to this lesson, a half-sheet of paper was handed out with the questions:
“Have you heard of the name Gabriel García Márquez before? If so, when? What do
you know about him? Have you read any of his stories? If so, which ones?
 Depending on what students respond with, fill in the gaps about Márquez's life and major
works, plus a brief introduction on what magical realism and isn't
for 11-2
 After this introduction, students are given a choice between hearing the story “One of
These Days” read out loud, or reading Márquez's Nobel Prize speech on their own
 Students end up choosing to listen to “One of These Days” and are prompted to think
about: Who are the characters in the story? What do we learn about them, what don't we
learn about them? What kind of town does this seem like? What do the mayor's last
words mean?
 Having heard the story read out loud, the students have a minute to think about what they
just heard, and respond with any comments, keeping those guiding questions in mind
 I, as the teacher, help to point out how these elements could be considered magical
realism
Week 1
Day 1 “Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon”
Objective(s): Students will...
 Examine power and identity within this story
 Consider the value of art, and where that value comes from and its subjectivity
 Connect Márquez's Nobel Prize speech to this story
Agenda:
 Explain that each presentation will be videotaped; ask for a student volunteer to film
 Student-led discussion: summarize the story, summarize from the first-person perspective
of Balthazar, discussion questions for the whole class

I help to transition the discussion to talking about Márquez's Nobel Prize speech in
relation to the character of Balthazar and the choices he makes and conflicts he faces
 The following are questions that should be covered throughout the class, either through
the students' presentation, or through my addendums:
 How does each character value Balthazar's birdcage differently?
 Describe each character's point of view and each one's valuation of the birdcage.
 How and why do their different perspectives and interests conflict?
 Who has power and control in this story? Who wins in the struggle for power?
 How is the conflict resolved? What kind of violence occurs in this story? What is the
result?
 What is Marquez saying about the meaning of a birdcage and the man who made it?
 Closing activity: meet with partners to discuss strategies for presentations after
participating through the first one
Homework: read “One Day After Saturday”
Day 2 “One Day After Saturday”
Objective(s): Students will...
 Analyze the theme of religion and where it can be applied and misapplied in literature
 Consider the events in “One Day After Saturday” in relation to contemporary events
 React to a story that does not have a conclusive ending or answer to its mystery
Agenda:
 Hand-out self-evaluation forms for presentations and give directions on what to do with
these
 Student-led presentation: opening questions, discussion questions, showing of a youtube
video on recent mass bird deaths
 I probe students to think about what has been going on recently with animal
deaths/eschatology and the possibility of the apocalypse, drawing on their past
coursework in religion
 I also draw on films, Hitchcock's The Birds and An Education, both films from the 60s or
depicting the 60s, to illustrate how these superstitions might have been more than
cultural/limited to Márquez's writing. Again, drawing the parallel that the sensationalism
that can come with lack of information is still an issue today.
 Major questions to be covered during this class are:
 What is the widow Rebecca oblivious about? Be specific. Why does she go to the
Mayor and what is the outcome?
 What is the Father oblivious about? Be specific. For the priest, “it would have been
a surprise to discover that he was dead.” What brought him “back to life a little”?
 Why is the priest critical and suspicious of the widow?
 Why is the widow critical and suspicious of the priest?
 How do you interpret the meaning and impact of the card the priest found in the
rector's book: “Madame Ivette est morte cette nuit”?
 The boy who gets off the train is the third oblivious character in the story. “Until his
20th birthday his life was not essentially different from a few changes of position in
his hammock” (181). What specifically were his first contacts with reality?
 The Father decides “that the birds' collective death needed expiation” (184).
Expiation is ritual to cleanse sin. What is his thinking and what does he do?

The widow Rebecca decides, “Now I understand why the birds are dying off” (187).
What is her thinking and what does she do?
 What is your thinking about the meaning of the dead birds in this story?
 Remind students to start thinking about their creative final projects
Homework: read “Artificial Roses”
Day 3 “Artificial Roses”
Objective(s): Students will...
 Consider how limited perspectives can cause a story to be confusing
 Analyze how intentional lack of information affects Márquez's story
 Recognize specific motifs and symbols and determine their significance (or lack thereof)
Agenda: this class ended up being completely student led
 Student presenters began with general questions about the story
 After several questions, they split students into 4 groups of 4, with 2 groups talking about
the story from the perspective of Mina, and the other 2 groups talking about the story
from the perspective of the grandmother
 The two Minas and the two grandmother groups then met with each other (the same
perspective), and tried to reach a larger group conclusion
 The whole class then came back together with the large Mina group and the large
grandmother group each sharing theirs ides
 The class was then split into 6 groups of 2-3 people and each group was assigned a
symbol: coffee, artificial flowers, dead mice, sleeves, keys, and the letters
 Each group then shared what they talked about in regards to the symbol, ending with a
discussion on what all of these symbols could mean
 Key questions that should be covered during this class include:
 What do you think Mina's secret is?
 Why doesn't she receive communion?
 When Mina's grandmother warns her, “If you want to be happy, don't confess with
strangers,” what different meanings could she have? What role does the grandmother
play for Mina?
 What about the box of dead mice?
 Trinidad brings it, saying they were caught in the church. Mina asks her grandmother
to identify what they are. And Mina disposes of them in the toilet. Do you think they
are connected with Mina's secret?
Homework: read “Big Mama's Funeral”
Day 4 “Big Mama's Funeral”
Objective(s): Students will...
 be able to identify the forms /different manifestations of power that are present within
this story
 Analyze the significance of having a framed narrative where the narrator is visible both at
the beginning and end of the story
 Synthesize themes within the stories read thus far in preparation for creative writing
projects
Agenda:
 Key questions that should be covered during class:



Death can make power visible in Marquez's Kingdom of Macondo, and Big Mama's
death is the extreme example. List as many of Big Mama's kinds of power as you
can.
This story begins and ends with its narrator visible, telling the story. Why does
Marquez frame the story in this way? This story is framed as “the true account of Big
Mama.” (197) and “The only thing left then was for someone to lean a stool against
the doorway to tell this story, lesson and example for future generations, so that not
one of the world's disbelievers would be left who did not know the story of Big
Mama...?” (214)
Why does Marquez suggest that Big Mama's photo is that of an unidentified person?
(206) By what means is Big Mama made into a legend? How does her legendary
status change her into a deity “ageless and pure, distilled by legend”? (209)
Homework: read “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”; study for the vocabulary quiz; begin
work on creative final projects
“Big Mama's Funeral”, by Gabriel García Marquez (revised lesson)
Purpose: To scaffold students to generate themes from multiple short stories in preparation for
group presentations.
Enduring Understandings:
 Marquez's usage of exaggeration and satire in the character of Big Mama
 Big Mama's role within a corrupt political system that is reflective of the Latin America
context that Marquez was writing in
Objective(s): Students will...
 be able to identify the forms /different manifestations of power that are present within
this story
 Analyze the significance of having a framed narrative where the narrator is visible both at
the beginning and end of the story
 Synthesize themes within the stories read thus far in preparation for writing homework
Essential Questions:
 How is power physically depicted?
 How does the blending of religion and politics relate to corruption?
Assessment: I will collect their questions/noticings that were assigned as homework, and also
Materials:
 Collected Stories by Gabriel García Marquez
 notebooks/paper
Activities/Detailed Plan:
Introduction (5 minutes)
 Students should have written down 3 questions/noticings for homework, and will discuss
with their partners while I go around and take attendance
Development (30 minutes)
 Students will be asked to share what they wrote down for homework
 The questions and noticings will be written on the board
 Students will examine all of the questions/noticings and come up with common themes
 Students will defend and argue for which 4 themes also apply to the stories they have
previously read
 Students will decide which theme they would like to work in a group on (4 themes, 4
students per group)
 I will then hand out a sheet of expectations and requirements for group roles and an
outline of what their presentation should include
Closure (10 minutes)
 Students will have the remaining time to meet with their groups and figure out roles, as
well as a time to meet outside of class to work on the presentation
 I will check in with groups during this time
Homework: Students will work with their groups on presentations.
Week 2
Day 5 “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
Objective(s): Students will..
 Consider meta-story elements that affect analyzing the story (“A Tale for Children”)
 Synthesize previous discussions on religion in Márquez's stories to inform an analysis of
this story
Agenda:
 First 20 minutes of class: vocabulary quiz
 Hand out and explain guidelines and expectations for creative final projects
 Student-led discussion on “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
 Ran out of time – ended class with assigning sides for the debate question: Is the old man
an angel or is he not an angel?
Homework: read “Death Constant Beyond Love”
Day 6 “Death Constant Beyond Love”
Objective(s):
Agenda:
 wrap up with a five-ten minute debate from the previous class
 15-20 minute student presentation on art and magical realism
 second half of class will be devoted to student leaders, their agenda is as follows:
 20 words or fewer summaries in pairs
 Music Video
 Discussion of the Video
 Relation between video and story
 What images from the video could you use to illustrate the story?
 How do people negotiate power over each other? Why do we do this?
 Quote discussion in groups of three
 Knowing when death will occur
 What makes a love story?
 Is this really a love story?
 Last 5 minutes of class: hand back vocabulary quizzes, explain protocol for getting halfcredit back
 REMINDER that final projects are due at the start of class the next day
Homework: work on final creative projects; read “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”,
vocabulary quiz corrections
Day 7 “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”
Objective(s):
Agenda:
 Collect creative final projects
 Student-led discussion on “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”
 If the discussion finishes early, instead of focusing on this story, I will expand it to what
they have been discussing and learned in the past two weeks
Homework: prepare writing on a comparative essay between at least two group presentations
Day 8 Last day of class before the end of term – sharing of final creative projects
Objective(s): Students will...
 experience multiple interpretations and perspectives from their peers on the Márquez
stories they have been reading
 synthesize major themes that they have discussed between these stories
Agenda:
 Sharing of projects
 Film clips if there is time
 Collecting response journals; last collecting of self-evaluations for presentations
Homework: none! End of the term!