Dear Educator,
Thank you for considering integrating the College of DuPage’s 2024 Great Read Series selection into your classroom! Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia may be classified as a fantasy adult novel, but it reads well for a young adult audience. It features a cross-country hero’s journey for the novel’s protagonist, Casiopea, as she learns more about her place within a society that is still recovering from revolutionary upheaval.
The following lessons are offered as suggestions for you to build on when considering integrating this novel into your classroom for your young audience. As a person who has served as an instructor at both the secondary and college levels, I sought to construct lessons that could be easily adapted to your teaching context and classroom needs. We ask if you do any work on genre to not label this novel magical realism. If you would like to learn more about why this is a sensitive issue for authors like Moreno-Garcia, please read her essay "Saying Goodbye to Magical Realism" published with the New York Times.
Please feel free to also refer to the other COD Great Read Series Resources on this website for further reading. I hope you and your students can join us at our various events that build toward Moreno-Garcia’s visit this October 28, 2024.
Best,
Alejandra Ortega
Objectives: Students will learn about the Maya people and the text that provides us with a recording of their myths.
Synopsis: This lesson will be done in two parts.
First introduce students to the Maya people. Use this time to teach students to identify the major cities and civilizations of Maya culture, as well as engage with major aspects of culture, religion, architecture, science, and art. I recommend being mindful of acknowledging the present-day Mayans living within Latin America, including the Yucatán (Casiopea’s home).
Then, introduce students to concepts of myth and mythmaking. This can be used as a launch pad to teaching students about Maya myth and the Popol Vuh. Have students read excerpts of the Popol Vuh to provide context to figures mentioned within the novel (including the death gods and the hero twins).
Students could write a reflection on what they learned about the Maya. (They could use a form of the “I used to think…now I think…” structure from the activities as a culminating discussion approach.) Additionally, students could create a final project in this unit by identifying adaptations of Maya myth within the novel. This could be done as either an individual written assignment or a creative project.
Objectives: Students will be able to understand the structure of the hero’s journey. Additionally, students will demonstrate applications of contemporary approaches to the monomyth.
Synopsis: Introduce students to the hero’s journey and heroic archetypes. Allow students to identify applications of this in other media of which they are familiar.
As you read the novel, have students map out the narrative alongside the hero’s journey structure. This can either be done as you progress in the novel, or after you’ve completed the novel. As they work, encourage them to find ways the novel is subverting the structure to construct a new consideration of the hero’s journey.
Students can create a final product either individually, or in small groups on their mapping of the hero’s journey. (Perhaps this could also be done where different groups are assigned different parts of the hero’s journey, or each group can construct their own diagram of the journey in its entirety.) Ultimately, students will conclude this lesson by creating a chart, presentation, or writing assignment showing not only their understanding of the hero’s journey structure, but also the ways in which Moreno-Garcia shifts the structure for Casiopea and Martín. />Resources
Objectives: Students will be able to explain and identify examples of approaches to point of view. Students will consider how point of view affects the different parts of story while considering alternative perspectives.
Synopsis: Gods of Jade and Shadow is written in third-person, giving us the ability to have insight into multiple characters’ perspectives (including, but not limited to, Casiopea, Martín, and Vacub-Kamé).
Begin by teaching the students about different points of view and have students identify the different forms in other media they enjoy. After students have an understanding of point of view, show them the five parts of story with the Freytag Pyramid, and have them identify areas where we receive a character’s point of view.
Finally, encourage students to have a writing practice where they consider how the story would change if the point of view shifted to another character’s perspective.
Students can be assessed on their accuracy in identifying the parts of Freytag’s Pyramid and the types of POV through either a culminating quiz or through demonstrating accurate application in their group work and individual projects. Students can conclude this unit by working on a creative project that rewrites a scene, demonstrating skills in POV and parts of story application.