Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Lillian’s Dying Wishes”

After reading about Nanabush’s attempts to carry out Lillian’s secret dying wishes, students will make inferences from the text to write the omitted dialogue between the two characters.

Because Taylor does not want readers to know in advance what Nanabush will do, he does not reveal what Lillian asks of Nanabush as she is dying. Once you have finished the novel, though, you should have all the information you need to figure out what her two wishes were.

In this activity, you will write a brief dialogue between Lillian and Nanabush that makes explicit the things she made him promise to do.

• Reread the Chapter 4 conversation between Lillian and Nanabush to review what she explicitly says and where the conversation is obscured because Lillian begins to whisper.
• Write a dialogue between Lillian and Nanabush in which she reveals her wishes and secures his promise to carry out these wishes.
• Your dialogue should be 1-2 pages in length and demonstrate your understanding of

○ Lillian’s wishes for Maggie and Virgil

○ the symbolism of the thunderstorm

○ Lillian and Nanabush’s relationship

○ Lillian’s and Nanabush’s individual characters

Teaching Suggestion: Students should have a good understanding of Lillian’s and Nanabush’s characters and their relationship to one another, but depending on their skill as readers, they may need assistance making inferences about what Lillian asked Nanabush to do, and why. You might prepare a few hints in advance, or you might give students the chance to discuss these points with a partner or small group before they begin to write.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with dyslexia or other learning challenges and those with attentional or executive function issues may have difficulty assembling the evidence they need to make these inferences. Even if you do not have the entire class discussing in small groups before beginning to write, you may wish to allow these students to discuss in advance, so that they are not tasked with gathering all the relevant information by themselves. Students who struggle with abstract thought may not be able to make the necessary inferences without structured assistance—a very literal thinker might deduce that Lillian asked Nanabush to have an affair with her daughter, for example, because that is what he ended up doing. Consider creating a series of leading questions for any students you believe will not be able to make inferences even with all of the evidence in front of them. For students who struggle with written expression, a possible alternative assignment is to record an audio or video version of this dialogue.