Lesson Overview 

The Quiz 

As always, you want to quiz the students on the reading.  If they haven't read - nothing else matters that you do.   I've included the quiz for Chapters 14-15  below (the Chapter 13 quiz is found in the last lesson).

Class Discussion - Chapter 13 to 15

Though the students have already discussed Chapter 13 in the previous lesson's Group Work - it really needs to be brought into the Final Discussion.  Now that they've finished the book - they may even have changed their perspective on that Chapter (and many other things.)  I've included a transcript of my hand-written notes for this Ring-Master Teacher Discussion (though not quite - you want to make sure you save time to go around the entire room and hear from each student about their "take-away" from the novel.  Here is a summary of my Discussion Notes:

My lesson guide covers the final discussion of Song of Solomon, from Hagar's death in Chapter 13 through the novel's last page. It opens with the chapter I tell students makes me cry, the way All Quiet on the Western Front does. Students first look at Guitar's attempt to rescue Hagar and what it reveals about him: his tendency to objectify women, and the contradiction of insisting no one can own a man while calling a woman "mine." From there the discussion turns to what Hagar truly needed, a normal life with structure, which neither Pilate nor Reba could give her. The double meaning of "no wonder" frames her as a young woman with no wonder left in her.

The next section follows Hagar's desperate shopping spree and its collapse. Students discuss the image problems Hagar faces and whether they still exist for their own age group. They also consider the perfume she buys against the natural "smell of wonder" the novel associates with ginger. Her ruined purchases and salt-water tears connect to Milkman's own journey, which happens at the same time and also leads to the sea. The funeral is examined next. Pilate's cries for mercy, her elephant-like interruption that makes the unspoken known, and her insistence that Hagar was loved are tied back to the red rose petals at the hospital.

In Chapters 14 and 15, the focus shifts to Milkman's discoveries in Virginia. Students retell the story of Jake and Solomon, then weigh Ryna's grief against the ways Milkman left Hagar behind. They follow his return to Shalimar, his urge to swim and fly, and the power of names and blues songs. His encounter with Pilate in her basement leaves him with Hagar's hair as his inheritance. The key question of the lesson asks what giant realization Milkman makes about Solomon: that flying off meant leaving a family behind, just as he left Hagar.

The lesson closes with Pilate's peaceful acceptance of death, the burial of her father's bones, and one last scent of ginger from the green bag. It ends with an open discussion of the novel's final scene: the two birds, Pilate's last words, and what Milkman does when he leaps. Throughout, the guide keeps several recurring threads alive, including flight, leaving and being left, the color green, ginger, salt water, and the weight of names and inheritance. Time permitting, the class ends by reading the folktale "The People Could Fly" and discussing it together.

Student Take Aways

After the discussion, it's time to hear directly from the students.  They were instructed in the last class to bring in one comment, question, or quote that is their "take away" from the book.  Even saying how they felt about reading it - as long as they are specific is fine.

The People Could Fly

This folk tale - both the Julius Lester version and the Virginia Hamilton text (in the form of a children's picture book) makes a great way to end this book.  This is the same story that sets all of the action of this book into motion.  Slaves are able to find a way to learn how to fly and to escape the horrific life they are leading on a plantation - echoing what happened to Milkman's own ancestor, Solomon.