Winning Words Lesson Guide (Adults) Winnning Words Lesson Plan Guide | Page 15

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by Alison Cadogan
Subjects/Themes

death
– child’s resentment at maternal suicide
– grappling with conflicting feelings about maternal suicide
Order of Events as Presented in the Story

– Calli remembers seeing/sees mother in the basement with a knife
– Mother drops girls off at a fair
– Mother walks into the water (sea) and drowns herself
Retell this story from Leilah’s viewpoint.
Motif
Use of implication to tell the story = in the distorted sequence of events;
“Mummy’s gonna be mad” – perhaps she was insane and therefore
committed suicide; implications of title with elipses? = something
incomplete/unfinished? interrupted? frozen partway?
“It goes without saying” / is obvious?
Conflict and contrast
Question/Answer sequence near the end
Spelling: “Calliii” – extra letters to show Leila’s insistence/pleading
1. Diction: “she whinges” [complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating
way.]