Motherhood is a significant topic in Salvage the Bones. The loss of their mother looms large over the Batiste family, China’s motherhood is an important plot element, and Esch herself is grappling with impending motherhood. What is the significance of motherhood in the novel? How does the presence and absence of motherhood impact characters and their relationships to each other? How is Esch connected to her mother and China, and how do these characters guide Esch as she considers her role as a mother?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider providing the above questions before the discussion and encouraging students to come prepared with specific passages from the text to strengthen their points. It may also be helpful to ask students to reflect in writing after the discussion to get a sense of how students have used the discussion to deepen their understanding of this topic.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who need support in organizing and processing information, consider providing students with a graphic organizer to record their ideas prior to the discussion as well as space to record their peers’ observations shared during the discussion. You may want to use sentence frames such as the following: “Motherhood becomes important when…”, “Motherhood seems dangerous/frightening for….