Assignments for To Kill a Mockingbird - CA Edington, Instructor

Lesson 1 – To Kill a Mockingbird

Make study groups of 5 people each. Choose a name for your group connected with the South such as "Camellias" or "The Southern Belles." (You can change the name later, if you want to.)

Find Alabama on this map of the United States during the Civil War:

Retrieved February 10, 2005, from <http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/cwar-pix/civmap.gif>.

What part of the United States is Alabama in?

What are the gray states on the map?

Each person in your group will have tasks connected to the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. One person will find out about economic (money), one person will find out about geography, one person will find out about history, one person will study about law and politics, and one person will find how about culture. Decide who in your group is going to do which tasks. Then write everyone's name next to the job

Economist
Geographer
Historian
Politician
Sociologist

Homework: Find a picture or pictures of a mockingbird.

Why does a mockingbird have that name?

Listen to the sound of a mockingbird.

What is your impression of the sound?

EXTRA: Where do mockingbirds live and what do they eat?

EXTRA: Find the name of a song or a poem with the word "mockingbird" in it.

Useful website: Attracting the Northern Mockingbird

Lesson 2 – To Kill a Mockingbird

Make groups with the other students who did the same task as you (Economists, Geographers, Historians, Politicians, and Sociologists). Share your notes. Add any new information.

Get in your study groups.

Economists explain The Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression. Show classmates examples of U.S. coins.

Geographers report on information about Alabama. Show classmates cities in Alabama, and other states and cities on a U.S. map.

Historians explain what The Civil War and Prohibitionwere. Who is the President at the time of the novel, and what were his famous words?

Politicians explain the Legal Terms for the first 31 pages. Explain your answers to the questions for Chapter 1.

Sociologists report on Clothing and Food.

What did you find out about mockingbirds?

Watch the opening credits of the movie. What are the objects in the box?

Homework:

Read Chapter 1 of To Kill a Mockingbird.

NOTE: You are not required to read most of pp. 1 and 2.
If you decide you want to, you can get help with vocabulary and historical references
at Mockingbird Cultural Literacy Test.

Answer the Questions about Characters.

Watch the Carbon Hill, Alabama, Slide Show. Choose two photographs that make an impression on you. Take notes on the Response to Photographs. Tell your group about the photographs.

Lesson 3 – To Kill a Mockingbird

Compare your answers on the questions to Chapter 1.
(Ask CA for help with any questions your group can't answer.)

Compare your answers to the Questions about Characters.

Start to fill in the Timeline.

Show other students the photograph about the 1930s that impressed you.
Tell them why you think this photograph is interesting.

Listen to Scout's description of the town as you read.
Does it match what you imagined?

Homework:

Read Chapters 2 & 3 of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Continue to answer the Questions about Characters.

Start to work on the Questions about Dialects. (We will continue in class.)

Getting Paid with Potatoes

Go to Farming in the 1930s and click on Walter Schmitt. Listen to his story on getting paid with potatoes and take notes Be prepared to talk with other students in your group about his experience.

Cooties

See a child's view of cooties.

Southern Astrological Signs

Find your Southern Astrological Sign
Fill out the worksheet on Southern Astrological Signs.
During class, find the Southern astrological signs of your classmates.

Developed by CA Edington, Spring, 2005
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan