To Kill a Mockingbird: A Teaching Guide

The challenging level focuses on a variety of reading strategies to help students construct a meaningful literature experience as well as develop critical thinking and academic skills.

Table of Contents

Notes to the Teacher
About the Organization of This Literature Guide

o Chapter Pages
o Strategy Pages
o Tests
o Writer s Forum Pages
o History of Social Thought Pages
o Theme Pages

The Groupings of Literature
Introducing the Literature
Sample Lesson Plan
Quick Find Legal Vocabulary

Book Order
Alphabetical Order

Quick Find Chapter Index
Bibliography
Note: The chapters in this book are untitled: the phrases after each title are placed as guides

Part One:

Strategy 1: Beginning a Book
Strategy 2: Marking a Text

Chapter 1: Dill Arrives

Strategy 3: References and Allusions Consulting Outside Sources
Strategy 4: Plot The Design of a Story
Strategy 5: Forming Hypotheses
Strategy 6: Rhetorical Figures

Chapter 2: Scout s First Day of School

Strategy 7: Characterization
Writer s Forum 1: Description
Strategy 8: Plot Conflict
Writer s Forum 2: Journal

Chapter 3: Walter Cunningham and Burris Ewell

Strategy 9: Irony
Strategy 10: Point of View
Writer s Forum 3: Compare and Contrast Essay

Chapter 4: Gum in the Oak Tree

Strategy 11: Setting and Mood
Strategy 12: Foreshadowing and Flashback

Chapter 5: Miss Maudie; The Fishing Pole Note

Strategy 13: Dialogue
Writer s Forum 4: Dialogue
Test 1: Chapters 1-5

Chapter 6: Jem Loses His Pants...and Recovers them

Writer s Forum 5: Persuasion

Chapter 7: Soap Figures; Thank you; Filing the Knot-Hole

Writer s Forum 6: Thank-you Note

Chapter 8: Snow and Fire

Writer s Forum 7: Parody

Chapter 9: Atticus Accepts the Robinson Case; Scout Fights Francis

Strategy 14: Names and Characterizating Terms

Chapter 10: Mad Dog

Strategy 15: Characterization Continuum

Chapter 11: Mrs. Dubose

Writer s Forum 8: Definition
Test 2: Chapters 6-11


Part Two
Chapter 12: Calpurnia s Church

Strategy 16: Prior Knowledge

Chapter 13: Aunt Alexandra Comes to Stay

Strategy 17: Distinguishing Fact and Opinion

Chapter 14: Dill Runs Away
Chapter 15: Friends in the Yard; Mob at the Jail

Strategy 18: Historical Fiction/Autobiography
Test 3: Chapters 12-15

Chapter 16: The Courtroom
Chapter 17: Heck Tate and Robert E. Lee Ewell Testify

Strategy 19: Sensory Language

Chapter 18: Mayella Ewell Testifies

Strategy 20: Imaging

Chapter 19: Tom Robinson Testifies
Chapter 20: Dill and Mr. Dolphus Raymond Meet; Atticus s Closing Speech

Strategy 21: Revising Hypotheses

Chapter 21: The Jury Decides

Writer s Forum 9: News Article
Test 4: Chapters 16-21

Chapter 22: Reactions to the Verdict; Bob Ewell Threatens Atticus
Chapter 23: Picking the Jury in Retrospect; Folks

Writer s Forum 10: Summary

Chapter 24: Missionary Circle Meeting

Strategy 22: Stock Characters and Character Foils

Chapter 25: The Death of Tom Robinson

Writer s Forum 11: Eulogy/Anecdote

Chapter 26: Hitler and Democracy

Test 5: Chapters 22-26

Chapter 27: Bob Ewell Trespasses at Judge Taylor s, Trails Helen

Writer s Forum 12: Possible Ending

Chapter 28: Halloween Pageant and Return Home

Strategy 23: Adjusting Reading Rate

Chapter 29: Scout Tells Her Story and Meets Boo

Strategy 24: Logical Fallacies

Chapter 30: Heck Tate Decides

Writer s Forum 13: Evaluation

Chapter 31: Scout Takes Boo Home; Last View of the Finch Family

Mary Elizabeth is a teacher and writer specializing in educational materials for students and teachers in settings ranging from kindergarten to college. She takes a novel approach to core educational outcomes and brings a freshness and thoroughness that is central to all of her work. As a teacher and writer of K higher education materials and a software content developer, Mary Elizabeth strives to provide the tools, skills, strategies, knowledge, and experience learners need to do whatever it is they will eventually do with their lives, using media that provide rich, memorable learning.

The products she develops are rooted in her training at the University of Chicago (B.A.) as a writer and at the University of Vermont (M. Ed.) as a reading clinician, as well as her own classroom, private tutoring session, and homeschooling experiences. Working both on her own and in collaboration with others, her goal is to design and bring to fruition products that contribute to essential learning in new ways and fill a gap in the market.