Schooled

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY 1: “Our Differences Make Us Stronger”

In this activity, students will create collages and connect them to make a class collage celebrating differences.

When he first begins attending Claverage Middle School, Capricorn is ostracized. Some students target him because he does not conform. The various characters, however, reveal in their own voices the ways in which they all are different. By the end of the book, differences are beginning to be celebrated.

• Create a collage that shows what makes you unique. Then, add it to our class collage as we celebrate our differences.
• Discuss your collage with a small group or partner, sharing highlights from your project and your thinking behind your choices.
• Display your collage in our class collage.
• Work with a partner or small group to create a collage for Capricorn, Sophie, Hugh, Zach, or another character. Include this character’s collage in the class collage, and in discussion, evaluate the ways in which the author juxtaposes characterizations and celebrates differences.

Journal about a lasting lesson about the theme of Isolationism and Interventionism the book and this project make.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might benefit from journaling about the topic or sketching out their ideas before creating their final project. One way to think about differences could be to recognize each as a superpower; students might identify ways their superpowers help themselves and others. Collages can include various materials, symbolism, and words and images. Displaying the collages together can highlight everyone’s unique voice and attributes; students might discuss ways that voices united together are powerful. Including Rain, Mrs. Donnelly, and other adult characters in the character collages offers students a chance to think empathetically in a perspective outside their own age range.

ACTIVITY 2: “School Us”

In this activity, students will present a lesson they think people should learn in school.

The term schooled means educated or trained in a certain way. The characters learn from each other throughout the novel; most of these lessons, even in school, are outside the boundaries of traditional courses. Plan and teach the class a lesson you think people should learn in school.

• Brainstorm ideas for an appropriate lesson that promotes kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.
• Develop the lesson: What content will be presented? What activity might students complete in order to learn? How will their learning be assessed?
• Decide the best way to teach what you want to teach. Consider your audience, time limitations, and appropriate resources.
• Determine how you might include visuals, music, and other learning tools.

Lessons might be briefly presented or displayed as visual aids, slide shows, posters, or a shared file.

Finally, choose a character from the novel and journal about how this character might react to your lesson. In this response, cite text details to support your thinking.

Teaching Suggestion: Teaching a lesson is a way to focus on the novel’s theme of Isolationism and Interventionism; Capricorn intervenes at various points, speaking out in ways that instruct others, and this activity offers readers a chance to impact others in a similar way. At the beginning of this project, the class could discuss ideas they have learned about kindness, empathy, and inclusivity from this novel or in other works. Student might begin by listing what characters in Schooled have learned. Re-reading a specific scene and completing a think-aloud on what the characters learn could benefit the class. Students should turn in lesson plans for approval and feedback before presenting to the class; they might contribute as a group to additional requirements, discussing and determining guidelines for an effective lesson and setting the expectations together. This project might work well in pairs or small groups.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Many changes are observable by the end of the novel.

• To what extent is the last chapter hopeful for the characters? (topic sentence)
• Summarize the last events of the novel and connect those events to the plotline as a whole. In what ways are the chapter’s events hopeful? Analyze and discuss examples that support your topic sentence. As you craft your response, include at least 3 quotations from the novel to illustrate your points.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize the hope the author conveys through this work as a whole.

2. During Capricorn’s time with the Donnellys, he and Sophie have a complicated relationship.

• How do Sophie and Capricorn help each other? (topic sentence)
• Analyze and discuss a variety of scenes that prove the validity of your idea. As you support your topic sentence, incorporate at least 3 quotations and additional details to support your arguments.
• In your conclusion, evaluate the beneficial effects of Capricorn and Sophie’s friendship. Who benefits more? Briefly state your rationale.

3. Capricorn and other characters experience both separation from others and assistance by others.

• What message does the book send about the theme Isolationism and Interventionism? (topic sentence)
• Explain and evaluate several situations in the novel in which separation from others and assistance by others contributes to the development of a character. As you develop your essay, include 3 or more quotations and additional text details to build your analysis.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, judge the effectiveness of the author’s characterization in conveying ideas about this theme.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Consider the role driving plays in the novel. Why do characters drive? How are the times Capricorn drives different? What does driving mean to Sophie and how are the scenes with her driving significant? Write a 3- or 5-paragraph essay analyzing the function and symbolism of driving in the novel and what it reveals about the characters.

2. Rain and Mrs. Donnelly both serve in a parental role toward Capricorn. What motivates the decisions of each woman? How are they connected? What impacts does each woman have on Capricorn? How does each character change by the end of the novel? Compose a 3- or 5-paragraph essay comparing the Parenting Styles of Mrs. Donnelly and Rain.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What event leads most directly to Capricorn’s first arrest?

A) Capricorn’s theft of a car

B) Sophie’s receipt of a bracelet

C) Rain getting injured

D) A football game

2. How does Zach’s plan to have Capricorn elected as 8th grade president backfire?

A) Zach wants to torment Capricorn, but Capricorn refuses to be upset and becomes popular.

B) Zach hopes Capricorn will help him get into college, but Capricorn decides not to go.

C) Zach plans on being chosen as Capricorn’s vice-president, but Capricorn chooses Hugh.

D) Zach thinks Capricorn as president will lead to days off school, but the school adds days instead.

3. How are Mrs. Donnelly and Capricorn alike?

A) Both grew up with Rain as an influence.

B) Both focus on earning money above all else.

C) Both plan to move to a new town soon.

D) Both take the driving test on the same day.

4. What event leads to Sophie beginning to accept Capricorn?

A) Tai Chi

B) His help with her homework

C) Dinner at the local restaurant

D) A driving lesson

5. What phrase best describes how Capricorn feels about being at the bank?

A) Wondering and hopeful

B) Fascinated and thrilled

C) Sad and nostalgic

D) Anxious and wary

6. Which of the following traits best describes Hugh?

A) Entitled, funny, hoping to be elected president

B) Wanting to be kind, self-aware, insecure

C) Welcoming, helpful, completely reliable

D) Trying to raise his grades, loyal, undeterred

7. Which of the following is the correct chronological order of events?

A) Capricorn gets arrested for driving without a license for the first time; Rain picks up Capricorn from school in an ambulance; Rain sells Garland Farm; Rain and Mrs. Donnelly first meet.

B) Rain picks up Capricorn from school in an ambulance; Rain sells Garland Farm; Rain and Mrs. Donnelly first meet; Capricorn gets arrested for driving without a license for the first time.

C) Rain sells Garland Farm; Rain and Mrs. Donnelly first meet; Capricorn gets arrested for driving without a license for the first time; Rain picks up Capricorn from school in an ambulance.

D) Rain and Mrs. Donnelly first meet; Capricorn gets arrested for driving without a license for the first time; Rain picks up Capricorn from school in an ambulance; Rain sells Garland Farm.

8. How do Capricorn’s views of Garland Farm differ when he returns after staying with the Donnellys?

A) The farm becomes more work and less fun.

B) The farm represents more hope than it used to.

C) The farm seems smaller and less vibrant and complete.

D) The farm brings him increased peace, joy, and wisdom.

9. How does Rain change by the end of the novel?

A) She realizes complete isolation is not the only way.

B) She begins to understand the value of hard work.

C) She decides to return to school for her degree.

D) She becomes a more demanding guardian.

10. What feat does Capricorn amaze the school with at the vigil?

A) Performing a choreographed dance to the school song

B) Telling 40 minutes of stand-up comedy from memory

C) Saying good-bye to over 1000 students using each person’s name

D) Winning a martial arts competition that Zach and Hugh organized

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Why does Capricorn give Sophie the bracelet?

2. Why does Rain sell the farm?