English 10RowlandNever Let Me GoReading packetPeriod B
Reading Assignments:
Finish Chapter 1 (to pg 12)due __Friday, 4/10___
Chapters 2-5 (pp 13-61)due __Monday, 4/13__
Chapters 6-9 (pp 61-111)due __Thursday, 4/16_
Chapters 10-17 (pp 115-203)due __Tuesday, 4/28 (after vacation)___
Chapters 18-21 (pp 207-255)due __Monday, 5/4__
Chapters 22-24 (pp 256-288)due __Thursday, 5/7__
Reading assignment guidelines:
Reading assignments are due on the date specified; students should have read the assigned section before entering the classroom. A list of guiding questions is provided in this packet. It is strongly recommended that, upon completion of each section, students answer the reading questions on their own to self-test their comprehension.
Anticipate a quiz on the reading on the day an excerpt is due. Students who are not in class due to an excused absence have one week to stay after school and makeup any missed quiz. The makeup quiz will be different, and usually more challenging, than the one given on the day reading is due. Quizzes that are not made up will be logged as zeroes.
Terminology addressed in this Unit
dystopian literaturecharacterizationpoint-of-view & voice
allegorythesisfoil
motifnarrator/narrateesymbol vs metaphor
Reading & Writing Skills addressed in this Unit
synthesis essayannotation
dialectical journaldetermining the meaning of unknown words using context clues
Proposed schedule (may be adjusted)
1.4/9Receive books/reading packet; discuss theme: fate vs. free will; begin novel
2.4/10DUE: rest of Chapter 1; Prezi on dystopian literature; narrator/POV/voice
3.4/13DUE: Chapters 2-5; "Collecting Clues" sheet; dialectical journal introduction
4.4/14Characterization & character types
5.4/15Cloning articles: annotation & discussion
6.4/16DUE: Chapters 6-9; What does it mean to be human?
! Spring Vacation !
7.4/27Introduction to synthesis essay; primary documents on human rights Day 1 of 2
8.4/28DUE: Chapters 10-17, dialectical journal (quiz grade); vocabulary in context
9.4/29Synthesis essay preparation Day 2 of 2: revise and share annotation
10.4/30[to be announced]
11.5/1Grammar: clauses revisited, Day 1 of 2
12.5/4DUE: Chapters 18-21; symbol vs metaphor; introduction to motif: water motif
13.5/6Motif, continued: boundaries motif
14.5/7DUE: Chapters 22-24 (end); trash/rubbish and dreams/fantasies motifs
15.5/8Final exam on novel: In-class timed synthesis essay
16.5/11The novel as dystopian literature: discussion; examples of other media
! 5/12-5/13 Math MCAS !
17.5/15Analysis of media: Never Let Me Go film clip analysis
18.5/18Grammar: clauses revisited, wrap-up, Day 2 of 2; homework for next unit
Before the end of the year:
- Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" and M. Night Shyamalan'sThe Village
- final review of rhetorical appeals/short non-fiction
- final review of fiction: short story
Never Let Me Goguided reading questions
Chapters 2-5
1.What "pranks" do the boys play on Tommy? How does he get them to stop?
2.What kind of child is Tommy? Would you befriend him? Why or why not?
3.What is the Gallery and how is Madame involved?
4.How does Madame react to the girls at Hailsham?
5.When Polly dares to ask one of the guardians why Madame takes their things, what is Miss Lucy's cryptic response?
6.Explain how Kathy and Ruth first become friends. Who seems to be the dominant personality in their relationship? Are you more like Kathy or Ruth? How so?
7.What are the Sales and why are they so exciting for the students at Hailsham?
8.Does Hailsham seem like a place you'd like to live and be educated? Why or why not?
9.What kind of mood (emotional atmosphere) is created by the novel so far?
10.Name one thing that the students of Hailsham do not have that you do. In your opinion, is this an advantage or a disadvantage? Why?
Chapters 6-9
1.How does Kathy help Ruth regarding the pencil case? Why does Kathy do this?
2.Because of Miss Emily's Geography class, what joke do the students make about Norfolk? What is so odd about the teaching materials Miss Emily uses to teach Geography?
3.What does Hailsham strongly discourage students from doing? Why?
4.What does Madame catch Kathy doing? How does Madame react? What is Tommy's explanation for Madame's reaction?
5.When Miss Lucy teaches the students about concentration camps in World War II, what do the students do? Why is this ironic (coincidental and the opposite of what you'd expect)?
6.What information does Miss Lucy share with the students as they huddle together away from the rainstorm? What prompts her to tell them this?
7.What do the students trick Tommy into believing? What does this show about Tommy's character? About Hailsham students' understanding of biology?
8.What does Kathy like to fantasize about? What does this reveal about Kathy's character?
9.What does Kathy catch Miss Lucy doing? What is the mood of that scene: joyful? sinister? eerie? sad? What makes you think this?
10.What do people assume after Ruth and Tommy break up?
11.What does Miss Lucy tell Tommy after he helps her to the Orangery? Why is this so mysterious?
12.What is the "Culture Briefing?"
13.What happens to Miss Lucy?
14.Make a list of the characters in the novel so far: Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, Miss Emily, Miss Geraldine, and Miss Lucy. With whom would you most likely be friends? With whom would you least likely be friends? Why?
15.Why do you think none of the students at Hailsham have ever left the school grounds?
Chapters 10-13(first half of Part II)
1.What assignment do the students have to complete while they live at the cottages?
2.Describe the Cottages. How do the students there learn to live in the "real world"?
3.At the end of chapter 10, about what do Ruth and Kathy argue? Why does Kathy believe each of them has crossed a line?
4.About what does Kathy become "unsettled" and confine in Ruth?
5.What happened to Ruth's collection from Hailsham?
6.What is a "possible"? What are "dream futures"?
7.How does Ruth develop her plan to work in an office?
8.Why do Kathy, Ruth, Tommy, Chrissie, and Rodney set out on a road trip? What is Kathy's complaint about the seating arrangement in the car?
9.What is Martin, Chrissie and Rodney's friend, doing now? What rule do we learn about visitation? Why do you think this rule exists?
10.What two advantages might students from Hailsham have, according to Chrissie? Why do you think this interests her? Do you think the rumors are true? Why or why not?
11.What does Ruth pretend to know? How does Ruth treat Tommy at the end of this section? How has Ruth's character changed since the beginning of the novel? Is she a better or worse person? How so?
Chapters 14-17(second half of Part II)
1.What does Chrissie like to buy "in big batches"? Why is this ironic?
2.Describe Ruth's "possible." How does Ruth react to her initially? Why?
3.According to Ruth, on what are clones modeled? Why, in your opinion, does she believe this? Analyze her state of mind in this scene: how is she feeling and why?
4.While Ruth, Chrissie, and Rodney visit Martin, where do Kathy and Tommy go? What does Kathy learn about Tommy?
5.What had Miss Emily told Roy about the poems and artwork the Hailsham students created? What has Tommy been doing in secret, and why?
6.What does Kathy keep secret, although not directly hidden, from Ruth? Why do you think she does this?
7.What does Tommy show Kathy in the goosehouse? What opinion does she give him?
8.What does Ruth begin to do that irritates Kathy? How does Ruth drive a wedge between Kathy and Tommy?
9.What does Ruth say to Kathy about "what would happen is [she] and Tommy decided [they] shouldn't be together anymore"? How does Kathy react to this?
10.What kind of friend is Ruth? Is she a good person? A bad person? What is your opinion about her actions thus far.
11.What decision does Kathy make at the end of this section? What would you have done, and why?
Chapters 18-21
1.Summarize the interaction between Kathy and Laura. What does Kathy learn about Ruth? What is Kathy's life like now?
2.What has happened to Hailsham? What about this worries Kathy? Explain the balloon bouquet image.
3.What does Kathy realize when she lets herself into Ruth's room before Ruth is there?
4.What trip to Kathy and Ruth plan?
5.Describe the center where Tommy lives.
6.How does Kathy "bond" with Tommy on the drive out? Why does she regret this later?
7.What does Kathy realize about Ruth as they walk.
8.Describe the boat.
9.What is Ruth's dream about Room 14? When have we heard her refer to rubbish/trash before?
10.When the three discuss Chrissie's completion, what is Ruth seem particularly insistent on? How was Rodney and Chrissie's relationship similar to Tommy and Ruth's? What is Ruth probably really concerned about?
11.According to Ruth, why did she choose to transition from carer to donor?
12.Describe the billboard Kathy pulls over to show Tommy and Ruth.
13.What do Tommy and Kathy tell Ruth she should have done? What does Ruth give Kathy, and what does she ask her to do with it? What is Kathy's final promise to Ruth?
14.How has Ruth changed since Hailsham/the Cottages? Is it a positive or a negative transition? In your opinion, what caused this change?
15.What does Kathy discover about Tommy's animals?
16.What is Madame's reaction to Tommy's mention of the Gallery? How does Madame make Kathy uncomfortable?
17.What does Madame keep asking, and to whom is she speaking?
18.What water images have we seen in the novel so far? What do you think water represents in the story? Why?
Chapters 22-24
1.What is Madame's belief about the deferrals? What is Miss Emily's? Do deferrals exist?
2.What is the Morningdale scandal, and why did it make people wary of clones?
3.Why did Hailsham encourage the students to create artwork, and why did Madame collect the pieces? Why is Kathy "taken aback" by this?
4.Should Kathy and Tommy be "grateful" to Madame, Miss Emily, and the other leaders of places like Hailsham? Why or why not?
5.Miss Emily says, "It might look as though you were simply pawns in a game...you have to accept that sometimes that's how things happen in this world." What is she talking about, and do you agree with her?
6.What do we learn about Miss Lucy and why she was fired? Do you think she did the right thing? Why or why not?
7.How does Miss Emily personally feel about clones? Why does she fight "those feelings"? Does that make her a good or bad person, in your opinion? Why?
8.How had Madame interpreted Kathy's dancing to "Never Let Me Go?" How does this fit into a theme of the novel?
9.What does Tommy do on the ride home, and what theory does he come up with about his tantrums as a child?
10.What can happen to a donor after his/her fourth donation?
11.Why does Kathy become frustrated with Tommy? Why does he insist she no longer be his carer?
12.When Tommy was a child, what had he pretended to do when playing ball?
13.What does Kathy see in the empty field in Norfolk? What does it remind you of from earlier in the novel?
14.Does the book end on a high note or a low note? What do you think the story is saying about destiny or fate? Do you agree?
Characteristics of dystopian literature:
- Often set in the future, following an apocalypse or war
- Technology is more advanced
- Physical setting is grim, sparse, dirty, rusted, broken, and/or dark OR it is so sterile, it appears uninhabited
- Serves to raise awareness of a social or political issue
- May function as an allegory and/or use satire
- Society utilizes caste system (world is divided into classes) overseen by totalitarian government (has absolute control)
- Police enact surveillance on people, and individuals who question laws are punished
- Protagonist questions the laws/values/actions of society