Instructions:
In your small groups, I would like you to discuss and take notes over the prompts below (10 points for clear well-written notes). Relate your discussion to your own experiences and to The Fellowship of the Ring. Once you have finished discussion and taking notes, I would like you to use some of those notes to answer the last prompt in a well thought out paragraph (10 points). Each person in your group is responsible for leading and writing down the discussion on one of the questions.
“He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to” (82).
Bilbo is someone who seems to like to wander and to find adventures. This is something that has caused him to experience new things - both good and bad. In your groups, talk about the idea of searching and wandering, and what it may provide a person?
1. List all of the places you have visited in their own lives. What other places would you like to visit, and why?
Leader/note-taker: ______
2. Discuss whether you consider yourself to be a wanderer. Why or why not?
Leader/note-taker: ______
3. What is the value of being someone who likes to travel to new places? What do these experiences provide? What might happen to a person who does not travel beyond their hometown? What benefits have you seen in your own lives when you have sought new experiences?
Leader/note-taker: ______
4. Discuss whether and why your group agrees or disagrees with the statement - "not all who wander are lost.”
Leader/note-taker: ______
Paragraph Prompt: Using your reactions to the above questions, decide as a group whether Frodo should or should not leave the Shire and go on an adventure, and explain why.
Frodo continues the tradition of celebrating his birthday along with Bilbo's every year, even though others in the town think he is a little crazy for doing so. Today's objective is to talk about the idea of tradition and how it can be used in our lives.
1) 1. Have each student make a list of the traditions they keep on an annual basis. How many are there? Would they like to have more or less?
2. In smaller groups, have students discuss whether they think tradition plays a large enough role in their lives. Why or why not?
3. As a class, have the students decide whether they think tradition can be a negative thing. Why or why not? What are the benefits to Frodo in continuing to celebrate Bilbo's birthday? Why might the other Hobbits be offended by this remembrance?
4. Homework: Have each student discuss whether they think traditions should be put aside at times. Why or why not?
5. Homework: Have students come up with a new tradition that Frodo could implement in order to celebrate Bilbo without upsetting others.
6. Homework: Have the student decide whether they think Bilbo is off somewhere celebrating Frodo. Why or why not?