ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY by Mildred D. Taylor Literature Guide Developed by Mary Pat Mahoney
for Secondary Solutions
®
ISBN-10: 0-9845205-1-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-9845205-1-0
© 2010 Secondary Solutions. All rights reserved.
A classroom teacher who has purchased this Guide may photocopy the materials in this publication
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
About This Literature Guide ............................................................................. 4 How to Use Our Literature Guides .....................................................................5 Pre-Reading Activity: What is Equality? ............................................................ 6 Pre-Reading Ideas and Activities ....................................................................... 7 Standards Focus: Exploring Expository Writing ............................................... 9 Author Biography: Mildred D. Taylor .................................................................................. 9 Comprehension Check: Exploring Expository Writing ............................................................... 10 Standards Focus: Historical Context ................................................................ 11 African-American Life in the South During the 1930s ........................................................ 11 Comprehension Check: Exploring Expository Writing ................................................................ 12 The Great Depression and the South ................................................................................... 13 Comprehension Check: Exploring Expository Writing ................................................................ 14 The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s ............................................................................. 15 Comprehension Check: Exploring Expository Writing ................................................................ 17 Allusions, Terminology, and Expressions ........................................................ 18 Vocabulary List ............................................................................................... 20 Character Relationships .................................................................................. 21 Standards Focus: Note-Taking and Summarizing Sample ................................23 Chapter One .................................................................................................... 24 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................... 24 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................... 25 Standards Focus: Exposition—Setting the Story in Motion .............................................. 26 Assessment Preparation: Using Precise Words .................................................................28 Chapters Two – Three ...................................................................................... 31 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................... 31 Comprehension Check ..........................................................................................................32 Standards Focus: Personification ....................................................................................... 33 Assessment Preparation: Using Transitions ...................................................................... 35 Chapter Four ................................................................................................... 37 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................... 37 Comprehension Check ..........................................................................................................38 Standards Focus: Character Foil ........................................................................................ 39 Assessment Preparation: The Thesis Statement ................................................................ 41 Chapters Five – Six ......................................................................................... 44 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................... 44 Comprehension Check ..........................................................................................................45 Standards Focus: Dialect .....................................................................................................46 Assessment Preparation: Paragraph Development .......................................................... 49 Chapter Seven .................................................................................................. 52 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................... 52 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................... 53 Standards Focus: Protagonist/Antagonist Relationships ................................................. 54 Assessment Preparation: Creating an Introductory Paragraph ...................................... 57 Chapter Eight .................................................................................................. 60 Note-Taking and Summarizing .......................................................................................... 60 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................... 61 Standards Focus: Rising Action and Resolving Tension ................................................... 62 Assessment Preparation: Writing Conclusions .................................................................. 65 Chapters Nine – Ten ....................................................................................... 69 Note-Taking and Summarizing ........................................................................................... 69 ©2010 Secondary Solutions
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................... 70 Standards Focus: Setting Map and Symbolism ..................................................................71 Assessment Preparation: Sentence Structure and Precise Verbs ..................................... 74 Chapters Eleven – Twelve ................................................................................ 77 Note-Taking and Summarizing........................................................................................... 77 Comprehension Check .......................................................................................................... 78 Standards Focus: Climax and Resolution .......................................................................... 79 Assessment Preparation: Proofreading ............................................................................. 82 Quiz: Chapter One........................................................................................... 85 Quiz: Chapters Two-Three ............................................................................... 87 Quiz: Chapter Four ......................................................................................... 89 Quiz: Chapters Five-Six .................................................................................... 91 Quiz: Chapter Seven ........................................................................................ 93 Quiz: Chapter Eight ..........................................................................................95 Quiz: Chapters Nine-Ten .................................................................................. 97 Quiz: Chapters Eleven-Twelve ......................................................................... 99 Final Exam ..................................................................................................... 101 Final Exam: Multiple Choice Version ............................................................. 106 Sample Agenda .................................................................................................................... 111 Teacher Notes ...................................................................................................................... 113 Summary of the Novel ........................................................................................................ 114 Vocabulary List with Definitions ...................................................................................... 120 Post-Reading Activities and Alternative Assessment ...................................................... 122 Essay/Writing Ideas .......................................................................................................... 125 Project Rubric A ................................................................................................................. 127 Project Rubric B.................................................................................................................. 128 Response to Literature Rubric........................................................................................... 129 Answer Key .................................................................................................... 131 ©2010 Secondary Solutions
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
About This Literature Guide
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
Name __________________________________
Period ________
Chapter One
Note-Taking and Summarizing
Problem(s) in this Chapter
Who is Involved?
What are the problems solved or the results of the events of the chapter?
Evaluate: What do you think are the most important events of this chapter?
Why?
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
Name __________________________________
Period ________
Chapter One
Comprehension Check
Directions: To give you a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the
novel, answer the following questions. Be sure to use your Note-Taking and
Summarizing chart to keep important notes for each chapter and to help you
answer the Comprehension Check questions. Answer each question in complete
sentences on a separate piece of paper.
1. Where are the children going at the beginning of the chapter?
2. Create a short time line of the events listed in the paragraphs describing how the
Logan’s got their land. Begin your timeline in 1887 and end it in the present time
of the novel: 1933.
3. Who is T.J.? What can you infer from the following: “ Jus’ think of the advantage
you’ve got. You’ll be learnin’ all sorts of stuff ‘fore the rest of us…” He smiled
slyly. “Like what’s on all them tests”?
4. What was the burning that T.J. was talking about?
5. Why do the children run off the road? According to Stacey, why doesn’t the bus
stop for the children?
6. Who is Jeremy?
7. How long does it take the black children to walk to school? Why don’t they just
take a bus?
8. Explain why the black school has a modified schedule.
9. What do you think Cassie means by, “I don’t think my feet would have wanted
that badly for me to be educated”? To what is Cassie referring?
10. What is the condition of the books the children were to receive?
11. Analyze why Little Man reacted the way he did to the book.
12. Analyze Cassie’s reaction to the book. Why does she decide to give her book back
as well?
13. Evaluate Mama’s plan to cover the inside of the books. Do you think this is a
good solution? Explain your answer.
14. Explain Miss Crocker’s reaction to Mama’s plan. Infer why she would react this
way, stating that Mama was “biting the hand that feeds her.” What might
account for this difference in viewpoints?
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
Name __________________________________
Period ________
Chapter One
Standards Focus: Exposition—Setting the Story in Motion
When you first begin reading a book, you enter a new world. You might not be
familiar with the history, setting, or characters of the story. Or, while you read, you
might feel lost or confused until you learn enough about the story world to feel
comfortable.
Good readers know that authors will help them navigate the new world of a novel.
Authors do this by creating an element of the plot called the exposition. This is the
background story, history, or character information the reader needs to know in
order to understand the world of the novel.
In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Chapter 1 contains exposition that helps the
reader learn about the Logan family and their life.
But, instead of beginning the story with a long
family history, Mildred D. Taylor starts the story
The basic elements
“in medias res,” which means “in the middle of
of a plot include:
things.” The novel begins with the children walking
exposition, rising
to school, and right away, there is a conflict. By
action, climax, falling
starting the story this way, the author draws the
action, and resolution.
reader into the story, and then weaves the
exposition around the actions of the first chapter.
Once you have finished reading Chapter 1, look back at the chapter for exposition
that helps explain the world of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to the reader.
Directions: Complete the graphic organizer on the next page by writing some
background information or explanation given in Chapter 1. To do this, you may
have to reread or scan the text of Chapter 1. This important background
information given in Chapter 1 will actually help you understand the events that
occur later in the novel. Write two or three ideas or sentences for each topic. The
first one has been started for you.
Harlan
Granger’s
Land
• Borders the Logan’s land
• Farmed by sharecroppers
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide
Name __________________________________
Period ________
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Wallace
Store
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________
The School
Bus
_____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Great Faith
Elementary
and
Secondary
School
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
• _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The
Schoolbooks
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Literature Guide