Ms. Teref’s Demo: Great Expectations Class Discussion Facilitation

My Journal Questions: I need to combine them and select only 20 lines that clearly combine the 2 questions January 31: Journal question #1 Chapter 1: From second paragraph: “To five little stone lozenges…” to “the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.” AND Journal question #2. Chapter 3: From the beginning of the first paragraph, “It was a rimy morning…” to the end of the second paragraph: this passage is replete with gothic imagery (“goblin,” “spiders’ webs”, “marsh-mist”…) What’s the function of the gothic imagery? In other words, how does the gothic imagery reflect Pip’s mindset? --> Teref

Read aloud a portion from both selections, and then… 1. Do a think-aloud: What these two selections have in common is… (in my case: POV – young Pip + gothic, ghoulish imagery, dark humor)

Assign 20 lines for the class to read closely while thinking about ONE thing! Read page 1, the first two full paragraphs Think about: what is at the same time poignant (tone word – Maurice, I’m doing my job ) and humorous?

Level 1 questions (most numerous, intended to have students notice things) 1.Where is the scene set? 2.What’s Pip’s full name? 3.How did he get the nickname Pip? 4.How many pieces of evidence does Pip have that Pirrip is his last name? 5.Why didn’t Pip ever see his parents? 6.What were Pip’s “first fancies” regarding his parents based on? 7. How were his “first fancies” about his parents first derived? 8. What did the shape of the letters on Pip’s father’s grave tell him about his father? 9. What was Pip’s conclusion about his mother based on the same evidence? 10. Who is the longest sentence in the passage about?

Level 2 Questions 1.What’s the narrator’s purpose of devoting the whole first paragraph to how Pip got his nickname? 2.What feelings does this paragraph invoke in the reader about Pip? 3.What does the fact that Pip learns about his last name from his sister and the tombstones tell about his character, social class, setting of the story at the beginning of the novel? 4. What do Pip’s “unreasonable” “first fancies” about his parents reveal about Pip and his family? 5. Why is this scene set in the “churchyard?” What does this mean about Pip? His family? Victorian England? 6.Why is the longest sentence about Pip’s siblings? What’s the author’s purpose? 7. What type of sentence is this? What’s the point?

Level 2 questions (cont) Where does this sentence actually begin? Which part of the sentence is the main idea? Which parts of the sentence are details which can be removed from the sentence, but still enrich the sentence? 8) What’s the overarching mood/tone of the scene? Why? 9)What is Dickens’ social commentary here? Why is the sentence about the children the longest?

Level 3 How does the absence of a parent or parents shape a child’s life?