CATCHER IN THE RYE Unit Plan: Discussion Prompts, Worksheets, Reading Quizzes, & Writing Assignment

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NEW IN 2023: Rigorous! Thought-provoking! Discussion-based!

This 200-page EDITABLE curriculum has everything you’ll need to deliver profoundly stimulating lessons on J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye!! Invite your class to engage in student-driven discussions without compromising on intellectual rigor. The discussion questions, daily quizzes, literary device exercises, creative writing assignment, and analytical writing assignment will challenge your students to dig beneath the surface of the text and generate profound interpretive insights!

Hold your students accountable for completing the nightly homework by beginning every class with a quick vocabulary and reading quiz. Facilitate dynamic discussions that motivate students to become attached to the thrill generating shared knowledge. Challenge students to explicate textual details using a wide range of interpretive lenses: formalist, psychoanalytic, etc. Inspire students to arrive at a whole new depth of insight!!

Here are some highlights from the 200-page editable curriculum:

• Discussion Question Handouts: Thirty pages of higher-order discussion questions guaranteed to inspire profoundly thoughtful class discussions! This unit features double-sided handouts with 8-10 questions for each of the novel’s 12 sections. The discussion questions are the beating heart of these lesson plans. They challenge students to build interpretive arguments that require the support of carefully selected textual evidence — leading to keen interpretive insights! The questions could be used to focus students’ thinking prior to beginning a discussion, to foster in-class writing such as stop-and-jots, or to assign written reflections for homework. Guaranteed to elicit student engagement and foster profound discussions! (30 pages)

• Discussion Question ANSWER KEYS: While every section of this unit comes with an answer key, the answer keys for the discussion questions feature an extremely high level of detail. Every answer is grounded in concrete textual evidence that gets submitted to careful analysis. The answer keys have been informed by the best scholarly articles and books on J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. (70 pages)

• Quick Writes: A “quick write” can be used at any time in a class to get students to pause and reflect on the text in writing. Introduce a quick write before you begin a discussion to allow students to collect their thoughts. Or roll one out toward the end of a discussion to let students capture and refine their best ideas. (12 pages)

• Vocabulary Lists: Lists of 10 vocabulary words for each of the novel’s 12 sections, complete with definitions and sample sentences with the words as used in The Catcher in the Rye. A total of 120 SAT-worthy words. (12 pages)

• Reading & Vocabulary Quizzes (x12): Daily quizzes with 10 questions on the nightly reading homework plus another 10 questions on the vocabulary words. If you choose not to have your students study vocabulary, you can still use the portion of the quiz devoted to reading comprehension. Grading these quizzes is simple and quick. They’re an easy way to log 12 to 24 grades into your gradebook. Answer keys included. (48 pages)

• Literary Devices Quiz: This quiz challenges students to identify the literary devices used in thirty quotations from The Catcher in the Rye. The literary devices include metaphor, simile, symbolism, hyperbole, paradox, oxymoron, irony, and more. This bundle also features a glossary with definitions of the literary devices as well as examples of how each device is used in Salinger’s novel — so you can review the devices with students before they tackle the worksheet. The worksheet can be used either as a quiz or as a fun refresher. Answer key included. (5 pages)

• Quotation Race: Students work in pairs to identify the speakers of 50 key quotations from The Catcher in the Rye. Introduce this fun activity when you need to mix things up, or to refresh students’ memories in preparation for the AP exam. Answer key included. (6 pages)

• Q3 Practice Essay: Designed for teachers of AP Literature, this in-class practice essay will allow students to rehearse the “Q3” essay from the AP Literature and Composition Exam. The assignment asks students to write a 40-minute in-class essay in response to one amongst three recent Q3 prompts that featured The Catcher in the Rye as one of the recommended works of literary merit. (5 pages)

• Creative Writing Assignment: Invite students to inhabit the distinctive voice of Holden Caulfield by filling in a missing scene from the novel. What happens when Holden and Phoebe return home after their trip to the carousel? Students begin by generating a list of the stylistic quirks that distinguish Holden’s voice; then they use his prose style to narrate one of two missing scenes from the novel. Answer key included. (2 pages)

• Analytical Writing Assignment: Challenge students to take their interpretations one step further by writing an analytical paper on Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Let students choose from one of 5 thought-provoking sample topics — or invite them to develop a similar topic of their own. Rubric included. (4 pages)

I recognize that every teacher has different strategies for making literature come alive in the English classroom. Therefore, these lesson plans will come to you in a single 200-page EDITABLE Word document which you can CUSTOMIZE to suit your teaching style and/or your students’ skill levels.

Because I believe that teachers should be able to see exactly what they’re buying before they purchase, the preview for this resource provides direct access to over 50 pages from the bundle. Click on the green “preview” button to see exactly what you’ll get….

Thank you for choosing Rigorous Resources!

Happy teaching!

Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.

adamjernigan@gmail.com