Beginning Part II of To Kill a Mockingbird

Chapters included in this post: Chapters 12-17

Study Guide for all of Part II

Students will begin more independent reading of the novel. This will be sink or swim for some. Parents - stay on top of this, please. 

In-class Reading

Chapter 12 - Chapter 12 serves as the exposition for Part II of To Kill a Mockingbird. It introduces new characters, literary terms, and building upon themes and symbolism introduced in Part I.

H/W: Write at least 2 questions for each chapter you feel need to be on the study guide to help students understand events/themes/figurative language better.

Friday - Dec. 4 
We Read Chapter 12

Monday - Friday Chapters 13-17.

Journal Prompts for Chapters 12-15

Write an emotional response to the poem "Birmingham 1963" by Raymond R. 
Patterson. Then research the bombing of the Birmingham church on September 15, 1963. Post the article and your response to both the poem and article (be sure to cite the article according to MLA). Post the poem and the article in your journal. 

Sunday morning and her mother's hands
Weaving the two thick braids of her springing hair,
Pulling her sharply by one bell-rope when she would
Not sit still, setting her ringing,
While the radio church choir prophesied the hour
With theme and commercials, while the whole house tingled;

And she could not stand still in that awkward air;
Her dark face shining, her mother now moving the tiny buttons,
Blue against blue, the dress which took all night making,
That refused to stay fastened;
There was some pull which hurried her out to Sunday School

Toward the lesson and the parable's good news,
The quiet escape from the warring country of her feelings,
The confused landscape of grave issues and people.

But now we see
Now we see through the glass of her mother's wide screaming
Eyes into the room where the homemade bomb
Blew the room down where her daughter had gone:
Under the leaves of hymnals, the plaster and stone,
The blue dress all undone to the bone--
Her still, dull face, her quiet hair;
Alone amid the rubble, amid the people
Who perish, being innocent.


Chapters 13-15

 2. Write a response to the events of chapters 13-15 discussing reactions to the arguments between Atticus and Aunt Alexandra, and compare and contrast their argument between the fight between Scout and Jem. Provide specific examples from the novel. Responses will be no less than a page in length.

Reading: Chapter 16-17

Journal Prompt: Write a response in either poetry or prose to the Countee Cullen poem "Incident", then write of a time that a "perfect day" was marred by a thoughtless or hurtful remark or action of someone.

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

 I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.