To Kill a Mockingbird

Fall 2007 Reading Schedule

By this date...	...have finished:
Monday, 8 October	Chapter 1
Wednesday, 10 October	Chapter 2
Monday, 15 October	Chapter 3
Wednesday, 17 October	Chapters 4
Monday, 22 October	Chapters 5, 6
Thursday, 25 October	Chapter 7, 8
Monday, 29 October	Chapter 9, 10
Wednesday, 31 October	Chapters 11 (End of Part One)
Monday, 5 November	Chapters 12, 13
Wednesday, 7 November	Chapter 14
Friday, 9 November	Chapters 15
Tuesday, 13 November	Chapters 16, 17
Thursday, 15 November	Chapters 18
Monday, 19 November	Chapters 19, 20, 21
Wednesday, 21 November	Chapters 22, 23
Tuesday, 27 November	Chapters 24, 25
Thursday, 29 November	Chapters 26, 27
Monday, 3 December	Chapter 28, 29, 30, 31 (End)

Class Handouts:

One way to look at the issues and themes in the novel is with this "opinionnaire" asking your thoughts on the ideas.
Chapter One was covered with this quick "fill-in" activity.
Chapter Two was covered with this other quick "fill-in".
Here's the Chapter 3-4 Review Sheet with more questions.
Your TKM research topic choices are here; keep scrolling down for web links to information about each topic on the list.
This is the Chapters 9 and 10 fill-in-the-blank review sheet.
Chapters 11 and 12 have these step-by-step questions.
Chapters 16-19 were reviewed with this fill-in-the-blank worksheet.
Chapters 23 and 24 come with these review note-taking questions.
A handy-dandy plot review of the novel (useful for quick test review) is in this timeline of events in the novel.
Here's a note-taking sheet about two main characters, Atticus and Jem, to help review them for the unit test.
There's also this To Kill a Mockingbird crossword puzzle, which you can copy-and-paste into Word here, or do online here.

Internet Resources:
This book has inspired the love and devotion of a generation of readers, and there are lots of sites devoted to it and its author.

A good place to start is the SwissEduc site on the novel, a big list of resources and sites to click on. They've got links to information on everything from an Indian Head Penny to a recipe for Lane cake, and other things mentioned in the book, as well as criticism and ideas for students.

Remember, it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Nancy Louise Rutherford has done an excellent job of creating a TKAM Student Survival Guide, which gives chapter-by-chapter definitions of vocabulary words, explains allusions in the book, and generally helps a reader to understand the story.
A more detailed, excellent guide to the book (from which I've stolen a few things) is the one written by Andrew Moore for Universal Teacher, designed for British students taking GCSE exams, but useful for anyone studying (or teaching) the book.
I've also taken some ideas from To Kill a Mockingbird: Then and Now, produced by the Prince William Network to mark the 35th anniversary of the film version of the novel.
This teacher's To Kill a Mockingbird site has a few small surprises, with linked information to allusions and ideas. I like the page with character names in the book and links to different sites, sometimes leaving it up to you to make the connection to the novel.
For absolutely no educational purpose, you can watch Anthony Scodary and Nico Benitez's hilariously low quality animated video How to Kill a Mockingbird, the book report of a young student who's read the cover and the first few pages, and must, uh, make up the rest. It's the classic story of Scout, Jem, treasure, pirates, flaming sharks, time travel, ninjas, and--well, just watch.
One of the most popular sites on the internet dedicated to the book is the one produced by Jane Kansas, Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. There's some fairly good stuff there; try the nice, but still fairly short, interview with Harper Lee done in 1964.

Resources for your Research Presentation:
Remember to look elsewhere, too! These were just a few first sites I saw that looked promising.
NOTE: The sites will all open in a new window; you'll stay here when you click.

The Scottsboro Boys:

The best place for information on this case (and many other famous legal cases throughout history) is the "Scottsboro" page of Douglas O. Linder's Famous American Trials site. Click on all the links, and read all the pages. It will gradually tell, in a clear way, the complicated history of this long series of trials, and the incident and claims which started them all. (Then go and click around some more on the main site; it's interesting.)
Public Broadcasting in the US did a program on the Scottsboro Boys, and their page is mainly dedicated to the show. But there is a timeline, and if you have a faster connection, some interviews and clips to view. Don't forget to click around on the Teacher's Guide! After all, you'll be teaching the class, and maybe you'll find some activities to do.
The Afro-American Newspapers are a Black institution in the United States. They have a page devoted to the Scottsboro case, including some original news articles from the 1930's to read. Remember to click on those article links at the bottom of the page.
CourtTV in the US has also done a special on the Scottsboro Boys. Their site has some good information, and a sample video of the program.
A review of the facts of the case, with not a lot of new information but still well-told, is told here by Julian Burnside.
I always like looking at original documents, like this pamphlet called Mr. President: Free the Scottsboro Boys; you can click on either the PDF or GIF format; use the PDF if you're thinking of using parts of this in your presentation. (I know I would.)
And look at these original 1930's Scottsboro Boys posters and flyers protesting the verdicts. Notice you can click on them, and then click "View," and see them in different sizes if you want to use them in your presentation.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on the Scottsboro trial; as usual with them, there are lots of links within and after the article to click on. (Notice the reference to To Kill a Mockingbird!)

The Trenton Six:

"A Northern Lynching" is a personal and historical look at the case, providing a nice first step.
"1948: A Cry for Justice" is an excellent article by a journalist looking back on the trial.
Here is the Wikipedia article on the Trenton Six. It's very short, with not much information.
Here is a short bit on the Trenton Six, but with a nice, powerful illustration.
Here is a short timeline of the case.
If you click on all of the links on this page, you'll see that some are old, hard-to-read newspaper articles in PDF format, and lots of other original documents. They may be hard to read, but it's worth it to get the real feel of the case.

Emmett Till:

The Wikipedia article on the Emmett Till is an excellent place to start. It has good background, and lots of other links to click on.
Public Broadcasting in the US did an excellent program on the Emmett Till case, and their website is mainly about the program, but has other interesting things to click on. Remember to click on the teacher's guide! You'll be teaching this information, after all, and you might want to use some of their ideas.
The documentary film The Untold Story of Emmett Till not only has a nice-looking website (it may take a while to load, though; lots of Flash animating) with some interesting pages on the story, but it also has a current update on the front page telling new developments in the case.
This site claims to be "the web's best resource on the Emmett Till story," and it is certainly very complete.
A short, direct re-telling of the story is here, in an article on a site devoted to early civil rights struggles and cases.
This 2004 article from CBS News in the US is about recent developments in the Emmett Till case.
For a longer, more in-depth look at the case, here's a multi-part article which concentrates on the background of the case, related to the song, "The Death of Emmett Till," by folk and protest musician Bob Dylan. You can download the song, too.

Freedom Riders:

Good background can be found, as usual, on the civil rights website prepared by Lisa Cozzens.
Read an original Time magazine article on the Rides, called "Trouble in Alabama".
A really excellent page--with a personal story, lots of photos, and good information--is "Freedom Rides: Recollections by David Fankhauser," one of the Freedom Writers, now a professor of biology and chemistry at U.C. Clermont College, Batavia, Ohio.
Some more background can be found here, but you'll have to scroll past the advertising. When you're done reading, keep scrolling to the bottom to find some quotes and other things on the Freedom Riders.
The Freedom Riders who survive have had reunions and put together a foundation to support their ideals. The Freedom Riders Foundation's website has a short history, with some photos. Click on the links on the left side of the page.
40 years after the original rides, some surviving Riders took an anniversary ride, re-tracing their steps. Read about it on CNN's website.
One of the groups you'll discover in your research is SNCC (pronounced "snick"), the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee. Their own website also has a history of the rides.
Freedom Riders: The Children Shall Lead is a site with both Flash and HTML versions. If your connection is fast, try the nice-looking Flash version. Either way, be sure to click on the Curriculum section last, because you may find some presentation ideas.
Here's the Wikipedia article on the Freedom Rides.

Freedom Summer and the murders of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney:

Once again, Lisa Cozzens comes to the rescue with her civil rights page, this time on "Freedom Summer".
Scroll down past the advertising on this site for a good short introduction to the topic, and then keep scrolling for some good personal stories and quotations.
The King Encyclopedia, published by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, has some information for you.
It's really worth going to the American RadioWorks website to listen to their program on Freedom Summer. It's long, and will take a while to listen to, but it has good information, well-told, and includes interviews with participants.
The Wikipedia article on Freedom Summer itself is pretty skimpy, but their article on the three murdered civil rights workers, Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney, is pretty good.
The Newseum (I like that name) has some excellent photos in their exhibit, "Images of Hate and Hope".
Here's another short article on the topic. It's two pages; remember to click on the second page.
And here's yet another article, with some of the same information, but some new stuff, too.

This is a famous picture, taken in 1930, showing two young black men accused of raping a white girl, hanged by a mob of 10,000 white men. The mob took them by force from the county jailhouse. Another black man was saved from lynching by the girl’s uncle who said he was innocent. Even if lynching photos were designed to boost white supremacy, the tortured bodies and grotesquely happy crowds ended up revolting many.--http://www.worldsfamousphotos.com/the-lynching-of-young-blacks-1930.html--© Brettman/Corbis

Lynching:

This article on lynching isn't done at the end; keep scrolling down for some quotations and ideas from historical people on the topic.
Three articles and two pictures "About Lynching" from, of all sites, the Modern American Poetry website.
The Wikipedia article on lynching is good for the way it relates the topic to different places and times in the world, including the present.
This article called "The Negro Holocaust," is long and detailed, but take a look. It's written for teachers, and has lesson plans at the bottom.
At first, I didn't like the site called American Lynching, created to accompany the film of the same name. (It's an ugly site, for one thing.) But the more I clicked around on it, the more I liked it.
The Musareum's "Without Sanctuary" exhibit is excellent. It's a look at lynching through the many photos and photo-postcards made from them at the time. You can see it as either a Flash movie, or a series of photographs. They are graphic and horrible, but necessary to look at.
The approach of the organization called Strange Fruit (it's the name of a powerful poem and song you might want to try and find to use in your presentation) is a unique one. They want to build a "wall of remembrance" for each person lynched in the US. Their website has lynchings, set up on a timeline, and you can click on each single name and read a little bit about each lynching. It will take a while to click through, but click through some.
You want some statistics? Scroll down this page for some interesting numbers and facts.
Here's an academic article, but give it a try: It's about the way newspapers reacted to lynchings in the US.
One almost-forgotten story is the trial of Sherriff Joseph Shipp for the lynching of Ed Johnson. Learn the story on the excellent Famous American Trials site, written by Douglas Linder.
The television network CourtTV in the US has a website in part devoted to famous crimes. The section on mass murders and killing sprees and serial killers contains an interesting section called "Lynching in America: Carnival of Death". The long, 7-page article claims, with accuracy, that "lynchings are, in effect, the most extensive series of unsolved murders in American history." Read the whole thing.

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