THE SCENARIO:

You are a student at Mainland Regional High School. All is calm at Mainland, until one horrible day when a whole row of lockers is vandalized. Locks are cut open, books and personal items are stolen, destroyed, or scattered up and down the halls, the locker doors are badly bent so that they cannot be re-closed, and, to top the whole mess off, red and black spray paint has been used in a massive display of graffiti which extends from one end of the wall to the other. It is generally, but quietly, believed that the captain of the football team, Rod Bigman, and his football buddies were responsible; however, Rod and his buddies are Important Persons On Campus, and no one wants to get on their wrong side. Rod is popular and could ruin anyone's social standing in five minutes if he chose to do so. Circumstantial evidence, furthermore, seems to show that a very unpopular boy, Irwin P. Schneddlehopfer, was responsible. (Spray paint cans and several of the stolen items were found in his locker, which was suspiciously the only locker in that row which was untouched.) Irwin is not popular; he's the president of the Chess Club and treasurer of the Calculator Fanatics Club, he's skinny, wears big black-rimmed glasses which keep sliding down his nose, and pants hiked up to the waist (leaving his argyle socks and scruffy oxford shoes in plain view of the world) and cinched there with a belt to keep from falling down. Irwin, in short, is a nerd – a nice boy, but a nerd.

Since the damage to the lockers was assessed at something over $2,000, the administrators and the police are naturally anxious to apprehend the criminal, and Irwin is arrested almost immediately. Over the next two days, things really heat up. Since this is the first major crime in Mainland history, the papers really get a hold of it. Irwin, who had previously been up for full-ride scholarships to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Berkeley, is suddenly suspended from school pending his trial. His family is told he will not graduate unless he confesses, and that, if he does confess, he will have to work all summer to pay for the damage, he will forfeit his letters of recommendation from Mainland faculty, and he will have to write an extra term project on the effect of crime on the small town community. If he completes all those, he will graduate with a D- average.

One girl, Sally Cawshus, does think about going to the principal to tell him that the real culprit was Rod Bigman, but word of her intention gets out. That afternoon, 14 guys from the football team follow her and her little brother home, chase them into an alley, tear up their books, and threaten them with physical abuse if any "false charges" are made against Rod. Sally abandons her plan.

While Sally had been thinking of going to the principal with rumors she had heard, YOU actually know the truth. You were just passing by the school on your job delivering pizzas that fatal Friday night, and you saw Rod and his buddies getting out of their pick-up trucks with spray paint, bolt cutters, and sledgehammers.

What do you do?

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

Option A. Keep quiet. You're up for election as student body president, your only chance to go to college is the baseball scholarship you're hoping to win as a result of your performance in the upcoming season, and Rod is a lot bigger than you are.

Option B. Call in an anonymous tip to the police, and hope they follow it up.

Option C. Have your parents set up a secret meeting with the authorities at a neutral spot which won't be associated with you in any way, and once you're secretly and safely at the meeting, agree to signing a secret affidavit, but refuse to testify in public at Irwin's trial.

Option D. Publicly defend Irwin.

DIRECTIONS: For each of the following questions, write the number of all four possible solutions ranked in order from most to least. Then write a sentence for each solution explaining why you placed it where you did.

NOTE: YOUR GROUP MUST AGREE ON PLACEMENTS!

YOUR RANKINGS

1. Which of the solutions is the most sensible?

2. Which of the solutions is the easiest?

3. Which of the solutions is the most ethical, or morally right?

4. Which of the solutions do you think the average "Joe America" teenager is most likely to try?

5. Which of the solutions requires the most courage?

The Historical Perspective of To Kill a Mockingbird

LISTENING & NOTE-TAKING

· What were the causes of the Great Depression? 
a) There was an unequal distribution of wealth. The average person mad e $750/year; farmers made $273/yr; Henry Ford made $14 million/yr.
b) Buying on margin: 
 
 
 
 
c) Vicious Cycle: 
 
 
 
 
· Explain what happened on "Black Tuesday."
 

· What was the impact on the everyday life of most Americans, especially the middle class? In other words, what was the social impact of the Great Depression?

a)Men: 
 
b)Children: 
 
c)Farmers:
 
d)Migration: 
 
e)Radios: 
 
f) Movies: 
 
g)Dustbowl: 
 

· Roosevelt introduced the New Deal Programs. Name and describe some of its most significant successes. What programs are still in effect today? Also explain what the WPA was. What were its goals?

a) FDIC: 
 
b) Social Security Act:
 
c) WPA

· Describe the minstrel character "Jim Crow. "

· From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through what were called Jim Crow laws. What were some of these laws?

Find a picture, poem, or lyrics to a song that reflect one of the concepts described as part of the Historical Perspective of To Kill a Mockingbird. It is advisable that you do some outside research on the topic you choose. Describe or summarize your choice and explain how it is reflective of the event.

Staple your picture, poem, or lyrics to your TYPED work.

	Chapters 1 – 3
Vocabulary: Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in context. Read the sentence, and identify and label the word's part of speech on the line provided.

_____1. Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teamed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies.

_____2. Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom.

_____3. Nobody know what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time.

_____4. Jem condescended to take me to school the first day, a job usually done by one’s parents, but Atticus had said Jem would be delighted to show me where my room was.

_____5. The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of peculiarities indigenous to the region.

_____6. Having never questioned Jem's pronouncements, I saw no reason to begin now.

_____7. Jem's free disposition irked me, but precious noontime minutes were ticking away

_____8. Apparently, she had revived enough to persevere in her profession.

_____9. "Do you know what a compromise is?" he asked.

Now match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions. Please do not guess; rather, use a dictionary if necessary.

______ 1. eccentric a. came down voluntarily to the level of

inferiors

______ 2. malevolent b. native

______ 3. intimidation c. exhibiting or having ill-will; malicious

______ 4. condescended d. departing from the established norm, model,

or rule

______ 5. indigenous e. threats

______6. pronouncements f. authoritative statements

______ 7. irked g. settlement of differences in which

concessions are made; agreement

______ 8. persevere h. remain constant to a purpose in spite of

obstacles; keep trying

______ 9. compromise i. annoyed; bothered

Now that you know what the words mean, go back to the previous section (where the words are shown in their context), and in the space provided, write a synonym for the word. Your synonym should be the same part of speech and should “fit” into the sentence.

Example:

Adj 1. Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teamed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies.

weird

Now see how the synonym “fits”:

Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teamed with weird plans....

Write a story, using at least five of the vocabulary words. The sentences you write should demonstrate an understanding of the words use and contain context clues. Underline the words you have used. In order to help, I’ve begun the story for you!

In all my life, I have never met such an odd person. _____________

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Chapter 1

Highlight sentences or paragraphs that illustrate each of the following attitudes/ideas. Label your annotation!

Pride in ancestry / “tradition”

Pride of conformity and distrust of those who are different

Awareness of differences in social class

Narrow span of interest, especially concerning the world outside of Maycomb

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn't have cared less, so long as he could pass and punt.

Jem = brother; likes football

How will his arm breaking be important later?

When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.

Who are the Ewells? They are to blame for Jem’s arm?

Dill wants to make Boo R. “come out”?

I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn't? We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right.

They live in Alabama; Simon Finch = ancestor.

Atticus = father

Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings.

a decisive battle in the Norman Conquests of England in 1066

Family history Is important!

All we had was Simon Finch, a fur-trapping apothecary from Cornwall whose piety was exceeded only by his stinginess. In England, Simon was irritated by the persecution of those who called themselves Methodists at the hands of their more liberal brethren, and as Simon called himself a Methodist, he worked his way across the Atlantic to Philadelphia, thence to Jamaica, thence to Mobile, and up the Saint Stephens. Mindful of John Wesley's strictures on the use of many words in buying and selling, Simon made a pile practicing medicine, but in this pursuit he was unhappy he be tempted into doing what he knew was not for the glory of God, as the putting on of gold and costly apparel. So Simon, having forgotten his teacher's dictum on the possession of human chattels, bought three slaves and with their aid established a homestead on the banks of the Alabama River some forty miles above Saint Stephens. He returned to Saint Stephens only once, to find a wife, and with her established a line that ran high to daughters. Simon lived to an impressive age and died rich. a county at the SW tip of England founder of the Methodist Church	Simon Finch came to US; was religious, but when he got here, $ became more important; he had slaves
It was customary for the men in the family to remain on Simon's homestead, Finch's Landing, and make their living from cotton. The place was self-sufficient: modest in comparison with the empires around it, the Landing nevertheless produced everything required to sustain life except ice, wheat flour, and articles of clothing, supplied by river-boats from Mobile.	Men in family still live on Simon’s land.
Simon would have regarded with impotent fury the disturbance between the North and the South, as it left his descendants stripped of everything but their land, yet the tradition of living on the land remained unbroken until well into the twentieth century, when my father, Atticus Finch, went to Montgomery to read law, and his younger brother went to Boston to study medicine. Their sister Alexandra was the Finch who remained at the Landing: she married a taciturn man who spent most of his time lying in a hammock by the river wondering if his trot-lines were full. The Civil War	The Finches still have land even though it’s the Depression. This generation: men not on Simon’s land; sister instead

When my father was admitted to the bar, he returned to Maycomb and began his practice. Maycomb, some twenty miles east of Finch's Landing, was the county seat of Maycomb County. Atticus's office in the courthouse contained little more than a hat rack, a spittoon, a checkerboard and an unsullied Code of Alabama. His first two clients were the last two persons hanged in the Maycomb County jail. Atticus had urged them to accept the state's generosity in allowing them to plead Guilty to second-degree murder and escape with their lives, but they were Haverfords, in Maycomb County a name synonymous with jackass. The Haverfords had dispatched Maycomb's leading blacksmith in a misunderstanding arising from the alleged wrongful detention of a mare, were imprudent enough to do it in the presence of three witnesses, and insisted that the-son-of-a-bitch-had-it-coming-to-him was a good enough defense for anybody. They persisted in pleading Not Guilty to first-degree murder, so there was nothing much Atticus could do for his clients except be present at their departure, an occasion that was probably the beginning of my father's profound distaste for the practice of criminal law.	Atticus = lawyer Everyone knows this family = “jackass” Atticus has “profound distaste” for practicing law.
During his first five years in Maycomb, Atticus practiced economy more than anything; for several years thereafter he invested his earnings in his brother's education. John Hale Finch was ten years younger than my father, and chose to study medicine at a time when cotton was not worth growing; but after getting Uncle Jack started, Atticus derived a reasonable income from the law. He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb County born and bred; he knew his people, they knew him, and because of Simon Finch's industry, Atticus was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in the town.	Atticus’ Uncle Jack = doctor (This family seems well-off for the Depression.)
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.	Maycomb = setting Tired, old, hot
People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself. An allusion to the Great Depression An allusion to President FDR’s First Inaugural Speech	Maycomb = slow

We lived on the main residential street in town—Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Jem and I found our Father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment.	Calpurnia = their cook Why is she calling her father “Atticus”? Why does he treat them with “courteous detachment”?
Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus ‘ways took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.	Calpurnia Hits them Seems like a mother-figure Has been with a family for a while
Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. She was a Graham from Montgomery- Atticus met her when he was first elected to the state legislature. He was middle-aged then, she was fifteen years his junior. Jem was the product of their first year of marriage; four years later I was born, and two years later our mother died from a sudden heart attack. They said it ran in her family. I did not miss her, but I think Jem did. He remembered her clearly, and sometimes in the middle of a game he would sigh at length, then go off and play by himself behind the car-house. When he was like that, I knew better than to bother him.	Mom died. Jem misses mom.
When I was almost six and Jem was nearly ten, our summertime boundaries (within calling distance of Calpurnia) were Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose’s house two doors to the north of us, and the Radley Place three doors to the south. We were never tempted to break them. The Radley Place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end; Mrs. Dubose was plain hell.	Radley Place: scary? Mrs. Dubose = mean?
That was the summer Dill came to us. Early one morning as we were beginning our day’s play in the backyard, Jem and I heard something next door in Miss Rachel Haverford’s collard patch. We went to the wire fence to see if there was a puppy—Miss Rachel’s rat terrier was expecting—instead we found someone sitting looking at us. Sitting down, he wasn’t much higher than the collards. We stared at him until he spoke: “Hey.’’	Dill= small
“Hey yourself,” said Jem pleasantly. “I’m Charles Baker Harris,” he said. “I can read.”
“So what?” I said.
“I just thought you’d like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin’ I can do it....”
“How old are you,’’ asked Jem, ‘’four-and-a-half?”
“Goin’ on seven.”

“Shoot no wonder, then,” said Jem, jerking his thumb at me.
“Scout yonder’s been readin’ ever since she was born, and she ain’t even started to school yet. You look right puny for goin’ on seven.”	Scout = narrator; can already read Dill = small
“I’m little but I’m old,” he said.
Jem brushed his hair back to get a better look. “Why don’t you come over, Charles Baker Harris?’’ he said. “Lord, what a name.”	Dill’s name = Charles Baker Harris
“’s not any funnier’n yours. Aunt Rachel says your name’s Jeremy Atticus Finch.’’	Jem’s name = Jeremy Atticus Finch
Jem scowled. “I’m big enough to fit mine,’’ he said. “Your name’s longer’n you are. Bet it’s a foot longer.’’
“Folks call me Dill,’’ said Dill, struggling under the fence.
“Do better if you go over it instead of under it,” I said. “Where’d you come from?”
Dill was from Meridian, Mississippi, was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on. His family was from Maycomb County originally, his mother worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it.	Dill staying with Aunt Rachel all summer; likes movies
“Don’t have any picture shows here, except Jesus ones in the courthouse sometimes,” said Jem.
“Ever see anything good?”
Dill had seen Dracula, a revelation that moved Jem to eye him with the beginning of respect. “Tell it to us,” he said. The 1931 film of the famous vampire story	Dracula must’ve been popular.
Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him. As he told us the old tale his blue eyes would lighten and darken; his laugh was sudden and happy; he habitually pulled at a cowlick in the center of his forehead.	Dill: odd, puny (3x reference to his size), interesting
When Dill reduced Dracula to dust, and Jem said the show sounded better than the book, I asked Dill where his father was: “you ain’t said anything about him.”
“I haven’t got one.”	Where’s Dill’s dad?
“Is he dead?’’	Not dead
“No . . . .”
“Then if he’s not dead you’ve got one, haven’t you?’’	Scout: b/c young, somewhat rude
Dill blushed and Jem told me to hush a sure sign that Dill had been studied and found acceptable.	She’s made Dill uncomfortable by asking @ his father.
Thereafter the summer passed in routine contentment. Routine contentment was: improving our treehouse that rested between giant twin china berry trees in the back yard, fussing, running through our list of dramas based on the works of Oliver Optic, Victor Appleton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In this matter we were lucky to have Dill. He played the character parts formerly thrust upon me the ape in Tarzan, Mr. Crabtree in The Rover Boys, Mr. Damon in Tom Swift. Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies. King Arthur’s prophet, advisor, and magician	Summer = playing in treehouse & acting out books; Dill = good actor; imaginative
But by the end of August our repertoire was vapid from countless reproductions, and it was then that Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.	Now she’s going to explain @ Dill wanting to make Boo R. come out.
The R