A reading project: Holes

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no.-good-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather. Unjustly he is being sent to a boys´ detention center: Gamp Green Lake. Unfortunately, there is no lake in Camp Green Lake- but there are an awful lots of holes...Are you ready to start digging?

Planning Holes

Listen/read "Holes" online.
Literary concepts 

WEEK PLAN

Week 9

Lesson 2

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 1-5 (10 min)
2. Read chapters 1-5. (20 min)
3. Describe the setting of “Holes” with as many details you can remember in your Classroom document.

Week 10

Lesson 1

Inferences - Answer the following questions in your document: 

• What are three reasons you could infer that “Camp Green Lake” isn’t fun for the campers?
• What is one reason you can infer that the Warden is not nice to the campers?

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 6-7: (10 min)
2. Read/listen to chapters 6-7. (20 min)
3. Flashbacks 
   
   
   Answer the following questions in your document:

• In chapter 7, what is the first sentence of the flashback to his grandfather’s time?
• What is the setting (time and place)?
• A new “character” is introduced. Why is a pig important to this flashback story?
• Madame Zeroni gives Elya advice about the girl he loves. She tells him to do something. Why is Elya going to need perseverance to do as Madame Zeroni asks? 

Lesson 2

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 8-12:
2. Read/listen to chapters 8-12.
3. Inferences - answer the following questions in your document.

 

• On page 44, we are introduced to a character named “Caveman”. Who does Stanley infer that the Caveman is? Why does he infer this?
• On page 47, Stanley makes a different inference about who the Caveman is. Who is Caveman? Why does he infer this?
• When Stanley shows Mr Pendanski the fossil, he immediately says that the Warden will not be interested in it. Why do you think Stanley thought she might be interested in it?
• What is a question Stanley probably is asking himself?

Conflict - answer the following question in your document:  Stanley has a close brush with a conflict with a “Lump” in this chapter. Which of the four kinds of conflict would it be? How do you know?

Week 11

Lesson 1

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 13-17
2. Read/listen to chapters 13-17.
3. Answer the following questions in your document:

 

• Give an example of something the Warden says or does that shows she has perseverance?
• Stanley now knows why X-Ray didn’t want to talk about the thing he found at breakfast. Why was that?
• What “is certain” to the boys at the end of chapter 15?
• What is something they don’t know?
• What does Stanley learn about Zero in chapter 16?

 

Lesson 2

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 18-23
2. Read/listen to chapters 18-23.
3. Assignment - setting, chapter 23:
4. Identify the setting of this “flashback” chapter:
5. Time - (the present, many years ago, the future?)
6. Place - What are two ways this place was different at this time than it is for Stanley now? 

Week 12

Lesson 1

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 23-27
2. Read/listen to chapters 23-27.
3. Kate Barlow has a conflict of the fourth kind, “Conflict with society or a social group - struggling with written or unwritten rules, laws or customs.”

 

• Who broke the law?
• What social custom did Kate break?

 

1. Inference 

• Why is Green Lake dry now? (What happened right before it stopped raining?)
• What does Stanley infer about his canteen when Mr Sir disappears with it? Why doesn’t he drink from it?
• What is Zero’s real last name?
• Who else had that last name in Latvia? (see chapter 7)
• What is a possible inference you could make from those facts?

Lesson 2

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 28-30.
2. Read/listen to chapters 28-30.
3. Character analysis - Zero. See Classroom.

 

Week 13

Lesson 1

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 31-35
2. Read/listen to chapters 31-35.
3. Write a Character Analysis of Zero. 

Lesson 2

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 36-40: Read/listen to chapters 36-40.
2. Finish Character Analysis. 

 

Week 14
EASTER BREAK

Week 15

Lesson 1

1. Record discussion 1 
2. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 41-43
3. Read/listen to chapters 41-43.

 

Lesson 2

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 44-47
2. Read/listen to chapters 44-47.
3. Repeat vocabulary from past chapters.

 

Week 17

Lesson 1

1. Practise the vocabulary to chapters 48-50
2. Read/listen to chapters 48-50.
3. Answer the following questions in your document: 

 

• When the counsellors talk to each other we can understand that a woman has had contact with them. Who do you think it is and what has she talked about?
• What does the Warden mean when she says “It won’t be long now”?
• What do we get to know about the Warden and her background? Can we guess who she is?
• What had the counsellors planned to say about Stanley if he died?
• What news did Stanley get from Mr Sir?
• Why was Zero able to be released together with Stanley?
• Why do you think that Stanley, who had been unlucky all his life, now became rich and happy?
• What did Zero do with his money? 

 

 Lesson 2

Prepare and record discussion 2:

1. Why is the book called Holes? Besides the boys, who else dug holes at Green Lake? How does digging holes help Zero and Stanley survive? Was there a hole in Stanley's life when he went to Camp Green Lake? Was it still there when he left? Why or why not? What "holes" are there in the story for the reader? How are they "filled in"?
2. Besides the title, the characters' names are also symbolic. Discuss the importance of names in the book. What is the significance of Stanley's name being a palindrome? Talk about the other names in the book, particularly the nicknames given to the boys at Camp Green Lake.
3. There are many parallels between the different stories told in Holes. Explain the importance of these recurring themes: peaches, onions, lizards, Mary Lou.
4. Compare the song that appears throughout the book with the version that ends the book. How do the tone and meaning change? How does that reflect the changes that occurred in the book? (p. 39, p. 176, p.233)
5. Find examples of irony and dark humor in the book.
6. At the heart of this story is a fable. Discuss the moral of this fable. Who are the important characters? What does each character represent?

 

1. Finish past assignments.
2. Prepare for the test.

Week 17

Lesson 1 and 2

1. Finish past assignments.
2. Prepare for the test.

Week 18

Lesson 1

Test

What to practise?

Vocabulary

Reading comprehension

• - practise the questions in your document
• - practise the discussion questions
• - practise the literary concepts

Uppgifter

Reading homework Holes - Chapters 8-12

Until Wednesday, please read up until p 58 in your book Holes.

Before you read - practise the words for the chapters on Quizlet. You will find the words for chapters 8-12 here: https://quizlet.com/487068031/holes-chapter-8-12-flash-cards/?i=y2fbu&x=1jqt

Here is a link where you can listen to the book, and also read it as the text appears when you select chapters.

https://esl-bits.org/ESL.English.Learning.Audiobooks/Hoyo/contenido.html