Terror at Bottle Creek

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

How much responsibility is too much for middle school ages? Offer several examples of light responsibility, heavy responsibility, and unrealistic responsibility for this age group.

Teaching Suggestion: One of the central themes of this novel is Responsibility Differences Between Children and Adults. It may be beneficial to introduce this theme, then provide this opportunity for students to reflect on and discuss the topic. Thinking about responsibility before beginning the story can help students more fully see the protagonist’s conflict during reading. Studying these and similar resources and discussing how students agree or disagree with the ideas presented could build opportunities for practicing active listening and speaking, as well as building on each other’s points. During reading, pausing at key moments and making connections to this discussion may be helpful for context.

• In “Shifting Responsibility to Pre-Teens and Teenagers,” RaisingChildren.net.au presents some ideas about how and when to add to a young person’s responsibilities.
• This article by Today’s Parent outlines some expectations that fit different ages. Students might approach this content as a critical thinking exercise, rating each section or bullet on a scale of “Agree” to “Disagree.”

Short Activity

Work in your small group to research hurricanes, especially Gulf Coast hurricanes. Use this list of sub-topics to guide your research:

• How do hurricanes form?
• What are some dangers of hurricanes?
• What do the different categories mean?
• When and where do hurricanes typically form?
• What are some hurricanes with historical significance?
• What are some safety tips about hurricanes?

Teaching Suggestion: The book focuses on the time period leading up to, during, and immediately after a hurricane. Understanding hurricanes more completely will help students comprehend the novel and empathize with characters. Students might work in small groups to share what they already know about the topic, then brainstorm additional questions they have. The class might place questions under the larger research subtopics, and groups could look for additional information to answer as many as they can. To save time, questions might be handled with a jigsaw approach; each group can share the information they discover for their question(s).

• This resource from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration includes written and visual background information about hurricanes, how they form, safety points, and more.
• This site from National Geographic Kids presents visuals and written explanations about hurricanes, including their strength, path, and how to survive if faced with these natural disasters.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced learners, consider expanding this activity to include requirements like finding and using additional resources and creating an annotated bibliography in which students write a brief paragraph summarizing the content and evaluating the reliability of each source.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

What kinds of situations build connections and belonging between people? Provide 3-4 examples.

Teaching Suggestion: The prompt offers an opportunity to think about the central theme of Sense of Connection and Belonging and can serve as a chance to further advance classroom community. This question is intentionally broad so that students can take it in different directions. Students might begin by sharing words or phrases that they think of when they hear the words connection and belonging. It might be helpful to brainstorm as a class different categories of connections (e.g., family, friends, neighbors, classrooms). Then, students could write about or discuss different ways connection builds among those in the category. If time permits, the class could write a group poem about this topic. Later, during reading, students might explain how the characters’ sense of belonging fits their ideas.

• “‘This Is Our Dream’: A Crowdsourced Poem To Inspire Hope” from NPR presents, in written and audio form, an example of a poem created using many voices.