Name: ______
“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves”: Annotations Packet

Title, Stage 1 Epigraph and ¶ 1

Lycanthropic: relating to the magical transformation of a person into a wolf

Jesuit: a member of a Roman Catholic religious order

Epigraph: a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.

Culture Shock: a state of bewilderment and distress experienced by an individual who is suddenly exposed to a new, strange, or foreign social and cultural environment

  1. What does the epigraph suggest?
  1. Who is the epigraph written for? How do you know the intended audience of the handbook?
  1. If you break apart the term Lycanthropic Culture Shock into parts, what is it describing?
  1. What does the word initial suggest here?
  1. Who is the pack? How do you know?
  1. What is the pack doing?
  1. Where are they?
  1. Jot down the words “couth” and “kempt” here, along with what you think their meanings are. Hint: consider the girls’ behavior in this section and the way the sentence is structured.
  1. How did the girls forget their promise to be “couth and kempt”?
  1. Starting from the sentence “Things looked less foreign…” through to the end of the paragraph, what is the pack doing to the bunks? How do you know?
  1. What is this a remedy for?

Kinetic: characterized by movement

  1. What does the author’s use of the word exuberant suggest about these “streams” and the girls?

Quick Write #1
What specific phrases or words reveal the connections between the first paragraph of the story and the Stage 1 epigraph? Cite evidence from the text in your story.

Heifer: a young, female cow

Cleric: an ordained member of a religion

Jugular: short for jugular vein, a large vein in the neck

Disconcerting: upsetting or disturbing

Bliss: supreme happiness

Catastrophic: disastrous

Adapted: adjusted oneself to different conditions

  1. What are your expectations for Stage 1?

¶ 2 - 5

  1. What are you learning about the pack?

¶ 6 - end of Stage 1

  1. Use the space below to jot down 2-3 questions, central ideas or important moments regarding Stage 1’s entirety. Use hashtags for this.

Stage 2 Epigraph - ¶ 4

  1. Based on what we just read, what do you think the girls are doing at St. Lucy’s, and what evidence from the text supports your ideas?

Discussion #1: On sticky notes, write possible ideas to the following: Why does it seem the pack hates Jeanette and Mirabella? What evidence in the text supports your thinking?

¶ 5 - end of Stage 2

  1. Use the space below to jot down 2-3 questions, central ideas or important moments regarding Stage 2’s entirety.

Stage 3 Epigraph - ¶ 6

  1. In Stage 3, what is happening with Mirabella? Use text evidence to support.

¶ 7 - 17

  1. What are some things the girls are learning to do?

¶ 18 - End of Stage 3

  1. Use the space below to jot down 2-3 questions, central ideas or important moments regarding Stage 3’s entirety.

Stage 4 Epigraph - ¶ 7

  1. In Stage 4, how does this scene reveal the differences between Mirabella, Jeanette and Claudette, and what textual evidence supports your ideas?

¶ 8 - end of Stage 4

  1. What happened at the dance?
  1. What is your response to Mirabella being expelled? Use evidence from the text to support your thinking.

Stage 5

  1. Use the space below to jot down 2-3 questions, central ideas or important moments regarding Stage 4-5’s entirety.

Written Response #1
What is the central idea of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”? Cite at least 4 pivotal moments in the text that show how the conflict develops throughout the story.

Stage 1 ¶ 2 - 4

  1. What phrases or descriptions help you determine what languid means in this context?
  1. What could barbaridad mean and how do you know?
  1. What are sinewy and hirsute describing in this context and how do you know?
  1. Why does Sister Josephine use the word backwoods?
  1. What does the phrase, “We went knuckling along,” reveal about the girls?

¶ 5

  1. Why do the farmers ostracize the parents?
  1. Why do the parents ostracize the local wolves?
  1. Where the werewolves’ purgatory and what is are the qualities of this place?
  1. What is the meaning of purgatory in this context?
  2. How will the girls be bilingual, and what does the word bilingual mean in this context?
  1. What offer did the nuns make to the parents?
  1. Why is St. Lucy’s culture better?

Discussion #2: Explain why the girls’ parents accepted the nuns’ offer. Use the words ostracized and purgatory in your response to show specifically how these words reflect essential ideas of the text.

¶ 6 - end of Stage 1

  1. In Stage 1, the paragraph that starts, “That first afternoon…” what is the pack doing in this paragraph?
  1. Why might the squirrels be “doomed”?
  1. How does the pack show their wolf-like characteristics in this paragraph?
  1. How is the pack feeling in this paragraph?
  1. In Stage 1, the paragraph that starts, “We supplemented…,” what is the pack doing with the holes?
  1. What is “assaulting” the pack’s noses?
  1. Why did their “own scent become foreign to the girls”?
  1. What is the significance of the author’s focus on scent?
  1. In Stage 1, the paragraph that begins, “We had just sprawled…,” why did the older sister “bristle?”
  1. What does the method the oldest sister uses to bristle reveal about the pack?
  1. In Stage 1, the section that begins, “Sister Maria gave her a brave smile…” and ends ‘ “Our littlest sister…”, what are the nuns trying to do to the pack?
  1. What are the feelings of the pack in the section just closely read and how can you tell? The feelings of the nuns?
  1. In Stage 1, the section that begins, “ Our littlest sister had the quickest…” to the end of Stage 1, what does Mirabella do and what happens to her?
  1. How has Stage 1 been overstimulating for the pack?

Written Response #2
For this quick write, there is an A, B and C analysis response. You may choose to do either A or B, but you must do C. Here are the response choices:

  1. Reread the two paragraphs in Stage 1 that begins, “That first afternoon…,” and ends with “ Our own scent…” Based on these two paragraphs, how is the pack’s initial experience at St. Lucy’s, “new, exciting, and interesting”? Write a response using your annotations to identify 2-3 pieces of strong text evidence in your response.
  1. Reread the section of text in Stage 1 that begins, “We had just sprawled out” through to the end of Stage 1. What does this section reveal about the pack’s human and wolf-like characteristics? Write a response using your annotations to identify 2-3 pieces of strong text evidence in your response.
  1. Based on the lesson’s discussion and text evidence annotated, how accurately does the Stage 1 epigraph represent the pack’s initial experience at St. Lucy’s? Write a response using your annotations to identify 2-3 pieces of strong text evidence in your response.

Stage 2

Tawny: dark yellowish or dull, yellowish brown in color

  1. Read the Stage 2 epigraph. What are some changes that will happen in Stage 2?
  1. What is “disorienting” about looking at the shoes for the narrator?
  1. What has “bewildered” the girls?
  1. In Stage 2, read and annotate independently the section from, “Physically, we were all easily capable…,” to “Mirabella cocked her ears at us…” Who or what is taunting the girls?
  1. How do the parents (still in the forest) affect the girls?
  1. Why do the nuns perform a daily eradication?
  1. Why is the word bipedal important to the girls’ development?
  1. How is Mirabella different from the other girls?

Quick Write #2
How is the epigraph’s description of Stage 2 reflected in the experiences of the girls in this section of the text? Use specific vocabulary from the text in your response.

  1. In Stage 2, read, in your groups, the paragraph that begins, “Still, some things remained the same.” What things “remained the same” for the pack?
  1. What might me a synonym for the word commandment?
  1. What is Mirabella holding on to?
  1. In Stage 2, group close read the section that begins, “Then she would sing out the standard…,” up to “I was one of the good girls.” What are Jeanette’s origins and how has she removed herself from them?
  1. In Stage 2, read the paragraph “I was one of the good girls,” and note the change in point of view to “I” rather than “we.” How does this change in wording impact our reading of the text?
  1. What are the narrator’s “aptitudes?”
  1. Why stay in the “middle of the pack”?
  1. In Stage 2, read the two paragraphs from, “The pack hated Jeanette…, “ up to “Whatever will become…” How does the pack feel about failing?

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  1. In what ways are the girls being “rehabilitated” by St. Lucy’s?
  1. How could the pack be “shunned by both species”?
  1. Who is Claudette and what kind of student is she?

Written Response #3
Choose either A or B to respond to. However, you should use key vocabulary from the text and use textual evidence from the piece through paraphrasing and quoting directly from the text as you respond.

  1. Considering the complex characters and their development thus far, why don’t the other girls want to be like Mirabella or Jeanette? Cite 3-4 pieces of strong textual evidence in your analysis.
  1. What do the details in Stage 2 reveal about the requirements of survival at St. Lucy’s? Cite 3-4 pieces of strong textual evidence in your analysis.

Stage 3

Read the Stage 3 Epigraph closely.

  1. What is the host culture?
  1. How will the students feel about the host culture in this stage?
  1. In Stage 3, read the section from ¶ 1 - ¶ 5. How is Mirabella described in this scene?
  1. In Stage 3, read ¶ 6. What is happening to Mirabella and why?

In Stage 3, read ¶ 7 - 10.

  1. How are “purebred girls” described?
  1. What does it mean, then, that the “purebred girls” were raised “in captivity”?

In Stage 3, continue from ¶ 11 - 17.

  1. What does the bicycle reveal about Mirabella?
  1. Based on this section, has the pack been successfully rehabilitated? Explain.
  1. How are the details of the Stage 3 epigraph reflected in this last scene between Jeanette and Claudette?

*At this point, you will be taking a mid-unit assessment. When you have finished, you will be annotating and reading the rest of Stage 3 and part of Stage 4 on your own for the next lessons.

In Stage 3, read ¶ 18 - the end of Stage 3, and continue with the Stage 4 epigraph - ¶ 7. Use the space below and the blank page following to create your own annotations and vocabulary notes, using all the skills you have acquired in annotating for the last several lessons. In our next class, we will be engaging in a task that will hold you accountable for these annotations.

  1. In Stage 4, read from¶ 8 -the end of Stage 4. You and your partner will be responsible for generating your own annotations here, using the skills you have learned. Pay special attention to the individual students and their development at St. Lucy’s. You will then be responsible for a quick write on your own.

Quick Write #3
Respond to the following:
Citing strong evidence from the text, describe the experience of the dance through Claudette’s perspective. Stage 4 says that things will “make sense.” Is this true for Claudette? Use your annotations, identifying at least 3-4 pieces of textual evidence to write your response.

Stage 5

Lolling: sitting, lying, or standing in a lazy, relaxed way

Dour: sullen; gloomy

Read all of Stage 5 with your partner first. Use your annotation marks as you read. Then answer these additional questions.

  1. Claudette says that she had to have “a woodsman… accompany me; I couldn’t remember how to find the way back on my own.” What does this tell you about Claudette?
  1. What does the line above say about Claudette’s training at St. Lucy’s?
  1. Claudette’s brother is described as a “dour, balding children’s author.” What do you predict about the brother’s fate through this description?
  1. What is the family’s reaction to Claudette?
  1. What is the significance of her mother “recoiling back”?
  1. What is Claudette’s reaction to the family?
  1. In the end, does Claudette reach Stage 5? Use textual evidence to support/explain your answer.

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