Directed Reading Thinking Activity

Mr. Posatko

English 9 Honors

Great Expecations

Directed Reading Thinking Activity

Great Expectations Chapter One

Please include page numbers from the text to support your answers.

1. What kind of a life does Pip live? Is he rich or poor? Is he high up on the social ladder?

2. What kind of a person is Pip? Would you be friends with him?

Pair Share Questions

3. Who do you the man threatening Pip is and why is he threatening him?

4. What do they think the “great iron on his leg” says about the mystery man? What is the “great iron?”

5. What do you think will happen next? Will Pip retrieve the food (or “wittles”) and thefile for the man or will he run away and not return? If he does return with the wittlesand file will the man spare his life or will he kill him?

The Results are In! Were Your Predictions Correct???

6. Why does Pip promise the man to return with the file and wittles?

7. Do you think he will follow through on his promise? Do you think he should? Why or why not?

8. What does Pip’s promise to return tell us about Pip?

9. How do you think Pip’s decision to help the man will affect him later in life?

Writing Assignment: To Pay or Not to Pay (Due April 11)

You are going to imagine you are in a similar predicament to Pip’s but in the modern day.

The situation: A bully has asked you to pay him/her ten dollars and has threatened to beat you up if you don’t get it to him/her by the end of school.

The problem: You have to steal money from your friend in order to pay up.

In an essay that is about a page long you need to:

• Analyze what you would do in that situation. Would you steal money from your friend to pay the bully or confront the bully?

• Consider the pros and cons of standing up to the bully and of paying him

• Relate this exercise to Pip’s moral struggle and the effect that his decision might have on him later in life