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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage captures the small, telling disagreement between Mr. and Mrs. Arable that holds the whole chapter together. Mrs. Arable's plain, anxious sentence sits right next to Mr. Arable's chuckle and his soft Maybe they do talk, so students can see how two parents, loving the same child, can face her wonder in opposite ways. It also lets students feel the quiet gravity of the word worry repeated twice.
"I worry about Fern," she said. "Did you hear the way she rambled on about the animals, pretending that they talked?" Mr. Arable chuckled. "Maybe they do talk," he said. "I've sometimes wondered. At a...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 8 in order. Begin at the Sunday breakfast table, describe how Fern's account of the barn animals slowly changes her mother's face from interest to worry, and end with Mrs. Arable's decision to ask Dr. Dorian about Fern.
Discussion Questions
- When Fern tells her mother about Templeton taking the unhatched egg away, the text says Mrs. Arable gazes at her daughter with a queer, worried look. What in this description tells you that Mrs. Arable's concern began earlier than any single sentence Fern said, and how does the author use her face to signal something the dialogue does not?
- Fern remembers Charlotte's whole speech to the goslings word for word, including hard words like gratified and unremitting. What makes you think Fern memorized that speech on purpose, and what does this reveal about how Fern listens in the barn compared to how she listens at home?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Young geese just out of the egg.
Item 2
The smallest or weakest bit of something, as in the smallest idea.
Item 3
In an odd or unusual way.
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Critical Thinking
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