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Copywork
About This Passage
Harper Lee uses this paragraph to introduce the Radley Place as a character of its own. Notice how every detail — the sidewalk that bends, the faded paint, the rotted shingles, the veranda where trees block the sun — makes the house feel shut-in and watching. Lee describes the PLACE first and saves the mystery of who lives inside for later, the way a movie camera might pan slowly across a building before it shows you what is in the window.
The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch a...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize chapter 1 in five or six sentences. Introduce Scout, Jem, Atticus, Calpurnia, and Dill, and explain what the Radley Place is and why the children are drawn to it.
Discussion Questions
- What in the chapter tells us that the town of Maycomb has turned Boo Radley into a legend rather than a real person? Point to at least two things the neighbors say about him.
- Dill is a new arrival in Maycomb. How does Harper Lee use Dill's outsider point of view to let the reader discover the Radley Place along with him?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
stuck out sharply from a straight line, like a rock from a cliff
Item 2
thin overlapping pieces of wood or slate that cover a roof
Item 3
hung down limply, as if too tired or weak to stay up
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Critical Thinking
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