Teaching Slaughterhouse 5 to Sophomore Class?

Question

I'm in 10th grade English and for my final, my group and I have to teach "Slaughterhouse 5" to the rest of the class.

While teaching this book to the rest of the class, what are some goals and objectives I should keep in mind?

(what ideas, concepts, and skill should the class understand after reading "Slaughterhouse 5?)

What would a unit on this text include?

1. sample activities

2. discussion question

3. assessment options

4. related resources

Answer 1

Slaughterhouse 5 is an excellent example of irony, from cover to cover.  If I were you I would use your class discussion to talk about irony as a literary tool and go over examples from the book.  There are "big picture" examples of irony, like the upbeat  attitude of the entire novel in the face of such tragic events, and more specific examples, like the fact the Billy was never supposed to see the enemy, never see a battle and ended up as a prisoner anyway.  Perhaps have your class identify their favorite ironic parts.  You could then move the discussion to what the class learned about WWII from the novel and talk about how Vonnegut's use of irony enhanced their understanding of the war, as opposed to what they would have read in a history text -- which would try to communicate the same information in a dry, informative manner.  For related resources check out a Vonnegut "Annotated" bibliography from your library and use examples from that.

Answer 2

Slaughterhouse 5 is a pretty tough book to grasp. Trying to do "exercises" will be fairly hard. I hate to say this, but I'd google it and see if anyone has anything

THAT BEING SAID

I'm surprised your school will let you do it. Lots and lots of schools have banned this book. I would really tread lightly in terms of how "in depth" you get. Give a good overview.

Short answer test would be an idea. Activities? hard to say.

Discussion could be "if - then questions" If you were in this situation, what would you do.?