Junior great book I Just Kept On Smiling Series 7 pgs 10- 19 By Simon Burt

Pre- Reading Questions 1. What are some reasons why people might smile even when they are not feeling happy or friendly? 2. What do you think would be good- and not so good- about going to a boarding school? 3. What are some reasons, other than need, why people steal? 4. What might be satisfying about breaking what you think is a stupid rule and then keeping it a secret?

Directed Notes Sample Graphic Organizer Understandable Too Weird

Directed Notes: Complete while reading Note the places where you think the narrator’s behavior is understandable and places where you think it is too weird. Follow- up question: Why do you think the narrator does this? Interpreting Words/ Concepts: Shame & Guilt Shame A painful feeling caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, or unworthiness. A loss of honor or respect as a result of doing something wrong.

Interpreting Words/ Concepts: Shame & Guilt A painful feeling caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, or unworthiness. A loss of honor or respect as a result of doing something wrong. 1. What are some ways that the boys in the school are made to feel shame by their teachers and by each other? 2. Why doesn’t the narrator feel guilty about taking the exercise books? 3. What do you think the narrator knows about shame?

Interpretive Questions for Shared Inquiry & Discussion Why does the narrator take the exercise books? 1. Why does the narrator steal the exercise books on his birthday? 2. Why is it so important to the narrator not to crease or mark the exercise books? 3. After the boys beat him up, why does the narrator go to the Chapel but not to look at the books? 4. After Dom Francis beats the class, why does thinking of the clean, white, empty exercise books help the narrator “a lot”? 5. Why does the narrator decide to tear up the exercise books after his parents tell him that he will spend part of his holiday with Nicky Carver? 6. Why doesn’t Freddy Oake’s shining green plastic eyeshade have the same “magic” of the exercise books? Why does the narrator think that the eyeshade might “get in the way of their memory”? 7. Why does the narrator suggest that he knows more about shame than Dom Francis?

1. By confessing to the narrator’s crime, is Nicky Carver reaching out to the narrator in friendship or trying to shame him? 2. Why, according to Nicky Carver’s sense of honor, would it be all right to confess falsely for the sake of the boys, but wrong to do so out of fear? 3. Why do Nicky Carver and the narrator see more of each other after Dom Francis has closed the incident of the exercise books? 4. Why doesn’t Nicky Carver suspect the narrator of stealing the exercise books, whereas the other boys seem to? 5. Why does Dom Francis believe Nicky Carver’s confession, but not the narrator’s? 6. Why are we told that Nicky Carver is “very religious”? 7. Why does seeing the narrator return the eyeshade enable Nicky Carver to figure out who stole the exercise books? Interpretive Questions for Shared Inquiry & Discussion Why does Nicky Carver confess to the narrator’s crime?

Why is the narrator so “furious” when Nicky Carver makes the false confession? 1. Why does the narrator think that Nicky Carver’s confession means that Nicky has “stolen” his secret? 2. Why does the narrator tell Nicky Carver, “Quite a lot of things are wrong. Like taking the books in the first place”? 3. Does the narrator resent being bracketed with Nicky Carver, or does he consider Nicky Carver his friend? 4. Why does the narrator let his peers be beaten rather than return the books or confess to Dom Francis convincingly? 5. Why does the narrator return the eyeshade to the recess when he is with Nicky Carver? 6.Why does the narrator keep smiling at Nicky Carver after Nicky confesses?

Writing After Discussion Do you respect Nicky Carver for what he does at the end of the story? If you were Dom Francis, how would you have handled the situation of the stolen exercise books? Why is Nicky Carver the narrator’s only friend? Is there anything about the narrator that you admire?