Hatchet Discussion Questions for Every Chapter

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Gary Paulsen's survival novel Hatchet is broken into question sets for each of its nineteen chapters plus an epilogue, with two to eleven short-answer prompts per chapter and blank lines beneath each for students to write their responses. Most questions check literal recall of plot events — what Brian sees, decides, or realizes at each stage of his ordeal from the plane crash through his eventual rescue — while a handful ask for a fuller paragraph response, such as describing Brian's "feast day" or comparing the sights and sounds of the forest with the city he came from. Every page footer is stamped "Journeys in Learning © 2021," and a closing credits page lists font and clip-art sources used to build the packet. No model answers are included in the file, so a teacher would need the novel itself or a separately prepared key to check student work. For chapter-by-chapter answer keys, which this set does not include, the full Hatchet novel study covers the same book with matching comprehension worksheets, vocabulary work, and complete answer keys.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Recall key plot events and character decisions from each chapter of Hatchet.
Make inferences about Brian's physical, intellectual, and emotional changes over the course of the novel.
Summarize and describe pivotal scenes, such as the feast day and the tornado, in their own words.

Teaching tips

Assign the question set for each chapter as a reading check right after that chapter is read in class.
Since no answer key is provided, review responses through class discussion or prepare a key from the novel in advance.
Use the paragraph-response prompts, like the forest-versus-city comparison, as short constructed-response writing practice.
Pair Chapter 1's vocabulary question about the meaning of "divorce" with a brief pre-reading discussion of the word.

Skills covered

Reading comprehension — students recall specific plot details from each chapter of Hatchet through short-answer questions.
Inferential reasoning — students explain character motivations and realizations, such as why Brian decides his earlier "good luck" was a mistaken idea.
Constructed-response writing — select questions ask for a full paragraph describing or comparing a scene rather than a short answer.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How do the paragraph-response questions in Chapters 13 and 17 differ from the rest of the set?

Most questions ask for short factual recall answers, but a few — like describing Brian's "feast day" or comparing the forest and the city — ask students to write a full paragraph, making them suited for extended written-response practice.

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Resource details

Concepts & topics

Core concepts

novel study
reading comprehension
survival fiction

Topics

Novel Study Book Companion Hatchet Novel reading comprehension hatchet question discussion discussion questions questions reading

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Hatchet Discussion Questions by Chapter

What's inside this resource