Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, Socratic Seminar Questions

Lyddie by Katherine Paterson is a deeply moving novel set in the 1840’s that tells the story of Lyddie Worthen, a young girl who lived in a remote area of Vermont. Because of family difficulties she traveled to Lowell, Massachusetts where she gained employment working in a mill and living in corporate housing. In many instances throughout the book she faced difficulties (including an encounter with a bear inside of her home, as well as an unjust firing from the mill factory), but she stood strong and returned to Vermont and her childhood home with her head held high, as she looked towards the bright future that lies ahead of her.    

This PDF file of Socratic Seminar Questions contains 45 carefully crafted queries on 13 pages. The first twelve pages contain either three or four questions, while the thirteenth page asks students for one concluding, summative response which requires a more detailed answer. All of the questions can be used to facilitate in-class discussions about the novel. 

In addition, the Socratic Seminar Questions can also be used for other purposes, such as homework assignments or classroom quizzes, and the pages will help teachers gauge whether or not the students have read and understand the specific sections of the novel.  An answer key, including Common Core Standards for Reading and Writing for grades seven and eight, follows the 13-page section of student questions.

It is my hope that these Socratic Seminar Questions will be helpful to teachers who present Katherine Paterson’s Lyddie to their students, and I believe that as the students read the novel they will find that the questions help them develop critical thinking skills in English and Language Arts.

If you find that these questions are helpful to your students, please contact me with the names of other novels that you use in class and I will see if I could write questions for those books. My email address is: gary.ciesla@gmail.com. Thank you.

This PDF file of Socratic Seminar Questions contains 45 carefully crafted queries on 13 pages. The first twelve pages contain either three or four questions, while the thirteenth page asks students for one concluding, summative response which requires a more detailed answer.

An answer key, including Common Core Standards for Reading and Writing for grades seven and eight, follows the 13-page section of student questions.