"The Hope Chest" Novel Study Unit

About this resource

What's inside this resource

This "The Hope Chest" Novel Study Unit is packed with over 400 pages of engaging resources for students.

Included:

- Chapter comprehension worksheets
- Mystery match vocabulary words
- Exit quizzes
- Group work
- Writing prompts
- Summative assessment
& so much more.

All you have to do is print and go!

Answer keys included.

What's included

19 chapter comprehension worksheets, each chapter split into two sections
4-page Summary/Main Idea activity template with a worked Chapter 4 exemplar
19 Vocabulary Mystery Match puzzles (10 words each) and matching context-clue sentence cards
19 ten-point fill-in-the-blank context-clue vocabulary tests with answer keys and a student data bar-graph tracker
19 five-question multiple-choice standards quizzes (one per chapter)
4 twenty-word multiple-choice spelling tests (every 5 chapters) covering vowel pairs, compound words and homophones
19 reflection/opinion/compare-and-contrast writing prompts
Student historical reference pages and a reading reference page defining literary devices
30-question multiple-choice summative test with a teacher scoring/grading-scale page
Full text of the 27 U.S. constitutional amendments as a reference page

Resource types: Novel Studies, Worksheets & Printables

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Students summarize each chapter by identifying its setting, main characters, character motivations, and central conflict.
Students determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words using context clues from the text.
Students identify literary devices such as simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole within the assigned reading.
Students determine the novel's overall theme after completing all 19 chapters.
Students connect historical events referenced in the novel (Prohibition, the Suffrage Movement, World War I) to comprehension and quiz questions.

Teaching tips

Budget 1.5 to 2 hours per chapter lesson, as the unit's own teacher instructions estimate, since each chapter combines a comprehension worksheet, vocabulary activities, and a quiz.
Use the 'Souvenir Walking Tour' vocabulary activity described in the teacher instructions: after students guess their own word definitions, they trade definitions in pairs around the room before the teacher reveals the actual meaning.
Have students keep a dedicated Hope Chest folder for all worksheets and quizzes so they can review before the summative test, as the teacher instructions suggest.
Choose between the two grading criteria offered for each chapter quiz — a traditional scale or an alternate one that treats 4 out of 5 correct as mastery — based on how you want to weight test-taking practice versus content mastery.

Skills covered

Chapter summarization — students use a structured template to record setting, characters, motivations and conflict for each chapter.
Context-clue vocabulary — students determine word meanings from surrounding text across 19 Mystery Match puzzles and fill-in-the-blank vocabulary tests.
Figurative language identification — students apply definitions of simile, metaphor, idiom, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration from the reading reference page.
Historical context integration — students answer quiz questions that require connecting novel events to real 1920s history (Prohibition, the Titanic, the Ford Model T).
Theme and central idea analysis — students identify the novel's overall theme on the summative test after tracking main ideas chapter by chapter.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What are the two grading options offered for each chapter quiz?

A traditional grading scale, and an alternate scale that counts 4 out of 5 correct as mastery-level performance; the teacher instructions note the alternate option can reward students who are solid readers but occasionally miss a question.

What does the Summary/Main Idea template ask students to record for each chapter?

Six categories: setting, main characters, character motivations or intentions, feeling facts, the problem or conflict, and how that conflict is resolved, with space to add supporting details or evidence for each.