Lesson Plans > A House Divided
Writing or Discussion Topics:
- Family is a major theme in this book. What are some problems you and your family have had when trying to do things with each other? Come up with a detailed plan to get your family to spend more time together.
- Tawana seemed to give up on the Beauty Box pretty quickly when customers started cancelling their appointments. Do you think she was right to want to cut their losses and close the shop or was she giving up too easily? Explain your answer and describe what you would do if the Beauty Box were your business.
- Keith LaFleur seemed to slowly go crazy after his spider bite. Do you think it was the spider bite and the “haunted” house that caused to him to become so violent, the excruciating pain that he suffered when the doctors couldn’t cure him, or was he already a bad person who just needed an excuse to start hurting people? Support your answer using quotes from the book.
- How do you feel about the ending of the book? Would you have ended it differently? Explain your answer.
Short answer questions (Higher order thinking):
- Why did Moweez keep calling Seth “Matt”?
When she had visions of the “come-together” she was seeing Matt as a little boy. Seth probably looked a lot like Matt as a child.
- Why is the prologue important to the story?
It explains the history of the house and why it ended up haunted.
- Tawana is an extremely interesting and humorous character. Come up with at least five adjectives to describe her personality and use quotes from the story to support your answer.
Several answers are acceptable as long as the explanation is sufficient to be convincing.
- In Chapters 23-25, what do you think Moweez’s plan was initially? Do you think things worked out the way she wanted it to? Why or why not?
Several answers are acceptable as long as the explanation is sufficient to be convincing.
- Do you think that Moweez’s ability to draw the future was a gift or a curse? Explain your answer. Several answers are acceptable as long as the explanation is sufficient to be convincing.
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Other Fun Activities:
- Create a newsletter describing the events in the book. You can even make up some events that you think would happen after the end of the story, such as an investigation into the fire, a romance between Matt and Laura, etc.
- Sum up the plot by drawing a comic strip about the story.
- Create a graphic organizer of the plot elements.
- Write an epilogue to the story.
- Using question #3 under Writing or Discussion Topics, conduct a trial with half the class charging Keith LaFleur as guilty of murder and the other half defending him by reason of insanity. Every argument must be supported with quotes from the text.
- At the end of the book, Moweez can finally speak clearly. Write a dialogue between Moweez and Laura, Moweez and Seth, and Moweez and Matt.
- Create three jokes about magic or superstitions. Then create a dialogue between yourself and Tawana in which you tell her the jokes and she responds. Think carefully about how she reacted to such things in the book and be sure her answers match her personality. Also, try to use the same dialect she used in the book.
- Write your own book or story about a topic of your choice.
- Create a drawing, painting or collage that sums up everything that happened in the book.
- Watch the trailer for A House Divided on Deborah’s website. Pretend you’re a critic and write an opinion article describing what you think of it. Do you think it does a good job describing the book? What, if anything, from the trailer doesn’t fit your perception of the book? What kinds of things would you include if you were to make your own trailer for A House Divided?
- Write a letter to Ms. LeBlanc and tell her what you think of her book and/or her presentation at your school. (She loves to hear from students and teachers!!)
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Vocabulary and Context Clues:
Combining vocabulary and grammatical elements with a piece of literature that students are reading for pleasure really helps build connections for them between reading, writing, and grammar. Dissecting the text in novels and short stories is a great way to teach those “boring” grammar lessons and writing skills. Below are just some examples of ways you can use this novel to bring grammar and English rules to life.
Find the meanings of the following words using context clues. Then compare and check your meaning with the dictionary definition:
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Literary Devices:
Literary devices can be found throughout the book; some of these devices as well as specific page numbers are given below. Find an example of the literary devices on the pages given as well as on other pages that you find on your own.
- Alliteration: pgs. 34, 49, 76, 79, 88, 96, 114, 124
- Metaphor: pgs. 95, 96, 105, 158
- Hyperbole: pgs. 44, 156
- Personification: pgs. 34, 162, 163
- Assonance: pgs. 31, 73, 74, 89
- Onomatopoeia: pgs. 25, 29, 31, 35, 56, 64, 65, 125
- Simile: pgs. 13, 41, 53, 63, 144, 177, 202
- What three literary devices can be found in the following sentence?
“Her braids swayed like coiled curtains on either side of her face.” Pg 80
Assonance, Alliteration, Simile
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Sentence structure:
Find 5 examples each of:
- simple sentences
- compound sentences
- complex sentences
- compound-complex sentences
Next to each example, explain how you know what type of sentence it is. Then, write your own example of a simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence. Make sure your sentences describe something in the novel.
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Verbs/ Adverbs/ Synonyms:
Many of the action words used in the novel are extremely descriptive and help the reader to bring up a mental picture of what they’re reading. Find 10 of these verbs or adverbs that really bring the story to life, then list five just as descriptive synonyms. Next, find ten rather boring verbs or adverbs and rewrite the sentences in which they’re used with a more descriptive synonym.
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Write Deborah LeBlanc:
Deborah LeBlanc
P.O. Box 92180
Lafayette, LA 70509
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