Planning to look at vocabulary in a reading session should not be a laborious task. A quick annotation of the text should allow you to choose the key vocabulary that you would like to look at and discuss with the students.
This week I looked at Survivors by David Long with a group of Y6 children. I decided to focus on vocabulary with the children in this short 15-20 minute reading session. The class theme at the moment is Mountains so I chose the text to tie in with this.
I asked – was this avalanche expected? They answered no.
I asked them to highlight or underline three phrases which show that the events happened quickly or rapidly.
They underlined: ‘Within seconds,’ ‘With no time,’ ‘sudden’ and we discussed how using all three of these in quick succession intensified the feeling of speed.
We read the next section and I instructed the students to find any evidence that the avalanche was very powerful.
We then collected synonyms that the children knew could be used to describe the powerful avalanche.
We then discussed which other natural phenomena could be described using these words.
The savage ocean, a ferocious earthquake, an awesome eruption (of a volcano)
Ask a teacher to name a book about WW2 and they can usually throw around the names of quite a few. ‘The Silver Sword’ (classic one), ‘Good Night Mr. Tom’ (Heart-warming one), ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ (shocking one) and ‘Once’ (graphic one). Ask though, which of these books describes the setting of a bomb crater the best and less books may be suggested.
It is imperative though, that teachers have a good working knowledge of the texts, the language used and the structures in order to weave them skilfully into English lessons. For this to happen, a wide range of texts need to have been read by the teacher or teachers so that they can recall features, concepts and even sentences which they can use with their students as model texts.
Take the examples below, each of them is from a different text but each of them describes a forest. It doesn’t really matter what genre the children are writing; a good description can be utilised across a range of writing episodes.
In a hypothetical classroom, somewhere around Year 5 or Year 6, a child is writing about ‘waiting in a forest ready to go into battle during WW2’ based on a picture, film or other stimulus that the teacher has provided. If the class teacher wants to show them a model, they generally have two options – try and find a book where the exact same scenario is occurring (this may not even exist) or write their own model. (Some teachers find difficult).
However, much of the language used in the extracts below would be useful, as would some of the sentence structures and techniques such as building atmosphere or using similes. None of the books below are about World War 2 or are from battle scenes though. With some slight adjustments they can be adapted to work for any narrative which needs a description of a forest.
The Wizards of Once
Perhaps you feel that you know what a dark forest looks like. Well, I can tell you right now that you don’t. These were forests darker than you would believe possible, darker than inkspots, darker than midnight, darker than space itself, and as twisted and as tangled as a Witch’s heart. They were what is now known as wildwoods, and they stretched as far in every direction as you can possibly imagine, only stopping when they reached a sea.
Cowell, Cressida. The Wizards of Once: Book 1 (Kindle Locations 32-35). Hachette Children's Group. Kindle Edition.
In this description the teacher can discuss how Cowell has directly addressed the reader, used rhetorical devices and repeated the word darker and how this effects the audience.
Tanglefern Forest was vast, with some trees so old and tangled that few had passed beneath their branches. But there were places you went and places you didn’t. The Ancientwood in the north of the forest was safe: there was the glade of brilliant spring bluebells and yews beyond Oak’s camp, then a grove of crab-apple trees, and beyond that, after the forest, the farm itself and Tipplebury village. But south . . . Well, south was another place altogether. So she’d heard. The Deepwood was rumoured to be full of shady trees and rotting undergrowth and, when it ended, the heathland, with it sinking bogs and soggy marshes, began.
Elphinstone, Abi. The Dreamsnatcher (Dreamsnatcher 1) (pp. 9-10). Simon & Schuster UK. Kindle Edition.
I like in this extract how Elphinstone paints a positive picture of the forest in the North but then lets the reader imagine what the forest to the South is like. Think back to the scenario of world war 2. The soldier is in the forest and using Elphinstone’s technique, they could say something like:
‘The North side of the barbed wire was safe. The animals went about their daily business, birds were in the trees feeding worms to their chicks, fox cubs frolicked in the long grass of the clearing and a few of us managed to take off our boots and clean ourselves in the babbling brook. But on the other side of the barbed wire? Well that was another place altogether, from what he had heard it was worse than hell, a mud filled hell…’
The Lie Tree
Faith walked through a midnight forest. The trees were pure white, and rose high above her head, disappearing into a blue-black darkness. There was no wind, and yet the snow-white leaves shivered and whispered. She raised one hand to push aside low-hanging foliage, and felt her fingertips brush paper. The trees were flat and pale. The ragged-torn ferns stroked the skin of her hands, paper-cutting her, slyly cruel.
She was not alone.
Hardinge, Frances. The Lie Tree (pp. 234-235). Pan Macmillan. Kindle Edition.
The colours that Hardinge uses here are interesting and the last line. 'She was not alone' could be utilised in the scenario above to describe the soldier as well as in many other narrative scenarios.
The Spell Thief (Little Legends Book 1)
The air in the dark woods was thick and damp. Anansi stopped in front of a fallen tree. The roots rose above him like huge dead claws.
Percival, Tom. The Spell Thief (Little Legends Book 1) (pp. 41-42). Pan Macmillan. Kindle Edition.
This is a great example of simile, but it is from a book that most teachers would use with Year 3 and Year 4. Having a knowledge of books from other year groups and other key stages, including books for adults is also useful.
I am working on collecting some texts around a number of themes like these which I will continue to blog and discuss in my CPD sessions.
I am currently updating my CPD courses and the range which I offer for the next academic year so keep your eyes peeled for updates here www.literacyshed.com/cpd
Click the book covers for more information about each
About 3 years ago I decided to write a novel. A historical novel for children set in and around Norwich Cathedral. At this point you may be wondering 'Why?' There are a number of reasons but basically I had an idea and I fancied pursuing it. I have some time on my hands, it is purely for my own pleasure and it allows me time to drop out of the hectic day to day running of The Literacy Shed and sit quietly. It also allows me to visit as many cathedrals as I possibly can which is a secondary pleasurable benefit.
These are some of the key points that I have learned during the VERY slow process.
- No one needs to read this writing in order for the process to be enjoyable.
- Not everything that I write will be published anywhere except in my own private notebooks.
- Not everything will go as planned because ideas ebb and flow as the ink runs across the page.
- There is no need to stick rigidly to planned structures at the sentence level either. They are fluid and will change through the process.
- The quality of the writing isn't dependable on a narrow set of grammatical conditions.
- It is useful to write in small chunks and add them into the narrative.
- Characters come alive once the writing begins and take on a whole new personality sometimes.
The biggest lesson really is that it is OK to start again. The story has been set in Middles ages Norwich, which at one point became the fantasy city of Nearwich. I experimented with the same story being set during the industrial revolution and then in a strange 'steam-punkish' industrial/medieval landscape and now me and Tom (main character) are back in the medieval period.
How does this affect the teaching of writing?
- Remind the children that their writing may not be published but give them the choice whether to have people read it or not.
- If you have a great idea you do not need to stick to the plan.
- Experiment with language and grammar structure and go with what sounds best.
- Write in small chunks and build up towards a finished piece.
- Allow time to go back and add in more small chunks (or even big chunks) into the narrative.
- It is ok to start again!
Writing like this has really given me an insight in both the processes we force the children to go through and the way in which we help them to build narratives around given characters and themes.
I will continue to reflect upon this process and blog about how this can aid the teaching of writing.
WICKED, the award-winning West End musical that tells the incredible untold story of the witches of Oz, together with the National Literacy Trust celebrates its eighth year of the prestigious WICKED YOUNG WRITER AWARDS. As in previous years, entrants can enter one of five different age categories; 5-7, 8-10, 11-14, 15-17, 18-25. In addition, the 2018 Awards see the third year of the FOR GOOD Award for Non-Fiction, encouraging 15-25 year olds to write essays or articles that recognise the positive impact that people can have on each other, their communities and the world we live in. The WICKED FOR GOOD programme supports the charitable causes at the heart of the stage musical.
There is a 750-word limit (not including the title words) on any theme. In the fiction categories, any creative writing will be accepted, a story, play or poem, it can be something written at school or home that has not be entered into a competition before. If you prefer to write non-fiction, you may like to enter the Wicked: For Good Award for Non-Fiction and write an article, essay, biography, review or letter, to name a few! A shortlist of 120 entrants from across the UK will see their work published in the WICKED YOUNG WRITER AWARDS Anthology. They are also invited to an exclusive ceremony at London’s Apollo Victoria, home to the hit musical since 2006, where judges and members of the WICKED cast will read the winning stories and poems and announce who has won in each category. For T&C’s and full prize fund structure please see Wicked Young Writer Awards website. www.wickedyoungwriterawards.com
Here are the rules:
· Entrants must be aged between 5-25 years old when entering the Wicked Young Writer Awards
· Entries can be hand-written or typed
· Writing must be original and your own ideas
· Judges criteria: originality, narrative, descriptive language, characterisation.
· Ensure that all students include their name, surname and age on the entry form
· Open to UK residents only
· Win four tickets to see the London production of WICKED at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.
· Meet cast members after the show along with an exclusive backstage tour.
· £50 worth of books/eBooks tokens to spend.
Other prizes for each category:
5-7 also win:
· A creative writing workshop for your class
· £100 worth of books for the winners' school library donated by Hachette Children's Books.
8-10 and 11-14 also win:
· An annual subscription to First News
· £100 worth of books for the winners' school library donated by Hachette Children's Books.
15-17 also win:
· A writing masterclass with a professional author
18-25 also win:
· A self-publishing package from Spiderwize, to publish your very own work.
Award for Non-Fiction also win:
· Work experience at First News newspaper, shadowing the editor Nicky Cox, MBE.
· The 3 schools that submit the most entries also win creative writing workshops.
· All finalists’ entries get printed in the Wicked Young Writer Awards anthology.
A flamboyance of flamingos
This week I came across a collective noun that I had not heard before, ‘A flamboyance of flamingos’ and this reminded me of some of others which I already knew: a business of ferrets, a murder of crows and a parliament of owls.
I then started to share them each day on twitter using the hashtag #collectivenouns and sharing the most unusual examples that I could find, such as a dazzle of zebras.
The posts garnered lots of interest, so I began to think about how I would use the collective nouns in writing. Many of the words are incredibly descriptive and could be used when writing setting descriptions in order to help convey a mood.
For example, when creating a peaceful mood, perhaps to describe a quiet country walk, the following examples could be used:
As I crossed the dew-kissed meadow, the sun rose above the distant hills and a wisp of snipe took flight from the long reeds.
The word ‘wisp’ used here adds to the peaceful mood whereas an example such as a ‘pandemonium of parrots’ or ‘a band of plovers,’ or even a ‘parliament of owls’ would shatter the peace.
It isn’t only birds that can lead us to imagine a peaceful moment. Barely a sound could be heard, except the gentle ruffling of the breeze-blown leaves in the trees and a prickle of hedgehogs snuffling for worms.
As well as peace, they could help children to include some atmospheric language in their writing:
A murder of crows nestled on the black, skeletal branches above, almost invisible now as the darkness descended.
The word murder will have connotations for the reader as will the word skulk in the following example: A skulk of foxes prowled through the town, silently illuminated only by the weak moonlight.
Taking it further...
To take it further, collective noun can be used as similes – see the examples below:
The gang prowled the estate like an ambush of tigers.
The snowy mountains nestled together on the horizon like a giant aurora of polar bears.
The models took to the catwalk like an flamboyance of flamingos; tall, thin and colourful.
The children alighted the bus like a troop of monkeys
Another interesting activity would be to ask children to create their own collective nouns. We asked on social media for a collective noun for teachers and amongst my favourites were:
As always thanks for reading! Please share!
This is the second list of Primary focussed teachers that I have produced. These are people that I have interacted with and followed rather than a list of people that I have looked up. Apologies if you haven't made the list but I am sure there will be a further list very soon. The first 50 can be found here.
@AllanaG13 - Secondary Leader in Primary Ed - #BAMEed Founder
@Brogan_Mr - #WhatItaughttoday Deputy Head
@cazzash - Deputy head and children's book fan
@ChrisChivers2 - Francophile and all round knowledgeable guy
@Claresealy - Primary Head Teacher in that there London
@DaisyMay29 - Teacher, Reader, Writer, Dreamer
@Darynsimon - Teacher often at the heart of the debate
@etaknipsa - Curiosity hasn't killed this primary teacher... yet!
@ey_inspiration1 - Early years duet
@GalwayMr - Part of the amazing Herts for Learning team
@gareth_metcalfe - He sees maths!
@geordiecat2012 - Cat lady teacher
@hengehall ICT Master Wizard
@HeyMissPrice - Always sharing great Literacy ideas
@HopeStreetBlues - Member of the optimistic SLT society
@isright - I wouldn't want to walk a week in his shoes he runs too far!
@JulesDaulby Literacy, SEND and a penguin
@librarymice - School Librarian sharing great books
@Libwithattitude - with attitude like this the books are never late back
@lobroo - My oldest Antipodean twitter pal!
@macfin76 - Y1 teacher who likes a ramble
@Marygtroche Almost legendary critical thinking bookworm
@MaryMyatt - Hopeful about schools
@Mr_P_hillips - Friend, Teacher, Entertainer (in that order)
@MrBKing1988 - A thoroughly entertaining twitter feed
@MrBReading - One of my 'go to' book peeps
@MrBoothY6 - Computing lead who loves books even more than computers!
@MrEFinch - Generally irritated except when on a reading spree
@MrGPrimary - his bio says incompetent but I can't believe that!
@MrMarchayes - holder of multiple learning powers
@nancygedge - SEND legend!
@NikkiGamble - Off exploring children's literature
@OldPrimaryHead1 - <--Does what it says on the tin!
@Parky_teaches - Love of books, StarWars and Night Zoos
@pickleholic - Headteacher of Hogwarts
@pivotalpaul - Teacher wrangler
@primarypercival - Genius behind the Ladybird book of Edutwitter
@rachelrossiter - SENDco checking your ladder is against the right wall
@RobertsNiomi - Laminating Queen ;)
@Sarah_Jayne1982 - Teaching the next generation
@Sarah_Wright1 - Enthusiastic Senior Primary Edu Lecturer
@Skippity_doo - Another awesome librarian sharing awesome books
@Thatboycanteach - Positive teacher knocking out some great blogs
@theprimaryhead - the definite article
@trainingtoteach - filled with positivity for the job - will he change his twitter handle soon?
@Vocabularyninja - Creeps up behind you and shares words of the day
(PS I know there are only 45 but I have left some space for when people inform me who I have missed out) As always I welcome your comments.
Plus follow the new subject specific Primary Rocks threads for themed ideas and discussions. #primaryrocks (more coming soon too)
I have been thinking about and researching how to improve comprehension skills using a range of high quality texts, images, picture books and of course film.
After a number of sessions with children in schools using the new content domains, which can be found on the gov.uk website, I found that all of the key comprehension skills were being covered through the domains. As some of you who follow this blog will know, I like a mnemonic. So I set about thinking about a mnemonic that could be used by teachers, other adults who read with children and also the children themselves. My first attempt - MR SIP TEA was not the catchiest so we have come up with Reading Vipers. Vipers cover the key comprehension skills in line with the 'new' content domains.
At Literacy Shed the minions are now busy making a whole host of resources that will link to Reading Vipers. There are now 30+ Film VIPERS on www.literacyshedplus.com
We are also creating a range of comprehension materials based on extracts from classic texts such as Black Beauty, The Time Machine, Robinson Crusoe and many more which will soon be available here. www.literacyshedplus.com Until then you can download The Time Machine sample (as seen below) by clicking here. =
The same key viper skills can be rehearsed effectively using single images or picture books.
Take a look at this example using the picture book 'Return' by Aaron Becker.
There are over 30 sets of VIPERS questions for the Literacy Shed films now on www.literacyshedplus.com
The question stem documents can be downloaded by click on the relevant image below.
As always comments are welcome!
Click the text below for further reading.
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Anton Chekov talking about the use of a well know literary device called ‘Show, don’t tell’ and more recently ‘Show, not tell.’
This method which has many proponents in the world of literature is not a new phenomenon. Ernest Hemingway opens his novel ‘To have and have not’ written in 1937 with the following lines:
You know how it is there early in the morning in Havana with the bums still asleep against the walls of the buildings; before even the ice wagons come by with ice for the bars?
Here Hemingway is painting a picture of early morning in Cuba, he could have easily written ‘One very early morning…’ some writers may argue that these examples are still ‘telling’ although somewhat elaborately. Calling it ‘Show, not tell though does simplify it for our students and is a great way of getting them to use vivid description.
Evan Marshall from http://themarshallplan.net/ says:
Don’t just write “The subway station was shabby.”
Write: “Near the edge of the platform, a man with knotted hair held out a Dixie cup to no one in particular, calling, ‘Spare some change? Spare some change?’ Swirls of iridescent orange graffiti covered the Canal Street sign. The whole place smelled of urine and potato chips.”
Perhaps both are telling but one is telling in much more detail. The latter has much more detail and drama.
I use film widely in my teaching and I use film to demonstrate this technique.
The following two extracts are from a music video called 'Titanium' by David Guetta.
These two excerpts are from one of my favourite films on The Literacy Shed, called 'Catch a Lot.'
There are many other examples in the films on www.literacyshed.com and I may follow this blog up with them if people think it is useful.
Thanks for reading and I hope you leave a comment.
On Tuesday I had the pleasure of speaking at a conference in Coventry, I was followed by Roger Black MBE who delivered a keynote speech about his career.
I sat and wondered what the relationship between his career and teaching would be. Roger spoke at length about overcoming adversity and teamwork, the type of thing that teachers do on a daily basis. One thing, however, struck a chord with me. Roger discussed his 'fear of failure' how this fear pushed him from excellent to outstanding.
I wondered... Do we instil this fear in children? Should we? Would our children in school perform better if they had a fear of failure? I thought about my own classroom setting, are my children striving to achieve at all times? No. Do they have a fear of failure? The majority don't.
I then began to think about how I deal with failure on a daily basis. In my Year 5 class what happens if a child delivers a substandard piece of work? The answer: not a lot! If they have been lazy, they may have to do the work again, but only if the work is substantially below standard. If they have failed to achieve due to carelessness, I will probably warn them about their effort or concentration levels. Is it my fault that these children do not have an intrinsic fear of failing? Do they just think they can get away with it or is there another underlying problem?
I have met a number of children throughout my career who don't seem to care about their work, who don't care about achieving. These children lack ambition, it could be down to social pressures, family traditions or a lack of aspiration.
We need to engage these children in a way that makes them care. We need to make sure they care about achieving and instil in them a fear of failure.
The question is how? [I will blog about this at a later date.] I am forming some ideas....


July-August 2009 American Scientist Magazine
Human History Written in Stone and Blood
Two bursts of human innovation in southern Africa during the Middle Stone Age may be linked to population growth and early migration off the continent
Zenobia Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts
Even by archaeological standards, Blombos Cave is a modestly sized shelter. Yet artifacts recovered from just 13 cubic meters of deposit inside transformed our understanding of when our species developed behavioral attributes we associate with “modern”
humans. From this cramped hole in a sandstone cliff on the Southern Cape coast of South Africa, Christopher Henshilwood and his colleagues unearthed evidence of symbolic expression, in the form of abstract designs (carved ochre bars) and personal
ornaments (shell beads) at least 70,000 years old. That is more than 35,000 years before anything comparable emerged in Europe.
When these discoveries were first announced earlier this decade, they stood out as extraordinary and provocative—at odds with the prevailing wisdom about the time and place of emergence of symbolic behavior, a trait unique to Homo
sapiens . Our modern anatomical features can be traced back almost 200,000 years, based on fossilized remains found in Ethiopia, but the making of the modern mind apparently lagged behind by more than 100,000 years. The remarkable finds at Blombos raised
several intriguing questions. What triggered this watershed event in human prehistory? How geographically widespread was it? Did it occur simultaneously elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa? And what role, if any, did such innovations play in the first steps
of the worldwide dispersal of our species?
Important clues come from the stone toolkit that accompanied the crosshatched ochres and deliberately perforated shells at Blombos. Stone tools commonly are the most ubiquitous items at archaeological sites because they survive longer
than animal or plant remains. Archaeologists pay close attention to their method of manufacture and how they might have been used. Although much less heralded than engraved ochre and shell beads, the Middle Stone Age deposits at Blombos contained an
important assemblage of stone tools known as Still Bay points. These finely shaped lanceolate, or narrow, points are flaked on both sides and probably formed spearhead parts. Discovered in 1866 by Sir Langham Dale near Cape Town, they were among the
first type of stone tool described in South Africa. A. J. H. Goodwin, the father of South African archaeology, was the first to appreciate the technological sophistication of this stone-tool industry.
The Still Bay cultural industry is now widely viewed as a phase of precocious and innovative technology within the Middle Stone Age of Africa, preceded by 200,000 years of much less sophisticated stone toolkits. It was followed by
another episode of technological innovation—the Howieson’s Poort industry—that includes bladelike tools made blunt on one side and attached to a wooden handle to produce a composite weapon. Like the Still Bay, Howieson’s Poort vanished too. Technology of
similar sophistication does not appear again in the archaeological record until the Later Stone Age in Africa and the Upper Paleolithic in Europe, many tens of millennia later.
The importance of the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort lies not only in their enhanced technological sophistication with what looks like hunting tools, but also with the range of associated innovative behavioral artifacts. These include the Blombos finds
in the south, engraved ochre at Klein Kliphuis and decorated ostrich eggshells at Diepkloof in the west, and bone points and shell beads at Sibudu to the east. These relics of human cognitive advancement imply that an increasingly complex technological
and social organization coincided with what some archaeologists now consider a period of expanded human population size and settlement density in Africa. Comparably sophisticated stone-tool technologies also existed in North Africa (most notably the
bifacially flaked and stemmed Aterian projectile points found throughout the Maghreb) and, possibly, in East Africa, the suspected launching ground for early human forays off their native continent. Personal ornaments occasionally have been found at
those sites as well, including perforated ostrich eggshell beads and pierced shells of marine gastropods.
Efforts to compare the timing of these technological and behavioral innovations to those in southern Africa have long been frustrated by uncertainties in the dating of evidence from each region. As a result, identifying the time and
place of the emergence of modern human behavior has eluded us. So have the reasons for, and the immediate consequences of, our ancestors becoming “human.” Solving these puzzles will require more finely resolved dating and chronologies for key
archaeological sites across the continent. We started this quest with a systematic dating study of several sites in southern Africa. Our results hint at the possible role of population expansions in Africa as a trigger for these Stone Age
innovations—and, maybe, for early migrations out of Africa about 60,000 years ago.
The Chronological Haze
A general problem encountered in trying to date archaeological events or objects is that multiple, independent age estimates are typically more scattered than would be expected with normal statistical variation, even when margins of error for each
estimate are considered. Much of this extra spread is an artifact of experimentations unwanted but unavoidable outcome of different materials being dated by different methods, using variable equipment, calibration standards, measurement procedures and
data-analysis techniques. This complication often arises even when a common set of samples (or a single sample) from one site is dated using the same technique in different laboratories. Unless all experimental conditions, instrument specifications,
reference standards and analytical software are identical, extra spread in results should be expected. We call this the chronological “haze” because it obscures the true age of the sample or event of interest.
Many attempts have been made to determine when the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort industries started and ended, using a range of numerical and relative dating methods. Numerical methods produce quantitative age estimates that can be
placed on a standard timescale, commonly expressed as years before present. Relative dating methods produce ages that can be ordered relative to one another but need to be calibrated against a numerical age to get anchored on a timescale. The first and
best-known numerical technique is radiocarbon dating, which under ideal circumstances can pinpoint when a plant or animal died in the last 60,000 years. In practice, however, sample contamination makes it challenging to reliably date samples more than
half that age, so alternative numerical methods are used for older samples and nonplant or nonanimal materials. Uranium-series dating of calcite formations in caves, electron spin resonance dating of tooth enamel, thermoluminescence dating of burnt
stones and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sun-bleached sediments have all been applied with varying success to southern African archaeological sites over the past three decades. So has dating of ostrich eggshell by amino acid
racemization, a relative dating method. Resulting age estimates for the Still Bay ranged between about 130,000 and 50,000 years ago, whereas the Howieson’s Poort estimates were slightly younger, 100,000 to 40,000 years ago. Such coarse-grained
chronologies leave plenty of room for imaginative speculation about the likely duration of these two industries and the reasons for their origins and demise.
In 2006, we began to clear the haze obscuring the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort industries. We did it by deploying a single dating method, OSL, on the same type of material from a number of key sites, using identical procedures and
equipment. OSL offers many advantages. It can capture ages of objects that originate or events that occurred during the entire Middle Stone Age. It produces ages with a precision of better than plus or minus 5 percent. If a single operator can perform
the dating, then the precision can be improved further, as can the chances for consistency.
OSL exploits the fact that buried quartz grains absorb energy from natural ionizing radiation sources (mainly uranium and thorium, their radioactive decay products, and potassium) in the surrounding ground. A small fraction of that
energy is stored by electrons trapped at defects in the crystal structure of the grains. Using blue or green light, the electrons are released from their traps in the laboratory and the resulting OSL is detected with a filtered photomultiplier. This
allows an estimate to be made of the equivalent radiation dose. By also measuring the rate of supply of ionizing radiation to the quartz grains from the surrounding deposit (the environmental dose rate), it is possible to calculate when the grains and
nearby artifacts, whether they be stone tools or Stone Age ornaments, were buried.
OSL dating was introduced by David Huntley of Simon Fraser University and his colleagues in 1985, primarily to date geological sediments. But the method underwent a revolution near the turn of the millennium, when measurement procedures
and instrumentation enabled equivalent radiation doses (and, by inference, burial ages) to be obtained from single grains of quartz as small as 0.1 millimeter in diameter. That made it feasible to routinely measure hundreds of individual grains for every
sample, providing multiple, independent estimates of age that could be compared for self-consistency and any signs of sample contamination or disturbance. For our dating of the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort artifacts, article co-author Zenobia Jacobs
collected and analyzed all of the samples in a systematic fashion, eliminating inconsistencies from site to site that plagued earlier dating efforts.
Judging when an archaeological tradition might have started and ended is not simple. It cannot be done solely from artifacts collected at one site because it is unlikely that the entire duration of an industry will be represented at one
location. Archaeologists must assemble a series of “snapshots” from multiple sites to get a fix on first and last appearance dates. This is easier said than done, especially in the case of the Still Bay, which has been found at only a handful of spots
throughout southern Africa. The situation is much better for the Howieson’s Poort, with around 30 confirmed or claimed occurrences in the high mountains of Lesotho, the desert fringes of Namibia, the continental interior and subtropics of South Africa
and the coastal areas and hinterlands along the continent’s southern margin. All the sites are natural shelters and caves that hunter-gatherers used as temporary camping places. Remnants of their everyday activities—fireplaces, food remains and
tools—have been excavated at the sites.
Our subcontinental survey included 11 locations that contained one or both of the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort industries, including some of the classic Middle Stone Age sites of southern Africa, such as Klasies River. Other sites
were either not accessible for sampling or, in the case of Blombos Cave, had been dated previously by Jacobs. We intentionally selected geographically widespread sites in diverse environmental settings to capture the full range of natural variability in
climatic conditions affecting the region at different times. The deposits at two of the sites proved unsuitable for OSL dating, but a sufficient number of samples (54 in total) were dated from the remaining nine sites to allow us to establish the time of
first and last appearance of the Howieson’s Poort and, with less confidence, the Still Bay.
As we reported in Science in 2008, both industries appear to have been extremely short-lived, appearing suddenly and then vanishing soon after. Remarkably, this pattern is seen over an area of 2 million square kilometers, cutting across
a range of climatic and ecological zones. Because of the lack of any spatial variation in timing, we pooled all of these data in a statistical model, devised by Rex Galbraith of University College London, to estimate the first and last appearance dates
of the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort. We concluded that the Still Bay lasted no longer than perhaps 1,000 years (from approximately 72,000 to 71,000 years ago). Howieson’s Poort debuted 7,000 years later in the archaeological record, around 65,000 years
ago. This industry ended abruptly five millennia later, followed by another gap of about 3,000 years before the first of the subsequent periods of less sophisticated Middle Stone Age technology. The margin of error on these estimates is only a few
millennia at the 95 percent confidence interval—sufficiently precise to resolve the ephemeral and punctuated nature of these bursts of technological and behavioral innovation.
Catalysts of Creativity
Answers about the ages of these artifacts, of course, lead only to more questions. What stimulated the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort industries? Why did they last so briefly and end so abruptly? And what was responsible for their—in archaeological
terms—instantaneous appearance and subsequent disappearance across a vast expanse of southern Africa? Human responses to environmental change have long intrigued archaeologists, so climate change must top the list of suspects. The last
interglacial/glacial cycle stretched from about 130,000 to 12,000 years ago, which includes the time span of the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort. During this period, southern Africa experienced marked changes in temperature and precipitation associated
with global changes in ice volume, sea level and patterns of oceanic and atmospheric circulation. The timing and magnitude of these climatic fluctuations have been detected by international climate research groups in the pattern of change in the ratio of
oxygen isotopes (and the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases) in ice cores retrieved from Greenland and Antarctica. These records share many general features, but the Southern Hemisphere climatic records from Antarctica are the most relevant to
There are uncertainties involved in extrapolating from one continent to the other, and there are some differences in the timing and amplitude of changes among the various Antarctic records. But neither obscures the overall picture: the
Howieson’s Poort occurred during a period of climatic warming, whereas the Still Bay cannot be confidently assigned to either a warming or a cooling interval. The fact that the same climatic conditions do not appear to have prevailed during these two
episodes of innovation suggests that their emergence and their demise were not driven by a common environmental cause. The lack of correlation between symbolic human expression and a particular type of shift in climate does not preclude the possibility
that climatic fluctuations influenced where and when people occupied or abandoned rock shelters. On the contrary, given the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers, the best sites for habitation and access to resources surely changed over time, in concert with
environmental changes. In fact, our data hint at the preferential occupation of rock shelters during generally warmer intervals; perhaps more open-air sites were favored at other times.
Two further lines of evidence challenge the view that the rise of Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort can be explained simply as responses to environmental factors alone. First, these industries are found in diverse climatic and
biogeographic contexts, yet they appeared and disappeared around the same times at various sites. Such synchronicity would not be expected if only certain environmental conditions were conducive to their launch and spread. Second, the Howieson’s Poort
was followed by three separate periods of much less sophisticated stone-tool making known as the post-Howieson’s Poort, the late Middle Stone Age and the final Middle Stone Age. No personal adornments or symbolic renderings contemporary to those periods
have been found. The latter pair of cultural phases, and possibly the post-Howieson’s Poort, flourished during periods of relative warming—as did the Howieson’s Poort—yet none of them boasts any technological or behavioral innovations. When viewed in
this broader context, therefore, the flaring of symbolic behavior during the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort periods cannot be linked exclusively to a warm, cool or transitional climate.
Demographic Expansions …
What, then, might have triggered the onset and termination of these two bursts of creativity and ingenuity? The answer may lie in the history of expansions and isolations of hunter-gatherer populations, as revealed by recent studies of mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) in living humans. These genetic sequences are inherited maternally, meaning they do not recombine with paternal-source DNA generation after generation the same way nuclear DNA does. Mitochondrial DNA records the pattern of ancient population
expansions, declines and isolations, albeit accompanied by a number of assumptions and complications that still thwart consensus on the demographic history of H. sapiens . Still, for sub-Saharan Africa, new genetic data offer a much clearer picture of
the major demographic events that affected the diversity and dispersal of our species.
One of the most recent studies, by Quentin Atkinson of the University of Oxford and his colleagues, examined four major mtDNA lineages indigenous to Africa—the L0, L1, L2 and L3 groups of haplotypes. The L3 haplogroup is the youngest
and is especially interesting because all mtDNA lineages found outside of Africa derive from just two haplogroups (M and N) that descend from L3. Intriguingly, when the timing and pattern of expansion of the four major haplogroups were estimated for the
last 150,000 years, the first marked increase in population size began some time between 86,000 and 61,000 years ago in the L3 haplogroup—a time span that includes the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort. No other haplogroup expanded substantially until more
recently than 20,000 years ago.
It is tempting to link the population explosion of the L3 haplogroup with significant environmental events that occurred about 75,000 years ago. As recently reported by Christopher Scholz of Syracuse University and his colleagues,
60,000 years of severe drought in East Africa ended around that time, followed by the onset of generally wetter and more stable conditions. Also, the supereruption of the Toba volcano on the island of Sumatra—the largest eruption known to have occurred
on Earth since the emergence of the genus Homo —occurred about 74,000 years ago. The injection of volcanic ash and aerosols into the atmosphere is thought by some scientists to have triggered a brief, so-called volcanic winter around the world that
reduced the size of human populations. But the breaking of East African megadroughts cannot account for the demographic expansion of only one of the four haplogroups. And the Toba supereruption is incompatible with the observed increase in size of the L3
haplogroup. As a result, Atkinson and his colleagues have dismissed environmental change as the sole factor responsible for the rapid growth in L3 populations and the migration of their descendents out of Africa 10,000 years later.
As an alternative explanation, they proposed that some form of cultural innovation and increase in behavioral complexity by members of the L3 haplogroup gave them a competitive edge over rivals, perhaps by improving technological
efficiency, economic productivity, social cohesion and group coordination. Our new ages for the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort industries place them squarely in the same time frame as these estimated human population expansions. We cannot say whether
their innovative attributes were a cause or a consequence of the L3 expansion. But the latter would seem more likely, given the thousands of miles separating southern Africa from East Africa, where the L3 haplogroup is most diverse and is thought to have
originated. But resolving cause and effect here requires a fine-tuned chronology for the L3 expansion, so that its precise timing can be compared with the start and end dates of the Still Bay, the Howieson’s Poort, and the similarly sophisticated stone
toolkits in North and East Africa.
… and Demographic Contractions
On the flip side of the demographic coin are records of population isolation also preserved in mtDNA. There is an emerging consensus that our species experienced several such episodes in sub-Saharan Africa, and did not always form a single,
geographically continuous population. Particular attention has been paid to the L0 haplogroup, which is the most ancient of the African mtDNA lineages and has two branches (L0d and L0k) that are most prevalent among the Khoi and San (Khoisan) “Bushmen”
of southwest Africa. The Khoisan still live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and are famous for speaking a “click” language. Recent studies of complete mtDNA genomes have revealed that the Khoisan became genetically isolated more than 90,000 years ago. Only
with the advent of the Later Stone Age—tens of millenia later—was there renewed genetic admixture in the Khoisan mtDNA pool, supporting a deep ancestry for this language family. A similar demographic pattern has been uncovered in tropical central Africa,
using the L1c haplogroup to trace the mtDNA history of isolation of Pygmy hunter-gatherers. The ancestors of these equatorial rainforest dwellers became genetically isolated no later than about 74,000 years ago, with gene flow resuming about 40,000 years
ago. At present, we also cannot rule out the possibility that the L3 haplogroup experienced episodes of population isolation, superimposed on a general trend of growth and lineage diversification between 80,000 and 60,000 years ago. Is the similarity in
timing of these major demographic shifts in sub-Saharan Africa and the ages for the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort mere coincidence? We think not.
Successive pulses of population expansion and contraction in southern Africa might explain why the Still Bay rose to prominence so abruptly across such a large area and then vanished in less than a millennium, and why the Howieson’s
Poort began 7,000 years later and lasted about 5,000 years. For technological and behavioral innovations to be spread widely and rapidly, a cohesive network of social contacts is needed to promote the transmission of new ideas and inventions. Periods of
population expansion of the L3 haplogroup could conceivably have created such a network and prompted geographically widespread trade and exchange of high-quality stone and symbolic artifacts across southern Africa. In this hypothesis, the gap between the
Still Bay and the Howieson’s Poort represents a period of population contraction, during which social networks weakened or collapsed. The reasons for this calamity remain an enigma, but perhaps the prevailing cooler conditions altered the balance of
nature, triggering a change in the distribution, diversity, predictability and productivity of resources needed by hunter-gatherers. If people were forced to abandon habitation sites and to move to find sustenance, links in the social network could have
been strained or broken, isolating new innovations to smaller groups with limited geographic dispersal.
It might have taken another explosion in population size to reinvigorate this social network across southern Africa, resulting in the widespread transmission of the latest technological innovation associated with the Howieson’s Poort
(backed blades for hunting weapons). This integrated, subcontinental network of hunter-gatherer communities was maintained for more than five millennia, but then disappeared about 60,000 years ago, perhaps in response to the population contractions and
isolations identified by genetic studies. Similarly sophisticated stone-tool technology did not reappear for another 20,000 years—the end of the Middle Stone Age in East Africa—when there is evidence for renewed gene flow south of the Sahara.
Teasing Out the Truth
The hypothesis offered above is a mix of fact and fiction, imaginative storytelling based on disparate datasets, some of which are better constrained than others. But it is consistent with computer simulations carried out by Stephen Shennan of University
College London in 2001 that posit that cultural innovations are more likely to be kept and shared in larger rather than smaller populations. Periods of population expansion would be more likely to produce successful transmissions of technological and
behavioral innovations—such as those associated with the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort. And such novelties would likely have been lost when populations shrank and became isolated. If cultural differences developed among segregated populations, then
recent model simulations suggest that migration between groups would have been discouraged and demographic growth further impeded. The rise and fall of the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort may most likely be linked, therefore, with the demographic history
and social fabric of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
The challenge before us now is to transform speculative claims into robust inferences. The quest to understand the emergence of modern human behavior and our ancestors’ dispersal from Africa will require insights from archaeology,
ecology, genetics, linguistics and climate science. There is also a clear need for reliable dating of key archaeological, genetic, demographic and environmental events, and the placement of each on a more finely resolved and standardized timescale. At
present, we cannot explain the population expansion of the L3 haplogroup in sub-Saharan Africa as the direct outcome of any particular environmental event. In fact, the timing of climatic and demographic changes is too imprecise to confidently plot them
in correct chronological order. Perhaps it was a spark of human ingenuity among a group of L3 carriers in East Africa that was the catalyst for cultural innovation. And perhaps that innovation encouraged social cohesion and the more efficient use of
natural resources, prompting rapid population growth among this group of people. This population expansion may have, in turn, promoted more innovations—including the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort in southern Africa—and the migration of people out of
Africa to the north. A crucial next step is to resolve the timing of the main cultural phases in North and East Africa with a precision similar to what has been accomplished for southern Africa. We must position all of these archaeological turning points
on the same chronological yardstick with the major climatic, genetic and demographic events on the continent. By arranging events in the correct sequence on the same time line, it may be possible to establish cause and effect—action and reaction—and
produce a more informed model of modern human prehistory.


European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
Rabbit is the common name for small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, characterized by long ears and legs, large hind feet, a short and bushy tail, and young born without fur and with closed eyes. All other members of Leporidae are placed in the Lepus genus and are known as hares, characterized by longer ears, generally larger size and faster running speed, and young born with fur and with open eyes (Angerbjörn 2004).
The term, "rabbit" sometimes is used as a collective term for all members of the Leporidae family, including the hares, and sometimes for all members of the Lagomorpha order, a group that also includes the pikas, which are placed in family Ochotonidae. Some true hares (genus Lepus) also have the name rabbit (jackrabbits). This article will encompass all members of Leporidae family placed in genera other than Lepus.
Rabbits are an important component of their native ecosystems in which their high reproductive rate makes them integral to terrestrial food chains, as they consume plant matter and provide food for such animals as foxes, raptors, cats, ferrets, and raccoons. Where humans have introduced rabbits into ecosystems like those of Australia in which there are few controlling predators, however, rabbits have proliferated excessively and caused environmental problems, including habitat degradation, loss of unique native flora and fauna, and agricultural damage.
Humans in many parts of the world have used rabbits as a source of food and fur, hunted them for sport, used them in laboratory research, and raised them as pets. Rabbits add to the human enjoyment of nature and are a feature in culture, whether in books and paintings, or as symbols, such as for fertility or rebirth.
Rabbits, hares, and pikas comprise the order Lagomorpha, which is divided into two families: Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and Ochotonidae (pikas). Originally classified as rodents (order Rodentia), the lagomorphs are separated based on having a second, small, peg-like upper incisor sitting behind the first, large, continually growing incisor, whereas rodents possess only a single, upper incisor (Smith 2004). Also, lagomorphs have a single layer of enamel in the front incisors versus the double layer in rodents (Smith 2004). Lagomorphs have relatively large to huge ears, short tails (not visible in pikas), and cannot grasp food with their paws (Smith 2004).
Lagomorphs have a very large digestive system, apparently adapted to digesting large amounts of plant material whose nutrient content is difficult to extract (Smith 2004). The caecum tends to be giant—up to ten times larger than the stomach—and it has a rich fauna of bacteria and other microorganisms that help to break down the plant matter (Smith 2004). Lagomorphs also practice coprophagy, whereby they eat their feces to undergo re-digestion, which helps yield up to five times as many vitamins as in the original food (Smith 2004).
The Leporidae family comprises 11 extant genera and 61 species of hares and rabbits (Angerbjörn 2004) with one genus, Lepus, comprising all the true hares, while rabbits are classified into the other 10 genera. Leporids tend to have brown or gray as the base of the soft fur, although some forms turn white for winter, and two species are striped (Angerbjörn 2004). There also is the black Amami rabbit, Pentalagus furnessi, of Japan. Leporids all have long legs, long ears, and large hind feet, as well as a short and bushy tail. Each foot has five digits (one reduced); rabbits and hares move about on the tips of the digits in a fashion known as digitigrade locomotion.
Full-bodied and egg-shaped, wild rabbits are rather uniform in body proportions and stance. Rabbits tend to range in size from 25 to 50 centimeters (cm) in length (10 to 20 inches), and weigh from 400 to 3,000 grams (14 ounces to 6.6 pounds) (Angerbjörn 2004). Hares tend to be larger in size, ranging up to 6,000 grams (13.2 pounds) and 75 centimeters (30 inches) (Angerbjörn 2004). Hares tend to have longer legs and ears (often with black markings on the fur of their ears) and tend to be faster. The smallest rabbit is the pygmy rabbit, Brachylagus idahoensis, at only 20 cm in length and 0.4 kg (0.9 pound) in weight.
Rabbits are clearly distinguished from hares in that rabbits are altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless. In contrast, hares are generally born with hair and are able to see (precocial).
Rabbits are often known affectionately by the pet name "bunny" or "bunny rabbit," especially when referring to young, domesticated rabbits. Originally, the word for an adult rabbit was "coney" or "cony," while "rabbit" referred to the young animals. More recently, the term "kit" or "kitten" has been used to refer to a young rabbit. A group of young rabbits is referred to as a "kindle." Young hares are called "leverets," and this term is sometimes informally applied to any young rabbit. Male adult rabbits are called "bucks" and female adult rabbits are known as "does." A group of rabbits or hares is often called a "fluffle" in parts of Northern Canada. A group of rabbits is called a "herd."
Rabbits are ground dwellers that live in environments ranging from desert to tropical forest and wetland. Most rabbits are found in forest and shrubs and live underground in burrows or warrens (interconnected maze of burrows); hares are more common to open areas and live in simple nests above the ground. Some rabbits do not build burrows, but live in dense cover or hollows underground. The eastern cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanus, nests in holes, where the young are raised (Angerbjörn 2004).
Rabbits are found in most areas of the world. The natural geographic range of rabbits encompasses the middle latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, and in the Eastern Hemisphere, rabbits are found in Europe, portions of Central and Southern Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Sumatra, and Japan. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been introduced to many locations around the world, and all breeds of domestic rabbit originate from the European.
Most rabbits live solitary lives and are non-territorial, although the European rabbit is "extremely social," living in a warren (a maze of burrows connected together) with 6 to 12 adults and controlled by a dominant male at the top of a linear dominance hierarchy (Smith 2004).
Rabbits tend to stay in the vicinity of safe hiding places in home ranges or territories and to escape predation by running into burrows and holes (Angerbjörn 2004). Hares, on the other hand, may travel considerable distances and have large home ranges, and tend to escape predators by running away (Angerbjörn 2004). Many species of rabbits and hares have distress calls or thump their hind feet to warm of predators (Angerbjörn 2004). The large, laterally set eyes of rabbits provide a nearly circular field of vision, which allows them to detect motion and avoid predators (Smith 2004).
Rabbits have a keen ability to detect odors and communicate largely through the sense of smell (Smith 2004). Utilizing glands on their cheeks, groin, or chin, they rub pheromones on their fur during grooming and deposit scent marks on rocks or shrubs, or use urine or feces to leave scent markings (Smith 2004). Such odors advertise their reproductive status or mark territories (Smith 2004).
Their diet contains large amounts of cellulose, which is hard to digest. Rabbits solve this problem by coprophagia—ingesting their own droppings (feces), as is common with all lagomorphs. Rabbits are hindgut digesters. This means that most of their digestion takes place in their large intestine and caecum. A soft feces is excreted from the caecum and reingested and then digested in the stomach and small intestine (Smith 2004). They also produce hard round dry pellets, separated in the digestive system by a mechanical separation, and generally consisting of poorer quality particles; these hard pellets are passed quickly (Smith 2004). While literature often states that hard pellets are not eaten, research has shown that lagomorphs also regularly eat hard feces (Smith 2004). Basically, leporids tend to feed on fresh food during the evening and night and excrete the hard and soft feces during the day and reingest them (Smith 2004).
Males and females are promiscuous, not forming lasting pair-bonds, but rather mating with different individuals. Females of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)—and presumably other rabbits—are reflex (or induced) ovulators that require the act of copulation to stimulate ovulation, which occurs about 12 hours after mating (Smith 2004).
Most rabbits produce many offspring each year, although scarcity of resources may cause this potential to be suppressed. A combination of factors allows the high rates of reproduction commonly associated with rabbits. Rabbits generally are able to breed at a young age, and many regularly conceive litters of up to seven young, often doing so four or five times a year due to the fact that a rabbit's gestation period is only about 30 days (Smith 2004). They may mate again soon after giving birth. (Some hares actually mate and are impregnated again prior to giving birth.) As an example, the eastern cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanus, normally has three to five litters per year, but can have up to seven, and the mean litter size is typically two to six individuals, with fifty percent of the juveniles breeding their first year (Angerbjörn 2004).
Newborn rabbits are naked, blind, and helpless at birth (altricial). While the European rabbit is social, for most other rabbits the young do not receive much parental care (Smith 2004). While mothers typically make a nest, sometimes lined with fur from their own belly and plant material, they may nurse their young only one time a day, for a few minutes, although the milk is highly nutritious (Smith 2004). This rare attention to the young may be an adaptation to reduce the likelihood of predators finding the juveniles (Angerbjörn 2004).
Angerbjörn (2004) reports that there are 29 extant species of rabbits in 10 genera: Oryctolagus (1 species, the European rabbit), Sylvilagus (17 species, cottantails), Brachylagus (1 species, pygmy rabbit), Bunolagus (1 species, riverine rabbit), Pentalagus (1 species, Amami rabbit), Pronolagus (3 species, red rock-hares), Caprolagus (1 species, hispid hare), Poelagus (1 species, Bunyoro rabbit), Nesolagas (2 species, striped rabbits), and Romerolagus (1 species, volcano rabbit).
The following is one taxonomy, with a partial listing of the Sylvilagus species:
Rabbit breeds are notably different varieties of domestic rabbit created through selective breeding or natural selection both as pets and as a meat source. Breeds recognized by organizations such as the American Rabbit Breeders' Association (ARBA) may be exhibited and judged in rabbit shows. Breeders attempt to emulate the breed standard by which each breed is judged. The ARBA lists more than 40 different rabbit breeds. They range in size from the 3 pound Dwarf Hotot to the giant German Grey rabbit, which has attained a record weight of 23 pounds and has been imported into North Korea as a new food animal. Colors range from white to brown, grey, and black, with a variety of spotting patterns. The "lop" varieties are notable for their long floppy ears.
Rabbits are an important component of many ecosystems. They also provide humans with economic, nutritional, and recreational benefits and as well play a part in the aesthetic dimensions of diverse cultures.
Rabbits are integral to food chains, as they consume vegetative materials and in turn are eaten by predators, including foxes, raptors (such as eagles), lynxes and other cats, ferrets, and raccoons. Rabbits are a favorite food item of large pythons, such as Burmese pythons and reticulated pythons, both in the wild, as well as pet pythons.
Rabbits are a meat source for humans in Europe, South America, North America, some parts of the Middle East, and China, among other places. Rabbit is still commonly sold in United Kingdom markets, although not frequently in supermarkets. At farmers markets and the famous Borough Market in London, rabbits will be displayed dead and hanging unbutchered in the traditional style next to braces of pheasant and other small game. Rabbit meat was once commonly sold in Sydney, Australia, but quickly became unpopular after the disease myxomatosis was introduced in an attempt to wipe out the feral rabbit population.
When used for food, rabbits are both hunted and bred for meat. Snares or guns, along with dogs, are usually employed when catching wild rabbits for food. In many regions, rabbits are also bred for meat, a practice called cuniculture. Rabbits can then be killed by hitting the back of their heads, a practice from which the term rabbit punch is derived.
Rabbit meat is a source of high quality protein. It can be used in most ways chicken meat is used. Rabbit meat is leaner than beef, pork, and chicken meat. Rabbit products are generally labeled in three ways, the first being fryer. This is a young rabbit between 1½ and 3½ pounds and up to 12 weeks in age. This type of meat is tender and fine grained. The next product is a roaster; they are usually over 4 pounds and over 8 months in age. The flesh is firm and coarse grained and less tender than a fryer. Then there are giblets, which include the liver and heart. One of the most common types of rabbit to be bred for meat is New Zealand white rabbit.
There are several health issues associated with the use of rabbits for meat, one of which is tularemia or rabbit fever. Caused by a bacteria, Francisella tularensis, tularemia can affect both animals and humans and can be contracted by eating rabbit meat that is not cooked well, among other means (UTDH 2001). Another illness is called rabbit starvation, and it is the form of acute malnutrition caused by excess consumption of any lean meat (specifically rabbit) coupled with a lack of other sources of nutrients. It is due most likely to essential amino acid deficiencies in rabbit meat and synthesis limitations in human beings.
Another economic value of rabbits is as a source of fur, such as the pelt of the cottontail rabbit (genus Sylvilagus) sometimes being used for clothing and accessories, such as scarves or hats. Rabbits are very good producers of manure; additionally, their urine, being high in nitrogen, makes lemon trees very productive.
Rabbits also are a source of hunting for sport, with cottontail rabbit particularly popular in North America.
Rabbits also are kept as pets. They typically are kept in hutches—small, wooden, house-like boxes—that protect the rabbits from the environment and predators. Rabbits kept in a home as pets for companionship are referred to as house rabbits. They typically have an indoor pen and a rabbit-safe place to run and exercise, such as a living or family room. Rabbits can be trained to use a litter box and can learn to respond when called. Their diet typically consists of unlimited timothy hay, a small amount of pellets, and fresh vegetables. House rabbits are quiet pets, but are unsuitable for households with small children as they are easily frightened by loud noises and can be harmed by mishandling. Domestic rabbits that are not house rabbits also often serve as companions for their owners, typically living in an easily accessible hutch outside the home. Rabbits as pets can find their companionship with a variety of creatures, including humans, other rabbits, guinea pigs, and sometimes even cats and dogs.
It was commonly believed that pregnancy tests were based on the idea that a rabbit would die if injected with a pregnant woman's urine. This is not true. However, in the 1920s, it was discovered that if the urine contained the hCG, a hormone found in the bodies of pregnant women, the rabbit would display ovarian changes. The rabbit would then be killed to have its ovaries inspected, but the death of the rabbit was not the indicator of the results. Later revisions of the test allowed technicians to inspect the ovaries without killing the animal. A similar test involved injecting Xenopus frogs to make them lay eggs, but animal assays for pregnancy have been made obsolete by faster, cheaper, and simpler modern methods.
Rabbits can provide an aesthetic joy in the wild. They also have been used as objects for paintings, novels, and other art works, and have symbolic value in culture as well. Rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. Rabbits are often used as symbols of playful sexuality, which also relates to the human perception of innocence, as well as its reputation as a prolific breeder.
The rabbit often appears in folklore as the trickster archetype, as he uses his cunning to outwit his enemies. In Chinese literature, rabbits accompany Chang'e on the Moon. Also associated with the Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year), rabbits are also one of the twelve celestial animals in the Chinese Zodiac for the Chinese calendar. It is interesting to note that the Vietnamese lunar new year replaced the rabbit with a cat in their calendar, as rabbits did not inhabit Vietnam.
In Japanese tradition, rabbits live on the Moon where they make mochi, the popular snack of mashed sticky rice. This comes from interpreting the pattern of dark patches on the moon as a rabbit standing on tiptoes on the left pounding on an usu, a Japanese mortar. A popular culture manifestation of this tradition can be found in the character title character of Sailor Moon, whose name is Usagi Tsukino, a Japanese pun on the words "rabbit of the moon." A Korean myth similar to the Japanese counterpart also presents rabbits living on the moon making rice cakes (Tteok in Korean), although not specified as mochi (rice cakes that have sweet red bean paste fillings).
A Vietnamese mythological story portrays the rabbit of innocence and youthfulness. The Gods of the myth are shown to be hunting and killing rabbits to show off their power. In Aztec mythology, a pantheon of four hundred rabbit gods known as Centzon Totochtin, led by Ometotchtli, or Two Rabbit, represented fertility, parties, and drunkenness. In Ugandan folklore, Shufti the rabbit was the leader of the peoples when the sun God burnt the crops to the ground after the skull of the golden albatross was left out on the plains on the first day of the year. In Native American Ojibwe mythology, Nanabozho, or Great Rabbit, is an important deity related to the creation of the world.
On the Isle of Portland in Dorset, United Kingdom, the rabbit is said to be unlucky and speaking its name can cause upset with older residents. This is thought to date back to early times in the quarrying industry, where piles of extracted stone (not fit for sale) were built into tall rough walls (to save space) directly behind the working quarry face; the rabbit's natural tendency to burrow would weaken these "walls" and cause collapse, often resulting in injuries or even death. The name rabbit is often substituted with words such as “long ears” or “underground mutton,” so as not to have to say the actual word and bring bad luck to oneself. It is said that a public house (on the island) can be cleared of people by calling out the word rabbit and while this was very true in the past, it has gradually become more fable than fact over the past 50 years.
In the African-American slave culture of the Southern United States, the trickster Bre'r Rabbit is thought to have emerged as a conflation of a hare trickster that figures prominently in the storytelling traditions in Central and Southern Africa and rabbit trickster myths of the Native American Cherokee. Many have suggested that Br'er Rabbit represents the black slave who uses his wits to overcome circumstances and to exact revenge on his adversaries, representing the white slave-owners. Though not always successful, his efforts made him a folk hero.
These stories were popularized in printed form in the late nineteenth century by Joel Chandler Harris, who wrote them up using the voice of an old former slave, Uncle Remus, telling stories to the grandson of his former owner. Bre'r Rabbit and his nemesis Bre'r Fox are central protagonists in episodes filled with intrigue, humor, wit, deception, and moral and practical lessons. In one noted example, Bre'r Fox used a tar baby, a human figure made of tar, to capture Br'er Rabbit by playing on Br'er Rabbit's vanity and gullibility to goad him into attacking the fake baby and becoming stuck. Walt Disney made an animated movie of three of the stories in the mid-twentieth century. The stories have fallen out of popularity due to their being deemed racially offensive by some and the Disney Company has declined to release a home video version of the film for the same reason.
Bugs Bunny, a rabbit-like cartoon character, is an animated icon of American popular culture. Created in the 1930s, Bugs Bunny has feuded on screen with such cartoon characters as Elmer Fudd, Bucky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, and Wile E. Coyote. He usually wins these conflicts, but maintains the sympathy of the audience because the antagonist characters repeatedly attempt to bully, cheat or threaten him. In 2002, TV Guide celebrated Bugs Bunny as the No. 1 greatest cartoon character of all time.
Cases in which rabbits have been introduced into an ecosystem that lacks natural predators to control their population provide, by counterexample, a good illustration of the balance and harmony of nature. The most striking case may be the introduction of the European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, to Australia in 1859. Twenty-four introduced rabbits multiplied to an estimated 750 million rabbits by 1950 (Smith 2004). As a result of their appetites, and the rate at which they breed, uncontrolled wild rabbit populations raise major problems for both agriculture and the environment. In Australia, rabbits have degraded the habitat, caused the loss of many of Australia's unique flora and fauna, and affected the livestock. Rabbits in Australia are considered to be such a pest that land owners are legally obliged to control them.
Efforts to control rabbits in areas to which they have been introduced have included gassing, barriers (fences), shooting, snaring, and ferreting. The disease myxomatosis was used in Australia as a biological control agent and was initially very effective, killing nearly all rabbits in most populations, but subsequently the rabbit populations have developed immunity and have rebounded (Smith 2004). The disease calicivirus also has been used in areas. In Europe, where rabbits are farmed on a large scale, they are protected against myxomatosis and calicivirus with a genetically modified virus. The virus was developed in Spain, and is beneficial to rabbit farmers, but there remains a risk of this virus getting into introduced populations and creating a population boom.
|Extant Lagomorpha species|
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Dracula Lesson Plans
Below are lesson plans for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
I "inherited" an Honors I class from another English teacher and part of the curriculum was this novel. I don't know that I would have chosen it myself, but once I started reading and teaching it, I became convinced of the value of including it in the course.
These lesson plans, as with other lesson plans on the website, are not intended to substitute for a knowledge of the book. I have included some tests and assignments used in teaching Dracula within these lesson plans. [The edition used was Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1981 Bantam Books.]
-Beginning focus for notes. Take notes of (1) relationships between people [characters] (2) instances of the supernatural. Later in the book Bram Stoker's inclusion of the latest technology of the day is also interesting for students to consider.
Read pages, 1-14 Discuss Chapter one.
NOTE: In 1994-95 they read twenty pages per day, Mon.-Fri. In 1996-97 they read 16 pages per day. M-F. In later classes they read less pages per day. That decrease may have a number of different causes.
Chapter I p.1
1. Jonathan, from Britain, is unaware of Eastern things.. Power
of description [Stoker's], like National Geographic, gives feeling of
verisimilitude. See: Description in
Chapter II p.15
1. Jonathan, getting to know castle, and realizing that he is a prisoner.
Chapter III p.28
1. Talking with the Count, learning about Dracula.
Chapter IV p.42
-FOCUS 1. three suitors are important to the story, not just peripheral characters. 2. 'catalog' of vampires' supernatural powers. 3. Issue of 3 powers in the world: Good, Man, Evil-Bad-Demon 4. Mr. Swales, role of doubter converted- [as in old prospector in 'Tremors' helps create suspension of disbelief] Note- students need help with Mr. Swales' dialogue.
1. Dracula tries to frame Harker by stealing child while wearing
Harker' clothes on. Wolves called to 'dispose' of the child's
Chapter V. p.57
1. Miss Mina Murray writes to Miss Lucy Westenra.
Chapter VI p.66
1. Mina's journal, graveyard lookout.
Chapter VII p.80.
1. In Mina's journal, cutting from the Dailygraph about the ship
arriving in a storm, with a dead captain.
Chapter VIII p.94.
1. Mina's journal: Lucy sleepwalking to the lookout cemetery
seat. Mina follows and sees pale man with red eyes bending
over her.[Why no suspicion?]
1. Identify briefly Lucy's three suitors:
2. Identify Mr Swales:
3. Identify Seward's patient:
Identify the following quotes: the speaker and the situation.
1. "You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the
doors are locked,..."
Identify the following quotes: the speaker and the situation.
1. She then rose, and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix
from her neck offered it to me.
Chapter IX p.110
1. Arrival in Buda-Pesth
Chapter X p. 125
1. Seward to Art.. "Lucy... had gone back a bit." *The tension to this is the reader knows[?] Dracula is the cause. p.125 [In horror stories, what is the "psychology" as we who are 'in the know' watch danger creep up on the unsuspecting, and the sometimes incredibly dumb. Do we identify with them? What about at the first of the book/movie when 'we' the audience and the character[s], find out the danger together??]
2. Van Helsing keeps his thoughts, ideas, and hypotheses to himself. [Perhaps a parallel situation would be thinking a friend, student, teacher, family member, was an alien. Who would believe?] p.126.
3. Van Helsing in control- Lucy needs transfusion. 'Art' gives it to her. -no notice taken of blood types in this "new" science - **Hmm, does Dracula notice blood types?? Van Helsing tells Seward not to sleep while watching Lucy. p.128+
4. Lucy feels better 'Arthur close to me'- [blood transfusion]. p.134.
5. John Seward blood to Lucy, who is close to death. p.134+
6. Lucy better- Van Helsing puts garlic all around, perhaps to keep out 'an evil spirit.' p.138.
Chapter XI. p.140
1. Lucy going to bed peacefully, with garlic. p.140.
Chapter XII p.153
1. Seward and Van Helsing find the chaos at Lucy's. Van Helsing
does not want to let Lucy die in her present state. p.153-
For a very well done extra credit assignment see: Lucy's Journal
Chapter XIII p. 171
1. Lucy very beautiful corpse. p.171
SIX FRAME DRAWING- showing the "principles" of the supernatural at work in relation to man. i.e. crucifix protects, can't see Dracula in the mirror, blue flames, rather jump overboard, etc.
Six Frame Drawings- are done by folding a piece of typing paper in half length ways and then folding it in thirds crossways. This folding results in six frames which can be filled with "comics" type drawings. [*This technique can also be used to plan out scenes for filming.] The drawings for this assignment can be picked from one event in Dracula, or a series of separate events.
Student are graded on their understanding of the book and the number of "principles" illustrated and Not their artistic ability. [I usually demonstrate my art ability on the blackboard, to show the students that they should have no fears about their relative artistic ability being graded too critically.] The front page of the assignment contains the drawings, which may have the characters speaking in little "dialogue bubbles" in the scenes. On the back of each frame the students write the corresponding principle being illustrated. Grade the paper on the back of the drawing, so that their "art" remains unmarked.
NOTE: the students enjoy this type of assignment, and after about ten minutes all are happily drawing. Students' showing each other their pictures before they are handed in, should be discouraged so that students can do their own thinking, but discipline should not be so strict that it detracts from the classroom mood. Students should know that when the pictures are returned that they will have time to share them. Also, the teacher might consider showing a few pictures when they are being returned to the class, without showing the grade. This assignment can be used for other literature and composition activities.
Chapter XIV p.188
1. Mina reads Jonathan's journal. p.188-189.
DISCUSS? In the story, in the fight against Dracula, what actions are good strategy, and what actions are bad strategy?
TEST QUESTION: [30+ min] What is Bram Stoker's attitude toward women? Support with details to as far as having read in the book.
The paper should be type written on one side of the paper, 1 to 2 pages. Skip lines. The rough draft can be written in pencil or ink, but the final draft should be typewritten. Remember to support your views with material from your notes and the book.
Topics can include the following:
Foreshadowing- clues and hint of what is to happen.
1. Wind blowing the ship toward shore- Dracula may be
Tone- the mood or emotion of the book.
1. The wolves circle the carriage and the horses being afraid create the mood of.....
Theme- author's message to the reader.
1. First mate jumping overboard- it's better to die than lose your soul.
Supernatural- things happening beyond normal mortal human powers.
1. Dracula changing at the sight of the crucifix when he is about to attack Jonathan who cut himself while shaving.
Shortcomings of characters- weaknesses that characters have.
1. Jonathan not getting a 'clue' from all the village people's reaction to
Sample Organization for Paper:
NOTE: This paper is designed to give students further experience in writing mult-paragraph papers from earlier assignments. An entire course can be designed to developmentally teach desired skills to students. The skills in each unit can be planned to develop skills presented in earlier units, throughout the course.
Dracula has many interesting qualities. One of the main ones is the use of themes not generally found in recent books and stories. Some of these themes relate to good and evil, _____, ________, and ________.
Good and evil is illustrated as a theme in one part of the story when .........
Another theme is ..........
A third theme, different from today is .......
In conclusion, the themes in Dracula such as _______, ________, __________, and __________ are interesting because they are written in a memorable way, and they're different than those of more recent times. [Briefly summarize highlights of the paper.]
Chapter XVI p. 204
1. The four meet in the cemetery when Lucy is returning and put the 'Host' on the door of the tomb so she couldn't enter. They are convinced that she is a vampire when she tries to get Arthur and is stopped by Van Helsing with a crucifix. They return again with a mallet, scalpels, etc. to drive a stake through Lucy's heart and cut off her head. Arthur drives the stake. Van Helsing and Seward cut off the head. p.219-229.
2. They make a pact to stop Dracula. p.229-230.
Teacher's Note: Teachers should realize the importance of pacing tests throughout a unit and throughout a course. There are a multitude of different types of tests. The "total learning situation" of the students in each class should be considered when giving tests. To give only multiple choice tests would not develop higher writing and thinking skills in the students. To give too many essay tests takes time and energy from a class that they might need simply to read an extensive book and take thorough notes on it.
Therefore, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and true-false tests can keep a class reading on schedule without over-burdening it while they are reading challenging, or boring material. Essay tests and creative writing assignments can give a class the opportunity to look at the material in a new and deeper way. These tests can also make students happily aware of the growth in their own skills and understanding. [Happiness is the consciousness of growth. -Wilhelm Reich]
Dracula [Chapters 1-16]
1. What is Buda-Pesth?
8. What does Van Helsing think needs to be done with Lucy some
days after her funeral?
11. Van Helsing seals the tomb door with __________________
Chapter XVII p. 231
1. Mina meets and 'charms' Renfield with her 'goodness.' p.245- 247 [Renfield hopes that she will leave- is aware that Dracula is after her.. we learn this later.]
2. Vampires' powers catalogued- by this point in the book, they are believable. p.250
3. Pact against Dracula [all six] and the dangers of fighting him. p. 251-254
4. Van Helsing to Mina: "And now for you, Madam Mina, this night is the end until all be well. You are too precious to us to have such risk. When we part tonight, you no more must question. We shall tell you all in good time. We are men and are able to bear; but you must be our star and hope, and we shall act all the more free that you are not in the danger, such as we are." p.255 [IRONY- This 'cutting off' places her in more danger.]
5. Mina's comment on Van Helsing's decision: 'All the men, even Jonathan, seemed relieved; but it did not seem to me good that they should brave danger and, perhaps lessen their safety- strength being the best safety- through care of me; but their minds were made up, and though it was a bitter pill for me to swallow, I could say nothing, save to accept their chivalrous care of me.' p.256
6. Renfield pleads with Seward to let him go. Seward refuses. p.257-261. [We later learn that Renfield has agreed to let Dracula in.]
Chapter XIX p.262
1. Harker, re: Mina- "I am so glad she consented to hold back and let us
men do the work." p.262
Chapter XX p. 276
1. Jonathan tracking boxes. Breaking and entering and legal means.
Chapter XXI p. 291
1. Renfield regains consciousness, tells of his involvement with Dracula who had bribed him with living creatures.. And Dracula is invited in and Renfield tries to stop him and is thrown down. He reports that Dracula has gotten to Mina. p. 291-297
2. In the Harker's room, Mina is being forced to drink Dracula's blood while Jonathan is unconscious. p. 298-299.
3. Harkers and others learn extent of Dracula's doings. p. 298-305
4. Mina: "Oh my God, what have I done to deserve such a fate?" p. 304
*Question of power of God- involvement of god. Mina "What have I done?" People become under the power of evil by choice [seduction], but what about 'overpowering'? i.e. Mina, or the woman with the baby, and the wolves? *Also, Is power of God found in church, or sacred objects, or places? Then why is Dracula in old sanctuary places?
Chapter XXII p. 306
1. Harker, "As I must do something or go mad, I write this diary."
*TEST [DracuTs3.Cp1] Ch 16-22
1. When the men meet at Lucy's tomb to "release her soul," first Arthur ________________________________________.
2. And then Van Helsing and Seward _______________________________
3. Weapons against Dracula include _________, _______________, and __________________.
4. Dracula's weapons include _________________, _______________, _______________________, and ____________________.
5. Renfield gives Dracula permission to enter because ___________
6. Renfield tries to stop Dracula because ______________________
7. Dracula creates a 'link' between him and Mina by ____________
8. Why doesn't the 'sacred wafer' protect Mina? _______________
9. Van Helsing mentions euthanasia when ______________________
10. What is one thing the men do illegally as they are trying to find Dracula? ___________________________________________.
Chapter XXIII p. 319
1. Jonathan, a haggard, old man under the strain. p. 319
2. Quincey, Arthur, Harker, Van Helsing ambush the Count, but he escapes and threatens them. p. 323 Dracula states, "My revenge is just begun. I spread it over centuries and time is on my side. Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine- my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed. Bah!" p. 324 *Van Helsing thinks these words show that Dracula is afraid.
3. Mina asks the men to pity Dracula because they may have to pity her too, as she transforms into a vampire. p.326-327
4. Quincy guarding the Harkers. p. 328.
5. Mina thinks of Van Helsing hypnotizing her so he can learn of Dracula's whereabouts because of the psychic connection between them. p. 329. [**Later they think he is using her to spy on them.
6. From the trance they learn that Dracula is fleeing in a ship. p. 331.
7. They can't just let him go because if they don't kill him, Mina will become a vampire. p. 332.
*NOTE: We keep reading a long book, with complicated details because we begin to care about Mina, Jonathan, and the others- as good people. Perhaps we empathize with them as people who are like we are, against 'fearsome' odds. [**What else is the appeal of Dracula that he persists? GOOD DISCUSSION QUESTION? Some said his power, wealth, confidence?] NOTE- discussed again somewhat after chapter XXV.
1. On p. 289 is Count deVille really Count 'Devil'?
Chapter XXIV p. 333
1. Van Helsing tells Jonathan, with Seward's 'phonograph,' to stay with Mina while the rest hunt for Dracula and how to pursue him. ?? p. 333.
2. On Dracula's trail, discovering the ship, etc. p.335+
3. Dracula forces the captain (with bad weather) to take him and his box on board for Transylvania.
4. Van Helsing says they are like the knights of old- for God... redeem one soul already. p. 338
5. Van Helsing - Dracula's "childlike brain" slowly learning [Concept of Dracula being non-human, different capabilities for learning ??? Not clear.. p. 339.
6. Seward's diary.. Mina- indications, she is slowly turning becoming a vampire. Does the Count know about them through her? p. 341.
7. Van Helsing to tell Mina that she could be a communication tool for Dracula. [This is stupid!] Perhaps they could feed him misinformation? - Or does Van Helsing think that would be cruel to Mina? p. 342.
8. Mina says "don't tell me anything.." p. 344 and "take me with you." p. 345.
Chapter XXV p. 348
1. Mina makes them promise to cut off her head, etc. when they feel she is
too far gone to save otherwise. p. 350-351
Class writing assignment and class discussion.
1. Write five things that you're afraid of. Don't sign your name.
Chapter XXVI p. 364.
1. Mina's hypnotic trance tells them Dracula is still on board a ship, but possibly going up a river. p. 364-367.
2. Captain Donelson reports the weather while carrying Dracula favorable all the way through until they got the box in port. p. 368-369.
3. Petrof Skinsky picks up the box and dies for it. p. 369-370
4. Mina reasons out Dracula's tactics to travel by water. Van Helsing again impressed by her intelligence.
5. Quincey Morris and John Seward to follow the river on horses, well armed. Arthur and Jonathan Harker to follow Dracula on the river. Van Helsing to take Mina directly to Dracula's castle to destroy his refuge there, before he gets there. p. 374-376.
6. Everybody in pursuit. p. 377-381.
Chapter XXVII p. 382.
1. Superstitious people notice the mark on Mina's forehead. p. 382.
2. Toward Dracula's country.. Mina laments that she is 'unclean.' p.383.
3. Van Helsing- Travels with Mina until they arrive outside the castle. p. 384+ He makes a ring of wafer crumbs.. Mina can't get out of, and the vampire ladies can't get in. Although they do evidently kill the horses. p. 387-389.
4. Harker and Arthur delayed by boat 'accident.' p. 389.
5. Seward and Quincey in pursuit of a band of gypsies transporting what probably is Dracula's coffin. p. 390-393.
6. Van Helsing goes into Dracula's castle and kill/frees the three vampires and seals Dracula's coffin. p. 390-393.
7. Mina's journal p. 393-399.. describes the end. Dracula is gathering wolves. The gypsies are racing to the castle with his coffin. The four men are in pursuit, make the gypsies stop; Harker and Quincey rush through, break open the coffin and kill Dracula. But Quincey is mortally wounded. He dies seeing that the Mark is gone from Mina's forehead.
Note p. 400 Seven years later.
The Harkers have a son named after the four. They return to Transylvania and Harker realizes there is no proof for his account. Arthur and Seward are both happily married. p. 400.
Panel of Characters:
*Teacher's note: This panel is a great change of pace. It can be done After the final has been given or Before. It is entertaining for the students to see these characters 'come to life' and the various interpretations of the characters from the students' viewpoints. The panel shows the teacher, and the class who understands the material, in a gentle way.
The panel is also useful to a teacher 'buried' under end of semester paper grading. The panel involves the class without increasing the paper correcting load.
The panel is done by placing six desks at the front of class, facing the class. Name signs printed on typing paper are placed on the desks as students volunteer for the characters. The teacher can expect each class member to ask a question of one of the panel members. A grade is placed in the grade book for the question. *Grading questions in this manner prevents a student in the class from dominating the class or the panel, or disrupting in some way.
Final Exam: [Alternate]
*Alternate test/final for those students leaving early. [This test is given to those who receive permission to leave school before the final is given. An alternate test is given so that those taking this test do not inform the rest of the class about the contents of the final. How extensive such a test can be depends on the circumstances.]
-Write on one side of the paper, skip lines.
2. Compare the villains [or antagonists] of The Odyssey, Beowulf, and Dracula with each other and with your own ideas of a 'villain.'
3. From the viewpoint of one of the cultures of the above books, describe your own culture.
Dracula, The Odyssey, Beowulf, Esther
*Choose ONE of the first four questions.
1. When considering the characters in the above stories, which one do you feel the most sympathy with? Why?
2. Which character do you most dislike? Why?
3. If you had to choose one of the cultures from the above stories to live in, which would it be? Why?
4. What have you learned about your own culture, from studying these other cultures?
ANSWER THE NEXT TWO QUESTIONS ON THE TEST PAPER:
*5. What is the climax in each of the stories?
A. Dracula ____________________________________________
B. The Odyssey _____________________________________________
C. Beowulf ________________________________________________
D. Esther ________________________________________________
*6. A. Quincey keeps his promise to Mina that he will be a true friend by _________________________________________________.
B. Van Helsing meets the three vampire ladies and ________ ______________________________________________________.
C. How can the men tell where Dracula is through Mina? _______
D. The Szgany who help Dracula are also known as _____________.
E. Three groups pursue Dracula toward his castle. They are:
*7. Pick a character that you think is not understood [NOT ONE THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN ABOUT] and write a 1st person narrative paragraph- explaining that character. "Some may think that I am _____________, but I really am __________."
*8. Which book would you most recommend to others to read? Write a paragraph persuading others to read it. Use support.
*9. Summarize the story of Dracula from Mina' point of view.
I always considered Dracula a worthy book to be included in my 9th grade Honors English class. The students respond well to brave people fighting for a good cause. Many girls are drawn into the book because of the part played by Mina and the respect the men show for her. In spite of sometimes stifling restrictions placed on women by her society, Mina comes off well in Bram Stoker's presentation of a woman rising above her perceived societal position due to grave circumstances that cause the men around her to allow this growth.
Also, good and evil, concepts lost or caricatured in later books and films, are presented clearly and present great opportunities for examination and discussion in classes prepared for such discussions.
Finally, most of my students have enjoyed reading Dracula, and once they were "into the book" often read on further before they were assigned to do so.
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