This one-question interview activity provides a great introduction to many of the themes encountered in Yann Martel's Life of Pi--religion, science, zoology, credibility, story-telling, and survival.
Students enjoy the process of getting up and moving around the classroom to ask their classmates a single question and record the answers. After interviewing 12 classmates, the students return to their desks and study the responses to develop a conclusion of their own regarding the topic. Afterwards, they share their conclusions/results with their classmates in a short oral presentation. As you read the novel you'll be able to revisit the responses and discuss the interview questions in light of the book.
The lesson contains 23 thought-provoking, short-answer questions about themes and issues in the book and a worksheet for the students to record and analyze their interviews. It was difficult to come up with good questions that required more than a yes-no answer, but not a lenghty response either, but after using this with my class, I think it's a very good introduction to the book.
The preview explains the procedure for the lesson and provides a picture of the student handout and the questions you'll cut apart and hand out to the students.
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Over the last 13 years, I have taught 7th grade through junior college, so the lesson plans that I share here could come from any of those grade levels. I am currently teaching 10th grade reading and world literature and 11th grade reading and American literature. I've been teaching reading for seven years, so most of my lessons were designed with my reluctant readers in mind. Recently I taught an honors level 9th grade class along with my remedial classes; I was surprised by how much my honors students learned when I used some of the same lessons (vocabulary, especially) that I was using with my remedial students. I think all of our students benefit if we slow down and emphasize quality over quantity.
