Flowers For Algernon

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Consider the theme The Dignity of All Humans. Reflecting on what you know about your nation’s development, describe one or more historical events where human beings were not treated with dignity. Explain the situation and how their dignity was denied and propose a solution that might have been better.

Teaching Suggestion: It may help to give students categories to choose from, such as political, social, religious, or racial.  Furthermore, providing students with a jumping-off point—such as a current event or a historical event—will help spark ideas and access their prior knowledge, allowing them to engage in the prompt more fully.

When this novel was published, hurtful ableist attitudes were much more commonly acceptable. If you want to be more specific to the novel, you may alter the prompt to be more specific about how people with physical and/or intellectual disabilities are treated in past and contemporary society.

• “30 Basic Human Rights” is a compiled list with explanations about the rights of human beings. This may be used as a jumping-off point when defining dignity in relation to being human.
• “Civil Rights Movement” is an article via the History Channel that details various events of the Civil Rights period in the United States from the development of Jim Crow laws to the Housing Act of 1968. These may be used as examples of historical events where people’s human dignity was violated.

2. In what ways may an individual’s past—both positive and negative—affect their values, mindset, and actions? As an extension, choose a specific cultural figure—a social justice advocate, a past ruler, a dictator, etc.—and explain how their backgrounds affected their identity.

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt relates to the theme The Psychological Impact of the Past. Prior to providing the prompt, it may help to choose a specific individual—Martin Luther King Jr., for example—and create a mind map as you and your students explore their childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, making connections to their actions and values.

To make the prompt more personal, you may ask students to pick themselves, reflect on their past, and connect it to their current values and actions today.

• “Who’s Biggest? The 100 Most Significant Figures in History” is an article from Time sure to generate ideas for students
• “5 Ways Unhealed Trauma Affects Us” is a 5-minute video from Psych2Go explaining how trauma manifests itself as various emotional and physical problems.

Short Activity

Take out a piece of paper and a pencil. A statement will be projected on the screen or written on the whiteboard. For one minute, you will write a response to the statement: I agree because ____, I disagree because ____, I think ______, etc. Be sure to write for the full minute as you develop your writing fluency.

When the timer goes off, move to the side of the room that best fits your response. Discuss with a partner and be ready to share with the class.

Teaching Suggestion: The following are examples of statements that students may respond to and relate to the main themes of the novel. Answering these will help students begin to acquaint themselves with the prevalent ideas of the narrative and start forming their own opinions while listening to others.

Example Phrases:

• Increasing your intelligence is always beneficial.
• It is okay for friends to be mean to each other.
• As long as it’s for the greater good, any scientific experiment is justified.
• It is better to be nice and unintelligent rather than unkind and smart.
• What happens in your past has minimal effect on your future.
• These sentence stems from AVID provide students with the academic vocabulary to help them discuss, agree, and disagree with their peers.
• “5 Strategies to Improve Students’ Listening Skills” is an Edutopia article detailing various strategies to help teach and improve active listening skills that may be applied to this activity.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced students or those in need of structured listening strategies, it may be helpful to ask another student to paraphrase what their peer stated to the class. This allows students to have a directive when listening to a classmate as a whole group and practice critical thinking as they paraphrase what they’ve heard.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Which of the following is better: to have intelligence but be unhappy, or to be unintelligent but content? Explain your position with specific hypotheticals and/or personal anecdotes.

Teaching Suggestion: This correlates with the theme, Acquiring Intelligence Versus Developing Emotions. Students may ask to what degree of “intelligence” or lack thereof they should be considering. It may help to create a common definition or expectation with the class to ensure they are reflecting on the same idea.

• “My Philosophy for a Happy Life” is an uplifting 12-minute TED talk by Sam Berns, a 17-year-old with progeria, a rare genetic disorder that causes children to age rapidly. This video may be used to provide an example of an individual being born into a difficult situation and learning to be happy being able to do what he can.
• “IQ vs EQ: Measuring Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace” is an article from Campbellsville University detailing the difference between traditional intelligence and socioemotional intelligence, specifically utilizing the workplace for context.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a more scaffolded approach, consider having students brainstorm both sides by creating a T-chart for both choices. Allow them to jot down bullet point ideas for a few minutes, then discuss them as a class. You may choose to write their ideas on the whiteboard or under a projector so students can refer to their peers’ ideas prior to answering the prompt for themselves.