The Railway Children

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY 1: “The Children’s Railway”

In this activity, students will represent ways the children impact the railway and the railway impacts the children.

The railway is central to the novel. Consider how it affects the children’s days and fundamentally influences them. Also, reflect on how the children in turn impact the railway and people connected to it. Create a representation that analyzes the relationship between the children and the railway. Show how far and where the influence spreads. Incorporate symbolism.

• Brainstorm ways the railway affects the children and ways they influence the railway. Reflect on how and where their impact could spread beyond their town.
• Sketch out your vision for your project.
• Reflect on key people and places in the novel and where they will feature in your project.
• Plan what format your project will take: poster, video, 3-D representation, etc.
• Identify symbolism you can use to represent ideas. This could be colors, visual symbols, sounds, the way parts of your project are placed, etc.
• Create your final version of your project.
• Prepare to present in the class gallery walk.

Participate in the gallery walk and display your project in class.

Discuss lessons we can take away from this activity and the novel.

Teaching Suggestion: Lessons abound in the novel and flow in different ways between characters. One way to start this activity could be a sketch of the main places surrounding the railway and discussion of key scenes that include these places. For different scenes, the class could identify how the children influence others and how they themselves change. Students could examine ways the lessons might move from the town outward to other places. They might also connect their ideas to the themes of The Importance of Kindness and Friendship and The Nature of Justice. After discussing one or more examples like this, students could continue sharing in small groups and sketching their ideas. The project could be completed in pairs or small groups.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who would benefit from assistance with abstract thinking, it might be helpful to discuss the idea of influence in concrete terms. The class could identify ways the characters change in their reflections about money, in their interactions with each other, in the way they listen to others, in how they spend their days, etc.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis interact with nature in numerous scenes.

• What is the children’s relationship with nature? (topic sentence)
• As you write your essay, include at least three quotations and other specifics that develop your analysis.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain a connection with nature that likely will remain with the children going forward.

2. Various interactions shape the characters’ days.

• How is the theme of The Importance of Kindness and Friendship important in the children’s lives? (topic sentence)
• As you craft your essay, include three or more quotations and additional details to support your analysis.
• In your conclusion, explain a lesson about this theme the novel presents for the reader.

3. From everyday family scenes to the functions of countries, justice plays an important role in the story.

• What does the novel say about The Nature of Justice? (topic sentence)
• As you write, incorporate at least three quotations and other details that develop your argument.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain a way this theme connects to real life.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. From the title to many key scenes, the railroad features prominently. Consider the function of the railway station. What important moments happen there? How is it a catalyst? What different moods does the author build around the station? What does the station symbolize? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, analyze the significance of the railway station and how it works to illuminate key aspects of the characters.

2. Reflect on the perspective of the novel and how it functions to illuminate the characters. Who tells the story? How reliable is the narrator? How would the story change if the narrator was someone else? What are unique ways the narrator reveals aspects of the characters? Craft a 3- or 5-paragraph essay analyzing how the novel’s perspective is key to the novel and the characters

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. When the family moves to the country, what does the railway symbolize for the children?

A) Hope they can run away as they are planning

B) A connection to their old life and their father

C) Understanding they should stay inside their cottage

D) Inspiration for their mother’s stories

2. What best describes how the children react when they first arrive at their new home in the country?

A) Sad and refusing to leave their bedrooms for several weeks

B) Uncertain yet willing to find ways to make their days joyful

C) Gleeful and hopeful they finally escaped the city’s noise and light

D) Angry their father made them move during summer holiday yet curious

3. What does Bobbie’s reaction after the train almost crashes reveal about her?

A) Her deep sensitivity

B) Her quick anger

C) Her insecurity

D) Her sense of humor

4. Which plot point most reveals that the children do not always understand class differences?

A) Warning the train of danger with red flags

B) Their time in their garden

C) Speaking French to the man in the station

D) Mr. Perk’s birthday party

5. What does the train tunnel where the children find Jim represent?

A) The long journey through adversity

B) Hope for a new job and more money

C) Misunderstandings about helping others

D) Always being on the outside and not accepted

6. Which two types of figurative language does the following quotation hold?

“It really did seem a little like magic. For all the trees for about twenty yards of the opposite bank seemed to be slowly walking down towards the railway line, the tree with the grey leaves bringing up the rear like some old shepherd driving a flock of green sheep” (Page 112, Chapter 6)

A) Metaphor and onomatopoeia

B) Hyperbole and irony

C) Symbolism and alliteration

D) Personification and simile

7. At the end of her birthday, when Bobbie sees her mother upset, why does she leave without talking with her mother?

A) Bobbie is secretly glad her mother is upset.

B) Bobbie hears a noise outside and goes to investigate.

C) Bobbie wants to respect her mother’s wishes.

D) Bobbie goes to get her siblings, so they can all talk with her.

8. What plot point most develops the theme of The Nature of Justice?

A) Mother’s stories getting published and the family celebrating

B) Peter’s toy train breaking and then getting fixed by new friends

C) Bobbie and Jim becoming friends after the race

D) Mother explaining what happened to the author exiled from Russia

9. How is the narrator involved in the story?

A) As the Father

B) As the Station Master

C) As an outside observer

D) As a newspaper reporter

10. How does Father reunite with the family?

A) Father escapes from prison when the prison loses electricity and hitchhikes home.

B) The old gentleman helps prove Father’s innocence, and he arrives on the train.

C) Mr. Perks testifies with evidence that sets Father free, then drives him home.

D) Father is released for the summer in the doctor’s custody and rides with him.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How does the narrator feel about Bobbie?

2. When Father arrives and enters the new family home, what does the narrator suggest?