2007 Beacon Award Winners
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Judith Howell
English Literature and Sherlock Holmes Middle School (7th grade) Judith Howell started her students reading in the summertime and used The Hound to teach elements of literary analysis that carried through the rest of the year. |
Peter Burkhardt
Sherlock Holmes Curriculum (7th Grade) Peter Burkhardt created a study outline for middle school students. |
2007 Beacon Award: Judith Howell started her students reading in the summertime and used The Hound to teach elements of literary analysis that carried through the rest of the year.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
High School: 7th grade Honors, British Literature
Summer Reading Assignments
Classroom Analysis
Teaching Topics
Students are encouraged to be analytical as they reread each chapter to recognize and appreciate the themes included. They come to realize the surprising complexity of the story and are encouraged to think in new ways by applying some of the characters’ words to themselves. They examine their own friendships as they gain understanding of the bonds between Holmes and Watson.
Regular reading-check quizzes are given in a wide variety of formats to insure a thorough reading on the part of each student. Sketches, true and false, quote identification, sequencing of events, charts, and thought-provoking questions are used.
Quotes from Holmes
Themes in Hound
Literary Analysis Topics (on completion of entire book)
Once the students have chosen a topic and have a rough draft composed, Mrs. Howell models a paper to enhance the students’ understanding of the expectations for college-level writing.
For the remainder of the semester, references are made back to Doyle and The Hound of the Baskervilles, applying the techniques and concepts included in the book to subsequent literature.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
High School: 7th grade Honors, British Literature
Summer Reading Assignments
- Creating a project illustrating a thorough knowledge of the novella e.g. a diorama of the moor and surroundings of Baskerville Hall
- Keeping a log of unfamiliar words they encounter and defining them
- SAT vocabulary preparation -- 85 words are found on the final list
- Writing a thoughtful paper on the importance of the setting to the work
Classroom Analysis
- Once classes begin, Hound's analyzed at the rate of a chapter a day, with special focus on:
- Structure of the novella
- Plot development
- Characterization
- Irony
- Literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and imagery.
Teaching Topics
Students are encouraged to be analytical as they reread each chapter to recognize and appreciate the themes included. They come to realize the surprising complexity of the story and are encouraged to think in new ways by applying some of the characters’ words to themselves. They examine their own friendships as they gain understanding of the bonds between Holmes and Watson.
Regular reading-check quizzes are given in a wide variety of formats to insure a thorough reading on the part of each student. Sketches, true and false, quote identification, sequencing of events, charts, and thought-provoking questions are used.
Quotes from Holmes
- The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
- Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.
- It is in noting your fallacies I am occasionally guided towards the truth.
- Now is the dramatic moment of fate, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.
- We have never had a foeman more worthy of our steel.
- A touch, Watson – an undeniable touch!...I feel a foil as quick and supple as my own. (Mrs. Howell displays a fencing foil during discussion of the final two.)
Themes in Hound
- The abuse of nature
- Doyle’s treatment of love in the novella
- The roles of women in the Victorian era
- Betrayal
Literary Analysis Topics (on completion of entire book)
- Stapleton as the ultimate villain
- Doyle’s view of Americans as revealed in his portrayal of Sir Henry Baskerville
- Doyle’s use of character foils – choose 3 sets
- Doyle’s concept of good versus evil as revealed in Hound
- Is it personified by characters? Revealed by the setting? By the action?
- What is the power of each?
- How does the ending of the novella strengthen his position?
Once the students have chosen a topic and have a rough draft composed, Mrs. Howell models a paper to enhance the students’ understanding of the expectations for college-level writing.
For the remainder of the semester, references are made back to Doyle and The Hound of the Baskervilles, applying the techniques and concepts included in the book to subsequent literature.