TEACHER’S PET PUBLICATIONS

LITPLAN TEACHER PACK™

for
The Catcher in the Rye
based on the book by
J. D. Salinger

Written by
Mary B. Collins

© 1996 Teacher’s Pet Publications

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-1-60249-140-3
TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Catcher in the Rye

Introduction 5
Unit Objectives 8
Reading Assignment Sheet 9
Unit Outline 10
Study Questions (Short Answer) 13
Quiz/Study Questions (Multiple Choice) 20
Pre-reading Vocabulary Worksheets 35
Lesson One (Introductory Lesson) 45
Nonfiction Assignment Sheet 47
Oral Reading Evaluation Form 50
Writing Assignment 1 48
Writing Assignment 2 64
Writing Assignment 3 68
Writing Evaluation Form 67
Vocabulary Review Activities 62
Extra Writing Assignments/Discussion ?s 59
Unit Review Activities 69
Unit Tests 73
Unit Resource Materials 103
Vocabulary Resource Materials 117
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. D. SALINGER

SALINGER, J. D. (born 1919). Although he is one of the most widely read authors in the English
language, J. D. Salinger successfully kept himself out of the public eye for most of his career. His
preference for seclusion made his life a matter of speculation among fans and his literary output a
subject of controversy among critics.

Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City on Jan. 1, 1919. After studying at Columbia and
New York universities, he turned to writing. His first short story appeared in Story magazine in 1940.
After service in World War II his stories appeared regularly in The New Yorker magazine. Major
recognition and a large following came with his novel, 'The Catcher in the Rye', published in 1951.
This touching and humorous story about a rebellious teenager became a cult book among university
students. It was followed by 'Nine Stories' (1953), 'Franny and Zooey' (1961), 'Raise High the Roof
Beam, Carpenters; and Seymour: an Introduction' (1963). The last three are mostly stories about the
Glass family.

Altogether Salinger produced 13 short stories and one novel. Some of the stories made use of his
wartime experiences, as in "For Esme-With Love and Squalor" (1950). "A Perfect Day for
Bananafish" (1948) concerns the suicide of veteran Seymour Glass. Salinger seemed at his best in
dramatizing the lives of children. Much of his work concerns the lost innocence of childhood.

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 INTRODUCTION

This unit has been designed to develop students' reading, writing, thinking, and language skills
through exercises and activities related to The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. It includes
seventeen lessons, supported by extra resource materials.

The introductory lesson introduces students to one main theme of the novel through the first writing
assignment of the unit. Following the introductory activity, students are given a transition to explain
how the activity relates to the book they are about to read. Following the transition, students are
given the materials they will be using during the unit. At the end of the lesson, students begin the
pre-reading work for the first reading assignment.

The reading assignments are approximately thirty pages each; some are a little shorter while others
are a little longer. Students have approximately 15 minutes of pre-reading work to do prior to each
reading assignment. This pre-reading work involves reviewing the study questions for the assignment
and doing some vocabulary work for 8 to 10 vocabulary words they will encounter in their reading.

The study guide questions are fact-based questions; students can find the answers to these questions
right in the text. These questions come in two formats: short answer or multiple choice. The best
use of these materials is probably to use the short answer version of the questions as study guides
for students (since answers will be more complete), and to use the multiple choice version for
occasional quizzes. If your school has the appropriate equipment, it might be a good idea to make
transparencies of your answer keys for the overhead projector.

The vocabulary work is intended to enrich students' vocabularies as well as to aid in the students'
understanding of the book. Prior to each reading assignment, students will complete a two-part
worksheet for approximately 8 to 10 vocabulary words in the upcoming reading assignment. Part I
focuses on students' use of general knowledge and contextual clues by giving the sentence in which
the word appears in the text. Students are then to write down what they think the words mean based
on the words' usage. Part II nails down the definitions of the words by giving students dictionary
definitions of the words and having students match the words to the correct definitions based on the
words' contextual usage. Students should then have a good understanding of the words when they
meet them in the text.

After each reading assignment, students will go back and formulate answers for the study guide
questions. Discussion of these questions serves as a review of the most important events and ideas
presented in the reading assignments.

After students complete reading the work, a lesson is devoted to the extra discussion
questions/writing assignments. These questions focus on interpretation, critical analysis and
personal response, employing a variety of thinking skills and adding to the students' understanding
of the novel.

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Following the discussion, there is a vocabulary review lesson which pulls together all of the
fragmented vocabulary lists for the reading assignments and gives students a review of all of the
words they have studied.

The group activity which follows the discussion questions has students working in small groups to
discuss the main themes of the novel. Using the information they have acquired so far through
individual work and class discussions, students get together to further examine the text and to
brainstorm ideas relating to the themes of the novel.

The group activity is followed by a reports and discussion session in which the groups share their
ideas about the themes with the entire class; thus, the entire class is exposed to information about
all of the themes and the entire class can discuss each theme based on the nucleus of information
brought forth by each of the groups.

There are three writing assignments in this unit, each with the purpose of informing, persuading,
or having students express personal opinions. The first assignment is to express personal opinions:
students tell about the person they would most like to be like (picking up on the
phony/pretending/acting theme). The second assignment is to inform: students introduce their
characters for the character project, set up the scene they will be performing, and also write a post-
performance conclusion. The third assignment is to persuade: students persuade Holden that
everyone is not a "phony."

In addition, there is a nonfiction reading assignment. Students are required to read a piece of
nonfiction related in some way to The Catcher in the Rye. Most students will combine this with the
reading they have to do for their character projects. After reading their nonfiction pieces, students
will fill out a worksheet on which they answer questions regarding facts, interpretation, criticism,
and personal opinions.

The review lesson pulls together all of the aspects of the unit. The teacher is given four or five
choices of activities or games to use which all serve the same basic function of reviewing all of the
information presented in the unit.

The unit test comes in two formats: short answer or multiple choice. As a convenience, two
different tests for each format have been included. In addition there is an advanced short answer unit
test for higher level students.

There are additional support materials included with this unit. The extra activities packet includes
suggestions for an in-class library, crossword and word search puzzles related to the novel, and extra
vocabulary worksheets. There is a list of bulletin board ideas which gives the teacher suggestions
for bulletin boards to go along with this unit. In addition, there is a list of extra class activities the

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teacher could choose from to enhance the unit or as a substitution for an exercise the teacher might
feel is inappropriate for his/her class. Answer keys are located directly after the reproducible
student materials throughout the unit. The student materials may be reproduced for use in the
teacher's classroom without infringement of copyrights. No other portion of this unit may be
reproduced without the written consent of Teacher's Pet Publications, Inc.

The level of this unit can be varied depending upon the criteria on which the individual
assignments are graded, the teacher's expectations of his/her students in class discussions, and the
formats chosen for the study guides, quizzes and test. If teachers have other ideas/activities they wish
to use, they can usually easily be inserted prior to the review lesson.

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 UNIT OBJECTIVES - The Catcher in the Rye

1. Through reading J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, students will study the theme of
illusion vs reality and the idea of things or people being "phony."

2. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text on four levels: factual, interpretive,
critical and personal.

3. Students will study characters, setting, conflicts, motivations, and symbolism.

4. Students will study one character's confusion and uncertainty as he experiences the process
of "growing up."

5. Students will be given the opportunity to practice reading aloud and silently to improve their
skills in each area.

6. Students will answer questions to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the
main events and characters in The Catcher in the Rye as they relate to the author's theme
development.

7. Students will enrich their vocabularies and improve their understanding of the novel through
the vocabulary lessons prepared for use in conjunction with the novel.

8. The writing assignments in this unit are geared to several purposes:

a. To have students demonstrate their abilities to inform, to persuade, or
to express their own personal ideas
Note: Students will demonstrate ability to write effectively to inform
by developing and organizing facts to convey information. Students
will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to persuade by
selecting and organizing relevant information, establishing an
argumentative purpose, and by designing an appropriate strategy for
an identified audience. Students will demonstrate the ability to write
effectively to express personal ideas by selecting a form and its
appropriate elements.
b. To check the students' reading comprehension
c. To make students think about the ideas presented by the novel
d. To encourage logical thinking
e. To provide an opportunity to practice good grammar and improve
students' use of the English language.

9. Students will read aloud, report, and participate in large and small group discussions to
improve their public speaking and personal interaction skills.

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 READING ASSIGNMENT SHEET - The Catcher in the Rye

Date Assigned Chapters Assigned Completion Date

1-4
5-9
10-13
14-17
18-21
22-26

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 UNIT OUTLINE - The Catcher in the Rye

1 2 3 4 5

Introduction
Writing Read 1-4 Study ?s 1-4 Study ?s 5-9 Study ?s 10-13
Assignment #1 PVR 5-9 PVR 10-13 Character Project
PV 1-4 PVR 14-17

6 7 8 9 10

Study ?s 14-17
Library Study ?s 18-21 Study ?s 22-26 Vocabulary Writing
PVR 18-21 PVR 22-26 Extra ?s Assignment #2

11 12 13 14 15

Group Activity Reports & Character Project Character Project Writing

Discussion Assignment #3

16 17

Review Test

P = Preview Study Questions V = Prereading Vocabulary Work R = Read

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 LESSON ONE

Objectives
1. To introduce The Catcher in the Rye unit.
2. To distribute books and other related materials
3. To preview the study questions for chapters 1-4
4. To familiarize students with the vocabulary for chapters 1-4
5. To give students the opportunity to express their personal opinions
6. To give the teacher the opportunity to evaluate students' writing skills

Activity #1
Distribute Writing Assignment #1. Discuss the directions in detail, and give students
about 30 minutes to complete the assignment. Collect the papers for grading.

TRANSITION: Ask students for some of their definitions for the word phony.
"In the book we are about to read, the main character, Holden Caulfield, thinks just about
everyone is a phony."

Activity #2
Distribute the materials students will use in this unit. Explain in detail how students are to
use these materials.

Study Guides Students should read the study guide questions for each reading
assignment prior to beginning the reading assignment to get a feeling for what events and ideas
are important in the section they are about to read. After reading the section, students will (as a
class or individually) answer the questions to review the important events and ideas from that
section of the book. Students should keep the study guides as study materials for the unit test.

Vocabulary Prior to reading a reading assignment, students will do vocabulary work

related to the section of the book they are about to read. Following the completion of the reading
of the book, there will be a vocabulary review of all the words used in the vocabulary
assignments. Students should keep their vocabulary work as study materials for the unit test.

Reading Assignment Sheet You need to fill in the reading assignment sheet to let
students know by when their reading has to be completed. You can either write the assignment
sheet up on a side blackboard or bulletin board and leave it there for students to see each day, or
you can "ditto" copies for each student to have. In either case, you should advise students to
become very familiar with the reading assignments so they know what is expected of them.

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 WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1 - The Catcher in the Rye

PROMPT
Sometimes when we read books or watch movies, a particular character will appeal to us.
We think, "Gee, I wish I could be more like that person" or "Wow! Would I like to be that
person--even for a day!"
Your assignment is to write a composition in which you tell what person you would most
like to be like, describe that person, and tell why you would like to be like him or her. You may
choose a character from fiction or a real person from the past or present.

PREWRITING
Maybe you know right away who you would like to be. Great! Write that person's name
down on a piece of paper and skip to the next paragraph. If you don't have the slightest idea, grab
a piece of paper and a pencil. Make a list of your favorite books, plays, movies, television shows,
sports figures, television actors, and people in history. Next to the books, plays, movies, and
television shows, write down the names of your favorite characters from each. You should now
have a whole list of people's names in front of you. Simply choose the one you would most like
to be like! Write that person's name at the top of a fresh sheet of paper (or on the back of the
paper you've already started.)
Under your person's name, make three columns. In the left-hand column, make a detailed
list of that person's physical characteristics: physical build, hair color and style, kind of clothing
he/she wears, etc. On the middle column, make a list of that person's character traits: super-
strong, really intelligent, bubbly personality, great sense of humor, etc. In the right-hand column
make a list of reasons why you would like to be like this person.

DRAFTING
Write an introductory paragraph in which you introduce the idea that you would like to be
like the person you have chosen. Follow that with one paragraph describing the physical and
character traits of your person. Then, write one paragraph for each of the reasons you would like
to be like this person. Then write one paragraph for each of the reasons why you would like to be
like this person. Use a topic sentence to state the reason, and in the rest of the paragraph explain
your reason using specific examples. Sum it all up with a concluding paragraph in which you
bring together your ideas and bring your composition to a close.

PROOFREADING
When you finish the rough draft of your paper, ask a student who sits near you to read it.
After reading your rough draft, he/she should tell you what he/she liked best about your work,
which parts were difficult to understand, and ways in which your work could be improved.
Reread your paper considering your critic's comments, and make the corrections you think are
necessary. Do a final proofreading of your paper double-checking your grammar, spelling,
organization, and the clarity of your ideas.

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