Make lemonade

By Virginia Euwer Wolff

1) Front page – write down what you see and experience about the front page of the book. Present, what you have written, to class.

2) Find out about the writer – who is she? What kinds of books does she write?

Present to class or your group what you discover about the author.

3) How much influence do you believe parents have on their child’s education? How much influence is it fair that parents should have on a child’s education?

Do parents have any influence on children’s choices regarding education? Explain how and why.

Present to class or group.

4) Now read chapter 1-10 and write a short summary for each chapter. If you meet words that you do not understand, look them up – there might be words which you are not able to look up, then you must guess out of the context what it means.

5) Who is LaVaughn? Describe your impression of her – what do you know so far? What do you wonder about? How will you describe her life?

6) Who is Jolly? Describe your impression of her – what do you know so far? What do you wonder about? How will you describe her life?

7) Describe Jolly’s place.

8) Draw a picture of the main charactors, Jolly’s place and the school – do it in your groups. Fill in with colors that reflects how the places look.

9) Now read chapter 11 – 16 – make summaries in your notebook or on your computer.

10) What do you believe has happened to Jolly? Why can’t she call her parents? What does LaVaughn do and how does Jolly react to this? What do you think of LaVaughn’s mother?

11) Read chapter 16-21- write summaries again – what do you learn about parenting during the different scenes? (tidying up, making your bed, Jeremy cutting Jilly’s hair) – how does- in your opinion- LaVaughn handle the kids?

12) What impression do you get of LaVaughn’s parents? What can she remember?

13) Read chapter 22-27- write summaries as always.

14) What do we learn about Jolly’s situation on her job? What has happened to her? Why is it a problem for Jolly? What do you believe, that Jolly should do now? What would you have done in this situation?

15) Explain about the big word in chapter 26 – COLLEGE – what does that mean to LaVaughn and her mother?

16) Chapter 27 – what is going on – what is La Vaughn suggesting and how does it end?

Working with Make Lemonade

Now you must pick a scene from the text to dramatize.

When you agree on a good scene you have to rewrite it.

This means:

· You must describe the scenery

· Where are we?

· Who is present?

· What are they doing?

· What are they saying

· How are they acting

You must rehearse the scene many times – speak out loud- speak in English – perform like you were actors- keep front to the audience