The Resource Room

Literature-based Skill Building

Freak the Mighty, Chapter 10

The following are comprehension activities related to the novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, chapter 10. NOTE: Keep reading fun! Don't do all of t hese for every chapter! It may be appropriate to simply have a student complete the "learning log" for each chapter, or to discuss questions and answers instead of requiring the reader to write responses.

Chapter Ten: Rats or Worse

1. Learning Log

A. This chapter's title is "Rats or Worse." Use your imagination: what are two or three things that could be worse than rats on this quest?
___________________________________________________________________

B. Setting: Identify the setting of the chapter.
time ________________________________________
place _______________________________________________

C. In one or two sentences, summarize what happens in this chapter, or draw an important scene from it, OR draw two or three scenes that show what happened.

D. Questions:

Ask a question about something that happened in this chapter, or what might happen. _________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Signal words: But, because

Finish these sentences so that they make sense, keeping the signal word in mind.
Examples:

Freak wants to go on a quest, but Max isn't sure he wants to.
Max is uncertain about going on a quest because he had to walk so far the last time they went out and his feet still hurt.

Max didn't hear Freak come into his room because ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Freak seems to know exactly where he wants to go, but Max ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Freak wants to go out at 3 a.m. because ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Freak hands Max a black shirt, but ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Max tries to get to sleep, but ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Freak and Max know who the purse belongs to because ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Freak says Loretta Lee is a 'damsel in distress,' but Max ________________________________________________________________________________________________.

3. Picture it! Important Little Words: In and Of

This chapter ends with Max musing about Loretta Lee. Freak thinks she is a "damsel in distress," but Max says that we'll find out that she is a "damsel of distress - that she is not in trouble, but will cause them trouble. (A damsel is a lady, by the way)