The Resource Room

Literature-based Skill Building

Freak the Mighty, Chapter 8

The following are comprehension activities related to the novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, chapter 8. 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 Eight: Dinosaur Brain.

1. Learning Log

A. Give this chapter a new title. Consider what happened and the feelings of the chapter.
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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. Inferences

When you make an inference, you should be able to back it up with your reasons. Gram and Grim inferred at first that Max was in trouble. Their reasons for that inference? Well, the police brought Max home, and Max is a teenager. Of course, that inference was wrong.
For each of these inferences, give another reason why the reader would think they were true.

Grim and Gram really think Max helping out Freak is a special and wonderful thing.
Gram gets out the special china that they never use.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. Freak loves words.
He uses lots of big ones and looks up any that he doesn't know.
___________________________________________________________________
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3. Signal word: IF

When a sentence starts with if, it should have two parts: what might happen and then what will happen if the first thing happens. Finish each of these sentences with something that makes sense.

Examples: If it rains, the road will get wet.
If Freak sees Blade, he will try to get away from him.
If Max is still asleep when Freak comes by, ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
If Freak doesn't know what a word means, ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
If Max didn't have Freak to hang around with in the summer, he would ________________________________________________________________________________________________.
If Freak needs to get somewhere, Max ________________________________________________________________________________________________.

4. Word Part: Arch

Click to go to the exercises complete 1-3 (write the word, the definition and draw what you're asked to draw).

Freak refers to the "second" definition of archetype -- "..." -- specifically referring to Carl Jung's psychological theory that ideas or modes of thoughts can be inherited (and an archetype is one of these ideas as present in the unconscious). The first definition is more common and more useful. For an extra challenge, students can figure out the connection between the definitions and learn both. (For even more interesting challenge, consider the differences and similarities between archetypes and stereotypes.)