Flowers for Algernon

1. Flowers for Algernon Before Reading

2. Vocabulary Quiz • Refute: a. run away b. agree c. prove d. disprove • Tangible: a. real b. tasty c. graceful d. breakable • Specter: a. happiness b. disturbing thoughts c. moon d. wand • Psychology: a. mind study b. counselor c. history study d. emotion • Illiteracy: a. disturbance b. darkness c. inability to read or write d. mismanagement

3. Quick-Write • What is knowledge? Why do we value it? How have you gained knowledge in your life thus far? In what ways is knowledge important to you?

4. Agree or Disagree • It is better to know than not to know. • Questions are an essential part of knowledge. • Failure should be prevented or avoided. • “Ignorance is bliss.”

5. Activity Reflection • How did these activities make you feel? • Imagine if you felt this way while reading, writing, and learning each day. Charlie Gordon, the main character in “Flowers for Algernon,” experiences these feelings of frustration and inadequacy every day. • “I told them becaus all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb.”

6. Quick-Write • Charlie Gordon takes a huge risk because he wants to “be like everyone else.” In a brief paragraph, make a connection between his decision and situations you have been a part of or observed in which people misjudged or made fun of someone who they saw as “different.”

7. Quick-Write • Predict what you think will happen at the end of Flowers for Algernon.