Silas Marner Lesson Plan

What do you think the story is going to be about based on these first two chapters?

This question gets students thinking about the book’s plot in general, but it also lets them engage with the notion of pre-judging something, in the same way that villagers in the story judge wanderers. The students have no real way of guessing the book’s plot after reading only two chapters—they haven’t even met many of the lead characters in the story. Recognizing this, how accurate do students think the villagers’ perceptions of wanderers, weavers, and Silas Marner in particular, are? The discussion can be taken further by exploring students’ first impressions upon switching from an...