QUESTION: Rip Van Winkle Teaching Ideas!

[Rebecca Agosta]

Hi all,

I am about to start a discussion on Rip Van Winkle tomorrow and I am truly running out of ideas! They are writing a
pre-reading journal entry today about reacting to waking up 20 years
later and now I need a post-reading journal prompt for tomorrow. What
kinds of prompts have you all used with this text? What discussion
questions have elicited exciting answers? Also, do you know of any
youtube clips or songs that fit with Rip Van Winkle?

Rebecca

[patsy everett]

I've never taught Rip Van Winkle, but there is Twilight Zone episode called "The Rip Van Winkle Caper." It might work for the post-reading as it's robbers waking up a hundred years later to revel in their stolen riches. There's a twist to the end, as there always is with Twilight Zone, that might engage students in a discussion about changes made socially, technologically, scientifically, etc. that Irving doesn't explore.

It's on hulu: it runs 26 minutes.

[Terisa King]

You might connect the Fairy Tale Sleeping Beauty. We all assume that a long sleep means we will open our eyes to only good and beautiful things (like Prince Charming) but what if we woke up in a world that was not beautiful or good?

If you woke up after a 200 year old sleep, what would be different and what might be the same? I would hope that I could still read and write although in 2210 those skills might be obsolete. My Great Great Uncle was a college Professor in 1905. He wrote a textbook on letter writing. My Grandmother taught typing in the 1940's with manuel typewriters. Students can predict or review changes in culture for a 200 year sleep.

There is a sixties/seventies anthem song with either a title or first line of ". . . In the year 2525, if man is still alive. . . "

[Terisa King]

You might check a city map and have students conduct a picture tour of street signs that relate to the story. I happen to live on the corner of VanWinkle in Sleepy Hollow addition. :)