Story Summary:

The story of The Great Gilly Hopkins follows the journey of eleven-year-old Gilly Hopkins, who has been placed in foster care multiple times. Her life is marked by a series of transitions and the absence of her birth mother, Courtney. Gilly's character is complex, as she is both resilient and rebellious. She is determined to reunite with her mother and believes that she will eventually find her way back to California. However, her plans are complicated by the harsh realities of her new foster home and the challenges of growing up in an unpredictable world. The novel explores themes of abandonment, resilience, and the search for identity.

Overall Expectations:

The students will:

• practice the major strategies used during the reading process.
• practice and reinforce a variety of language skills.
• foster a love for reading.
• improve and develop their creativity.
• be able to assess their work using a novel as a teaching tool.

Introduction includes:

• Introduction
  • Learning Expectations
  • Story Summary
  • Author Biography
• Tips for Teachers
  • Tips for Teachers
  • Features of the Program
  • Skills Features in the Unit
• What Do You Think? Worksheet

Chapter Questions

The chapter questions should be previewed and discussed before reading. Questions using "Do you think...?" are open-ended and could be completed individually or in a small group setting.

The major strategies of reading are emphasized throughout the resource.

Each chapter should have a title. That title would be the main idea of the section. Sequencing activities are prevalent in the unit. True/False questions require comprehension and interpretation of the text.

Extensive practise in language forms and conventions reinforce good punctuation and language usage. Students should respond to most questions in sentence form. Different activities highlight punctuation, spelling, grammar, language structures, and patterns.

Collaborative tasks require group work and group decision-making skills. The talking, listening and discussion components of language are utilized. Some tasks could be to predict outcomes or to decide on features of an illustration.

Cloze activities require children to select appropriate words to fit in a certain context. The author's choice could be found before or after this activity.

Synonyms, antonyms and word-definition activities aid in vocabulary development.

• Chapter Questions Student Booklet
  • Student Booklet Cover
  • Just the Facts
  • Chapter Questions
  • Answer Key

Novel Extension Activities

Some activities are full page, and some pages has two activities.

Answer Key. 

Worksheet Titles:

1. Scrambled Words
2. Who’s Who Characters in the Book
3. Word Study
4. Story Board
5. Foster Parent Application Form
6. Getting Along with Gilly
7. Who Do You Feel?
8. Wanted Poster
9. My Secret Diary
10. Dear Ruth – letter writing
11. Changing Schools
12. Writing a Book Review
13. An Emotional Time
14. Literary Skills – Activity 1
15. Literary Skills – Activity 2
16. The Great _____ Robbery
17. What Do You Think?
18. Creative Writing

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