COMMON CORE CLASSROOM READY GUIDE

Incident at Hawks Hill by Allan W. Eckert

Common Core ConnectionsSixth-Grade Focus
978-0-316-20948-9

Many books can meet most, if not all, Common Core Standards.
However, we have found that some books speak strongly to a few
standards. These one-page applications connect a focused text and the
Common Core Standards as written for sixth gradersleaning on the
texts literary strengths.

KEY DETAILS AND IDEAS

RL.6.1 and RL.6.2
Incident at Hawks Hill addresses several major themes. Supply your students with a few theme
topics explored in the booktry survival, independence, or coming of age, for example
and ask them to find specific passages in the book that relate to that topic. Next, ask students to
develop that topic into a statement of a theme for the book. Ask them to find specific passages
from the book to support their ideas.
RL.6.1 and 6.3
Lush exposition fills the pages of Incident at Hawks Hill. The detailed descriptive passages may
take students a little extra time to read, so it may be helpful for them to keep track of the plot.
Supply students with a simple plot organizer and ask them to plot the major events in the book.
As students plot events, ask them to explore, in conversation and writing, how major characters
respond to these events.
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
RL.6.4
This novel includes some sophisticated vocabulary that will be new to sixth-grade readers. Many
of these words are used in contexts that will allow readers to determine their meaning without
struggling or turning immediately to a dictionary. Ask students to keep a vocabulary journal while
they read. The journal should note new words, what students think they mean in context, and why
the author chose to use these words instead of synonyms students may already know. Encourage
students to discuss the new words and uses with each other. Some words with which students may
struggle include:
emulate (pg. 3)
veritable (pg. 34)
olfactory (pg. 71)
shrewd (pg. 103)
macabre (pg. 156)
providential (pg. 185)

resonance (pg. 12)

fracas (pg. 39)
alacrity (pg. 79)
bewilderingly (pg. 118)
forlorn (pg. 164)
reticent (pg. 190)

rapport (pg. 25)

affinity (pg. 46)
joviality (pg. 86)
mollify (pg. 134)
furtive (pg. 177)
flaccid (pg. 196)

COMMON CORE CLASSROOM READY GUIDE

RL.6.6
Some of the books your students read may use a first-person narrator; here, the author uses a
third-person voice. Ask students to consider how the narrative might change if Ben told the story.
What about his mother? George Burton? Another character? Discuss what changes would be
required, then ask students to rewrite a section of the book from a different point of view.
RL.6.1 and 6.5
Many authors choose to give chapters titles rather than numbers. Eckert did not make this choice.
Ask your students to give each chapter a title and have them defend their choices with evidence
from the text. Why is the chosen title a good title for the chapter? Ask students to explain how
their titles show the importance of each chapter in the overall narrative.
RL.6.5
About midway through the book, Eckert writes, As is common in nature, the instinct for survival
is amazingly strong (pg. 101). Ask your students to identify passages from the latter half of the
book that defend Eckerts position. Encourage them to look at passages about Ben, the badger,
George Burton, and Bens family.
INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS
RL.6.7
Read passages from the book aloud to your students. Ask students to discuss, then write about,
how the experience of reading differs from that of hearing. Pay special attention to how students
interact with new vocabulary: do they find it easier to infer the meanings of new words in an
audio context?
RL.6.7
Choose a few especially dramatic passages from the book like Burtons first visit to MacDonalds
(chapter 5) or Bens reunion with his family (chapter 12). Divide students into small groups and
ask them to write readers theater scripts for these scenes and then perform their selections. Ask
students to write about how their experiences of seeing the text performed differed from that of
reading it silently.
RL.6.7
Try to obtain a copy of the 1975 movie The Boy Who Talked to Badgers and host a screening for
your students. After watching the film, ask students to write a comparison of the movie to the
bookwhat changes did students notice? How were students reading and viewing experiences
similar or different?
RL.6.8
Eckert notes at the beginning of the book that the book is a fictionalized account of a true story.
Ask students to research the actual event and compare the historical writings they find with
the novel.
Guide prepared by Tim Jones, language arts teacher
at George Jackson Academy in New York, NY.