Summer of the Monkeys

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What’s the difference between monkeys and apes? Are chimpanzees apes or monkeys? What kinds of social structures exist within and across these types of species? How might a life of forced captivity and performance in a traveling circus, for example, influence these social structures?

Teaching Suggestion: Jay Berry is shocked to find monkeys in the river bottoms near his home in Oklahoma. The monkeys have escaped a circus, and Jay Berry devises a plan to capture them for reward money. He soon realizes, however, that the monkeys have an elaborate communication system and depend on the chimpanzee, the group’s leader, to avoid entrapment. The first question mimics the confusion between chimpanzee and monkey in the narrative and could prove to be an engaging topic of research and discussion for your students should you allow them to explore the topic in these ways. It may be helpful for students to research and explain why the chimpanzee emerged as the natural leader (based on inherent traits of the species) of the monkeys in the story. For ease of your reference, chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys. Consider accessing or sharing the following or similar resources with students to help inform this work.

• This article discusses the differences between apes and monkeys.
• This two-minute video describes various types of monkeys and their social structures.
• This article explores the intelligence of chimpanzees.

Differentiation Suggestion: For visual learners, ELL students, and students with executive function differences, consider allowing students to research, track, and organize their findings in a t-chart listing the differences/similarities across species, including comparisons/contrasts of social structures.

2. What was life like in the Ozarks in the late 1800s? How might city life have been different from now? How might it have been the same? What technologies might people have had access to then? How are some of those technologies similar to what we have access to today?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may not be familiar with rural Ozark life in the late 1800s. To spark their interest in this way of life and the book itself and to help them make connections to the content, consider having students research and discuss Ozark life and technologies using the following or similar resources, comparing and contrasting it with their experiences today. If students are familiar with the idea of homesteading journeys from history or other classes, you may also choose to use that as a bridge to the concepts of homesteading, working the land, and perseverance that are either directly or indirectly referenced in the book.

• This Library of Congress entry provides a brief summary of rural life in the late 19th century and offers linked resources to explore the topic further.
• To contrast with the above, this resource summarizes city life in the late 19th century.
• This online museum resource details the realities and culture of settling the Ozarks—many realities faced by the story’s characters.
• This article features a timeline with summaries of American technology from 1752-1990.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Think about the times you’ve attempted to achieve a goal. What obstacles did you face? Which did you overcome, and how? When did you give up, and why? When did you persevere, and what made you keep going? What lessons did you learn, whether you succeeded or failed?

Teaching Suggestion: Jay Berry perseveres despite many setbacks while trying to capture the monkeys. To encourage an engaging conversation with depth and complexity that helps students connect more directly to the text, you may have students focus on the WHYs behind their successes and failures and the ultimate lessons learned, identifying similarities across their experiences and outcomes as well as parallels between their experiences, Jay Berry’s experiences, and the novel’s theme of The Angst of Coming of Age.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who would benefit from scaffolding in reaching more interpretive/evaluative levels of analysis (i.e., getting to the WHYs from the WHATs) could benefit from tracking their reflections in a graphic organizer that has WHAT (the experience), HOW (overcoming obstacles/surrendering), WHY (interpreting the essence behind their success/failure), and LESSON (ultimate lesson learned) columns, left to right. Students can share with a partner to ideate/articulate to help fill in any empty/sparse columns. Students who are creative-productive, task-oriented, or high-achieving may find it particularly interesting to research strategies on goal-setting and attainment and/or research characteristics or traits shared by highly successful adults. Consider allowing these students the opportunity to present a synthesis of their research in lieu of reflecting on/responding to the original prompt here.