If I Ever Get Out of Here

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. How does music make you feel? Why is it important to you? In what ways might it be important to others?

Teaching Suggestion: Lewis and George bond over their musical interests; this is one way in which the theme of The Unifying Nature and Healing Power of Music is apparent. Also, each chapter takes its title from a song by either the Beatles or Wings. Encouraging students to consider the role of music in their lives can prepare them to think critically about the role it plays in Gansworth’s novel. You can also build on this theme by creating a class playlist of songs important to students and/or those songs mentioned in the novel.

2. Have you ever read a book centered around an Indigenous character? If so, which book or books? If not, why do you think that might be?

Teaching Suggestion: Use this question to introduce or review terms like “Indigenous,” “Native peoples,” and “Native American” and to think about specific ways to avoid stereotypes and assumptions about Indigenous peoples.

• The Zinn Education Project offers resources for starting a conversation about Indigenous peoples’ history.
• The Los Angeles Public Library compiled a list of young adult titles with Indigenous protagonists.

Short Activity

A land acknowledgement can help current residents of a geographic area to understand the impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples, including the creation of the reservation system.

Briefly research information regarding Indigenous inhabitants for the region in which your school is located or for a nearby region. Use trustworthy sources and note any details you find regarding names of tribes or groups, history, and ramifications of colonization. Share your research with the class, considering and responding to these discussion points:

• How can groups honor the Native land they now use for living and working?
• Why is important that we acknowledge original inhabitants of a location?

Teaching Suggestion: This video on land acknowledgments might serve as a helpful connector between students’ research and thoughts. Preliminary research into the history of the area might help to guide students’ work. Racism Toward Native Americans is a pervasive theme in this novel, resulting partly from other students’ knowledge that Lewis lives on a reservation. Encourage students to think about the meaning of land; as time allows, students might plan a land acknowledgment and carry it out in the classroom. Later, recalling this activity while discussing the reservation setting in the novel can help students to think critically about what has been taken from Indigenous peoples. Ideas of resilience and notions of “survivance” connect as well.

• The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility offers several resources on creating a class land acknowledgement.
• This map created by Native Land Digital can help to determine Native groups in your area; it also might be helpful in learning which treaties contributed to their removal. 
• Survivance: Narratives of Native Presence is an anthology of scholarly work edited by Gerald Vizenor that discusses the idea and appearances of survivance in Indigenous literature and history.