The Sign of the Beaver

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. Life for American colonists in Maine in 1768 was dangerous. Consider the differences between your daily life and what life was like for early American settlers living on the frontier. What modern conveniences do you have that the settlers did not?

Teaching Suggestion: Settlers had their own ideas about how to best live in the Maine woods and, like Matt, often learned that they were unprepared to survive there. Students may benefit from a discussion about how they might feel in the wilderness without the tools they’re used to.

• “Daily Life on the Frontier”  is a student-accessible short article about the hardships and dangers of frontier life. This overview describes the basic problems faced by all settlers between the 1600s and late 1800s, as tools and technologies only marginally improved. This article relates to the theme of Overcoming the Dangers of the Forest.
• “Peopling Maine” offers a short overview of European colonists and their motives. Derived from a longer article about the history of Maine—a project of the Maine Historical Society—the page also mentions the competition between French and English for control of Maine’s territory.

2. Many are familiar with images of the so-called “Wild West” from movies and books. Indigenous groups, however, lived all over the vast region that became the US. The novel’s protagonist meets members of the Penobscot group of central Maine. What do you know about Indigenous groups of New England? What do you think their lifestyle might have been like in 1768?

Teaching Suggestion: The Penobscot people live a life of hunting-gathering and agriculture. Unlike the potentially better-known Plains groups familiar to many through often-romanticized Western books and movies, the Penobscot and other Wabanaki groups spoke a different language, walked or used canoes, and built fortified villages. It can be worthwhile to discuss the similarities and differences between the Lakota, Comanche, and other groups often depicted in certain genres of storytelling and the Indigenous groups of New England.

• “Penobscot Nation, penawahpkekeyak” provides information on the history and culture of the Penobscot people of Maine.
• “History,” produced by the Maine State Government, is a brief timeline that mentions the Indigenous people of Maine, early European attempts to colonize the region, and local warfare. Intended for student use, the material has a reading level suitable for middle-grade students.

Personal Connection Prompt

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

In order to survive, the protagonist of the novel, 12-year-old Matt Hallowell, must act courageously. Describe a time in your own life when you wanted to run away from something or give up but did not. How did you feel about yourself afterward?

Teaching Suggestion: Matt’s courage and determination prove critical to his survival and successful encounters with the Beaver clan. It may be useful for students to reflect on and discuss their responses to develop pre-reading empathy for Matt’s predicament. His actions fit the book’s theme of Dealing with the Dangers of the Forest.

• “Defining Courage” is a teacher resource on the psychology of courageous thought and behavior produced by the University of Pennsylvania. This article offers talking points on types of fear and courage, and how to reinforce courage.
• “How to Find and Practice Courage” from the Harvard Business Review describes the elements of courage and suggests several ways to enhance it.

Differentiation Suggestion: Advanced learners might instead research and share information about a historical figure who befits Matt’s scenario. Students interested in depicting a moment from their life with captions instead of penning or discussing it aloud can draw their scenario in the form of a sketch or comic.