A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, was the first novel I ever taught — way back in student teaching, and I’ve loved it ever since.
On one hand, its depiction of teenaged boys in a private boarding school just before World War II (based on Knowles’ own experience at the elite Phillips Exeter Academy) is so far-removed from most of my students’ lives that it may as well be science fiction. On a deeper level, however, these boys are not so different from my students today.
Knowles does a beautiful job of presenting a believable unreliable narrator, a boy locked so tightly within his own insecurities and guilt that he can’t give the key to the one person who desperately tries to get in. I’ve heard it said that you can’t love anyone until you love yourself. Gene can’t love anyone.
Available Teaching Materials
- Anticipation Guide – Word File
- Character Analysis – Word File
- Sample Reading Log – Word File
- Quiz #1 – chapters 1-3 – Word File (not available for download)
- Analysis worksheet – chapters 4-6 – Word File
Chart can be adjusted easily for any chapter(s). Asks for examples of setting (time), setting (place), indirect characterization, direct characterization, vivid language, foreshadowing, simile, metaphor, and alliteration.
- Quiz #2 – chapters 4-6 – Word File (not available for download)
- Quiz #3 – chapters 7-9 – Word File (not available for download)
- Analysis worksheet – chapters 1-9 – Word File
Chart can be adjusted easily for any chapter(s). Asks for examples of alliteration, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, metaphor, simile, rhetorical question, and verbal irony.
- Quiz #4 – chapters 10-11 – Word File (not available for download)
- Quiz #5 – chapters 12-13 – Word File (not available for download)
- Final Activity – Word File
- Test Study Guide – Word File
- Final Test – Word File (not available for download)
© 2008 – 2010 mrshawke-dot-com
Most of my teaching resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to ask me. :-)
Send me a message if you are a teacher who would like copies of my quizzes or tests. Please include the name of your school and/or district, your school e-mail address, and the title you are interested in. All secure materials are shared with the expectation that they will be kept secure and not redistributed or otherwise shared.
I would like copies of quizzes and tests.
Lisa: Those materials are on their way to your inbox!
I would love to see your test! If you would share, I’d be grateful! Thank you in advance.
i would like copies of tests and quizes. I teach at Immaculata High school
Irene
Please send your materials for teaching this unit. I teach high school English at a residential treatment facility. Thank you.
Hi! I teach 10th grade Honors at my school and would love to have a copy of your quizzes and tests for A Separate Peace. Thanks for sharing! Betty Fischer
Hi! I am teaching A Separate Peace for the first time in a while, and I’m looking for fresh ideas. I’d love to have a copy of your quizzes and tests! Thanks for posting your ideas!
I would appreciate the quizzes and tests for A Separate Peace! This is my first time teaching the book so I could use a little guidance for starters! Thanks.
I would love a copy of your Separate Peace Final Test! I need new ideas!
I would like to spice up my tests and quizzes. Can I please have a copy of your quizzes?
Hello. I would really appreciate a copy of your final test. Thanks for being so generous!
I would like to have copies of your quizzes and test for A Separate Peace. I just finished teaching the novel for the first time to my tenth graders. Some of them liked it and some didn’t. I really didn’t enjoy it all that much. It was the first time I had read it since my time in high school almost 30 years ago.
Please send me the unit quizzes and final test! I teach Juniors at Uvalde High School. Thanks!
I am currently student teaching. I will be teaching this to ninth graders, if you have any suggestions about teaching the novel, that would help me a great deal. Thank you
Best,
Ednalyn
Thanks for offering such a great resource! I’d like to request a file/copy of your chapter quizzes and final test (with answer keys if possible). :) I am teaching this unit with freshman at Mitchell High.
Thanks!
Heather
I’m teaching this text in my summer school course and would love to see a copy of your final test for, A Separate Peace. Thanks for sharing!