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 kinds of secrets do people tend to keep? In what circumstances might someone be obligated to share a secret? Under what circumstances should someone report another person’s secret to an authority figure?

Teaching Suggestion: Beartown deals strongly with ideas related to secrets and obligation. It may be a helpful activity to start by having a whole-group discussion about the types of secrets people may have in general and why people are driven to keep such secrets. While students should be discouraged from sharing secrets themselves, it is helpful for them to start thinking about the different types of secrets. This conversation may create the opportunity to discuss thematic ideas related to Secrets and Shame as well as Grief.

• This “Secret” dictionary definition comes from the Cambridge Dictionary. It may be useful to look at the different definitions of secret and speculate if any of the students’ answers change based on the definitions.
• “What Does a Mandated Reporter Have to Report?” is an article from the Mandated Reporter.