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 was life like in Paris in the 19th century?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may want to brainstorm and share what they know about the period from history and/or geography classes, television, film, and/or books before they conduct individual or small group background research. The resources below could be an effective starting point for that research; they provide photographs and information about social classes to bolster students’ understanding of the story’s historical context. Students could list details they notice and group them into categories to make inferences about the period. If the photographs are printed, students could sort them and then label the categories they identify. To help students visualize as they read the final scene of the story, they might review key phrases from the New York Times article or a similar resource.

• This webpage from San Jose State University details Parisian social classes in the 19th century.
• This brief NPR article and collection of images discusses the changes Paris underwent in the 19th century to modernize the city.