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 do you know about chronic illness? About ALS?

Teaching Suggestion: Reading about Morrie Schwartz can be really emotional, and students may not understand the long-term effects of illness. Alternatively, students may be intimately familiar with long-term illness because of a family member or friend. Let students know that talking about death and illness can be hard and that they can step out if needed.

• “What ALS Is” is a resource from the ALS foundation describing the disease and its effects.

2. What works have you read about people’s lives?

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to understand that Morrie Schwartz was a real person and that this is a really personal narrative about him and Mitch Albom, the author.

• “35 Memoirs Everyone Should Read” offers a list of stories about people’s lives that students may be familiar with.
• “Memoir vs. Biography/What is the Difference” explains the difference between the two genres of life writing.

Personal Connection Prompt

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