Project Ideas & Discussion Topics

Project Ideas & Activities

Have the students create scrapbooks. (Possible themes: the self, current events; particular place, person, or time.)

Montgomery kept a journal from age 9 until shortly before her death and Emily Starr from Emily of New Mooon keeps a diary. Read a few entries by Maud and/or Emily and discuss the kinds of things recorded in them. Have the students keep their own journal for a month.

Read some of Montgomery's short stories aloud and discuss them.

Choose a novel by L.M. Montgomery. Read a chapter aloud each week with your class.

Montgomery corresponded with many people through letters and her characers often write to friends to keep in touch. Have students practice writing letters to friends and family members to tell them about the things going on in thier lives. How are letters different from e-mail that we use today?

Try some descriptive writing activities. Montgomery was a very shrewd observer and her works are filled with detailed descriptions of people, places, and things. Find some interesting descriptions in her books and then have the students create a descriptive writing of their own.

"Story Club" was a game played by Anne and her friends in Anne of Green Gables. Have groups of students create a story together with each participant contributing a line in turn.

Montgomery signed her name with a little drawing of a cat as it was her favourite animal. Have the students create their own "signatures" to represent themselves.

Try boosting students' vocabulary by keeping track of "Marmalade words." Both Montgomery and her characters seem to have a love of important-sounding words and many words common in Montgomery's day are uncommon now. Have the students collect unfamiliar words and look up their meanings in a dictionary. Try to use the new words in sentences or word games.

Montgomery worked as a journalist for a while and the children in the book called The Story Girl have their own newspaper. Have students write newspaper articles about their classroom activities or local events.

The Story Girl is famous for her stories about where things came from or why they are as they are. Read one of her "fables" and see if the students can create their own stories to explain thier favorite things or events.

Learn the words to "The Island Hymn"! Montgomery wrote the words to this patriotic song in 1907.

Anne's worlds in Avonlea is an imaginary one. Collect descriptions of people, places, and things in the story and have the class create thier own map of the fictional village.

Discussion Topics

Compare Montgomery with Anne Shirley and/or Emily Starr. What similarities/differences are there between them?

Rilla of Ingleside discusses the way of life in Canada during the First World War. Compare the characters' attitudes towards the war with current opinions about world conflict.

In The Blue Castle, Valancy decides to take control of her life and changes from what her family and friends see as a "good girl" into a "bad girl." What do their opinions say about what was expected of a Victorian lady?

After reading some of Montgomery's journals, discuss the kinds of things expected of a woman of Montgomery's time. How was she typical of a woman of her day? How was she different?

Family names are important in Montgomery's works (especially in the book Emily of New Moon); people in the story are often characterized by their surnames. For example, Emily is "proud" since she is a "Murray" but too dreamy and that is because she is also a "Starr". Why do you think this is so? Do you think you could characterize your family members in the same sort of way?

In her works of fiction, Montgomery combined real places with places that she imagined. You may recall that in Anne of Green Gables, Anne comes to live in the fictional village of Avonlea but she also visits the real Charlottetown. In some cases, she based imaginary places on real ones (Example: Hunter River is known as Bright River in the book). Find out which settings in the book correspond to real Island towns. Create a map of Anne's world using the names of the places mentioned in the story.

Montgomery's books have been translated into dozens of languages and are read by children and adults from around the world. Why do you think that they are still so popular?

In Rilla of Ingleside the women in the story are all involved in the war effort, often through their participation in groups such as the Red Cross. Do some research into the activities that women of Prince Edward Island participated in to assist during WWI. Did the same things take place during WWII?

In Anne of Green Gables many things are expected of Anne. What sort of chores and activities was she expected to do? Are those same activities expected of today's children?

Anne of Green Gables is considered a "classic". Many people believe that the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling will one day be classics too. What similarities can you find between the two books? What differences are there?

Anne Shirley has long been promoted as a distinctly "Canadian heroine". Do you think this is true? What traits of Anne's would you consider to be "Canadian"?

For some reason, L.M. Montgomery is often confused with Anne Shirley. Why do you think this has happened?

During World War I, Canadian families were expected to do many things in support of the war effort. What things does the Blythe family do in Rilla of Ingleside? How would the changes affect the household?

In Rilla of Ingleside each character seems to have a different opinion about the war. Do people still display those same attitudes now when it comes to world conflict? How would you feel if you were living at the time of WWI? Which character would best represent you?

Read the sections in The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery Volume II that deal with WWI. Would you say she is supportive of the war or not? In your opinion, which character(s) in Rilla represent Montgomery's beliefs?