Winter's Bone

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. How does poverty become a cyclical problem that affects families for generations?

Teaching Suggestion: The main characters experience poverty that spans generations. Students might start with a journal exploring what they know about poverty. Then, the class could study these resources. Reading them in the order listed here would start with a focus on rural America and expand the focus to how this topic applies to the larger world. Analyzing the visuals in the Institute for Research on Poverty’s site can be an entry point. After reading, students might add to their journals or discuss key ideas. If time allows, this topic could expand to a research project.

• This resource from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty includes graphs and other images as well as written analysis of poverty in rural America.
• “Report: Rural Poverty In America Is ‘An Emergency’” from NPR explains how the United States compares to other countries based on child poverty and focuses on an analysis of rural poverty.
• “Why So Much of the World is Stuck in a ‘Poverty Trap’” from Science.org explores how poverty can be challenging to escape.  

2. What are methamphetamines, and what are the dangers of “cooking” meth?  

Teaching Suggestion: Methamphetamine, or meth, is a highly addictive and dangerous stimulant that often causes the death of its user. Meth users tend to “binge” for several days trying to maintain their short-lived highs. Ree’s father and other relatives are involved in the dangerous process of cooking meth. Teardrop, for example, has scars from an explosion and spent time in jail. Learning about this drug can help students more fully understand the dilemmas facing some characters. This topic also lends itself to further research if time permits.

• With “Know the Risks of Meth,” the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration presents both short- and long-term effects of methamphetamine and links to additional resources.
• This site from the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains how methamphetamine affects a person’s body and brain.

Personal Connection Prompt

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

Reflect on what is most important to you. What rules do you live your life by?

Teaching Suggestion: Ree reflects multiple times on the rules her family lives by and how they affect their lives. Students might start by listing things important to them and extrapolate to fundamental rules that guide their choices. This might be a very personal prompt and not shared. To bridge a discussion, there might be ideas posted around the room, which students could read; they then could choose one they most resonate with and stand by it.

Differentiation Suggestion: This question lends itself to options for students with special talents and learning styles to participate in ways that most connect to them. Students might put their response in a song, skit, painting, poster, poem, graph, or other form.