All the Broken Pieces

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 are the effects of guilt? What are some ways in which people may try to work through or cope with guilt? What might happen if a person tries to ignore or live with their guilt?

Teaching Suggestion: A central theme of the novel is Guilt, Forgiveness, and the Healing Power of Love; building additional knowledge about this topic can be beneficial for students. This topic might be difficult for some students if they carry their own guilt or know someone close to them who does; due to the sensitive nature of the question, a private, personal response may work best, such as a journal entry. While guilt is a common topic, studying the resources here can expand students’ understanding, especially of the scientific aspects of guilt.

• This article from Web MD explores guilt’s effects, how guilt can be harmful, and ways to approach guilt.
• This brief article discusses ways to overcome guilt.

Short Activity

One of the novel’s central themes is The Damaging Legacy of the Vietnam War. Choose one of the following topics to research. Compile notes on your topic to share.

• Causes of the Vietnam War
• How the war affected the Vietnamese people
• What life was like for American soldiers during and after the war
• Lasting effects of the war

Teaching Suggestion: Any reader who has been touched personally by war might need additional support throughout this novel. Background knowledge can guide students to more thorough understanding and analysis of the novel. Students might start their research by constructing guiding questions and investigating answers. The class might investigate these or similar resources before students begin independent research. Small groups might work together to break these large topics into sub-topics. Sharing or reflecting on what students learned and exploring additional questions can be accomplished in small-group or large-class discussions or journal entries. A connected activity is offered in the After Reading section. The sharing of information might be ongoing as the class reads the novel.

• This age-appropriate resource includes an article, images with captions, and a brief video about the Vietnam War.
• “PTSD and Vietnam Veterans: A Lasting Issue 40 Years Later” is a brief summary from the US Department of Veterans Affairs that defines PTSD and explains its occurrence in Vietnam veteran populations approximately 40 years after the war in a study 4 years after the publication of All the Broken Pieces. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing without additional guidance and context)
• This site from PBS offers numerous brief videos, overarching questions, and teaching suggestions. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing)

Differentiation Suggestion: Diverse learners might benefit from a large-group project, focusing on one or two main sections from these resources, on which the class takes notes together. Viewing select images with captions, which both resources here offer, can be a way to begin to study this large topic. Students might list details that stand out to them in the photograph and identify connections between details from two or more images.

Personal Connection Prompt

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

What activities are healing for you? What do you do that brings you joy, peace, or contentment? Why do you think these activities affect you this way?

Teaching Suggestion: Matt finds some healing in playing the piano and playing baseball. As students reflect on this topic, prompting them to discuss specific aspects of activities they enjoy and explain why they enjoy each might guide students to increased specificity and clarity in their writing. It might be helpful to share an activity you find joyous or healing, articulating the specific reasons and providing students with an example for this large, abstract topic.