Dawn

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Awakening Training Manual”

In this activity, students will design a manual for Awakening and training the second group of humans to return to Earth.

Despite Lilith’s protests, the Oankali put Lilith in charge of Awakening and training a group of humans for return to Earth. In this activity, you will design a manual for training the next group. As you develop your ideas, reflect on the following questions:

• How would you replicate what went well?
• What might you try differently and why?
• What additional ideas would you incorporate?
• What problems arose, and how would you avoid them?
• What steps should the next group take?
• What advice, warnings, or lessons would you include?

In small groups, share and read each other’s manuals. Discuss commonalities, connections, observations, and differences as you evaluate the effectiveness of each approach.

Teaching Suggestion: At the beginning of this activity, it may help to discuss Lilith’s voice as a class to help students with the writing style: Rereading sections and explaining how techniques like included details, sentence structure, and word choice help build her voice would provide students with tools to use in their project. Also, it could help to conduct a close-read of scenes in the last section of the novel, followed by a class discussion about the aspects of the process to keep in the next session and why. Sharing in a gallery walk would be another way to approach the presentations, while an additional reflection opportunity could be to journal about how this manual should help Lilith with the next group of humans.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Lilith reacts strongly to Jdahya, and some Oankali react negatively to Lilith.

• What message is the novel building about the theme of Otherness? (topic sentence)
• Incorporate at least three quotations or specific details from scenes that depict strong reactions to the differences between Oankali and humans, and explain your reasoning as you develop your ideas.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, discuss the significance of Otherness in the novel, and reflect on a lesson readers can learn about this theme.

2. When Jdahya explains that the Oankali plan for Lilith to train humans to return to Earth, she argues that she is not the right person for the job, but she ultimately rises to the challenge.

• How strong of a leader is Lilith? (topic sentence)
• Include specific details or quotations from at least three scenes that depict Lilith’s leadership skills. Explain your reasoning as you build your evaluation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, reflect on Lilith’s greatest strength as a leader and discuss why it is important.

3. Throughout the novel, the humans have varying levels of freedom.

• What does the novel say about the importance of Freedom for human beings? (topic sentence)
• Incorporate at least three details or quotations that show how different characters respond to their level of freedom to strengthen your ideas. Explain your reasoning carefully in relation to your claim.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, express at least one harm that comes as a result from a person losing freedom.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. Closely examine the last chapter. How hopeful is the ending of the novel? What does Nikanj reveal to Lilith, and how does Lilith react? When thinking about the next group of humans to Awaken, what does Lilith imagine for them? What does she want to teach them? As you build your essay, include at least three quotations from the novel that help prove your points and explain how each adds depth to your argument. Cite your quotations with page numbers.

2. Reflect on Lilith’s reasoning as she decides who to Awaken and in what order. What does her process reveal about human beings? Whom does she Awaken first and why? What are her reasons for her choices? Why does she start with just one person, and then begin Awakening larger numbers of people at once? As you write your essay, incorporate three or more specific details from the novel that strengthen your arguments. Cite your evidence with page numbers.

3. Consider the significance of the titles of the four parts: “Womb,” “Family,” “Nursery,” and “The Training Floor.” How are the titles symbolic? How does Lilith’s character grow throughout the different parts? What remains similar in all four sections, and how does the final part reveal that the story is not finished? As you compose your essay, incorporate at least three quotations from the novel that strengthen your points of discussion. Cite your quotations with page numbers.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. How does Lilith first react to Jdahya?

A) With joy and hesitation

B) With fear and revulsion

C) With silence and fury

D) With curiosity and acceptance

2. Which of the following best describes Nikanj?

A) Harsh, condescending, unhappy, selfish

B) Unsure, humorous, light-hearted, quiet

C) Sharp, certain, utilitarian, stand-offish

D) Wise, hopeful, patient, insistent

3. What is the Oankali’s motivation for helping humans and Earth?

A) The need to interbreed and evolve as a species, and an interest in humans

B) Selfless desire to help all species, in accordance with the Oankali laws

C) An order from the intergalactic court that they must help or lose their planet

D) A past encounter over a thousand years ago, where humans helped the Oankali

4. Which statement best describes the expectations the Oankali have for Lilith?

A) To stay in suspended sleep indefinitely as they harvest her DNA

B) To train the first group of humans to survive returning to Earth

C) To teach the Oankali about human ways to strengthen their society

D) To teach Nikanj to read and write faster than they can

5. Which of the following reveals that Lilith is developing a connection to the Oankali?

A) She can no longer sleep unless near an Oankali.

B) She agrees to help Nikanj and travel to her new home with it.

C) She asks that her new home be next to Jdahya.

D) She refuses to speak to humans and only communicates with Oankali.

6. What best explains Lilith’s goal in returning to Earth?

A) To return to her husband and son

B) To attend the university again to study anthropology

C) To find a way to run and help people continue to be human

D) To teach others to cure cancer as she has been cured

7. Which literary strategy does the following quote incorporate? “The training room was brown and green and blue. Brown, muddy ground was visible through thin, scarred leaf litter. Brown, muddy water flowed past the land, glittering in the light of what seemed to be the sun. The water was too laden with sediment to appear blue, though above it, the ceiling—the sky—was a deep, intense blue.” (Part 4, Chapter 1)

A) Metaphor

B) Alliteration

C) Imagery

D) Hyperbole

8. Why does Lilith Awaken Tate first?

A) Lilith feels Tate will be strong and an ally, and will help with the next people Awakening.

B) Tate is already beginning to stir, and Lilith wants to be in control of when she Awakens.

C) Lilith hopes to befriend Tate, because she reminds her of her best friend before the war.

D) Tate is Lilith’s cousin, and she feels loyal to her from their time growing up on Earth.

9. How does Lilith feel about Joseph?

A) She dislikes Joseph but accepts responsibility for him.

B) She believes Joseph is plotting against her and is wary of him.

C) She is amused by Joseph and views him as an ally.

D) She loves and respects Joseph and feels protective of him.

10. Which of the following best describes Nikanj’s response when Joseph is murdered and Lilith asks who hurt him?

A) Nikanj scoffs and condescendingly withholds the information.

B) Nikanj blames Tate and vows revenge at the first opportunity.

C) Nikanj shrugs sadly and reveals the ooloi does not know.

D) Nikanj feels responsible even though it did not physically kill him.

11. Why does Lilith want to stay on the training floor at the end of the novel?

A) It is the closest environment to Earth she can get to.

B) It is warmer than the rest of the ship, and Lilith misses summer.

C) It is farthest away from where Curt attacked her.

D) It allows her to avoid other human beings.

12. What does the word choice in the novel’s final sentence reveal about Lilith? “She let Nikanj lead her into the dark forest and to one of the concealed dry exits.” (Part 4, Chapter 9)

A) Lilith despises Nikanj and plots to take over the forest as soon as possible.

B) Lilith can no longer survive water and needs Nikanj’s direction to find safety.

C) Lilith is cooperating but not wholly giving herself to the plans of the Oankali.

D) Lilith only follows Nikanj due to her fear of the dark and the dangers of the forest.

13. How does Lilith’s scar symbolize her loss of Freedom?

A) It is across her heart and represents her inability to choose who and what to love.

B) It reminds her that she had no say in the operation, so she cannot trust the explanation.

C) Its depth shows strength of the Oankali during the altercation, which she could not stop.

D) It is the same size and shape as the key that locked her in the room, away from humans.

14. Which of the following is the strongest example of the theme of Othering?

A) Some of the people Lilith Awakens asking if she is human

B) Nikanj and Kahguyaht arguing with each other

C) Tate telling Lilith to wake up people more quickly

D) Lilith helping save Nikanj when the ooloi gets injured

15. What is the correct order of events?

A) Lilith meets Jdahya; Lilith decides to awaken Tate first; Lilith learns she is pregnant with Joseph’s daughter; humans destroy the Earth in war.

B) Lilith decides to awaken Tate first; Lilith learns she is pregnant with Joseph’s daughter; humans destroy the Earth in war; Lilith meets Jdahya.

C) Lilith learns she is pregnant with Joseph’s daughter; humans destroy the Earth in war; Lilith meets Jdahya; Lilith decides to awaken Tate first.

D) Humans destroy the Earth in war; Lilith meets Jdahya; Lilith decides to awaken Tate first; Lilith learns she is pregnant with Joseph’s daughter.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. What does the title of the first part, “Womb,” symbolize?

2. Why does Nikanj believe Lilith would have died if she had returned to Earth with the first group of humans?