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Teaching A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Command your inner Aunt Sissy.

  • Activities: 13
  • Quiz Questions: 121

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Why does this novel written the 1940s about life in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Williamsburg, Brooklyn capture so many people's undying devotion to this day?

Maybe it's something about Francie Nolan, the very un-Hannah Horvath Brooklyn protagonist. Francie's pretty cool, but not in a way that makes her popular. In fact, she's lonely most of the time, spending most of her time buying pickles for her family and hanging out at the Williamsburg library. Obviously, Shmoop relates—and her proud nerdiness is impressive since she's a young girl in a time when expectations for what girls achieve do were pretty low.

In addition to the compelling descriptions of old-timey NYC, your students might find it easy to relate to Francie as she goes through the difficulties of growing up with a mom who plays favorites and a dad who's never home. Let’s face it: growing up is filled with disappointments and uncertainties—peppered with awesome moments of excitement and thrills. This seems to be true for just about everybody, whether they grew up in 1913, 1963, or the 21st century. Your students may not be Brooklynites—but there's something about Betty Smith's book that everyone can relate to. And if your students can't…Shmoop's teaching guide is here.

In this guide, you'll find

  • steps for creating a digital presentation about Brooklyn back in the day, so students can draw comparisons between the book's setting and their own lives.
  • a scaffolded essay assignment about the novel's many themes and topics, like poverty, education, and adulthood.
  • cold, hard finance: an activity about differences in pay between men and women and the effects of inflation, minimum wages, and education.

Teaching students about Williamsburg may be so 2010, but don't worry—Betty Smith's not one to judge.

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 13 – 18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students
  • Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text
  • Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students
  • A note from Shmoop's teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles

Want more help teaching Teaching A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: In some ways a story is like a jigsaw puzzle. In the beginning, you only have an idea of what it's about. The more pieces you put together, the more the whole picture comes into view.

For our purposes, the small pieces of the puzzle are the sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, character and plot development, dialogue, imagery, and symbols in the novel. All of these parts work together to create larger chunks (a.k.a. themes) that flow through the story and help make the whole picture.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a dense story and has many, many themes running through it. After completing the novel, the students will choose one of these bad boys and explain (in essay form) how it weaves through the story.

Discuss themes in a general way and explain this assignment (Steps 1 to 3) before you start reading, even though your kids won't be working on the essay until they're finished reading. This way, your students can choose a topic and gather relevant info as they read. Once that's done, expect to use two days in class to arrange the info into a polished essay.

Materials Needed: Word processing software or Essay Lab, a copy of the text, and/or our handy summary page

Step 1: If you haven't already discussed themes in general as a class, now's the perfect time. Get goin':

  • What's a theme?
  • How do you figure out the theme of a story?
  • How do you find details to support your theme?

Step 2: Next you'll explain the activity, including the final due date. Stress the importance of gathering info (including page numbers) while your students are reading the novel, which is much easier than finishing the book and then having to go back to find pivotal scenes.

Step 3: Your students will choose one of these themes to focus on as they read:

  • Books
  • Choices
  • Growing up
  • Living in poverty
  • Mother/daughter relationships
  • Music
  • School and education

Step 4: As they read, the students should take notes on how their theme develops, using details from the story. These details can include sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, character and plot development, dialogue, imagery, and symbols. We're nice, so here's an example for each of the topics:

  • Books: "She wanted to shout it out. She could read! She could read! From that time on, the world was hers for the reading."
  • Choices: There's a description of the differences between Katie and Johnny, how they have similar circumstances but deal with them in different ways. Katie fights for things.
  • Growing up: Katie doesn't want to go with Neely and Francie to get their vaccinations. "Besides, she said to her conscience, it's a hard and bitter world. They've got to live in it. Let them get hardened young to take care of themselves."
  • Living in poverty: Francie is dirty when she gets her shot. The doctor talks about her being filthy in front of her and doesn't think she understands. Francie's ashamed.
  • Mother/daughter relationships: Katie "loved her little girl because she felt sorry for her. It was pity and obligation towards her that she felt rather than love…Francie felt the way her mother thought about her. She grew an answering hardness against her mother and this hardness…brought them a little closer together because it made them more alike."
  • Music: "There was a great golden glory lasting a half hour each week when Mr. Morton came to Francie's room to teach music…He taught them good music without letting them know it was good. He set his own words to the great classics and gave them simple names."
  • School and education: "School days were eagerly anticipated by Francie. She wanted all of the things that she thought came with school."

Step 5: After finishing the book, they'll gather all their info, sort it into relevant paragraphs, and put together a 500 word (or approximately two page) essay. Share these requirements with them:

  • Answer these questions:
    • What's the theme? (State it as a message.)
    • How does the theme play out?
  • Give examples of sentences, scenes, chapters, imagery, etc., that contribute to the theme. (This is half of the project.)
  • Explain why these things are relevant. (This is the other half of the project.)
  • Follow the five-paragraph structure.
  • Order your examples logically, i.e. sequentially or categorically.
  • Be sure to make reference to specific moments in the text.
  • Once you've got a good first draft, give it a good fixing (revising and editing) before completing your final draft.

Step 6: Once everyone's all finished with their essays, you might want to encourage a few students to share, and congratulate them all on tackling these big topics.

Instructions for Your Students

In some ways a story is like a jigsaw puzzle. In the beginning, you only have an idea of what it's about. The more pieces you put together, the more the whole picture comes into view.

For our purposes, the small pieces of the puzzle are the sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, character and plot development, dialogue, imagery, and symbols in the novel. All of these parts work together to create larger chunks (a.k.a. themes) that flow through the story and help make the whole picture.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a dense story and has many, many themes running through it. Now that you've finished the book, you'll choose one of these bad boys and explain (in essay form) how it weaves through the story.

Before you start reading you'll discuss themes in general and then choose a topic. While you're reading, you'll gather relevant info and, after reading, arrange it into a stupendous, polished essay.

Step 1: If you haven't already discussed themes in general as a class, now's the perfect time. Get goin':

  • What's a theme?
  • How do you figure out the theme of a story?
  • How do you find details to support your theme?

Step 2: Get the deets from your teacher on this activity, including the final due date. It's important to gather info (including page numbers) as you're reading, since that's way easier than finishing the book and then sifting through it again.

Step 3: Choose one of these themes to focus on as you read:

  • Books
  • Choices
  • Growing up
  • Living in poverty
  • Mother/daughter relationships
  • Music
  • School and education

Step 4: Take notes while you read on how your chosen theme develops using details from the story. These details can include sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, character and plot development, dialogue, imagery, and symbols. We're nice, so here's an example for each of the topics:

  • Books: "She wanted to shout it out. She could read! She could read! From that time on, the world was hers for the reading."
  • Choices: There's a description of the differences between Katie and Johnny, how they have similar circumstances but deal with them in different ways. Katie fights for things.
  • Growing up: Katie doesn't want to go with Neely and Francie to get their vaccinations. "Besides, she said to her conscience, it's a hard and bitter world. They've got to live in it. Let them get hardened young to take care of themselves."
  • Living in poverty: Francie is dirty when she gets her shot. The doctor talks about her being filthy in front of her and doesn't think she understands. Francie's ashamed.
  • Mother/daughter relationships: Katie "loved her little girl because she felt sorry for her. It was pity and obligation towards her that she felt rather than love…Francie felt the way her mother thought about her. She grew an answering hardness against her mother and this hardness…brought them a little closer together because it made them more alike."
  • Music: "There was a great golden glory lasting a half hour each week when Mr. Morton came to Francie's room to teach music…He taught them good music without letting them know it was good. He set his own words to the great classics and gave them simple names."
  • School and education: "School days were eagerly anticipated by Francie. She wanted all of the things that she thought came with school."

Step 5: After finishing the book, gather all your info, sort it into relevant paragraphs, and put together a 500 word (or about two page) essay. Here are the requirements your teacher's looking for:

  • Answer these questions:
    • What's the theme? (State it as a message.)
    • How does the theme play out?
      • Give examples of sentences, scenes, chapters, imagery, etc., that contribute to the theme. (This is half of the project.)
      • Explain why these things are relevant. (This is the other half of the project.)
  • Follow the five-paragraph structure.
  • Order your examples logically, i.e. sequentially or categorically.
  • Be sure to make reference to specific moments in the text.
  • Once you've got a good first draft, give it a good fixing (revising and editing) before completing your final draft.

Step 6: Once everyone's all finished with their essays, teach might want a few students to share. Either way, congrats on tackling these big topics.