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Teaching Where the Red Fern Grows

We're crying just thinking about teaching this book.

  • Activities: 13
  • Quiz Questions: 100

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We here at Shmoop can't read dog books (or see dog movies) without weeping uncontrollably. So while we occupy our days with re-watching Marley and Me and stopping before the ending, why not do something better with your time and teach the seminal YA classic Where the Red Fern Grows?

In this teacher guide, you'll find

  • engaging research where students compare the protagonist to the author—and themselves.
  • a breakdown of Ozark basics and lingo.
  • thematically-related nonfiction readings to supplement the novel.

One thing you won't find in the teacher guide? Old Dan and Little Ann. Because they're...

We'll let you figure it out for yourself.

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 Where the Red Fern Grows?

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



Instructions for You

Objective: Sometimes figuring out theme is relatively easy, but sometimes it's tricky to get to the heart of the piece. Either way, after the theme is figured out comes the fun part of proving it with literary evidence.

In this activity, students will discuss the themes from the book and figure out some literary proof to go along with them. Then each student will choose an article unrelated to Where the Red Fern Grows, figure out its themes, and relate it back to the book, too. Depending on how much you've already touched on themes, both in general and specifically related to this book, this will be a one to two day activity.

Materials Needed: Pens and paper for taking notes; copies of the text; computers and Internet (or print-outs of articles)

Step 1: Discuss (if you haven't already) the themes found in the story. Here are questions to direct the discussion:

  • What does theme mean? 
  • How do you figure out the theme in a story? 
  • Can there be more than one? 
  • What are the major (and minor) themes in the story? 
  • How do you know? How can you prove this with evidence from the story? 

Themes in Where the Red Fern Grows include:

  • Perseverance / persistence 
  • Coming of age
  • Loyalty
  • Family 
  • Poverty 
  • Religion 
  • Man vs. nature 
  • Education 
  • Women and femininity

Step 2: Now it's time for students to choose one of these articles to read and analyze:

Step 3: Once they've finished reading their articles, have kids write a short summary (not like this, though).

Step 4: Students need to figure out what the themes are in their article, writing down each one along with supporting evidence.

Step 5: Break the students into small groups based on the article they read (with like articles together), where they'll share their findings with their groups. Their discussions should include:

  • Summary of article
  • The theme(s)
  • Proof of the theme(s)
  • Common threads (themes, ideas, situations) between the article and Where the Red Fern Grows

Instructions for Your Students

Objective: Sometimes figuring out theme is relatively easy, but sometimes it's tricky to get to the heart of the piece. Either way, after the theme is figured out comes the fun part of proving it with literary evidence.

Today is the day to talk about themes in Where the Red Fern Grows and figure out some literary proof to go along with them. Then you'll choose an article unrelated to the book, figure out its themes, and relate it back to the book.

Step 1: Discuss the themes found in this story. Some things to think about are:

  • What does theme even mean? 
  • How do you figure out the theme in a story? 
  • Can there be more than one? 
  • What are the major (and minor) themes in the story? 
  • How do you know? How can you prove this with evidence from the story?

Step 2: Let's put Red Fern aside for a little bit and look at an unrelated article. Choose one of these to read and analyze:

Step 3: Once you've finished reading your article, bust out a short summary.

Step 4: Figure out what the themes are in the article, writing down each one along with supporting evidence.

Step 5: Find other people who read the same article as you and get into small groups for a conversation about the following info:

  • Summary of article (Did anyone say something you maybe should have included?)
  • The theme(s) (Did your group come up with similar ideas?)
  • Proof of the theme(s) 
  • Common threads (themes, ideas, situations) between the article and Where the Red Fern Grows