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. Describe the ways in which individuals and society as a whole responded when the COVID-19 pandemic started. How did everyone attempt to “flatten the curve?” How were individuals’ day-to-day lives affected? How did people cope with these changes?

Teaching Suggestion: This question can pique students’ interest in the novel by prompting them to make connections between the plot and their prior knowledge of a catastrophic event. Consider sharing information or ideas based on one or both of the videos below to help students move the discussion into a more significant doomsday scenario like the one in the novel. To take it a step further, you can ask students to brainstorm what knowledge, skills, and supplies might be necessary for Survival. This can be accomplished through a class discussion or collaborative list making. For example, you could post big pieces of butcher paper around the room with “knowledge,” “skill,” and “supplies” written in large letters and have the students circulate around and add any ideas they think of that are not already there.