The Darkest Minds

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.

“Power Handbook”

In this activity, students will craft a handbook for positive ways to use the abilities the young people gain.

When young people begin developing powers, adults attempt to control them. Imagine if instead adults and societal institutions trusted and supported the young people with powers. Reflect on ways some characters try to help others with their powers in the story. Develop a handbook for ways in which young people might use their different powers for good.

• Re-read and take notes on specific powers people have in the novel.
• For each category of power (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Orange), brainstorm ways in which the children and teens could help people. Note attempts by characters to use their powers for the sake of others and in helpful situations.
• Design and create a handbook with one brief chapter for each power. Include the following:

o  A description of the power

o  Written explanation of multiple ways the power can help the world

o  Ideas for ways to practice and gain increased control over the powers

o  Visuals (include illustrations and symbols)

Share your handbook with a partner and consider one suggested piece of feedback. Display your completed handbook in class.

Write a journal entry about a way your handbook could help a character in the novel.

Teaching Suggestion: Ruby fears her powers and hides them throughout much of the novel. This activity provides a chance to imagine the powers as strengths instead of something to be feared. It might be beneficial for the class to review the different powers together with some close readings. It could also be helpful to discuss together some ways the abilities could help the world. Examining examples of short handbooks will guide students regarding format and layout. Another idea for a culminating activity could be a publishing party, at which students have a chance to read each other's projects and celebrate their hard work.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students for whom an interpersonal option would be beneficial might develop skits or tableaus together instead of two-dimensional visuals. Students with aphantasia might benefit from a list of visual symbols they can apply.

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. Black Betty is an important part of the plot of The Darkest Minds.

• What does Black Betty symbolize in the novel? (topic sentence)
• Consider at least 3 different characters’ reactions and emotions about Black Betty as you analyze and discuss the vehicle’s symbolism. Incorporate and cite quotations to build your ideas.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how Black Betty connects to a theme in the novel.

2. Consider the novel’s title, The Darkest Minds, and what characters this might apply to.

• To which character does the title most strongly allude? (topic sentence)
• As you explain your rationale for your topic sentence choice, include 3 or more quotations and other details to develop your analysis.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, articulate a lesson specific to the character you chose that the author builds for the reader.

Full Essay Assignments

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

1. Ruby and other characters experience terror and uncover buried truths almost daily. How are secrecy and fear connected in the novel? What deceptions impact the characters the most? How? When do characters keep something hidden because of fear? How do these examples of secrecy affect them? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, analyze the connection between fear and secrecy in the novel and what that connection reveals about one or more characters. Connect your analysis to the theme of Fear and Betrayal of the Young.

2. The characters have a complex relationship with memory. Does memory benefit or harm characters more? How does memory affect the choices Ruby makes? What memories seem most crucial for different characters? When does remembering the past bring danger or pain? Compose a 3- or 5-paragraph essay analyzing memory’s role in the novel and explaining if it brings more positives or negatives to the characters. Incorporate the theme of The Importance of Memory in your analysis.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. How do Ruby’s powers affect her relationships?

A) They help her make more friends quickly.

B) They cause her to feel superior, so she is unwilling to accept others.

C) They enthrall her, and she spends all her time trying to increase her powers.

D) They keep her distanced from others, unable to fully connect.

2. Which of the following best summarizes how adults in the novel treat children and teenagers?

A) Most adults are indifferent to the young characters, who must raise themselves.

B) Most adults try to help the younger characters, but Clancy uses them for his own gain.

C) Most adults harm young people and manipulate them for their own purposes.

D) Most adults are jealous of the youth but act underwhelmed and insulting.

3. What plot point best develops the theme of Fear and Betrayal of the Young?

A) Days at Camp Thurmond

B) Hearing music on the radio

C) Ruby erasing Sam’s memories

D) Finding East River

4. Why does Chubs want Ruby to leave their group?

A) Chubs resents sharing already limited supplies of food and water with Ruby.

B) Chubs likes Ruby but becomes defensive when she rejects him for Liam.

C) Chubs hopes to follow Ruby to the real location of the Children’s League.

D) Chubs is fiercely protective of Liam and Zu and thinks Ruby will bring additional danger.

5. Which of these ideas best summarizes what the Slip Kid symbolizes for Ruby?

A) Danger from the unknown

B) A chance at true family

C) Anger that she is not the leader

D) Hope that she can control her abilities

6. Which of the following is most like home to Ruby?

A) Black Betty

B) East River

C) School

D) The Children’s League

7. Which of the following values would Liam and Chubs most agree on?

A) Cleanliness

B) Loyalty

C) Leadership

D) Trusting others

8. What literary strategy is exemplified by the following quotation?

“Overhead, the emergency lights flicked on and off, buzzing like boxes of trapped flies.” (Chapter 14) 

A) Simile

B) Personification

C) Irony

D) Hyperbole

9. How does deciphering 540 as a radio station affect Ruby, Chubs, Liam, and Zu?

A) It reveals to the Children’s League where they are, so they are captured.

B) It causes a fight between Ruby and Chubs over their next steps, isolating Zu and Liam.

C) It finally helps them escape Thurmond, and they are able to get home.

D) It leads them to find the camp of other kids, which brings joy and then separation.

10. What is the result of Ruby erasing her parents’ memories of her?

A) They both abandon her, and she lives on her own in her home.

B) Ruby is able to re-start her relationship with them and build a stronger one.

C) They call the authorities, and she is sent to Thurmond.

D) Ruby and Zu leave to live with Ruby’s grandmother.

11. How are Ruby and Clancy different?

A) Ruby’s primary goal is running away from home, while Clancy remains at home with his father.

B) Ruby is compassionate and helps people, and Clancy is manipulative and harms people.

C) Ruby has Green Powers at first and later develops Red powers, while Clancy has Orange Powers.

D) Ruby only has one friend who trusts her, but Clancy is surrounded by true friends.

12. How does the Panic Button from the League both help and hurt the friends?

A) Ruby presses it to get help for Chubs when he is shot, but then she and Liam are captured.

B) Ruby uses it to distract Clancy and help the four friends escape, but it helps the League capture them.

C) Liam presses it, which helps the four friends get to their homes, but their homes are far from each other.

D) It represents hope for Ruby, but when she loses it and Chubs finds it, it tears the friends apart.

13. Which of the following best describes Zu?

A) Funny, spontaneous, wistful

B) Logical, unhappy, talkative

C) Kind, afraid, powerful

D) Malicious, scornful, isolated

14. What most accurately describes Ruby’s feelings at the end of the novel?

A) Torn, unhappy, angry

B) Relieved, calm, accepting

C) Hopeful, curious, excited

D) Agitated, grateful, apologetic

15. What is left undecided at the end of the novel?

A) Zu’s loyalty

B) Chubs’ survival

C) Where Ruby’s grandmother is living

D) Ruby’s feelings toward the League

Long Answer

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

1. How does Ruby’s relationship with her powers change over time?

2. Why does Ruby erase Liam’s memories of her?