Song for a Whale

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. What methods and strategies do individuals use to build relationships and connections with one another? What obstacles might prevent individuals from building close relationships?

Teaching Suggestion: These opening questions on interpersonal relationships might be helpful in introducing the overlying situations and conflicts in the novel. Iris is a person who is Deaf but attends a hearing school where students and teachers do not understand the way she communicates. Iris’s frustrations at school are exacerbated when a student who knows very little sign language pretends to know more than she does. Iris feels increasingly isolated from her teachers and peers because she is unable to communicate with them. Consider discussing the role of communication in building relationships and how people in the Deaf community may communicate differently than those in the hearing community. Students might extend the discussion to include other situations in which differences in communication might pose problems. These and similar resources might offer ideas and language for discussing the value of friendship and healthy communication.

• This 12-minute video suggests how individuals can make friends and foster friendships. (For a shorter selection, view until around the 3-minute mark.)
• This article describes the importance of friendships in relation to health.

2. What might be some obstacles to communication? What are some of the important purposes clear communication serves? What emotions might someone who has difficulty communicating feel?

Teaching Suggestion: Iris’s greatest obstacle to overcome within her school, family, and peer group is communication. Iris feels comfortable communicating with her grandma and her friend Wendell, but she has difficulty communicating with others. This lack of communication all around her causes her to feel frustrated and isolated. Students might first discuss in general terms the importance of effective communication and the kinds of barriers that may create miscommunication, then focus on more concrete examples in a private written response. These and similar resources offer terminology and strategies you might introduce as pre-reading topics.

• This 6-minute video explores the importance of communication and how to communicate effectively.
• This 5-minute video describes some obstacles to communication and how those obstacles can be overcome.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Describe a time when you felt isolated from family or peers. What was the experience like for you? How did isolation impact your mood and behavior? Did you find any strategies to help you cope with your situation? What advice would you offer to those who feel isolated?

Teaching Suggestion: Iris’s lack of effective communication causes her to feel increasingly isolated from the people around her. When one of her teachers talks about Blue 55, a whale that has a frequency too high for him to effectively communicate with other whales, she develops a plan to travel to Alaska to communicate with the whale. After journaling or reflecting independently, students might brainstorm in small groups ways in which isolation impacts emotion and behavior.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who require an additional challenge may find it beneficial to research the effects of social isolation on individuals and the steps that can be taken to improve feelings of isolation. Students may wish to share their findings with peers by creating a library of resources on the topic and summarizing their findings. Later, students might return to the topic of isolation as it surfaces in the novel.