Finally, with its varied activities, A Companion Text for Kindred is meant to be used as an integrated reading-writing skills textbook. Freewriting asks students to practice their writing based on guided questions, or simply to freewrite on a topic for a short period of time. Summarizing teaches the students how to summarize short sections of the novel in their own words. Response Journals give the students a place in which to expand their contact with the novel by following specific guidelines based on specific passages in the novel. Topics for Discussion provide the students with an occasion to share their thoughts about the novel with their classmates.
Options contains a varied offering of activities from role playing to puzzles to library research.
While these seem at first to be valid topics, I would hope that by the fifth unit of their study of the novel, the students would be encouraged to comment on a somewhat more literary aspect of their reading. The unit continues with the Test Yourself section, in this case on the subject of generalizations and examples. True and false questions are included, as well as an exercise asking the students to complete the sentences with information from the story. This section ends with short answer questions. Other chapters use a variety of vocabulary exercises, including matching and asking the students to add to their personal vocabulary journal.