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Reading schedule · Grades 6–9

The Call of the Wild in 4 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A four-week plan for reading The Call of the Wild by Jack London, one section a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 6–9, in class or at home.

Pacing

Logic-stage readers (grades 6–9) can usually manage a section a week on their own, reading a few chapters most days. Use the questions to move from what happened to why it happened: motives, causes and consequences. A long section can take two weeks without spoiling the plan.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on The Call of the Wild

Week 1: Chapters 1–2

Read: Chapters 1–2

Buck lives an easy life on a great estate in the Santa Clara Valley until the gardener Manuel sells him. Beaten into obedience by the man in the red sweater, he is taken north to work as a sled dog for Perrault and François, sees Curly killed and learns the hard lessons of the snow and the harness.

Discussion questions

1. What is the first lesson the man in the red sweater teaches Buck?
2. What does Curly's death teach Buck about his new world?
3. How does Buck adapt to life in the snow?

Escape room: Stolen from the South (lockedlessons.com/rooms/call-of-the-wild-chapters-1-2/)

Week 2: Chapter 3

Read: Chapter 3

Buck grows stronger and more cunning, and his rivalry with the lead dog Spitz builds from the night Spitz steals his sleeping-place at Lake Le Barge. Starving huskies raid the camp, the team makes a hard run along the frozen Yukon, Buck quietly undermines Spitz, and after a moonlit chase the two fight their last fight.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Buck want to defeat Spitz?
2. How does Buck use cunning as well as strength?
3. What has awakened in Buck by the end of the chapter?

Escape room: The Rising Rival (lockedlessons.com/rooms/call-of-the-wild-chapter-3/)

Week 3: Chapters 4–5

Read: Chapters 4–5

Buck wins the lead and the team makes a record run before Perrault and François are called away. On the weary mail trail the sick dog Dave insists on staying in harness to the end, Buck dreams of a hairy man by a fire, and the team is sold to Hal, Charles and Mercedes, whose sorry journey ends at the mouth of the White River.

Discussion questions

1. What mistakes do Hal, Charles and Mercedes make?
2. What do Buck's dreams of the hairy man suggest?
3. Why does Dave want to stay in harness?

Escape room: Masters of the Trail (lockedlessons.com/rooms/call-of-the-wild-chapters-4-5/)

Week 4: Chapters 6–7

Read: Chapters 6–7

Buck comes to love John Thornton, rescues him from the rapids and wins a famous wager by pulling a sled loaded with a thousand pounds of flour. On a search for a lost mine he runs with a wild wolf brother, and after a raid on the camp he answers the call of the wild.

Discussion questions

1. How is Buck's love for Thornton different from his loyalty to other masters?
2. Why does Thornton make the wager?
3. Is Buck's final choice a happy ending?

Escape room: Love and the Wild (lockedlessons.com/rooms/call-of-the-wild-chapters-6-7/)