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Reading schedule · Grades 9–12

Jane Eyre in 5 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A five-week plan for reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 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 9–12, in class or at home.

Pacing

Rhetoric-stage students (grades 9–12) can read a section a week independently, with time to annotate and to write. The questions suit seminar discussion or short written responses, and the escape room makes a quick check on the reading before the conversation or the essay. Some sections are much longer than others, so look ahead and give the heaviest weeks extra time.

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 Jane Eyre

Week 1: Chapters 1–10

Read: Chapters 1–10

Jane is unhappy as a child with the Reeds at Gateshead and is punished in the red-room. Mr Brocklehurst takes her to Lowood school, where she finds a friend in Helen Burns and a guide in Miss Temple; after the fever and the years that follow, she advertises for a post as a governess.

Discussion questions

1. How does Jane stand up for herself as a child?
2. What does Helen Burns teach Jane?
3. Why does Jane want to leave Lowood?

Escape room: The Charity School (lockedlessons.com/rooms/jane-eyre-chapters-1-10/)

Week 2: Chapters 11–20

Read: Chapters 11–20

Jane becomes governess to Adèle at Thornfield and meets its master, Mr Rochester, on an icy lane. She saves him from a fire in his bedroom, watches his house party with Blanche Ingram, is questioned by a gypsy fortune-teller, and helps on the night Mr Mason is hurt.

Discussion questions

1. What draws Jane and Rochester to each other?
2. What is the fortune-teller's visit really about?
3. What clues suggest that Thornfield hides a secret?

Escape room: The Third Storey (lockedlessons.com/rooms/jane-eyre-chapters-11-20/)

Week 3: Chapters 21–27

Read: Chapters 21–27

Jane returns to Gateshead, where the dying Mrs Reed makes a confession. Back at Thornfield Rochester proposes in the orchard, Jane's veil is torn in the night, the wedding in the church is stopped and the secret of the third storey revealed, and Jane leaves Thornfield.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Jane forgive Mrs Reed?
2. How does Rochester try to justify himself?
3. Why does Jane leave even though she loves him?

Escape room: The Torn Veil (lockedlessons.com/rooms/jane-eyre-chapters-21-27/)

Week 4: Chapters 28–35

Read: Chapters 28–35

Penniless, Jane wanders at Whitcross and is taken in at Moor House by St John Rivers and his sisters Diana and Mary. She teaches the village school at Morton, sees St John's feeling for Rosamond Oliver and hears of her inheritance; St John asks her to marry him, and she hears a voice in the night.

Discussion questions

1. How does Jane's new life compare with her life at Thornfield?
2. What does Jane do with her inheritance, and why?
3. Why does Jane not want to marry St John?

Escape room: Stranger at the Door (lockedlessons.com/rooms/jane-eyre-chapters-28-35/)

Week 5: Chapters 36–38

Read: Chapters 36–38

Jane returns to Thornfield, and the innkeeper tells her the story of the fire. She goes to Ferndean, finds Mr Rochester blind, and they marry; the last chapter tells what becomes of everyone.

Discussion questions

1. How have Jane and Rochester changed since they last met?
2. What do you make of the voice in the night?
3. Is this ending a reward for Jane, or a choice she makes?

Escape room: Out of the Ashes (lockedlessons.com/rooms/jane-eyre-chapters-36-38/)