Home › Reading schedules › Robinson Crusoe

Reading schedule · Grades 6–9

Robinson Crusoe in 5 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A five-week plan for reading Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 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 Robinson Crusoe

Week 1: The Early Voyages

Read: The Early Voyages

Against his father's warning, Robinson Crusoe goes to sea from Hull and is caught in storms off Yarmouth. Captured by pirates from Sallee, he escapes with the boy Xury, is rescued by a Portuguese captain and sets up a plantation in Brazil, but a later voyage ends in shipwreck.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Crusoe ignore his father's advice?
2. How does Crusoe treat Xury, and what does that tell us?
3. Why does he leave a successful plantation?

Escape room: Against His Father (lockedlessons.com/rooms/robinson-crusoe-the-early-voyages/)

Week 2: The First Year

Read: The First Year

Alone on the island, Crusoe spends his first night in a tree, then makes raft trips to the wreck for supplies. He builds a tent behind a wall of stakes, keeps count of the days on a post, writes a journal, lives through an earthquake, finds barley springing up and, during a fever, turns to the Bible.

Discussion questions

1. Which supplies from the wreck matter most?
2. Why does Crusoe keep a journal and count the days?
3. How does the fever change him?

Escape room: Raft and Palisade (lockedlessons.com/rooms/robinson-crusoe-the-first-year/)

Week 3: The Island Years

Read: The Island Years

Crusoe crosses the island, finds a valley of grapes and builds a bower there, teaches a parrot to speak and learns to make pots, baskets and bread. He builds a great canoe that he cannot launch, is carried off by a current in a smaller boat, tames goats and makes clothes from their skins.

Discussion questions

1. What mistakes does Crusoe learn from?
2. How does he make the island feel like home?
3. Is Crusoe happy on the island?

Escape room: King of the Island (lockedlessons.com/rooms/robinson-crusoe-the-island-years/)

Week 4: The Footprint and Friday

Read: The Footprint and Friday

Crusoe finds a footprint on the shore and lives for years in fear, finding signs of visitors and hiding in a cave. He visits a Spanish wreck, has a dream, then rescues Friday and begins to teach him.

Discussion questions

1. Why does one footprint frighten Crusoe so much?
2. What does his relationship with Friday show about him?
3. How does Friday change Crusoe's life on the island?

Escape room: A Print in the Sand (lockedlessons.com/rooms/robinson-crusoe-the-footprint-and-friday/)

Week 5: Rescue and Return

Read: Rescue and Return

Crusoe and Friday rescue a Spaniard and Friday's father, and an English ship arrives whose crew have mutinied. They retake the ship, Crusoe leaves the island at last, claims his fortune from Brazil and makes a journey over the mountains with Friday.

Discussion questions

1. How does Crusoe help to retake the ship?
2. What has Crusoe learned in his years on the island?
3. Why does the book not end as soon as he leaves the island?

Escape room: The Long Way Home (lockedlessons.com/rooms/robinson-crusoe-rescue-and-return/)