The Wild Robot

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. Why is it important to acknowledge and celebrate differences in individuals? How might differences be connected to an individual’s need to belong?

Teaching Suggestion: Roz, the protagonist of the novel, is a robot that becomes a castaway on an island without humans. The robot struggles to make friends with the animals on the island because they perceive her as a monster. This perception is further exacerbated when Roz accidentally kills a family of geese. Students may be coached toward discussing individual differences in a general way and analyzing why it is important to acknowledge and celebrate differences in one another with examples from history and current events. These and similar resources may offer additional context on the importance of differences and how they may be connected to an individual’s sense of belonging.

• This 6-minute video explores the definition of diversity through the eyes of teens.
• This article explores the importance of belonging to a community.

Differentiation Suggestion: To engage visual learners, it could be helpful to have students construct a self-portrait where they engage in their interests. Students can use this activity to further explore the idea that all individuals have differences, and they contribute to diversity in a variety of ways. To engage kinesthetic learners, it could be helpful to play a game called “4 Corners” where students respond to questions like “What is your favorite sport? How many siblings do you have?” by moving to a particular corner of the room. 

Short Activity

Explore the importance of friendships and family by playing “How many can you name?” In this activity, you will list as many items as you can within a given time limit. Begin by listing the benefits of relationships with family and friends on a piece of paper after the timer starts. After the timer ends, take turns sharing items on your list.

Teaching Suggestion: Initially Roz, the wild robot, is isolated on the island because the other creatures believe she is a monster. As Roz learns about the animals and begins to understand the island better, the animals learn to accept Roz as one of their own. Consider discussing the benefits of friends and family by using the above game. One way to conduct this activity is to pair students for the game and encourage them to take turns listing the benefits of friends and family on one piece of paper. This will provide students with a little extra time to think of creative answers to the question. Optionally, half the students might focus on family while the other half focuses on friends. Consider discussing answers with students as a whole group after the activity.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who require an additional analysis challenge might chart the student responses to analyze the overlapping ideas of the benefits of friends and family. This chart can be referred to as students analyze the text and examine the concept of friends and family as Roz develops her relationships. Students may wish to chart themes of the benefits Roz and the animals derive from friends and family.

For students who benefit from strategies that promote independent thinking, it might be helpful to generate a few benefits as a whole class before starting the timer. 

Personal Connection Prompt

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

What emotions do you think are associated with isolation? How might communities and individuals work together to be more inclusive?

Teaching Suggestion: To encourage deeper understanding, it might be helpful to ask if anyone has moved to a new school and had to make new friends. Ideally, this will help students understand how common (but hard) isolation is. Roz’s differences and her accidents on the island socially isolate her from the animals who live in the island community.