When You Trap a Tiger

Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY: Adding to the Stories within the Story

In this activity, analyze the connections between the stories Halmoni, Lily, and the tiger tell and the framing plot of the novel. Then create another story that also connects to the plot.

• Review each story told by Halmoni, the tiger, and Lily.
• Draw a 2-column chart. In the first column, list details from the told stories that have a parallel detail in the framing plot of the novel. For example, the staircase in Lily’s favorite tiger story told by Halmoni parallels the staircase that winds up to Halmoni’s front door. List each parallel from the novel’s plot in the second column.
• Now make a list of plot details that have no corresponding parallel in any of the told stories, such as the muddy pudding or Sam’s fear of driving.
• Choose a few of the details from this list. Write a brief folktale-style story incorporating your chosen plot details as symbols, images, motifs, or other representative elements. Include a tiger or some other creature as a central character. Try to emulate the style and formality of the tales told by Halmoni, the tiger, and Lily.

Share your story by posting it or reading it aloud.

Teaching Suggestion: Revisit the stories Halmoni, the tiger, and Lily tell by reading them aloud. Even a few key example sentences from the text might help students to hear the cadence of the language and recognize the style. If students have a chance to share their original stories, audience members can listen for the parallel details and discuss them in connection with the theme of The Perception and Importance of Stories. Depending on your students’ ages and abilities, it might be a good time to introduce the literary term allegory.

• This free Allegory Resource page on SuperSummary includes a brief definition and examples from children’s and middle grade literature.

Paired Text Extension:

Read this brief version of the Korean folktale “The Tiger and the Persimmon.” (There are many other versions available online and on YouTube, each a little different.) After you read, brainstorm lists of 3-5 traits for the tiger Lily sees in the novel, 3-5 traits for the tiger (or central character) in your story, and 3-5 traits for the tiger in “The Tiger and the Persimmon.” Then, sketch on art paper an image of each tiger. Use your lists to label the three sketches with traits. For inspiration or comparison, investigate images of traditional Korean art featuring tigers.

Teaching Suggestion: Students can share their images by posting them on a bulletin board divided into three sections—the strong, bold tiger in the novel; the confused, fearful tiger in the linked folktale; and the tiger/character from their original story. After the class observes the collections of sketches, discuss how the “Persimmon” tiger connects to the theme of Defying Established Roles.

• “Tiger Family” is an ancient hanging scroll housed at The Cleveland Museum of Art. Note the symbolic meaning of individual images in the description. What story might be told by the tigers’ expressions and postures?
• “Perceptions and Representations of the Tiger in East Asian Art” is a review by Choi Seonju that includes descriptions and analyses of Korean tiger art.