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The Homework Machine Worksheets and Literature Unit

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The Homework Machine - (Reed Novel Studies)

Subject: English

Age range: 9 - 13

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

11 January 2023

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The Homework Machine is a complete 66 page novel study guide. The guide is presented chapter-by-chapter and includes the following distinct sections: Before You Read, Vocabulary, Comprehension Questions (including many higher-level thinking questions); Activities. The novel study includes everything needed to teach the novel including the following concepts / activities: setting, literary devices, research assignments, cloze activities, creative writing assignments, character studies, parts of speech, analogies, synonyms and antonyms, crossword and word search puzzles, studies in conflict, constructing a storyboard and sequence chart. It also contains a complete Answer Key.

You may wish to check out Island of the Blue Dolphins – a free offering on TES done by the author in the same format as The Homework Machine.

The writer of this novel study has had more than 60 curriculum units published. These are available in such outlets as Chapters and Staples and most stores for teachers.

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The Homework Machine

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The Homework Machine

Starting with a stern statement from the Grand Canyon, Arizona Police Chief Rebecca Fish, meet four fifth graders in big trouble. There's long-haired, rebellious, cool guy Sam Dawkins; fun-loving, unacademic, pink-haired Kelsey Donnelly, African American grind Judy Douglas, and friendless genius Brenton Damagatchi. The whole thing starts because Sam is anti-homework, especially the daily fill in-the-blank worksheets his first-year teacher Miss Rasmussen hands out. Sam is skeptical when Brenton claims he has programmed his computer to search the web and do all his homework each day, but it’s true. Soon the four seatmates are spending every afternoon in Brenton’s bedroom, printing out their daily assignments on the computer they nickname Belch. It can’t do any harm, right? The chronology and confession of their ill-fated escapade is related entirely through a series of transcripts, narrated by the four contrite kids, their parents, classmates, and Miss Rasmussen.

There are many interesting threads explored in this nimble story: keeping secrets, making friends, being popular, the morality of taking the easy way out, first crushes, the meaning of war, and even the loss of a parent. The setting of the Grand Canyon and sub-themes about playing chess, starting fads, and using a catapult will get kids looking up supporting information in books and on the Internet. Questions readers can think about as they read include: Which of the four main characters is most like or unlike you and why? Which one would or would not be your friend and why?

Reviewed by : JF.

Themes : DEATH. FRIENDSHIP. GRIEF. HUMOR.

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

• “A dramatic and thought-provoking story with a strong message about honesty and friendship.” – Elaine E. Knight, School Library Journal
• “Booktalkers will find this a natural, particularly for those hard-to-tempt readers whose preferred method of computer disposal involves a catapult and the Grand Canyon.” – Carolyn Phelan, Booklist
• “Tucked in between the laughs are excellent messages about tolerance, honesty, and the importance of what the students’ teacher calls the “homework machine [that] already exists. It’s called your brain.” – Child Magazine
• “Short chapters of alternating voices tell the story, which is funny in some places, but is not without intense and sometimes sad moments.” – Susie Wilde, Children

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

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• Clements, Andrew. Frindle. Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN-13: 9780689818769
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• Clements, Andrew. No Talking. Simon & Schuster, 2007. ISBN-13: 9781416909835
• Codell, Esm Raji. Sahara Special. Hyperion, 2003. ISBN-13: 9780786816118
• Fletcher, Ralph. Flying Solo. Clarion, 1998. ISBN-13: 9780395873236
• Gutman, Dan. The Get Rich Quick Club. HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN-13: 9780060534424
• Gutman, Dan. The Kid Who Ran for President. Scholastic, 1996. ISBN-13: 9780590939881
• Gutman, Dan. Qwerty Stevens Back in Time: The Edison Mystery. Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN-13: 9780590939881
• Park, Barbara. Maxie, Rosie, and Earl—Partners in Grime. Knopf, 1990. ISBN-13: 9780679806431
• Pearsall, Shelley. All of the Above. Little, Brown, 2006. ISBN-13: 9780316115261
• Rocklin, Joanne. For Your Eyes Only! Scholastic, 1997. ISBN-13: 9780142003220
• Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Morrow, 1978. ISBN-13: 9780380698714

• Lesson Plans :
• Arts & Crafts :
• The Homework Machine

Give each student their supplies. Have each student close their eyes. Tell them to close their eyes and get ready to use their imaginations. Tell them they are going to make a picture in their minds and they'll be drawing it later.

Read the class the poem "The Homework Machine" by Shel Silverstein. When you are finished, tell the class to draw and color a picture of what they think the homework machine would look like.

Then the students are done drawing, have a discussion about the poem and their pictures. For primary grades (especially K or 1), questions like "How big do you think the machine is?" and "What kind of noises do you think the machine would make?" are suitable. Older grades can answer questions like "Why do you think the machine didn't work properly?" and "How would you build a homework machine?" Submitted by: Patricia Pruim - Iskut, BC, Canada

We are currently working on making the site load faster, and work better on mobile devices. This requires a full recode of the main structure of our website, then finding and fixing individual pages that could be effected, and will take a good amount of time. You may see little changes here and there (or bigger ones) as we progress in this task. We try to test our changes thoroughly before we release them, but several of these changes on 'some' of our pages, may cause issues with other pages that we weren't aware of when we made the changes. If you notice something broken, or not working like you think it should, then *we likely don't know about it* and we would LOVE for you to shoot us a quick email with the page (or browser link) to where you saw the issue and a description of what is wrong. Additionally, sending a screenshot of the issue can often help, but is definitely not necessary . Just sending us the notification can get us working on it right away. Thank you for your patience while we work to improve our site! EMAIL: [email protected] .

Thank you! Chad Owner, TheTeachersCorner.net

The Homework Machine

50 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

The Homework Machine , written by acclaimed American author Dan Gutman was first published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and is the first of a two-book series. The second book, The Return of the Homework Machine , was published in 2011. Gutman is primarily a children’s fiction writer who has been nominated for and won numerous awards, including 18 for The Homework Machine alone. Gutman is best known for his humorous series, My Weird School , in which there are more than 70 books. He lives in New York City with his family.

The paperback edition used for this study guide was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007.

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Plot Summary

The Homework Machine is told from the perspectives of multiple characters in the format of tape recordings for a police report.

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The four main characters are fifth-grade students who are grouped at the same classroom table because their last names start with D: Sam Dawkins (Snik), Kelsey Donnelly , Judy Douglas , and Brenton Damagatchi . Other than sharing the same last initial, the students have nothing in common. Snik is the cool class smart aleck; Kelsey is laid back and doesn’t care about school; Judy is conscientious and in the gifted program; and Brenton is a loner and genius who designs software and studies psychology in his spare time. Snik pushes people’s buttons, and one day he pushes Brenton too far—implying that Brenton spends all his free time doing homework. Brenton retorts that he doesn’t spend any time doing homework and lets slip that he has invented a homework machine.

Snik calls Brenton a liar, so Brenton invites Snik, Judy, and Kelsey to his house to see for themselves. The group are stunned when Brenton’s machine prints out perfectly completed homework in Brenton’s handwriting. Brenton agrees to let Snik, Judy, and Kelsey join him after school to “do” their homework and even rewrites the software to accommodate their handwriting. The unlikely foursome spends every afternoon together, but they insist that they are not friends and that the only reason they tolerate each other is to use the homework machine, which they name Belch. Judy feels guilty about cheating but enjoys getting A’s and uses the extra time to take up ballet. Kelsey’s vastly improved grades earn her privileges, such as a belly-button piercing, from her mother. As the weeks pass, the D Squad becomes addicted to using Belch and the boundaries between their various social identities begin to blur. Snik shows an interest in “boring” chess, which Brenton plays, and Judy tries to be complimentary about Kelsey’s piercings (while finding them disgusting). Everything seems to be going well. However, things start to rapidly fall apart halfway through the year. Judy and Kelsey’s other friends resent their new associations and “unfriend” them, and their teacher, Miss Rasmussen , suspects that they are cheating.

In addition, a strange man has been stalking the group ever since Brenton designed software to instigate a hugely successful social media-driven “red socks day” that spread across America. Miss Rasmussen springs a surprise test on the class to see whether the D Squad really knows their schoolwork. Sure enough—Kelsey and Snik fail, and Judy gets a C, confirming Miss Rasmussen’s suspicions. Before Miss Rasmussen can report them, Snik’s father, who is in the military, is killed in the Middle East. This tragic event diverts Miss Rasmussen’s attention from the cheating, which seems trivial in comparison. The bond between the D Squad strengthens as the stress of keeping Belch secret increases.

Together they decide to shut Belch down, only to discover that Belch has taken on a life of its own and will not power off. They throw Belch into the Grand Canyon and feel relief as they watch it disappear. However, when backpackers find computer pieces at the bottom of the canyon, the D Squad is called into the sheriff’s office where they confess to everything. The case is closed, but their unlikely friendships continue to strengthen and grow. The stalker turns out to be someone scouting Brenton to offer him a job as an influencer for his company. The company’s clients want to market their products to kids. Brenton simply offers him an idea he would like to influence kids with: “Do your homework” (146).

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The Homework Machine - (Lesson Plan)

Description

The Homework Machine is a complete 66 page novel study guide. The guide is presented chapter-by-chapter and includes the following distinct sections: Before You Read, Vocabulary, Comprehension Questions (including many higher-level thinking questions); Activities. The novel study includes everything needed to teach the novel including the following concepts / activities: setting, literary devices, research assignments, cloze activities, creative writing assignments, character studies, parts of speech, analogies, synonyms and antonyms, crossword and word search puzzles, studies in conflict, constructing a storyboard and sequence chart. It also contains a complete Answer Key.

Many Links with the Common Core Standards (U.S.)

You may wish to check out Island of the Blue Dolphins – a free offering on Teachers Pay Teachers done by the author in the same format as The Homework Machine.

The writer of this novel study has had more than 60 curriculum units published. These are available in such outlets as Chapters and Staples and most stores for teachers.

Questions & Answers

Reed novel studies.

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