Shayna's Shadows

Shayna's Shadows by Paul Philip Brown

Calling people names:

Is it harmless fun?

Or is it a dangerous first step towards bigotry?

Shayna's arrival at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Junior High School begins well until her Jewishness attracts the wrong kind of attention. Gilbert and his friends seem to be lurking everywhere, and it doesn't look as though they'll ever leave her alone.


From Yorkdale Shopping Centre to the underground city beneath Toronto, from SkyDome to the Young People's Theatre, Shayna struggles to find the courage to confront her tormentors before their hurtful prejudices overwhelm her.

Teacher's Guide and Resources

Teacher's Guide and Resources

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Teacher's Guide

An indispensable aid in using the novel in classes or in small groups.

The Teacher’s Guide provides:

The Questions can be used in a number of ways, including:

  • For teacher-led discussion
  • As homework assignments
  • As a basis for a cooperative learning approach, such as a jigsaw, with different groups responsible for different chapters, or for different elements in each chapter: character development, plot, setting, themes, vocabulary.

The Vocabulary lists are provided to:

  • Assist teachers in focussing on words whose difficulty may interfere with the students’ understanding of the story
  • Enrich students’ active vocabulary by up to 200 new words
  • Provide a basis for teacher-organized cooperative learning activities as both an optional activity for study, as well as a flexible resource to be accessed as the teacher sees fit according to the reading level of the class. Robert Slavin’s STAD (Student Teams-Achievement Divisions) is particularly well-suited to learning vocabulary.

The Extension activities are provided as follow-up activities relating to the chapter read.

The Concluding Activities relate to the novel as a whole.

Anti-Bullying Internet Resources

Audience