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

“Spin-Off”

In this activity, students will create a short narrative for a character readers do not get to meet in the short story.

“Good Country People” is written from the third-person omniscient point of view. The author chose to give readers access to the minds of Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell and see other characters through their thoughts. Mrs. Freeman and Manley participate in the narrative, but readers do not have direct access to their thoughts. Carramae and Glynese Freeman are mentioned in conversations but do not make an appearance in the action.

What would life look like for Carramae outside her mother’s fixation with her morning sickness? Is Glynese actually interested in the suitors her mother knows of? What about other mentioned characters? How did the woman with the glass eye fall for Manley’s tricks? Who are the “Negroes” who live beyond the back pasture? Consider each of these characters as the possible protagonist for a spin-off—an alternative narrative that focuses on a minor character in the original story.