Pre-Reading Activity for "Lamb to the Slaughter"

Pre-reading activity · Grades 8–10 · PDF + slides + game · $5

This is the day-one hook I use before my kids read "Lamb to the Slaughter." It gets them predicting, arguing about where evil comes from, and curious about a story they haven't seen yet. Built for grades 8-10.

Students start with three warm-up prompts: what the title suggests, the Joker's line "It only takes just one bad day," and whether people are born evil or made evil. Then teams play a Mystery Box game. They pull a clue, feel an object in the box without looking, and guess what it is and how it might connect to the story. A short debrief on symbols and predictions sets up the reading.

Class ends with a sticky-note exit ticket: one prediction and one question about the story.

What's included

• Slide deck with step-by-step directions for each part
• Warm-up discussion with 3 prompts (about 15 minutes)
• Mystery Box mini-game: prep list, team rules, scoring, and debrief questions (about 15 minutes)
• Prediction exit ticket (about 5 minutes)
• Links to Google Doc and Google Slides versions

How teachers use it

• The day before you start the story
• Works as a one-period launch; the game scales to your class size and whatever objects you have
• Save the exit tickets and revisit the predictions after reading

Topics: journal, writing, prompts, bell, ringer, slides, powerpoint, presentation, middle, school, high, grade, 8, 9, 10