Name: ____________________________
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves: Annotations Packet
Lycanthropic: relating to the magical transformation of a person into a wolf
Jesuit: a member of a Roman Catholic religious order
Epigraph: a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest
its theme.
Culture Shock: a state of bewilderment and distress experienced by an individual who is
suddenly exposed to a new, strange, or foreign social and cultural environment
1. What does the epigraph suggest?
2. Who is the epigraph written for? How do you know the intended audience of the
handbook?
3. If you break apart the term Lycanthropic Culture Shock into parts, what is it describing?
4. What does the word initial suggest here?
5. Who is the pack? How do you know?
6. What is the pack doing?
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7. Where are they?
8. Jot down the words “couth” and “kempt” here, along with what you think their meanings
are. Hint: consider the girls’ behavior in this section and the way the sentence is
structured.
9. How did the girls forget their promise to be “couth and kempt”?
10. Starting from the sentence “Things looked less foreign…” through to the end of the
paragraph, what is the pack doing to the bunks? How do you know?
11. What is this a remedy for?
Kinetic: characterized by movement
12. What does the author’s use of the word exuberant suggest about these “streams” and the
girls?
Quick Write Response (use the space below for your response)
What specific phrases or words reveal the connections between the first paragraph of the
story and the Stage 1 epigraph? Cite evidence from the text in your story.
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Heifer: a young, female cow
Cleric: an ordained member of a religion
Jugular: short for jugular vein, a large vein in the neck
Disconcerting: upsetting or disturbing
Bliss: supreme happiness
Catastrophic: disastrous
Adapted: adjusted oneself to different conditions
13. What are your expectations for Stage 1?
14. What are you learning about the pack?
15. Use the space below to jot down 2-3 questions you have about Stage 1’s entirety.
16. Based on what we just read, what do you think the girls are doing at St. Lucy’s, and what
evidence from the text supports your ideas?
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Independent Write: On a separate sheet of paper, write a response to the following: Why does
it seem the pack hates Jeanette and Mirabella? What evidence in the text supports your thinking?
17. Jot down 2-3 questions you have from Stage 2’s entirety.
18. In Stage 3, what is happening with Mirabella? Use text evidence to support.
19. What are some things the girls are learning to do?
20. Jot down 2-3 questions you have about Stage 3 in its entirety.
21. In Stage 4, how does this scene reveal the differences between Mirabella, Jeanette and
Claudette, and what textual evidence supports your ideas?
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22. What happened at the dance?
23. What is your response to Mirabella being expelled? Use evidence from the text to support
your thinking.
24. Jot down 2-3 questions you have about Stage 4 & 5 in its entirety.
Independent Quick Write Response (use a separate piece of paper)
What is the central idea of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”? Cite at least 4 pivotal
moments in the text that show how the conflict develops throughout the story.
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25. What phrases or descriptions help you determine what languid means in this context?
26. What could barbaridad mean and how do you know?
27. What are sinewy and hirsute describing in this context and how do you know?
28. Why does Sister Josephine use the word backwoods?
29. What does the phrase, “We went knuckling along,” reveal about the girls?
30. Why do the farmers ostracize the parents?
31. Why do the parents ostracize the local wolves?
32. From these clues, what does ostracize mean?
33. Where the werewolves’ purgatory and what is are the qualities of this place?
34. What is the meaning of purgatory in this context?
35. How will the girls be bilingual, and what does the word bilingual mean in this context?
36. What offer did the nuns make to the parents?
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37. Why is St. Lucy’s culture better?
Independent Quick Write Response (use a separate piece of paper)
Explain why the girls’ parents accepted the nuns’ offer. Use the words ostracized and purgatory
in your response to show specifically how these words reflect essential ideas of the text.
38. In Stage 1, the paragraph that starts, “That first afternoon…” what is the pack doing in
this paragraph?
39. Why might the squirrels be “doomed”?
40. Based on the discussion about the “doomed squirrels,” what might delectable mean, as it
describes the birds?
41. How does the pack show their wolf-like characteristics in this paragraph?
42. How is the pack feeling in this paragraph?
43. In Stage 1, the paragraph that starts, “We supplemented…,” what is the pack doing with
the holes?
44. What words or phrases could replace supplemented?
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45. What does interred mean and how do you know?
46. What is “assaulting” the pack’s noses?
47. If their noses are “aching,” what might assault mean?
48. Why did their “own scent become foreign to the girls”?
49. What is the significance of the author’s focus on scent?
50. In Stage 1, the paragraph that begins, “We had just sprawled…,” why did the older sister
“bristle, and what might bristle mean?
51. What does the method the oldest sister uses to bristle reveal about the pack?
52. In Stage 1, the section that begins, “Sister Maria gave her a brave smile…” and ends ‘
“Our littlest sister…”, what are the nuns trying to do to the pack?
53. What are the feelings of the pack in the section just closely read and how can you tell?
The feelings of the nuns?
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54. In Stage 1, the section that begins, “ Our littlest sister had the quickest…” to the end of
Stage 1, what does Mirabella do and what happens to her?
55. What could overstimulating mean?
56. How has Stage 1 been overstimulating for the pack?
Independent Quick Write Response (use separate paper)
For this quick write, there is an A, B and C analysis response. You may choose to do either A
or B, but you must do C. Here are the response choices:
A. Reread the two paragraphs in Stage 1 that begins, “That first afternoon…,” and ends with
“ Our own scent…” Based on these two paragraphs, how is the pack’s initial experience
at St. Lucy’s, “new, exciting, and interesting”? Write a response using your annotations
to identify 2-3 pieces of strong text evidence in your response.
B. Reread the section of text in Stage 1 that begins, “We had just sprawled out” through to
the end of Stage 1. What does this section reveal about the pack’s human and wolf-like
characteristics? Write a response using your annotations to identify 2-3 pieces of strong
text evidence in your response.
C. Based on the lesson’s discussion and text evidence annotated, how accurately does the
Stage 1 epigraph represent the pack’s initial experience at St. Lucy’s? Write a response
using your annotations to identify 2-3 pieces of strong text evidence in your response.
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Tawny: dark yellowish or dully yellowish brown in color
57. Read the Stage 2 epigraph. What are some changes that will happen in Stage 2?
58. What is “disorienting” about looking at the shoes for the narrator and what could
disorienting mean?
59. What has “bewildered” the girls, and in this context, what does the word bewildered
mean?
60. In Stage 2, read and annotate independently the section from, “Physically, we were all
easily capable…,” to “Mirabella cocked her ears at us…” Who or what is taunting the
girls?
61. What can you determine the word taunt means in this context?
62. How do the parents (still in the forest) affect the girls?
63. Why do the nuns perform a daily eradication? What does eradicate mean in this context
then?
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64. Look at the word bipedal. What can you determine it means, based on its two word parts?
65. Why is the word bipedal important to the girls’ development?
66. How is Mirabella different from the other girls?
Independent Quick Write Response
How is the epigraph’s description of Stage 2 reflected in the experiences of the girls in this
section of the text? Use specific vocabulary from the text in your response.
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67. In Stage 2, read, in your groups, the paragraph that begins, “Still, some things remained
the same.” What things “remained the same” for the pack?
68. What might me a synonym for the word commandment?
69. What is Mirabella holding on to?
70. In Stage 2, group close read the section that begins, “Then she would sing out the
standard…,” up to “I was one of the good girls.” What are Jeanette’s origins and how has
she removed herself from them?
71. In Stage 2, read the paragraph “I was one of the good girls,” and note the change in point
of view to “I” rather than “we.” How does this change in wording impact our reading of
the text?
72. What are the narrator’s “aptitudes,” and what other words could replace that word
aptitudes?
73. Why stay in the “middle of the pack”?
74. In Stage 2, read the two paragraphs from, “The pack hated Jeanette…, “ up to “Whatever
will become…” How does the pack feel about failing?
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Read and annotate the remainder of Stage 2 and annotate with your groups.
75. In what ways are the girls being “rehabilitated” by St. Lucy’s? What might rehabilitated
mean in this context?
76. What might shunned mean, and how could the pack be “shunned by both species”?
77. Who is Claudette and what kind of student is she?
Text-Dependent Analysis and Response
Choose either A or B to respond to. However, you should use key vocabulary from the text and
use textual evidence from the piece through paraphrasing and quoting directly from the text as
you respond.
A. Considering the complex characters and their development thus far, why don’t the other
girls want to be like Mirabella or Jeanette? Cite 3-4 pieces of strong textual evidence in
your analysis.
B. What do the details in Stage 2 reveal about the requirements of survival at St. Lucy’s?
Cite 3-4 pieces of strong textual evidence in your analysis.
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Read the Stage 3 Epigraph closely.
78. What is the host culture?
79. How will the students feel about the host culture in this stage?
80. Based on this, what might generalization mean?
81. In Stage 3, read the section from, “The nuns were worried…” to “…nobody wanted to
assume responsibility for it.” How is Mirabella described in this scene?
82. Based on your description of Mirabella in question 81, what could ominous mean if it is
describing “something” that must be done to Mirabella?
83. In Stage 3, read the paragraph that begins, “ I could have warned her.” What is happening
to Mirabella and why?
In Stage 3, read the paragraph that begins, “It was during Stage 3…”and stop before the
paragraph that begins with “Jeanette was learning how to dance.”
84. How are “purebred girls” described and what might purebred mean here?
85. What does it mean, then, that the “purebred girls” were raised “in captivity”?
In Stage 3, continue from “Jeanette was learning to dance” up to “Jeanette got a hole in one.”
86. What does the bicycle reveal about Mirabella?
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87. Based on this section, has the pack been successfully rehabilitated? Explain.
88. How are the details of the Stage 3 epigraph reflected in this last scene between Jeanette
and Claudette?
*At this point, you will be taking a mid-unit assessment. When you have finished, you will
be annotating and reading the rest of Stage 3 and part of Stage 4 on your own for the next
lessons.
In Stage 3, read from “On Sundays, the pretending felt…” to the end of Stage 3, and continue
with the Stage 4 epigraph and including the paragraph that ends, “I was no longer certain of how
the pack felt about anything.” Use the space below and the blank page following to create your
own annotations and vocabulary notes, using all the skills you have acquired in annotating for
the last several lessons. In our next class, we will be engaging in a task that will hold you
accountable for these annotations.
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89. In Stage 4, read from “At seven o’clock on the dot…” to the end of Stage 4. You and
your partner will be responsible for generating your own annotations here, using the skills
you have learned. Pay special attention to the individual students and their development
at St. Lucy’s. You will then be responsible for a quick write on your own.
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Quick Write
This is a two-part test-dependent question:
Citing strong evidence from the text, describe the experience of the dance through Claudette’s
perspective. Stage 4 says that things will “make sense.” Is this true for Claudette? Use your
annotations, identifying at least 3-4 pieces of textual evidence to write your response.
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Lolling: sitting, lying, or standing in a lazy, relaxed way
Dour: sullen; gloomy
Read all of Stage 5 with your partner first. Use your annotation marks as you read. Then answer
these additional questions.
90. Claudette says that she had to have “a woodsman… accompany me; I couldn’t remember
how to find the way back on my own.” What does this tell you about Claudette?
91. What does the line above say about Claudette’s training at St. Lucy’s?
92. Claudette’s brother is described as a “dour, balding children’s author.” What do you
predict about the brother’s fate through this description?
93. What is the family’s reaction to Claudette?
94. What is the significance of her mother “recoiling back”?
95. What is Claudette’s reaction to the family?
96. In the end, does Claudette reach Stage 5? Use textual evidence to support/explain your
answer.
Quick Write – Use the back of this page to respond
Does the Stage 5 epigraph accurately reflect Claudette’s development by the end of her time at
St. Lucy’s? The epigraph states, “At this point, your students are able to interact effectively in
the new cultural environment. They find it easy to move between two cultures.”
In your response, include strong textual evidence from the narrative – these pieces of text
evidence can include, but are not limited to, specific vocabulary words, phrasing or events.
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