Substitute Teacher Lesson Plan

The Call of the Wild — Chapter I: "Into the Primitive"

---

Objective

Students will read and analyze the opening chapter of Jack London's The Call of the Wild, identifying how the author establishes Buck's privileged life and tracing the sequence of events that leads to his kidnapping. Students will practice identifying character traits, setting details, and cause-and-effect plot structure.

Materials

• Copies of "The Call of the Wild," Chapter I excerpt (provided text)
• Lined paper or notebooks for each student
• Pencils/pens
• Board or chart paper for class notes (optional)

Warm-up (~5 min)

Write this question on the board (or read aloud) for students to answer silently in their notebooks:

"If you were suddenly taken from your comfortable home and could not explain what was happening, how do you think you would feel and act?"

Give students 3 minutes to jot down a few sentences. Ask 2–3 volunteers to share briefly. Explain that today's reading is about a dog named Buck who experiences exactly this kind of sudden, confusing change.

Main Activity (~25 min)

1. Read Aloud / Round-Robin Reading (15 min): Read the chapter text aloud as a class, or have students take turns reading paragraphs aloud. Stop at natural breaks (end of the Judge Miller's estate description, after Manuel's betrayal, after the train ride, and at the arrival in Seattle) to check for understanding by asking:
2. "What kind of life does Buck have at the start of the story?"
3. "Who is Manuel, and what does he do to Buck?"
4. "How do the men treat Buck during his journey?"
5. "How does Buck change by the end of the chapter?"

1. Guided Note-Taking (10 min): Have students divide a page into two columns labeled "Buck's Life Before" and "Buck's Life After." As you discuss the chapter, students should fill in details from the text, such as:
2. Before: Lives at Judge Miller's estate, roams freely, respected by other animals, treated like "king," swims and hunts.
3. After: Choked with a rope, thrown in a crate, starved and denied water for two days, taunted by strangers, becomes filled with wrath.

Wrap-up / Exit Ticket (~10 min)

Have students answer the following in complete sentences on a sheet of paper to turn in:

1. Describe Buck's life at Judge Miller's place in 2–3 sentences, using at least one detail from the text.
2. Who betrays Buck, and how?
3. In your own words, explain how Buck's feelings and behavior change from the beginning of the chapter to the end.
4. Why do you think the author chose to show Buck's comfortable life before describing his kidnapping?

Collect these before students leave.

If Time Remains

Ask students to imagine they are a newspaper reporter in 1897 writing a short headline and one-sentence summary about "the Klondike gold rush" as described in the chapter's opening paragraphs (men rushing north, needing strong dogs). Have a few volunteers share their headlines aloud.