INTERNATIONAL HOPE SCHOOL BANGLADESH

2019 – 2020 ACADEMIC YEAR – SECOND TERM

PRIMARY SECTION – CLASS 4 – ENGLISH LITERATURE

Study Pack 2 – The Secret Garden

April 1 and 2, 2020

Day 3:
1. Take your The Secret Garden novel. Look at the front cover. Read the blurb given on the back cover.

2. Then, complete worksheet 1.

3. As you already know by now that the novel is written by Frances Hodgson Burnette. Now, to know more
about who she was and her life, go through Handout 1 carefully. Underline information which you think are
important and interesting.

4. Now, you will be working on worksheet 2 but DO NOT LOOK AT HANDOUT 1. If you wish, you may
read Handout 1 once again and then complete worksheet 2.

5. Turn your teacher mode on! Go through worksheet 2 and check your own work. Use a blue pen to make
necessary corrections. Give a comment about your work on the space given on worksheet 2.

6. Before you start reading the novel, do the following:

Step 1: Stick the Novel Study – Reading Checklist in your notebook and write the name of the novel. You
will be following this as you read the entire novel.

Step 2: Take a print out of the Vocabulary List – Chapter 1 to 3. Staple this to your notebook once you have
completed it.

7. Do not start reading the novel yet! Go through worksheet 3. Read the instruction carefully and answer the
questions. Make sure you answer the questions in complete sentences using appropriate tense and
punctuations.

8. Once you have completed worksheet 3, you may now start reading the novel! Read chapter 1 to 3. Be sure
to complete the checklist and the vocabulary list as you read.
 INTERNATIONAL HOPE SCHOOL BANGLADESH
2019 – 2020 ACADEMIC YEAR – SECOND TERM
PRIMARY SECTION – ENGLISH LITERATURE – WORKSHEET 1

Name: …………………... IHSB Number: …………….

Grade: 4 ( ) Date: ……………………….

Title of the Book: _____________________________________________

Author of the Book: ___________________________________________

Have you read anything by this author before? If so, what was it?

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Look at the front cover. What hints do you think it gives about the story?

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Read the back cover. What do you learn about the story from the back cover?

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Based on the front and back covers, do you want to read this book? Why or why not?

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 INTERNATIONAL HOPE SCHOOL BANGLADESH
2019 – 2020 ACADEMIC YEAR – SECOND TERM
PRIMARY SECTION – ENGLISH LITERATURE – HANDOUT 1

Name: …………………... IHSB Number: …………….

Grade: 4 ( ) Date: ……………………….

Who is Frances Hodgson Burnett?

Read the biography given below to learn more about Frances Hodgson Burnett’s life and her writing
career.

Frances Eliza Hodgson was born on November 24, 1849, in Manchester, England.
She was the third of five children born to Eliza Boond and Edwin Hodgson, who
operated an interior decorating store. After his death in 1852, Eliza struggled
unsuccessfully in her efforts to maintain the business and eventually gave up and
moved her family to the United States. They settled near Knoxville, Tennessee, in
1865.

With her family now reduced to humbler circumstances, Frances tried to help out
financially. Calling upon her creativity and her talent for storytelling, she started
writing stories. Some of her early works found publication in periodicals like
Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1868.

After her mother’s death, Frances Hodgson had to work even harder to support her five siblings. However,
soon she was receiving a steady income from her writing. Then, in the fall of 1873 she married Dr. Swann
Burnett. After travelling in Europe for a number of months they returned to the U.S. and lived in
Washington, D. C. and, later, New York City.

Beginning in 1879 Burnett had several stories published in St. Nicholas Magazine, and other magazines
soon followed, including the popular Scribner’s Monthly and Harper’s Bazaar. She began working on
novels like The Lass O’Lowries (1876) and A Fair Barbarian (1881). She also co-wrote a stage drama with
William Gillette, the play Esmeralda (1881). She went on to pen Through One Administration in 1883, Sara
Crewe (a book and a stage version) in 1888 and her best-selling novel, Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1886. Her
fame grew and her social life was crowded with admirers.

Yet, while Burnett’s work was well received by the public and critics, her life was far from perfect. She was
frequently ill, perhaps due to heat and the pressures of career and family. Then, when the elder of her two
sons, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, she became deeply depressed. She turned to Spiritualism and
strange religions to cope. Her marriage to Swan Burnett was unhappy, and she finally divorced him in 1898.
Afterward, she spent much of her time at her country home in England, writing outside in the gardens.
During this period, Burnett also revised her previously published work, Sara Crewe, renaming and re-
publishing it as A Little Princess (1905). Meanwhile, working amid the beautiful gardens and grounds of her
beloved country home inspired the author to pen her classic, The Secret Garden (1911), which went on to
become one of her most renowned and beloved works.

The author went through a difficult period during the early 1900s, in part due to the stress of a short-lived,
unhappy second marriage, which also finally ended in divorce. Afterward she returned to her country home
and gardens in England for a time and enjoyed a period of great creativity and success in her writing life. In
1907, however, Burnett returned to America for good, having gained her U.S. citizenship. She continued
writing there, completing several more novels, including The Dawn of Tomorrow (1909), The Lost Prince
(1915), and Robin (1922). Frances Hodgson Burnett died on October 29, 1924, in Plandom, New York and
lies buried in Roslyn Cemetery, Nassau County, New York State.
 INTERNATIONAL HOPE SCHOOL BANGLADESH
2019 – 2020 ACADEMIC YEAR – SECOND TERM
PRIMARY SECTION – ENGLISH LITERATURE – WORKSHEET 2

Name: …………………... IHSB Number: …………….

Grade: 4 ( ) Date: ……………………….

How well do you know Frances Hodgson Burnett?

Read the questions carefully and write their answers in the spaces given below.

Name three books written by Why did Burnett start writing stories?
Frances Hodgson Burnett and
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given their publication dates.
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1._________________________ ________________________________________________
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2._________________________ What may have inspired Burnett to write The Secret

__________________________ Garden?

3._________________________
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When and where did Burnett die?
How old was she when she died?
When:_____________________
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Was Burnett an American writer or a British writer?
Explain your answer.

Where:_____________________ _______________________________________________

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Age at which she died: ________
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Do you think Burnett had a happy life? Why or why not?

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Comment: _________________________________________________________________________
 INTERNATIONAL HOPE SCHOOL BANGLADESH
2019 – 2020 ACADEMIC YEAR – SECOND TERM
PRIMARY SECTION – ENGLISH LITERATURE – VOCABULARY LIST

Name: …………………... IHSB Number: …………….

Grade: 4 ( ) Date: ……………………….

THE SECRET GARDEN

Vocabulary List – Chapter 1 to 3
Instructions: Keep a list of words that you have problem understanding. Look up the words in your
dictionary and record what they mean (according to the context of the text).

Word Meaning
 Novel Study - Reading Checklist

Novel: __________________________________ Author: _________________________________

 Use the Vocabulary List to keep record of the words you have problem understanding and
look up their meanings in the dictionary. Also, highlight these words in your book.
 Underline sentences that are good examples of imagery, a technique that was very frequently
used by the author throughout the book.
 Highlight or underline at least 2 interesting incidents or information that you come across in
each of the chapters that you will read and write them down in your notebook.
 Write down 2 questions with answers from each of the chapters in your notebook.
 INTERNATIONAL HOPE SCHOOL BANGLADESH
2019 – 2020 ACADEMIC YEAR – SECOND TERM
PRIMARY SECTION – ENGLISH LITERATURE – WORKSHEET 3

Name: …………………... IHSB Number: …………….

Grade: 4 ( ) Date: ……………………….

THE SECRET GARDEN

Before You Start Reading

Every good novel needs an interesting protagonist (the novel’s main character).
For example, the protagonist in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is
Harry Potter who didn’t know that he was a wizard until his 11th birthday and we
all started to like him as soon as he was introduced in the book.
However, in chapter 1 of The Secret Garden, you will meet a character that you
will probably instinctively (naturally; automatically) dislike.

Why is it unusual for an author to create a protagonist who is not likeable?

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What might be the danger of doing this?

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How might it be a good idea?

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