The Railway Children

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What does it mean to have privilege? What are different types of privilege someone can have?

Teaching Suggestion: The children in the novel experience a shift in their family’s financial privilege when their father is taken away. Exploring this complex term before reading can provide readers with background knowledge that can lead to greater understanding and ability to infer as they read. After defining the term, students might discuss types of privilege and how they can manifest in society. The Lean In resource might be a place to start, as it is a video and just 4 minutes. Students might watch it twice: once to take in the ideas, and a second time to take notes. The Media Smarts resource explains different forms of privilege. Since it is complex, groups of students could unpack 1-2 of the types and explain them to the class, assuring everyone understands multiple ways privilege can function. Including examples of each form can help make the topic more concrete. 

• This 4-minute video from Lean In defines privilege and discusses how it affects people.
• “Forms of Privilege” from Media Smarts explains various forms of privilege.

2. What was life like for women in the early 1900s in England?

Teaching Suggestion: This exploration can provide important background knowledge for students to understand the novel’s setting. While reading one or more of the resources here, students could annotate key points about women’s roles of the time period in England. After examining this topic in history, the class could discuss similarities to and differences from their world today. If time permits, this topic can expand to a research project, where students find additional resources. If so, they might generate a list of any questions they still have to provide a focus for their research.

• With this resource, Striking Women examines what life was like for women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in England.
• “What Was Life Like for Women in Edwardian Britain?” from History Extra includes images and written exploration of women’s lives in England in the early 1900’s.
• This resource from Historic England presents some history of women’s roles, including some famous women in British history. It includes numerous additional links for further research.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

What are some of your best memories of childhood?

Teaching Suggestion: The children in the novel are in the throes of childhood and growing up. They fight, explore, make friends, play, enjoy birthdays, and more. Students are invited to bring in their own memories, which can increase classroom community as they share with each other and can help them connect to the characters as they read. The class might read the Shel Silverstein poem as an introduction to this activity. The poem also applies to the characters’ experiences in the novel, so the class could reread it at different moments in the book and discuss text-to-text connections. They might pause during reading later to discuss similarities and differences between the characters’ experiences and their own.

• “The Voice” by Shel Silverstein offers advice about trusting one’s inner voice.

Differentiation Suggestion: To increase engagement and agency and provide students with different talents and learning styles opportunities to incorporate them in the lesson, students might be encouraged to respond in different ways. For example, they could create music, art, or dramatic skits about their memories. For students who may not feel comfortable speaking about their childhoods, you might suggest having them identify a favorite scene from a children’s book and explain why they find it appealing.