We Were Here

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 is a group home? Why might someone be sent to a group home? What is the difference between a group home and a juvenile detention facility?

Teaching Suggestion: With sensitivity to student experiences, consider discussing the question above once readers have had a chance to note some thoughts or complete initial investigation. We Were Here takes place in a group home after Miguel has been released from juvenile detention. The setting is central to the plot because it drives the question of why Miguel was arrested, which is not revealed until the end of the novel.

• This article describes what a group home is and why people are sent to group homes.
• This article describes what a juvenile detention facility is and what it does.

2. How can guilt be helpful, and how can it be harmful? What is social withdrawal? What is rumination? How are these behavioral patterns problematic for people experiencing depression?

Teaching Suggestion: With sensitivity to student experiences, investigation into these topics and discussing guilt and characteristics of depression may be helpful to understanding the novel. Miguel, having committed his crime, frequently dwells on his own self-loathing and suspects members of his family of having the same experiences. His guilt, social withdrawal, and rumination all play an important role in his inability to forgive himself throughout the novel.

• This article explains guilt and how it can be used in healthy and unhealthy ways.
• This article describes depression and the symptoms associated with it.

Personal Connection Prompt

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

Describe a time when you felt guilty about something you did. Did you do it intentionally or unintentionally? What were the consequences of your actions? What relationships were harmed by your actions? How did you make amends and overcome your guilt?

Teaching Suggestion: With sensitivity to student experiences, you may want to consider allowing students to explore this question as a writing prompt to protect their privacy. Students may also prefer to discuss plot scenarios from movies or books unrelated to their own personal guilt. The main character of the novel, Miguel, accidentally killed his brother while wrestling. The painful memory is something the novel’s plot explores as Miguel develops friendships and learns to cope with his guilt.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who require additional assistance with organizing thoughts before writing or before discussing a response, it may be beneficial to provide a cause-and-effect chart like the one here. Students can think of multiple instances of situations in which they have felt guilt. Students might begin by using the “cause” box to describe what they did to feel guilt. In the “effect” box, students might describe the external consequences of what they did. For example, students might write in the cause box that they talked negatively about a friend, and in the effect box, the consequence is that their friend found out about it.