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A Novel Study for The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

An image of the wild robot holding a book that says wild about reading.

About The Wild Robot

What would an intelligent robot do in the wilderness?

Peter Brown

“The Wild Robot” is the story of Rozzum unit 7314. Roz is a learning robot whose shipping crate washes up on an island. Instead of performing tasks more efficiently to assist humans daily, Roz must now learn to survive in a harsh environment. She learns many practical skills through observing the living things that inhabit the island.

 

The most useful and unexpected skill that the robot learns is to pretend. As the story progresses, Roz becomes so skilled at pretending that there are points in the story where the reader begins to question whether she is pretending to be a living thing with emotions or if she is indeed becoming a sentient being.

Themes in the Wild Robot

On a surface level, the story explores the topics of survival, friendship, and community; beneath the surface, there are themes related to the treatment of outsiders, being part of a non-traditional family, and the consequences of climate change.  

​I learned about a literary genre that I had never heard of before while working on this project- the Robinsonade.​ 

The term Robinsonade refers to a literary genre that takes its name from the novel “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe. The popularity of “Robinson Crusoe” led to so many literary imitations that a genre was named after it. You can describe a Robinsonade as a “desert island story” or a “castaway narrative.” A Robinsonade explores how people behave in an isolated place with limited resources.

Speaking of resources… I have created an amazing collection of resources for this novel.

Game of Quotes

I’ve created an all-new edition of my popular Game of Quotes with ​directions for five exciting gameplay variations. This fun game is ideal for small group reading, reading centers or stations, book clubs, literature circles, and even as a paper-based alternative to traditional reading logs.

Daily Writing Prompts for The Wild Robot

Daily Writing Prompts is an all-new lesson that I am loving! I have incorporated practice with parts of speech, sentence structure, dialogue, letter writing, tone, and word use. Skill building and review often get left out during a novel study. You can assign these daily writing prompts as bell ringers, warm-ups, or journaling activities. My favorite prompts are the message-in-a-bottle prompts. Students write “Dear Abby” style letters about the internal conflicts that Roz experiences. I really had fun coming up with all of these daily writing prompts.

Paired Texts for The Wild Robot

No novel unit is complete without some text pairings! Utilizing paired texts within a novel unit exposes students to multiple genres, enabling them to master both fiction and nonfiction reading standards. Students better understand the novel’s characters, themes, settings, and conflicts by incorporating nonfiction texts. These additional resources add depth to students’ reading comprehension. Students will make more connections to the text, enhancing both their enjoyment and understanding of the novel.

I created eight different paired text activities for nonfiction. Some highlights include:

  1. 321 Tasks: Students access and record their schema related to the topic, expanding their knowledge and generating questions for further research.
  2. Paired Text Comparisons + Tic Tac Tell: Students demonstrate their understanding by explaining concepts and connections after exploring a paired text.
  3. Word Phrase Sentence: Students showcase their comprehension by explaining concepts and connections after engaging with a nonfiction text.
  4. 3 Facts (+ Bulletin Board): After exploring an informational text, students restate and categorize three facts while elaborating on one surprising fact. This activity builds background knowledge and generates interest in the topic.
  5. Wild About Numbers (includes small group instruction):
    1. Part 1: With teacher support, students learn to analyze infographic charts, assess data reliability, and identify patterns or connections.
    2. Part 2: Students explore a multimedia text set, gathering and interpreting information to create visual data representations, or infographics, based on their independent research.

Vocabulary Words and Figurative Language in The Wild Robot

In the vocabulary lessons, students actively categorize concepts, identify connections and relationships, and preview important words from the text. The lessons are designed to build a strong working vocabulary that enhances comprehension. By activating prior knowledge and encouraging students to make predictions about the story, you create an environment of anticipation and excitement for the reading experience.

There’s more to explore! Check out my related post on pairing animated short films with The Wild Robot. 

Get my Wild Robot Novel Study Lessons: 

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