The Silmarillion - Complete Comprehensive Tests, Study Questions, and Vocab

These materials should enable an instructor to teach and assess a complete, high school level unit of study on Tolkien's Silmarillion. Includes the following:

- 2 Comprehensive tests covering the entirety of The Silmarillion. (The first test covers the first 2 parts of the book, which are short, as well as the first half of the 3rd part, which is very long. The second test covers the second half of this third part, along with the remaining 2 short parts of the book.) Answer keys are included. Each test consists of 40 multiple choice questions (30 on comprehension, 10 on vocabulary). The vocabulary questions are on a separate page, so they can be left out if a test on purely comprehension is desired.

- 12 open-ended questions designed to fuel class discussions and get students to make personal connections to the text. The length and quality of the required answers for these questions can be determined by the individual teacher. Teachers may also wish to use some of these questions as individual writing assignments, or as essay questions for the tests.

- 62 high school level vocabulary words. A table is included which shows each word, its part of speech, its definition, and the specific chapter it occurs in. Since not all the words occur on the tests, the Excel file also includes a column indicating which words are on the tests and which are not.

(A personal note: as an English teacher and as a lover of great literature, I can honestly say no book has moved me like Tolkien's Silmarillion has. It is a truly breathtaking and beautiful work! Now it's also very dense book with lots of specific names of people and places, but if you can guide your students through those challenges, they will be SO enriched by the themes this book touches on: the desire for immortality, the mystery of evil in the world, and the eternality of love, just to name a few!)