STAGE

Pocahontas
1 Retold by Tim Vicary

Introduction

This ungraded summary is for the teacher’s use only

and should not be given to students.

The story
In 1607 a group of English colonists arrive in Virginia,
where they meet the Algonquin Indians and build a
town which they call Jamestown. Most of the Indians
co-operate with the colonists, trading with them. In
particular the colonists need food, which they get from
the Indians in exchange for things they have brought of the better known – probably because John Smith
from England. himself was able to write it down several years after
John Smith leads a party of men who want to buy it happened.
food. There is a fight with a group of Indians and Smith
is taken prisoner and brought before the Algonquin Before Reading
king, Powhatan. Some of the Indians want to kill Smith, Here are some ways to help your students approach
but Powhatan’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Pocahontas, the story:
manages to save his life. Smith stays in the Algonquin 1 Give students the title of the book and show them
village for some time, learning their language, before the picture on the cover. Ask them to try and guess
being allowed to return to Jamestown. what kind of the story it is.
Later, Pocahontas comes to Jamestown, where she 2 Give students a copy of the text on the back
spends a lot of time with John Smith, learning about cover of the book, and of the story introduction
England and the English. She wants to marry Smith, on the first page. When they have read the texts,
but, partly because she is so young, Smith refuses. ask them a few questions about the story, or use
She returns to her village, and relations between the the Before Reading Activities in the back of each
colonists and the Indians begin to deteriorate. Bookworm.
Several years later, when Pocahontas is nineteen, 3 Use the pre-reading activity in this worksheet.
a group of Englishmen take her prisoner. They want 4 If there is a recording of this title, play the first few
to use her to put pressure on her father. John pages and stop at an interesting point.
Smith has left Jamestown, and, thinking that he is
dead, Pocahontas becomes friendly with, and marries,
another man, John Rolfe.
In 1616, Rolfe, Pocahontas and their son make the
voyage to England. They visit London, and Pocahontas
even meets the King and Queen of England – who tell
her that John Smith is still alive. Pocahontas meets
John Smith again – but it is too late. She is married and
she has a son. Six months later, she fell ill, and died
in England before she could return to Virginia. John
Smith never married.

Background to the story

This true story looks at the problems that occur
when two cultures meet. Similar stories must have
taken place, at different times in history, in different
parts of the world, but the Pocahontas story is one

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 STAGE
Pocahontas
1 Pre-reading activities

People and places

1 Read these sentences about the story. Do you think they are true or not?

YES/NO
a Pocahontas was a young Algonquin Indian girl.

b Pocahontas was born in England.

c Pocahontas lived in a village called

Werewocomoco.
d Pocahontas married an English man called
John Smith.
e The Algonquin Indians are happy when the
English come to live in America.
f Pocahontas went to London.

g Pocahontas had three children and lived until

she was seventy-two.
h The Alonquin Indians killed John Smith.

2 Match the chapter titles with the sentences.

1 The English in Virginia a ‘I like you very much, but I’m not the right
husband for you.’
2 John Smith and Pocahontas b Every day she visited big houses and talked to rich
3 A friend for the English and important people.
c He opened his eyes and saw the face of the young
4 A wife for John Smith girl, with her beautiful dark eyes.
d ‘He was very ill. So he went home to England.’
5 Where is John Smith? e They wanted to find a new world in the west.
6 A husband for Pocahontas f ‘We want to be your friends, and friends are better
than guns.’
7 England g ‘I love you, Pocahontas, and I want to marry you.’

To the teacher

Aim: To familiarize students with some of the
characters and the setting
Time: 10–20 minutes
Organization: This activity can be done as one
activity or as two separate pre-reading activities. First
ask the students to look at the eight statements at
the top of the page and decide whether they think
these things are going to happen in the story. It
might be helpful for them to read the back cover of
the book if they have no ideas about the story.
Next ask the students to match each chapter title
with some words from that chapter.
Use this background information to encourage
students to predict what may happen in the story.
Key 1: a Yes, b No, c Yes, d No, e No, f Yes, g No,
h No.
Key 2: 1e, 2c, 3f, 4a, 5d, 6g, 7b.

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 STAGE
Pocahontas
1 While reading activity

What happens next?

Which of these happens in the story, do you think?

THE ENGLISH YES/NO POCAHONTAS YES/NO

give guns to Powhatan – and runs away from her father and
Powhatan becomes friends with goes to live with the English.
them. stays with her father and is not
give guns to Powhatan – and a friend to the English.
Powhatan fights them. takes guns from the English
do not give guns to Powhatan, and gives them to her father.
so Powhatan tries to take them. takes food from her father and
do not give guns to Powhatan, gives it to the English.
so Powhatan fights them. Something else . . .
Something else . . .

THE ALGONQUINS YES/NO JOHN SMITH YES/NO

kill all the English. goes back to England because
he does not want to fight the
fight the English and the
Indians.
English return to England.
fights the Indians and dies.
learn to live with the English.
goes to live with the Indians.
give food to the English for one
more year. Something else . . .
Something else . . .

To the teacher

Where: At the end of Chapter 3
Aim: To encourage students to predict the
development of the story
Time: 15–20 minutes
Organization: Give each student, or group of
students, a copy of the worksheet. Ask them to
decide, without looking beyond the end of Chapter
3, what will happen to each of these people. Correct
predictions are not important, and students should
also be encouraged to write their own ideas in the
Something else space. It may also be interesting
for students to keep their worksheets and see, as
they read on, whether or not their predictions were
correct.

111 © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PHOTOCOPIABLE

 STAGE
Pocahontas
1 After reading activity

Places and people

LONDON

S`YO]PO^ZQSZ`^P^ ]TNS[PZ[WP

POCAhONTAS

MTRSZ`^P^

PcNT_TYR OT]_d

MLObL_P] YZT^d _SZ`^LYO^ZQ[PZ[WP

VIRGINIA

JOhN SMITh

To the teacher

Aim: To focus students’ attention back on the places
and characters in the story
Time: 20 minutes
Organization: Give each student, or group of
students, a copy of the worksheet. Using the poster
of London as a model, they should fill the spaces
around the other pictures with appropriate words or
phrases to describe the places or people.

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