Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005

Christensen, BYU, 2010

Guided Imagery

Purpose This strategy is designed to help readers engage all their senses as they read a story. It should immerse students into the world of the novel and help them picture the ideas, settings, and characters of the novel more clearly. This strategy will build a base for inquiry, discussion, and group work, explore and stretch students’ concepts, and encourage problem solving. Context Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can get slow at times, especially right in the middle as students wait for the climax in the ending chapter. It can sometimes be hard to keep going and stay in the novel at this point, but this strategy will reawaken student interest and give them things to consider as they continue to the end of the story. Directions Time Limit: 10-20 minutes Materials Needed: Sounds of streets with horses and carriages, soft music

1. Dim the lights and have students close their eyes and listen to the following passage.

Close your eyes … tell all your muscles to relax … You are walking down a cobblestone street, hooded in a dark cloak … The sun is setting quickly and the smoggy sky is tinted dark red, orange, and purple … as you turn a corner and enter an even darker alleyway you increase you pace … You reach a dark door, insert a key into the hole, and turn the knob … it opens slowly and you step quickly inside … you close the door behind you … and find yourself in a dark room lit only by one small lantern. As you stand there with your eyes adjusting to the darkness you remove your cloak. What are you thinking? Is there anyone else in the room? If so, are you speaking? What are you saying? Is the room warm or drafty? How do you feel? Gently the door opens again behind you and you step out into the night. You walk back down the road and you are back where you started … tell your muscles to begin to move … open your eyes. (Idea from Joyce Wilkinson)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005

Christensen, BYU, 2010

2. Tell students to remember a specific door in their lives either literal or figurative. 3. Free write notes about the door. Was it a happy place, warm, sunny, or dark and

foreboding? What made it so? 4. After a few minutes to free write ideas about it. Ask students to compose a

paragraph, poem, story, or narrative based on the thoughts already written. 5. Share these compositions with a partner and then open the class to discussion. 6. What was some of the imagery students used to describe their doors? What kind

of a mood did the experience set you in and still how many of you chose to write about happy kinds of doors?

7. Remember the door at the beginning of the book for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. How has that influenced the tone of the story? What further role do you think it will play?

Assessment Students may turn in their compositions as a kind of participatory exit slip, but no further assessment is required.