Hole In My Life

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 factors might motivate criminal behavior? How might decisions and choices lead to criminal activity? What is the role of guilt or remorse in criminal behavior?

Teaching Suggestion: Jack Gantos begins to romanticize criminal behavior and is motivated by his desire to become a great writer. His obsession with experiences leads him to become a drug smuggler who is later caught and incarcerated. Gantos makes the assertion he does not feel guilty for committing the crime but is concerned about being caught. Consider discussing various motivations for crimes and small choices that lead to criminal activity. Then consider analyzing the role of guilt and remorse about crime.

• This article, hosted by Maryville University, describes seven different types of crimes criminals commonly commit and how criminal justice professionals study perpetrators’ behavior in order to bring them to justice.
• “Can Criminals Experience Remorse?” from Psychology Today evaluates the capacity some criminals possess—and do not possess—to feel sorry for their crimes.

Short Activity

Use these prompts to brainstorm ideas on the writing process and what makes a good writer. Generate short lists of words, phrases, ideas, and images in 1-minute timed brainstorms for each prompt; then share your results in discussion.

• Should imitation have a place in writing?
• What is the role of life experience in writing?
• What makes a good author?
• Is writing a practiced skill set or a gift?
• How might self-discipline help or hinder writing?

Teaching Suggestion: Gantos pursues a criminal activity to cultivate his writing skill through experiences. Consider discussing the questions below that are posed in the memoir. One way to cap this activity is to have students discuss their brainstormed ideas in small groups, then ask each group to have a representative to present commonly mentioned ideas.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who would benefit from an additional challenge may find it beneficial to research and analyze advice from published writers on what helped them to cultivate their skills. Students might construct and display a series of visual aid posters representing 3-5 commonly represented pieces of advice.

Personal Connection Prompt

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

Describe a time when you wanted to achieve an important goal. What did you want to achieve? How far were you willing to go to obtain your goal? What kind of risky behaviors or ventures might you have been willing to participate in to acquire it?

Teaching Suggestion: Gantos’s desire to become a good writer leads him to justify his criminal behavior. It might be beneficial to lead a discussion on important goals and the lengths to which people are willing to go to achieve them.