Rationale: Based on the popular series of films from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Indiana Jones Adventures depicts the hero’s stories in an easily digestible form for readers of all ages. Because of the book’s exciting visuals, fast-paced story, and historically accurate settings, it can be a useful tool in both a Language Arts classroom as well as a Social Studies one.

Grade Levels: Middle School

Objective: The student will be able to use historical and literary context clues to determine and understand the meaning of specialized vocabulary words; make predictions, draw inferences, and connect prior knowledge to support reading comprehension.

The student will also be able to determine how archeology is used to understand the lives of ancient peoples; identify locations on a world map; and use knowledge of actual history to contextualize events that occur in the book.

Time Alloted: Depending on class length. One 90 minute class or two 45 minute classes.

Vocabulary: consolation, expedition, excavation, ideology, magnitude, marionettes, mercenary, meticulous, modicum, scholarship

Anticipatory Set: Indiana Jones is an iconic figure and, thanks to the recent box office hit, has fresh appeal for a new generation of fans. The story told in the first volume of Indiana Jones Adventures lets readers follow Indiana as he crisscrosses the globe in search of historical artifacts. This vehicle allows students a unique perspective on the importance of preserving history, while simultaneously enriching their vocabulary—through advanced words that can be decoded via contextual clues, including the illustrations—and make them better readers.

Direct Teaching: Give the students time to read the book independently (80 pages)—it could be assigned as homework the night before. If you have more time allotted for this lesson, you could participate in guided reading during class as well.

Language Arts: You will notice that there are several rather advanced vocabulary words in the dialog balloons.

List these words on the board or overhead projector before reading the story aloud, and have your students record them in a “vocabulary journal” in their notebooks. After spending some time practicing pronunciation, you can separate your class into smaller groups to look up and define each word.

Once you begin reading, have students note each time one of the selected vocabulary words appears in the story. For instance, one of the listed vocabulary words—expedition—appears for the first time on page nine, panel one. When you come upon one of these words, help your students determine the word’s meaning via context clues. It might also be helpful to use the artist’s illustrations to assist the students’ understanding. In small groups, they can discuss whether the dictionary definition helped them understand the word or if they understood it better in context with the story.

The main characters in the story are after ancient Norse artifacts. Lead students in a discussion about Norse mythology. Perhaps some have even heard of figures like Odin and Thor. Assign different aspects of Norse mythology—like the Temple of Uppsala that figures into the plot of Indiana Jones Adventures—for your students to research.

Social Studies: Though the particular time period is explicitly stated as “winter 1930” in the book, you can still allow your students to figure out the setting by using historical clues. For example, Nazis figure into the plot, yet Dr. Lawrence appears to be unaware of who they are. Have your students research significant events that occurred in 1930. A possible discussion question: How could someone be unaware of the Nazi party in 1930?

The story features set pieces that take place in at least three geographic locations. The Indiana Jones films are famous for sequences that trace the hero’s globe-trotting journey on a map. You can recreate this in your classroom by having your students identify the locations—like Uppsala, Sweden or London, England—on a globe or map. If you have printouts of maps for each student, have them trace Indiana’s travels on the map with a red marker.

Indiana Jones is probably the world’s most famous fictional archeologist. Ask if any of your students know what an archeologist does. Does anyone want to be an archeologist when they grow up? Why or why not? After a class discussion, your students can research the profession further. They can even let them be “virtual” archeologists and use the internet to find information on ancient artifacts. 

Please note: Though this story is targeted to readers of all ages, be aware that there a few instances of violent acts throughout, including someone being killed (off-screen) by a gun. Also, there is a reference to a “narcotic” that turns one of the henchmen into a raging “berserker” which may be considered an inappropriate drug reference, depending on the sensibilities of your particular school.

Keith Chow is a former high school teacher and currently a professional education content writer. He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology from The New Press.