Teaching "Red Scarf Girl" has been developed to help classrooms explore essential themes, including conformity, obedience, prejudice, and justice. This study guide accompanies Red Scarf Girl, Ji-li Jiang's engaging memoir that provides an insightful window into the first tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution in China. Exploring the choices made by Jiang, her family, and her peers provides an opportunity for students to gain awareness of a significant moment in world history and provides them with an opportunity to reflect on their own role as members of families, schools, neighborhoods and nations.

Features include:

• Historical background essay, by Professor William Joseph, Wellesley University
• Journal and discussion questions to accompany each chapter of Red Scarf Girl
• 19 historical documents, some in full color, including propaganda posters, photographs, government documents, poems, and more
• Suggested activities for literature and social studies classrooms
• Timelines of the Cultural Revolution and the history of modern China, plus a map of China
• Teaching strategies to strengthen students' skills as readers, writers, listeners, and critical thinkers