City of Ember Teacher Guide

Essential question: How can people respond when the systems they depend on begin to fail?

• Explain how evidence & problem solving shapes character choices.
• Support an interpretation with two accurately described scenes.
• Compare the portrayal with a selected passage from its source or another relevant text.

Introduce infrastructure, inference, maintenance, and accountability. Use the 2008 film and a teacher-selected novel passage. Fictional machines and creatures are not engineering models. AFI lists 95 minutes; some home editions run about 90 minutes. Check the assigned cut.

• Blackouts, dangerous machinery, pursuit, and frightening oversized creatures.
• Children face underground and water-related danger.
• Abuse of authority and some tense family situations.

Preview the assigned edition and arrange required permissions and an alternative source-based assignment. Students can explain harm without describing graphic acts or repeating slurs. Keep discussion focused on characters; do not require personal disclosures.

Pause after the job assignments, after the damaged instructions are found, after the mayor’s hoard is exposed, and after the river escape.

Use brief responses during viewing and reserve interpretation for afterward. Check subtitles and captions. If scenes are omitted, bridge the narrative and adapt the affected questions.

Separate what Lina and Doon observe from what city leaders claim. Discuss the story’s escape mechanism as a fictional solution, then compare one issue with an appropriate real source about resilient infrastructure.

For a short comparison, select one accessible source or excerpt, establish author/date/purpose, and compare one film claim with what it supports and leaves unanswered. Teacher selection and adaptation are required.

AFI film credits · Content advisory (spoilers)

• How can people respond when the systems they depend on begin to fail?
• Which scene best supports your interpretation, and what might another viewer notice?
• What does the film leave out or simplify?

Exit ticket: One claim, one supporting scene, and one question for further study.

Optional extension: Build an evidence chart with columns for film portrayal, external source, agreement or difference, and remaining uncertainty. Assess accuracy and reasoning.

Expected answers for 13 questions. Accept supported alternatives for analytical prompts.

1. What is infrastructure, and why does it matter?
   It is the underlying system of services and facilities that supports community life.
2. What was Ember designed to protect people from?
   Its builders created an underground refuge from a dangerous surface world.
3. Why does the lost box matter to the city’s future?
   It contains instructions intended to guide residents beyond Ember’s limited lifespan.
4. How do Lina and Doon change their assigned jobs?
   They exchange roles to better fit their interests and useful skills.
5. What do recurring blackouts suggest?
   They indicate that the city’s stability is deteriorating despite official assurances.
6. How does Lina discover a difficult clue?
   She finds the old instructions after parts of the message have been damaged.
7. Why do the friends reconstruct the message together?
   Different observations and skills help them turn fragments into a usable plan.
8. Why does reporting wrongdoing become risky?
   Those controlling the city can respond by pursuing the people who expose it.
9. How does cooperation matter during the escape?
   The group must interpret and operate mechanisms while keeping one another safe.
10. How do they try to share the discovery with Ember?
    They send a message down to help others find the route.
11. Which scene best shows evidence overcoming assumption?
    Identify an observation that changes a character’s understanding or plan.
12. How does a selected novel passage handle a clue differently?
    Compare information, pacing, or characterization with its screen treatment.
13. What real infrastructure question would require further research?
    Name an issue such as maintenance or emergency planning and an appropriate external source.

Expected answers for 20 questions. Accept supported alternatives for analytical prompts.

1. What is infrastructure, and why does it matter?
   It is the underlying system of services and facilities that supports community life.
2. How can people test a leader’s reassuring claim?
   Compare the claim with observable conditions and independent information.
3. What was Ember designed to protect people from?
   Its builders created an underground refuge from a dangerous surface world.
4. Why does the lost box matter to the city’s future?
   It contains instructions intended to guide residents beyond Ember’s limited lifespan.
5. How do Lina and Doon change their assigned jobs?
   They exchange roles to better fit their interests and useful skills.
6. What does Doon learn from working below the city?
   The generator and pipeworks reveal serious strain in the systems supporting Ember.
7. What do recurring blackouts suggest?
   They indicate that the city’s stability is deteriorating despite official assurances.
8. How does Lina discover a difficult clue?
   She finds the old instructions after parts of the message have been damaged.
9. Why do the friends reconstruct the message together?
   Different observations and skills help them turn fragments into a usable plan.
10. How does the mayor’s hoard change their view of authority?
    His private supplies contrast with the shortages others endure.
11. Why does reporting wrongdoing become risky?
    Those controlling the city can respond by pursuing the people who expose it.
12. What role do earlier builders’ plans play in the solution?
    The clues connect existing spaces and devices with an intended route out.
13. How does cooperation matter during the escape?
    The group must interpret and operate mechanisms while keeping one another safe.
14. Why is the river route frightening?
    It places them in an unfamiliar moving system beyond their usual surroundings.
15. What does reaching the surface change?
    They discover a world their limited knowledge did not fully anticipate.
16. How do they try to share the discovery with Ember?
    They send a message down to help others find the route.
17. Which scene best shows evidence overcoming assumption?
    Identify an observation that changes a character’s understanding or plan.
18. What does the mayor’s conduct reveal about accountability?
    Authority without scrutiny can allow personal advantage to override public need.
19. How does a selected novel passage handle a clue differently?
    Compare information, pacing, or characterization with its screen treatment.
20. What real infrastructure question would require further research?
    Name an issue such as maintenance or emergency planning and an appropriate external source.

Final writing: Look for a clear claim, two accurately described scenes, reasoning, and a meaningful limitation of the portrayal or a question for further study. Accept different supported interpretations. No graphic descriptions are required.