Educational Programs at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial
We currently offer an onsite programs for elementary and middle school students. The onsite visit can be adapted to multiple ages and grade levels, and we offer complimenting pre-visit and post-visit activities at our Lessons and Programs page.
For Elementary Schools
“Thomas Wolfe and Progress, Progress, Progress”
This program explores life in the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse during the years covered by Thomas Wolfe’s first book, Look Homeward, Angel. Students will investigate how our homes have changed since this time. The guided program contains three 20–minute sections, including: a tour of the first floor of the Old Kentucky Home, a walk through our exhibit hall and/or an exhibit hall scavenger, and hands-on activities demonstrating household tools and chores from the boardinghouse.
At the conclusion of this program, students will be able to:
- Name Thomas Wolfe as the author from Asheville who wrote Look Homeward, Angel.
- Identify a “memorial” as an object or structure established to honor an individual or group or preserve memory of an event.
- Recognize Thomas Wolfe as an author who used his real life to create fiction.
- Identify a boardinghouse as a house in which lodgers rent rooms for one or more nights.
- List three chores done in a boardinghouse.
- Describe what tourists found appealing about Asheville.
- List objects from the household and the affect it had on everyday life.
This program is designed to complement the following sections of the NC Essential Standards for Social Studies.
1.H.1.1: Explain how and why neighborhoods and communities change over time.
1.G.2.1: Explain ways people change the environment (planting trees, recycling, cutting down trees, building homes, building streets, etc.).
2.H.1.1: Use timelines to show sequencing of events.
2.G.2.2: Explain how people positively and negatively affect the environment.
3.H.1.1: Explain key historical events that occurred in the local community and regions over time.
3.H.1.2: Analyze the impact of contributions made by diverse historical figures in local communities and regions over time.
3.G.1.3: Exemplify how people adapt to, change and protect the environment to meet their needs.
3.G.1.4: Explain how the movement of goods, people and ideas impact the community.
3.G.1.5: Summarize the elements (cultural, demographic, economic and geographic) that define regions (community, state, nation and world).
4.H.1.3: Explain how people, events and developments brought about changes to communities in various regions of North Carolina.
4.H.2.1: Explain why important buildings, statues, monuments and place names are associated with the state’s history.
4.G.1.1: Summarize changes that have occurred in North Carolina since statehood (population growth, transportation, communications and land use).
4.G.1.4: Explain the impact of technology (communication, transportation and inventions) on North Carolina’s citizens, past and present.
5.G.1.3: Exemplify how technological advances (communication, transportation, and agriculture) have allowed people to overcome geographic limitations.
5.G.1.4: Exemplify migration within or immigration to the United States in order to identify push and pull factors (why people left/why people came).
5.C.1.3: Explain how the movement of goods, ideas and various cultural groups influenced the development of regions in the United States.
For Middle and High Schools
“Thomas Wolfe’s Family, Friends, and Folklore”
This program examines life in the Old Kentucky Home during the years covered by Look Homeward, Angel. There are two main sections: A video overview of Thomas Wolfe’s life and career and a 25-minute tour of the Old Kentucky Home.
At the conclusion of this program, students will be able to:
- Name Thomas Wolfe as the author from Asheville who wrote Look Homeward, Angel.
- Recognize Thomas Wolfe as an author who used his real life to create fiction.
- Describe the relationship between Thomas Wolfe and his brother Ben.
- Recall Thomas Wolfe’s father as a person with a drinking problem that impacted the family.
- Identify Thomas Wolfe’s mother’s focus on business as a detriment to his childhood.
- Define the differences between hotels/motels and boardinghouses.
- List household chores required to run a boardinghouse.
This program is designed to complement the following sections of the NC ELA Standard Course of Study and NC Essential Standards for Social Studies:
6.H.2.3, 7.H.2.3, 8.H.3.2, 8.C.1.2, AH2.H.1.3,
12.C.2.1, 12.C.7.1, 12.C.8.1
CCR Anchor Standards RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.4, RI.6-12.6, RI.6-12.9,
RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RL.6-12.9, W.6-12.3, W.6-12.5.