Student Guide

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Rick and Morty
Season 1, Episode 2
"Lawnmower Dog"

Warning: this is the teacher's guide - it is NOT for students.

Rick and Morty (S1, E2) Plot Summary

Snuffles, the family dog, pees on the carpet again. So at Jerry's request, Rick gives the dog an intelligence-enhancing helmet.

Rick and Morty enter the dream of Morty's teacher, in an Inception-style scenario, in an attempt to make him give Morty a[...]

Getting Started

2 ~ 4 minutes

Welcome your students to the lesson and ask them what they thought of today's episode.

  1. What did you think of this episode of Rick and Morty?
  2. Can you give Rick and Morty season 1, ep. 2 a star-rating between 1 and 5 stars?
  3. What factors did you consider when giving your rating?
  4. Are there any particular scenes, characters, or details you're looking forward to discussing?

Sections

Warm-Up

5 ~ 20 minutes

Warm up by asking your students to consider some open-ended general questions:

Q 1
Do you have any pets? If not, which pet would you love to have?
Q 2
Have you seen the movie Inception? Do you think someday we will be able to experience somebody else's dreams?
Q 3
Are humans unethical and immoral? Would intelligent dogs do a better job of ruling the Earth?
Q 4
Did you ever get embarrassed in class by a teacher? How would you react if the same situation happened now that you're older?

Key Expressions

Approx 30 ~ 60 minutes

Review these 29 key expressions from the transcript:

How to use this section

Level 1:For each expression, review the meaning and example with your student, then ask your student to listen/repeat the example sentence after you.

Level 2:You can ask your student to create their own example sentences, using the same expression.

Image Prompt

5 minutes

Tell your students that you will show them an image and ask them a question. They will have a limited amount of time to respond.

Countdown
Why is Jerry so frustrated and upset?

Check Understanding

20 ~ 30 minutes

Let's make sure your students watched the episode and understood what was going on.

How to use this section

As the teacher, you can press the "SEE ANSWER" button to check our suggested answers. Students do not see this button.

  1. Why does Rick want to go into Morty's teacher's dreams?
  2. Why didn't Rick's plan inside Morty's teacher's dream work at first?
  3. What happens if you get killed in somebody else's dream.
  4. When Snuffles first tries to talk, what does Jerry think he is saying? What does Summer think he is saying?
  5. How does Snuffles become smarter than Rick wanted?
  6. How does Rick keep saving himself and Morty inside the dreams? Why does he fail?
  7. Why does the dog change his name? What was the old name and the new name?
  8. How do Rick and Morty escape from Scary Terry and the dream world?
  9. How did Rick save the world from the intelligent dogs?

Discussion

20 ~ 35 minutes

Lead students in an open-ended discussion of the scenes, themes, plot and characters in the episode

Q 1
This episode is about going into somebody's dreams and convincing them of something. If you could, whose dreams would you go into and what would you try to convince them of?
Q 2
Why did Mr. Goldenfold bury his fantasy about Summer into a dream within a dream? Does this show that he is a bad person or even a criminal?
Q 3
What would be some benefits of having a super intelligent dog? What would be some drawbacks?
Q 4
Would you give an intelligence helmet to your own pet? How many batteries would you put in?
Q 5
Do you think (some) animals are more ethical than (some) people?

Shadowing Practice

10 ~ 15 minutes

Shadowing is a repetition technique for more natural pronunciation.

How to use this section

Ask your students to memorize this passage from the transcript and repeat it back to you, being careful to match the pronunciation, inflection, and emotion they heard in the show.

This can be assigned as homework or practiced together during class time.

Start playback at time: 10:15

Where there are yellow-highlighted gaps in the passage, press on the gap to see the correct text.
1
Where are my testicles, Summer?
2
Where are my testicles, Summer?
3
They were removed. Where have they gone?
4
Oh, wow. That's an intense line of questioning, snuffles.
5
Do not call me that!
6
"Snuffles" was my slave name. You shall now call me snowball, because my fur is pretty and white.
7
Okay, snowball, just calm down, okay? You're scaring me.
8
Scaring you? Tell me, Summer, if a human was born with stumpy legs, would they breed it with another deformed human and put their children on display like the dachshund?
9
Uhhh... Hey.
10
Oh, wow. Okay, is is is everything okay in here?
11
Jerry, come to rub my face in urine again? No!

Role Play

10 ~ 20 minutes

Students take the roles of characters and act out the scenes by creating their own version of events

Option
1
One student is Snuffles and the other is Jerry. Snuffles wants Jerry to understand how wrong he was to mistreat his dog. Jerry doesn't agree. He wants to explain why he treated Snuffles like that.
Option
2
One student is Mr. Goldenfold and the other is Morty. Inside the “sex dream within a dream”, Morty confronts Mr. Goldenfold about the fact his teacher is dreaming of his sister.

Grammar Tense Practice

10 ~ 20 minutes

Decide on a tense and ask your student to click on it. They will have to fill in the plot summary in the tense of your choice.

1
Snuffles, the family dog, pees on the carpet again...
next...
_____________
following that...
_____________
2
To escape, Rick and Morty must go into the next dream....
following that...
_____________
next...
_____________
3
Rick and Morty manage to enter Terry's dream, where they stand up for him against his teacher, who is bullying him...
next...
_____________
following that...
_____________
4
Rick causes Morty to fall into a coma....
following that...
_____________
next...
_____________

Articles (a/an/the) Practice

5 ~ 30 minutes

Ask your student to click on any incorrect articles, or to click in the space before a word that needs an article.

Some articles may be correct already, but clicking on them will show an alternate option.

Snuffles,
the
family
dog,
pees
on
the
carpet
again.
So
at
Jerry's
request,
Rick
gives
a
dog
a
intelligence-enhancing
helmet.
Restart articles practice?
You have found 0 out of 4 issues

Guessing Game

5 ~ 10 minutes

Ask your student to type letters and try to guess the expression

Some expresssions might have punctuation, like question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), hyphens (-), or single quotation marks (').

“The best technique for X is…”
???
?????
??
?????
Guess 15 more letters

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