Thinking About Your Thinking

Metacognitive Reading Worksheet

The Metamorphosis — Part Three

NAME

DATE

A DAY

B DAY

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BEFORE READING: Getting Ready

Complete this section before you start reading Part Three. You are warming up your thinking, not writing a final answer.

1. At the end of Part Two, you were left with three open questions to live with as you read Part Three:

At what point — if ever — does Gregor give up?
Is Grete's final decision a betrayal, or an honest act of self-preservation?
Whose story is this, really?

Which of these are you most curious about heading into Part Three — and what do you predict the answer might be?

2. By the end of Part Two, Grete has changed significantly — she started as the youngest, most dependent family member and has become the one running things. As you read Part Three, pay attention to what she does next. What do you predict she will do — and do you think you will understand her decision, even if it is difficult?

DURING READING: Checking In

Pause at the end of each section below and rate how clearly you followed what was happening. 1 = I was confused. 5 = I understood it clearly.

Comprehension Check-In: Rate your understanding of each section (1 = confused, 5 = clear).

Section	1	2	3	4	5
Section 1: Three lodgers have moved in. The whole family is now working. Gregor barely moves, barely eats. He listens to the family through his closed door.
Section 2: Grete plays violin for the lodgers. The lodgers are bored and unimpressed. Gregor hears the music and is drawn strongly toward it — he crawls toward the door to get closer.
Section 3: The lodgers are angry about Gregor and threaten to leave. Grete gives her speech: she refuses to call Gregor her brother and says the family must get rid of him.
Section 4: Gregor returns to his room. He thinks of his family with tenderness. He agrees — more firmly than Grete herself — that he must disappear. He dies quietly during the night.
Section 5: The family discovers Gregor has died. They feel relief. The lodgers are thrown out. The story ends with the family taking a tram into the countryside on a spring day — and noticing how Grete has grown up.

Double-Entry Journal: Find two moments in Part Three that stopped you — because they were striking, strange, uncomfortable, or made you feel something unexpected. Record the passage and explain your reaction.

Passage from the text (with page number if you can)	Why did this stop you? What did you think or feel?

Reading Tracker: For each prompt, find the specific moment in the text and record what you notice — and what you make of it.

What to look for	What the text shows (quote or summary, with page number)	My reaction or thought
Gregor hearing the violin. What exactly does he do — and what does the text say he feels or wants?
Grete's speech — the specific words she uses (or refuses to use) when she talks about Gregor to her parents.
Gregor's thoughts in his final moments — what is going through his mind as he lies in his room for the last time?

AFTER READING: First Thoughts

Complete this section once you have finished Part Three. These are your first responses — before class discussion. Write honestly. There is no single correct answer to any of these questions.

1. In your own words, what happens in Part Three? Write 3–4 sentences covering the key events. Keep it straightforward.

2. In the music scene, Gregor is drawn toward Grete’s violin playing more powerfully than anything else in weeks. Kafka then asks: “Was he an animal, that music could move him so?” What do you think Kafka is really asking with that question? Is he saying Gregor is an animal — or something else?

3. In her speech, Grete says she refuses to use the word “brother” when talking about Gregor. She calls him “this creature” and says the family must “try to get rid of it.” How do you feel about Grete at this moment? Can you understand her decision — even if part of you finds it hard to accept?

4. Kafka does not end the novella with Gregor’s death. He ends with the family on a tram in the spring sunshine, feeling relieved, noticing that Grete has grown into a young woman. Why do you think Kafka chose to end here? How does that ending make you feel?

5. Your Reading Experience: At the start of this unit, the story’s strangeness — the insect, the strange tone, the way nothing is quite explained — might have felt like an obstacle. Looking back now, from the end of the whole novella: has the strangeness changed for you? Did it get in the way, or did it end up doing something useful? What does your reading experience of this story tell you about how you read in general?

The Metamorphosis Unit — Metacognitive Reading Practice Part Three Monitor. Question. Clarify. Connect.