Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2007.

Lexile Level: 550L

Recommended For: Grades 6-12

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Summary: Clay Jensen, a senior in high school, comes home to find a mysterious package filled with thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate, Hannah Baker, who committed suicide two weeks before. He spends a heartbreaking night listening to all thirteen tapes with Hannah’s voice explaining what and who lead her to suicide.

Selling Tool: Please click here for a book talk on Thirteen Reasons Why.

Standards:

AASL: 1.1.1 Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects and make the real world connection for using this process in own life.

1.1.7 Make sense of information gathered from diverse sources by identifying misconceptions, main and supporting ideas, conflicting information, and point of view or bias.

Common Core Standards:

CC.8.R.I.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CC.7.R.I.2 Key Ideas and Details: Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their developments over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Learning Goal: Students will use poetry as a way of relating to the characters in the novel, Thirteen Reasons Why. Throughout the book, the main character, Hannah, describes how she likes and relates to poetry. She uses several lines from Shakespeare and often speaks in a very poetic way. Students will practice writing their own poems.

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will discuss,  in small groups, coping mechanisms and different resources available to them to deal with stress and bullying.
2. Students will discuss, as a class, ways to help peers who are struggling emotionally and psychologically.
3. Students will use the website www.pongoteenwriting.org to find two poems written by teens that provoke some feeling for them.
4. Students will connect the poems they found to the text, Thirteen Reason Why and try to find connections shared with Hannah and her problems. The poem “I Just Thought You Should Know” on pongoteenwriting.org is addressed to Hannah and may be helpful.
5. Students will pick a character from the book (either Clay, Hannah, or any of the main subjects of the tapes) and write a poem from their point of view. Students may use the writing activities on the cite as a guide.

Learning Outcome:

1. Students will be able to identify ways to cope with stress and help peers in need.
2. Students will understand the effects of bullying.
3. Students will create original poetry relating to one of the characters from the book.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By: Sherman Alexie

Lexile Level: 600L

Suggested Grades: 9-12

Genre: Realistic Fiction

2007 National Book Award Winner

Summary: Junior is a 14-year-old living on the Spokane Indian reservation. Trying to better his life, he starts attending a nearby all-white high school. His own people look at him like he’s a traitor and the kids in his new school look at him like he’s an outsider. He struggles to make friends and adjust to his new environment. This novel is based on the author’s own experiences. It features drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art. It tells a story of one young Native American trying to break away from the life he was destined to live.

Possible Learning Activity: Throughout the novel, Junior talks about how he draws pictures and comics. Ellen Forney created illustrations to supplement the writing of Sherman Alexie. Students will write a mini biography about themselves and include a narrative comic. There are several examples from the text that students can use. Here are a few examples:

Standards:

New York State Learning Standards and Core Curriculum:

CC.RL.9-10.2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CC.RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will draw parallels between themselves and the characters of the novel, develop an understanding of the internal and external expectations of their lives and will write a journal entry on how their lives relate to one of the characters from the novel.
2. Students will explore the roles that other people play in their lives to develop an understanding of how societal and familial expectations shape their choices and work in groups to write down the different ways family and society affects their choices..
3. Students will create a comic strip portraying an event in their lives. They will use examples from the text to creatively portray the event.

Possible Learning Outcome: Students will make connections to the characters of the novel and recognize that there are external and internal forces that shape their daily decisions. They will also create a mini comic strip that portrays an event in their lives.

Inside Out and Back Again: A Book Review, Graphic Poem, and Learning Activity

By: Charlene V. Martoni

Title: Inside Out and Back Again
Author/illustrator: Thanhha Lai
Genre: Poetry/novel in verse, fiction, historical fiction, realistic fiction, multicultural
Age Range: 8-12
Grade Level: 3-7
Lexile Level: 300








MLA 8 Citation: Lai, Thanhha. Inside Out and Back Again. Harper Collins, 2013.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL BOOK REVIEW SLIDESHOW😀

CLICK HERE FOR THE LEARNING ACTIVITY OUTLINE.

SELLING TOOL: Graphic Poem

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation written by Duncan Tonatiuh

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation
Duncan Tonatiuh
AD870L

            This is an account of Sylvia Mendez’s experience after her family sued their school district for segregating their family because of their heritage. The story covers Sylvia’s family’s experience before, during, and after the court case.

SLJ Best Books 2014, Nonfiction
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014, Picture Books
Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature, Best Multicultural Books of 2014
New York Public Library, 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing 2014, Nonfiction
Winner, IRA Notable Books for a Global Society, 2015
2015 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
2015 Pura Belpré Award, Honor, Illustrator
2015 Robert F. Sibert Medal, Honor Book
ALA Notable Books for Children 2015, Middle Readers
2015 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award
2014 Cybils Awards Finalist, Nonfiction for Elementary & Middle Grades
2015 Jane Addams Award Winner, Young Readers; 2015 Ameréicas Award Winner
Capitol Choices 2015
2015 Robert F. Sibert Award Honor Book
Pura Belpré Award, Honor, Illustrator
NCSS Carter G. Woodson Book Award 2015 Winner, Elementary

Learning Activity:
After listening to the story, the student will answer the following questions about the courtroom scene: Sylvia sat watching the superintendent’s talk on the stand to the lawyer. He says the Mendez children were denied entry to his school because after he spoke with them, they didn’t know English, they had lice, tuberculosis, hygiene and behavioral problems. Sylvia is upset because his answers weren’t truthful. What actually happened to Sylvia and her family when they spoke to the superintendent? What was his actual reaction/response to them? Lastly, using the illustrations as guide, their character shapes/outlines were all the same so can the student see what is different between the characters in the story? What stood out between Sylvia and her cousins’ skin tone that caused the school to reject her but not her cousins?

Standards:
CCSS.ELA-L.RL.2.1 - Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate an understanding of key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-L.RL.2.3 - Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
CCSS.ELA-L.RL.2.7 - Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate an understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

Goal:
The student will recount details of the story to understand that what they hear is not always the truth. The student will look over the illustrations in the story and explain the reasons for the characters’ actions within the story.

Objective:
Cognitive -
            The student reviews the story and illustrations in the book to identify the discrepancies within a character’s dialog by using evidence from earlier in the story.
            The student will use the illustrations to provide support for their reasoning why the character reacted as they did.
            The student will write 2 paragraphs on how a character’s dialog was not truthful based on evidence from the story.

Outcome:
The student will listen to the story, look through the book’s illustrations for how different characters are drawn/colored, and answer the questions provided by the teacher. The student will discuss their thoughts on court case and discrimination in schools with the teacher and class.

Selling Tools: Read Aloud
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ag0U21XcgaBqeOf8_7WextMYxIEcQnn1/view?usp=sharing

Barbed Wire Baseball written by Marissa Moss, Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu

Barbed Wire Baseball
Author Marissa Moss, Illustrator Yuko Shimizu
800L

                This is a retelling of the experience of Kenichi Zenimura during the Japanese Internment during World War II in the southwest of the United States. This story covers when Zeni was young, how he aspired to play baseball, how he achieved his goals as an adult, and lastly how he kept his dream of baseball alive for his sons and himself while his family was imprisoned within the internment camp.

Learning Activity:
After reading through the story, the student will look over a preselected set of images from Ansel Adams’ collection of photographs from the Manzanar Relocation Center in 1943. These images will be scenes of the baseball games, children doing activities, and families together outdoors. From these images, the student will compare the images from the book to what the real photographs were like. The student will write about what is similar and what is different between the two depictions of the events at the Japanese Internment camps.

Standards:
CCSS.ELA-L.RL.4.1 - Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-L.RL.4.7 - Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

Goal:
The student will write a compare and contrast about the real images from the historic event of the book with the drawn illustrations and fictionalized story.

Objective:
Cognitive –
                The student will observe the drawn imagery and find similarities between the illustrations and the photographs of the events.
                The student will then write about what is different between the two images.

Outcome:
The student will listen to the book, look through the selected historical photographs about the topic of the book, compare and contrast the book to the real-life images. The student will write about the differences between the two.

Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, by Barbara Park

 

Author:  Barbara Park

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Lexile Level: 420L

ISBN: 978-0679844075

Grades:  1-4

Summary:  Junie B. Jones is in kindergarten with her friends Grace and Lucile. She is trying to be a good girl but sometimes can’t help but “shot off her mouth” when someone disagrees with her. And of course, that gets her in trouble. There will be a job day in her school soon and since Junie B wants to have many professions she has trouble picking just one. Finally, to her mom’s surprise and her classmates’ astonishment, a great idea comes to her to combine all of them into one career that she will show to her class.

Book Talk: Gotta Love Junie B. with her too honest statements! This book will surely get some laughs from the reader, no matter the grade level.  Junie B is in kindergarten but she knows how to express herself and sometimes she gets in trouble for her “big fat mouth”.  Plus, there is a job day coming up and after thinking very hard and long, she finally figures out what she wants to be when she grows up. Yeah, except not everyone is excited as she was at her announcement…

Activity: A teacher will read aloud the book to the students. Afterwards, the students will be asked to recall some of the things Junie B. does or the phrases she uses. The students will then write out the popular Junie B. phrases and expressions and write them on a head band that they will make out of paper. They also have to include 2 pictures on it, which could be printed off of internet. or drawn by hand.

Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

Goal:  Students will recognize the main character’s behaviors and vocabulary

Objectives:  

·         Using the book, students will write out Junie B. Jones phrases and use them to make Junie B. Jones mask.

·         Students will have at least three expressions and two pictures on their mask.

Materials: Book “Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, paper, pencils, colored pencils, glue

Outcome: Students will learn one way to present a character from a book by creating a Junie B. Jones themed head band

Works Cited:

Park, Barbara. Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth. Random House Books for Young Readers. 1993.

https://www.amazon.com/Junie-Jones-Her-Big-Mouth/dp/0679844074

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/junie-b-jones-lesson-plan/