Oh Bill. I love it! I flagged your post for use this school year. I have read both books and so have many of my students. I read *The Girls* aloud to a sixth grade class during my Internship 6 years ago. The kids hung on every word and the boys were as into it as the girls. So much worthwile discussion came from this great read.
On 7/24/07, Bill IVEY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi! > > Two years ago, I taught a lesson in characterization that seemed to work > pretty well. About two-thirds of my students were reading "The Girls" by > Amy Goldman Koss, which deals with girl-on-girl bullying from the > perspective of five different girls involved (the leader, the enforcer, > the passive observer, the reluctant participant, the victim). The other > third were reading "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass, a sort of > coming-of-age novel about a girl who discovers she has synesthesia (and a > fantastic book, by the way; highly recommended by nearly all my students > who've read it). > > Early on in the novels, I made a number of groups with two "The Girls" > kids and one "Mango" kid. They were each to choose a character from their > book, imagine that the three were sharing a cabin in summer camp, and > write and perform a short skit. As I had hoped, they ended up explaining > to each other who their characters were and what they were like, while > caught up in the creativity of how characters from different books in > different worlds would interact, and the skits were both enjoyable and > insightful. > > I suppose this could be adapted even for a pure reading workshop class, > with random groups and everyone simply choosing a character from whatever > they are reading at the moment. > > What other ideas are out there?! > > Take care, > Bill Ivey > Stoneleigh-Burnham School > > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > -- Tena _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
