Crazy for Young Adult Books discussion
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Speak
BUDDY READS: ARCHIVED
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Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson → Start Date: August 1, 2014
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message 1:
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Vicki
(last edited Jul 25, 2014 09:09AM)
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 25, 2014 09:07AM
Sara and I would love to have you join us when we read Speak.
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I enjoyed this one! Hope you guys do too. :)
Thank you, Jacque! What do you think of it as a book to teach for regular CP freshmen?
I think it would be a great one. Lots of discussion will come from it and there are some great lessons and themes.
Awesome! Why don't you jump in on some of our discussion here? ;) I'll be taking notes as I read. If you have any good discussion ideas for my classes or essay topics or projects, etc. I'd love to hear them! They don't need to be polished but simply ideas from the perspective of a super-intelligent freshman who's so insightful! Lol
message 6:
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Jacquelyn, thebrunettebooknerd
(last edited Jul 25, 2014 09:55AM)
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rated it 4 stars
lol! Thank you! :) I will definitely hop in if I can remember any! Maybe reading your spoilers and such will bring back the story for me. I think your freshmen will love this one!
Cool! :) Thanks, Jacque!!
No problem! :)
I read this as a summer reading assignment before my freshman year! It was a really great book. I think you'll enjoy it and your students probably will too :)
Thanks for your input, Jessica! If you have any ideas about what I can do with them to engage them, please let me know.By the way do you girls think boys will buy into the book as much as girls?
I can tell you that my teen, 9th grade last year, LOVED this book. You do know, there's also a movie, right?
Starring Kristen Stewart.
And I think it will be GREAT at starting topics. I think the guys...while they might not love it - I think it does a great job capturing 'pain' - at surrounding acceptance, social pain and anxiety in the highschool setting. I think it might keep them reading.
Trisha wrote: "Trailer: http://youtu.be/uSCzahFXMrs"Very cool! Thanks, and I appreciate your thoughts on the boys, too.
I watched the movie too which I really liked! It was very true to the book. That might be a way to get your students interested in the book a little more?As for boys, I don't think they liked it as much as the girls did. We had a choice of three books for my class and only one boy read Speak. Although the subject in the book can apply to boys, it's so much more common for girls so I don't think they have as much interest in it, unfortunately.
I agree with what Jessica and Trisha said about the boys liking it. They may like it and want to keep reading but I feel like girls may get a little more out of it. I feel like they will enjoy it in different ways.
Engaging all the students is my goal and most difficult challenge. I'm going to do a before and after set of questions. Hopefully they'll change some of their original thoughts. Example: If a girl drinks at a party and gets drunk, is it rape if she has sex but isn't fully aware of what's happening?
Yeah, it does seem like quite a bit of a challenge. That is a good idea. I think that is a great way to see how the story affected them and their thoughts.
That's a great idea. I think it'll help if they are able to give their opinions about issues in the book. At least, that always makes me more interested.
I've read this too. I don't think my freshman boy would be interested in it. But it is highly unlikely you'll find something that everyone enjoys. It definitely touches a topic that is needed addressing at their age. I home school so I'm able to tailor the curiccullum to my child I can only imagine how hard it would be to find something everyone would be entertained by.
Emily, that's my challenge! I have a few avid readers every year but mostly non-readers. With the new common core standards the students really need to write and respond to as well as analyze what they read. Yes, they've done that before but not with the rigid standards upcoming. Students will be writing far more, even in the lower grades.
yeah I'm dreading the common core stuff coming up, I currently do online school so we have the same stuff that public schools do. Been thinking of taking my third grader out of it, but don't want to do that at the HS level.Have you ever been on teacherspayteachers.com? I love that site got a hunger games cirriculum last year on it.
I have been on it but never used it a whole lot. I should get back on it and check it out.
What do you guys think of these questions for students to mark before and after reading, leading us into good class discussions (I hope).They'd simply mark whether they agree or disagree with the statement. I am using spoilers in case someone doesn't want to see these until after reading, but they would be used with the students prior to and after reading.
1. (view spoiler)
If there are any statements that you think are either ambiguous or inappropriate, will you let me know?
Thanks!
I think those questions would all be wonderful and definitely bring great discussions!
Those are all great questions! I agree with Jacque, those will be great discussion starters.
I am about 1/4 finished and I'm honestly not flipped over it yet. It seems slow to me which I can handle but I'm not so sure about my freshmen. I hope it picks up the pace.I realize that the author set up the book in four parts, each part to represent a marking period/quarter, right? What I don't fully understand yet is why she has the various sections in the first part. I know she is describing Melinda's classes, teachers, and her classmates/cliques, etc. for the most part but why does she throw in Halloween? I'm just trying to make sense of her structure and writing style.
It might have helped if I literally hadn't had 101 interruptions today so I could have read this quick read in a couple hours but I've gotten only 50 pages read all day. LOL I guess I am NOT concentrating!
I don't have a real sense of the characters yet, either. Is it just me?
Rachel: (view spoiler)
Mr. Freeman: (view spoiler)
IT (view spoiler)
Off to read "Second Marking Period" now.
Sara, are you still reading this with me? I read half of it today and plan to read the other half tomorrow.
I'm here! yeah I'm sorry my pace isn't as fast but i started it with you
No problem about the pacing, Sara. I've buddy read many boos where my buddy finished in one day and I took forever. We are all on such different schedules. I just wanted to make sure you didn't forget. I have also done that! LOL
i see you've finished, motivating me to pick up the pace! i'll be halfway through in a bit :)
No problem, Sara. I just needed to get it done so it's not hanging over my head since I start back to work tomorrow. How do you like it so far?We can discuss it when you're finished.
The first part of this book has a LOT of deadwood, doesn't it?
Yes, that's what I thought, too. It wasn't nearly what I expected, especially in the first half of the book.
I have not yet gotten the sense of intensity and raw emotion that i expected
That's a really good way of putting it! The raw emotion is missing. That's it!
Vicki i finished the book and I have to say that i was not impressed. i was very disappointed tbh.i only liked the last few parts of it, most of the book seemed meaningless to me.
if you want to discuss it or maybe ask me questions to help you go ahead :) i was in the 9th grade only 5 years ago, i can still relate
Sara wrote: "Vicki i finished the book and I have to say that i was not impressed. i was very disappointed tbh.i only liked the last few parts of it, most of the book seemed meaningless to me.
if you want to d..."
I'm just extremely disappointed that because two of our English teachers at my school loved this book that all the freshman teachers agreed to teach it this year, but I was NOT impressed. I can't imagine that entire classes will loved this book at all! I could see its potential because of the controversial subject of drinking/raping (or not) but I don't think the issue was really addressed hardly at all. It seemed to me like it was more about school itself and subjects. I HATE teaching something I'm not passionate about.
