"The Beginning of Everything" project idea

Create a few projects to anonymously leave gifts for teachers - possibly even host a "Floating Movie Theater." Most teachers wouldn't mind a movie screening in the lounge or library in exchange for some dry-erase markers or a little chocolate. Students are surprisingly willing to bring things (even spare change), and showing a film at the right time never hurt anyone.

"The Beginning of Everything"

Ezra Faulkner was once the golden boy of his high school, but a car accident changed everything. Join Ezra as he attempts to re-invent his identity, and discovers who his true friends really are.

Curriculum packet

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is perhaps an even funnier version of the "other" book about a teenager with cancer. This book definitely carries an "R" rating for language. 

Themes to explore would be friendship, legacies, and character change. 

Extension projects could be students creating their own films, like Greg and Earl, visiting cancer patients in a local hospital, and practicing telling those around them what they appreciate (rather than having to wait for a eulogy). Students can also create their own movie trailer for the book.

Curriculum packet

"Golden Son" ("Red Rising" #2)

The second book in the Red Rising trilogy is significantly longer than the first, and would take a good deal longer to teach. It is a solid read, however, and continues to follow Darrow as he attempts to overthrow the Gold regime.

Character charts are a must, and a timeline wouldn't hurt, either.

This novel is prime for a character analysis of Darrow, especially tracing his continued change from the first book.

Curriculum packet

"Red Rising"

Red Rising is the latest dystopian futuristic novel by Pierce Brown. All of my high school students loved this novel - I do not recommend it for younger students due to some mature content. 

Themes: class struggles, bias/prejudice/stereotype, and revolution.

Curriculum packet

"The Other Wes Moore"

This novel traces the stories of two boys, roughly the,same age, who grew up in the same area, and yet have completely different adult lives.

Teaching techniques: 

*TIMELINE! Students created a parallel timeline of the two Wes Moores. Each chapter highlights events in the years of their life, and we attempted to show the timeline of each life.

*  Character change assignments. With each challenge each Wes faced, we looked at alternate choices, both positive and negative. It's impossible, of course, to say that one change would entirely alter a life, but I used this to help students practice looking at choices and options.

*Friends, family, and those who influence you. We were able to do several writing and sharing activities about those who influence our lives, and how we let them. We studied grit, determination, and motivation, and the roles each of these play in our lives.

Curriculum packet

"Miss Peregrine" trilogy - figurative language assignment

All three Miss Peregrine books (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Hollow City, and Library of Souls) are wonderful for teaching figurative language, especially similes and metaphors.

Ransom Riggs creates many things in his novels that do not exist in real life (wights, loops, Devil’s Acre in the third book).  I ask my students how they would describe something that is not real, and only exists in their imagination.  Ransom Riggs uses several metaphors and similes—he compares his imaginary items to things that we are familiar with.  I challenge students to keep track of examples as they read.

Examples from Hollow City:

Metaphor example, pg. 14: “A sea of shattered glass…”

Simile example, pg. 15, “..it was like trying to catch fish with bare hands.”