My reading of young adult literature texts as part of teacher development has influenced me a lot. For this course, we were required to read 3 young adult literature texts that is ‘The Chocolate War’ by Robert Cormier, ‘Hero’ by S.L.Rottman and ‘If you come softly’ by Jacqueline Woodson. Each of these novels has its unique characteristics and I will reflect it one by one. Starting with ‘The Chocolate War’ by Robert Cormier, this book is extremely an amazing story. Although it has been banned in some schools in the States due to its harsh violence, but it is not that very serious whereby the students can learn from it. This book would also be a good choice for boys since there are a lot of things which a boy does and they can associate easily. This is not to say it is not appropriate for girls. Girls and even other age groups can read it. In terms of designing activities, this book has a lot of things that can be discussed. For example, the teacher can do some theme openers like telling the students what is the book is about and then can ask them to jot down in their notebooks ideas about their own school community. Topics such as peer pressure, violence and drugs, discipline and other issues can be integrated. They also can do some brainstorming activity and have discussions like explaining to the students on a quotation on a poster in the protagonist’s locker which reads, “Do I dare disturb the universe ?”. Students can then interpret this question through different ways. As a result students will get different answers and this would be a good starting point for further discussion. This will encourage them to ‘think out of the box’ and manage their own learning and discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment