Irma Garcia

April 30, 2013

Unit of Study

Engl. 112B

Diving into the Realm of the Rejects through Speak

The passage from middle school to high school is often a big cause for anxiety for many adolescent boys and girls. That transitional summer is the final marker of the childhood years. Despite having the word �teen� tacked on to their age and being able to see movies rated PG13, they are still in the early stages of adolescence and easily swayed by their peers. Just as dangerous and challenging as the constant peer pressure is the ability teens have to define one another. One large event in high school can easily become the catalyst by which an individual is defined. Laurie Halse Anderson�s Speak gives readers a glimpse into the life of a teenage girl who has lost control and is dealing with depression, anxiety, and the after effects of a drunken rape. Melinda Sordino finds herself an outcast in high school even without the student body knowing exactly what happened that terrible night. The wildfire effect with which bad news spreads through a school and the avid intolerance for �abnormal� behavior that teenagers display towards one another is captured in Anderson�s work.

Canonical works of literature dance around these hard-hitting subjects. Simply put the majority of the work covered by high school English classes is told through the eyes of �old dead white guys�. The canonical works are often supported and introduced by more dead white guys. Students find it difficult to connect the text to their adolescent lives and as a result mentally and emotionally check out of the class. Despite Anderson�s novel being centered on a female protagonist, males are able to connect with the difficulties Melinda faces while dealing with her depression. The social rejection she endures as a result of her silence can be applied to both genders.

This non-canonical and formerly banned book dives into the challenges of a fractured home life, teenage depression, and the overall obscured and complicated life of teenagers. This satirical book allows students and teachers to see the many faces of Melinda in the very students of their school. It gives students who are being picked on for whatever reason to see that there are others like them, for the ones who are doing the bullying to see that their troubles at home are not so uncommon, the teenager suffering quietly about that terrible night/day, enduring the hushed whispers and giggles, ducking their head trying to be invisible, Anderson brings their struggles to the forefront of their English class.

The centerpiece I chose is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, a text that allows students to draw on universal themes through an adolescent perspective. Although the text is fairly straight forward the complexities resulting from Melinda�s post-traumatic stress, self-harm, and the rape itself can be troubling and moving for teens. With a guided curriculum, the challenging subject-matter Anderson presents can be made accessible for even the most reluctant of readers. Through the use of music, poetry, articles, and similar young adult novels students will be able to access the complex and obscured topics surrounding Speak.

Unit Launch

As the Sun Goes Down on Summer by Steve Lawhead (Poem)

The unit begins with the poem As the Sun Goes Down on Summer by Steve Lawhead. The poem relates to how Melinda feels going into her freshman year. She dreads her fist day, knowing that most of the student body if not all of it already dislikes her. She is unsure of where she stands in relation to her friends and the silence she takes on quickly earns her the �weird� status that Lawhead�s poem mentions. Students will draw parallels between the speaker�s apprehensions about starting school in the fall and their own anxieties about starting high school in a journal-like format. I believe the speaker of the poem covers many of the concerns that teens face during the middle to high school transition. Students may draw on the speaker�s unease over the first day of school (friends, choices, popularity contests). Students will hone in on a particular line(s) of the poem and use it as a foundation for their writing. I will provide some questions with which to guide the students through the writing process if necessary, but I would prefer it to be an unconfined work.

1) What were your feelings and concerns transitioning from middle school to high school?

2) How did you feel the first day of school freshman year? (concerns, hopes, fears)

3) What was it like finding your way around a new campus? Having to look at a campus map or ask someone for help?

After a few minutes of writing, the students will engage in a group share. The students will provide the line they used to write about and how or why they felt connected to it. During the group share we will analyze the poem further as different lines are provided. The activity will provide the students the opportunity to hear that like themselves many of their peers also felt uneasy the first day of school. The activity will also serve as a base for drawing similarities between Melinda�s emotions and those of the students.

Mini Book Pass

Students will spend five minutes exploring one of four books:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, an autobiographical coming of age story about an insecure black girl growing up in the south in the 1930�s. While being shuttled back and forth between her grandmother and her parents, she is raped by her mother�s boyfriend. After the trial the man is killed and Maya is convinced her mouth is to blame. She willingly becomes a mute for fear of what her voice can do.

The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, about a woman, Hester Prynne, who sleeps with the Reverend and becomes pregnant. In order to shame her and as a constant reminder of her crime she must bear an �A� on her scaffold. She endures the chastisement from the public, some her former friends, without ever revealing who she committed her adulterous act with.

Endgame by Nancy Garden, is about a freshman boy, Gray, who is attempting to start over at a new school, having been picked on to the point of violence in his last school. Gray encounters new bullies at his new school experiencing the all too familiar pain of public humiliation and physical abuse. After some sadistic acts on behalf of the bullies, Gray takes his father�s new semi-automatic pistol to school with the intention of ridding the school of bullies.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about Tyler who after a harmless summer prank becomes labeled a bad-boy by his parents, parole officer, school staff and his peers. He gains a new title in time to catch the eye of the school goddess Bethany Millbury, whose drunken mistake at a party result in Tyler being framed as a more serious criminal.

The students will then sign up for two of the three books, clearly labeling their first and second choice. They will return to their desk and write a paragraph in which they present a valid argument for their first choice. They must present a firm interest in the book, and reasons why they should be allowed to be in that particular book group. This is to ensure that the students are not merely picking the book that their friends agreed on. This will be turned in at the end of the class.

The Voice Within by Christina Aguilera (song) and Doo-Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill (song)

Students will listen (possibly watch a performance via youtube.com) to the song The Voice Within by Christina Aguilera, and then be able to read the lyrics via a projection screen. The students will be given a few minutes to jot down any information, images, or ideas that may result from the song. The class then listens and watches the video to Doo-Wop by Lauryn Hill, paying particular attention to the side by side images being portrayed in the video and the message being sent. Students will jot down notes on the song and video as they did with The Voice Within. I believe both of these songs relate to the text. The Voice Within is a supportive song that calls on the inner strength of a girl to get through the troubles of the outside world. The lyrics ask the girl to face her problems rather than run from them as well as to �stand your ground when you�re so afraid� words that Melinda Sordino could certainly take to heart.

Meanwhile, Doo-Wop is a song that I believe both males and females in the class will be able to connect with easily. The upbeat rhythm draws them in while the poignant lyrics cause them to think. The lyrics connect to the text by the drawing on Melinda�s innate attraction to Andy Evans and her (drunken) willingness to follow him into the woods. Also, the lyrics address the fa�ade that men try to maintain in an effort to fool the opposite sex and friends that they have it all together can be applied to several of the minor characters in Speak. The students will journal on how these songs may apply to an adolescent boy or girl of their age going through a tough time and on their opinion as to the healing power of music, they may provide real life examples to support their argument. Now I hope the class has at least some sense of curiosity about the novel.

Activity One: Bridging YA Literature (Book Groups)

Based on their choices and argument paragraph, I will then place the students in book groups consisting of 5-6 students per group. The book groups will read their respective books from the mini book pass individually while the class reads Speak together. The groups will create an 8-10 minute presentation for the class in which they draw parallels between their books and Speak. The presentations will take place at the end of the unit of study. The group presentations will draw on the main characters predicaments and emotions, common themes, and the rejections the main characters endure (rejection may also be used as a common theme). The students will also turn in an individual paper wherein they describe the work they contributed to the presentation, a written analysis of their part of the assignment, and a review of their group members� contributions to the group presentation. The requirements of the group are split into five jobs:

1. Summary and important quotes explained

2. Character parallels

3. Common theme 1

4. Common theme 2

5. Peer rejection/humiliation

Activity Two: Picasso�s Girl Before A Mirror

(Speak completed)

Students will view the painting Girl Before A Mirror by Picasso. After a few minutes of analyzing the painting, students will journal about what they believe they see represented in Picasso�s work. They will make an attempt to find a connection between the painting and Speak. There are often two representations given for the painting.

1) An aged woman masked beneath cosmetics to look like a younger woman, with the reflection in the mirror showing her true form.

2) A self-conscious young woman who cannot look past her own flaws when she stares in the mirror.

Either answer is applicable to the text; one way to apply the masked explanation is to address the masks that adolescents hide behind in an effort to fit in. Melinda hides behind her silence in an effort to stay invisible. Andy hides behind his popularity to hide his sexually abusive nature. A way of connecting the text to the self-conscious explanation is to address how Melinda feels about herself before the attack and after. She may not think she was drop dead gorgeous before the rape but she was comfortable later she describes her inability to look at parts of her own body comfortably.

Activity Three: Poem Comparison

Students will read and listen to Maya Angelou�s poem And Still I Rise. I will ask students to reflect back on their writings about Lawhead�s poem at the beginning of the unit, and to compare the two works to Melinda Sordino�s growth. The students should be able to relate Melinda�s growth in the novel, from the scared and depressed incoming freshman to the blossoming more secure young woman at the end of the novel. Students may draw the themes of inner strength and self-assuredness among others in Angelou�s poem. The students will choose a few lines of both poems and a quote from the book that supports their claims and write it down in their journals. The students will then engage in a pair share before regrouping in a class discussion about how the novels ending.

Activity Four: Laurie Halse Anderson Article

The class will read Kelly Thayer�s article �A Multigenre Approach to Reading Laurie Halse Anderson�s Wintergirls: Converging Texts, Constructing Meaning� as a precursor to their final project of the unit. Although the article is on another one of Anderson�s books, the multi-genre approach can be applied to Speak. The article addresses hoe content is presented, that because of the book being labeled a contemporary realistic fiction, rifts are drawn between the text and the reader. Thayer proposes changing the structure of a text as a way of allowing reader to experience the story differently. Although Speak covers some difficult topics they resonate with reader in a way traditional books may not be able to. The article claims that multi-genre assignments foster critical thinking and overall engagement further enhancing the reading experience. This is meant to get students thinking about their final assignment of the unit, a multi-genre paper on Speak. The remainder of this class is dedicated to the book project presentations.

Activity Five: Movie

Students will watch the movie adaptation of Speak and identify any differences from the novel. They will also identify and describe 5 scenes in which the filmmakers use theatrical tools (light, sound, camera angles, etc.) to portray a particular emotion described in the novel. This will present them with different forms of adapting a book into a different format, as well as identifying the difficulties of changing an original work into another. The information collected from this assignment will help the students answer pivotal question in their multi-genre paper.

Activity Six: Multi-genre Paper (final assignment)

Students will develop a 5-10 page multi-genre paper on Speak that consists of at least 15 different genre forms. Students should strive to use each genre only once. Much like movie-makers, the students will have to decide what parts of the novel to include in their interpretation. The ten page maximum requires each student to decide what aspects of the novel they want to capitalize on and what scenes they want to leave out. Deciding what parts to use in their work would demonstrate a solid understanding of the text and an engagement to at least specific areas of the text. The student should take into consideration the tone, and what they want the audience to experience or feel in each of the chosen genres. I believe this activity allows the students to tell me about Speak as they have come to understand it. I also believe the paper allows students to show their creativity in a class that is not always considered conducive in that realm.

Works Cited

Aguilera Christina. �The Voice Within� lyrics. Stripped. RCA Records. 2003. Web. 29 Apr. 2013 <http://www.lyrics007.com/Christina%20Aguilera%20Lyrics/The%20Voice%20Within%20Lyrics.html>

Aguilera Christina. �The Voice Within." Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube. 3 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA2k79EGHbc>

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999. Print.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Twisted. New York: Viking, 2007. Print.

Angelou, Maya. "And Still I Rise." Poem Hunter. N.p., 03 Jan. 2003. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-i-rise/>.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1993. Print.

Hill, Lauryn. �Doo-Wop (that thing).� Online Video Clip. Youtube. Youtube. 23 Jun. 2010. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6QKqFPRZSA>

Garden, Nancy. Endgame. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006. Print.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlett Letter. London: Dent & Sons, 1971. Print.

Lawhead, Steve. ""The Sun Goes Down on Summer" - West Hollow Middle School." West Hollow Middle School. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mrssepps.weebly.com/the-sun-goes-down-on-summer.html>.

Picasso, Pablo. Girl Before A Mirror. 1932. Oil on canvas. New York, New York. Web. Google Images. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CwSYMd9KuCE/Sp2kzJWSpDI/AAAAAAAAFDU/PeFJ3IERyLQ/s1600/DSC_3625.JPG>.

Speak. Sharzer, Jessica. (Independent Film) Fred Berner, Matthew Myers, Annie Young Frisbie, Jessica Sharzer. 2004. DVD

Thayer, Kelly. "A Multigenre Approach to Reading Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls: Converging Texts, Constructing Meaning." Signal Journal Spring/Summer 35.2 (2012): 7-11. Print.

Still I Rise – Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

The Sun Goes Down on Summer by Steve Lawhead

I come to the water one last time as the sun goes down on summer.

It's going; I can feel it slip away, and it leaves a cold empty spot
a hole in my warm memories of endless golden days
and dreams as ripe as watermelons.

I'd give the world to make the summer stay.

The water is calm around me.
It's a warm, silent sea of thought dyed in the rich blues of night and memory.
Why can't things just stay the way they are?
Instead, the days rush headlong into change
and I feel like nothing's ever going to be the same.

Soon school will start again. And all the things I thought I'd left behind will come back, and it
won't be gentle water I'll be swimming in---
It'll be noise and people and schedules and passes and teachers telling everyone what to do.
One more year of homework, tests and grades. Of daily popularity contests and pressure-
cooker competition and heaps of frustration.

The first day is the worst. Not knowing who your friends are, or what's changed since last
year. Trying to pick it up where you left off.
I'll look real hard for a last-year's friend to get me from one scrambled class to another,
through halls crawling with people.

I wonder if I'll fit in.

Football practice started last week. It started without me.
I had to make a choice and football lost.
Two years on the team and it struck me--who am I doing this for?
It's just another thing people expect you to do, so you do it.
School is full of these kinds of things---things that sap your freedom, and keep you from being
yourself.
That's what I want most, to be myself. But that's hard.

Here's what I dread most: when summer goes, I go with it.
I go back to school and I change as soon as I walk through those doors.
I have to be someone everyone will like--that's a law of survival.

What would happen if I just stayed the real me?
Would they turn me off? Label me "weird"?
Would I ever get another date?
It seems like so much to risk.
But growing is a risk. Change is a risk.

And who knows, I might discover something of myself

in the coming year.

I might get closer to the person I am---what a discovery that would be!

When the doors open on Monday morning, I�ll have a fresh start,

a fresh opportunity to find myself.

I want to be ready.

The Voice Within by Christina Aguilera

Young girl, don't cry
I'll be right here when your world starts to fall
Ooh
Young girl, it's alright
Your tears will dry, you'll soon be free to fly
Ooh

When you're safe inside your room, you tend to dream
Of a place where nothing's harder than it seems
No one ever wants or bothers to explain
Of the heartache life can bring and what it means

When there's no one else, look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend, just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength that will guide your way
You'll learn to begin to trust the voice within
Yea
Oh

Young girl, don't hide
You'll never change if you just run away
Ooh, woh yeah
Young girl, just hold tight
Soon you're gonna see your brighter day
Ooh

Now in a world where innocence is quickly claimed
It's so hard to stand your ground when you're so afraid
No one reaches out a hand for you to hold
When you look outside, look inside to your soul

When there's no one else, look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend, just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength that will guide your way
If you will learn to begin to trust the voice within

Oh, ho, yea
Ooh, oh, yea
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
Oh, yea
(Ooh, ooh,ooh)
Life is a journey
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
It can take you anywhere you choose to go
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
As long as you're learning
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
You'll find all you'll ever need to know
(Be strong)
You'll break it
(Hold on)
You'll make it
(Be strong)
Just don't forsake it because
(Hold on)
(No one can tell you what you can't do)
No one can stop you, you know that I'm talking to you

When there's no one else, look inside yourself
Like your oldest friend, just trust the voice within
Then you'll find the strength that will guide your way
You'll learn to begin to trust the voice within

Ooh, yea
Young girl, don't cry, I'll be right here
When your world starts to fall
Yea
Aaa
Yea
(Listen)
(Listen)
Oh yea
(Listen)
Naa naa naa
(Listen)
{Listen}
Ohh yea
{Listen}
Hmm hmm
{Listen}
Yea
{Listen}

Multi-genre Paper Genre Examples