Summarizer- summarize reading

This book is about a girl (Cynthia) who has a younger brother (David) with autism. Cynthia is excited about the new girl (Kristi) who is moving in next door because she will have a friend for the summer. She is also nervous about how the new girl will perceive David, and therefore her family. Cynthia meets Jason at the clinic while she is waiting for David to be finished with his OT. Jason is in a wheelchair and unable to speak, but uses a book of pictures with words to communicate. Eventually Cynthia becomes good friends with Jason, creating new and more expressive cards for him to use, but she shies away from sharing Jason’s disabilities with her new friend Kristi next door. The book culminates with the community center dance. Kristi invites Cynthia to the dance and encourages her to invite Jason. Cynthia fakes an excuse until she is invited to Jason’s birthday party at which he realizes that he embarrasses her. Cynthia has a realization that she has been treating Jason badly by trying to protect him, and they reconcile at the dance. 

Vocabulary Enricher- Identify new words with special meaning

Occupational Therapy- a form of therapy for those recuperating from physical or mental illness that encourages rehabilitation through the performance of activities required in daily life. Ex. “When David was three and started coming to the clinic for occupational therapy, I tagged along because I was too little to stay home alone (P. 13).

Autism- a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts. Ex. Sometimes I wish someone would invent a pill so David’d wake up one morning without autism”(P. 8)…

Murky- not fully explained or understood, especially with concealed dishonesty or immorality. Ex. “I wrote that as a feeling…” “But the rule is that you have to bring back a handful of that murky stuff from the bottom to prove you made it all the way” (P. 116).

Communication- the imparting or exchanging of information or news. Ex. “Jason raps his communication book” (p. 42).

Cure- relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition. Ex. “…like someone waking from a long coma, and he’d say, ‘Jeeze Catherine, where have I been”’ (P.8).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discussion Strategies

Image
Thunks:             Researching thunks was a bit of a challenge for me because I was not coming up with many good resources. It looks like thunks are a very interesting way to get you thinking, and I can foresee them as becoming a helpful discussion tool in the literature department. The link provided, http://www.thunks.co.uk/ , sparked an idea for me to do an online weekly literature blog of thunks. It could be something that students participate in discussions based on the “thunk of the week” ACTIVITY 1 As students are reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney they should be encouraged to add thunks to the thunk box located in the classroom. Students can write them at home, or in class as long as they get into the box! The teacher should also add a few to the box that are a bit more challenging. Depending on how long it takes the students to read the book, the teacher can have one or two thunks chosen from the box per...
Read more

Lesson Plans

Novels and Technology: Modern and Classic Lit Objectives: ·       Students will understand the main themes of Maze Runner and Animal Farm. ·       Students will be able to clearly identify similarities between the two books. ·       Students will be able to clearly identify differences between the two books. ·       Students will think deeply about their readings. Summary of Tasks: ·       Students must read Animal Farm or Maze Runner ·       They should create a twitter account to be used for literature discussions only ·       The teacher should provide students with a class hashtag to use on their posts. ·       As students read each chapter, they should provide two tweets. One tweet should be a main theme they noticed in the chapter or a mai...
Read more

Quote Analysis

         "I know. I know what you're thinking. As I was telling the story, I was thinking the same thing myself. A kiss? A rumor based on a kiss made you do this to yourself?            No. A rumor based on a kiss ruined a memory that I hoped would be special. A rumor based on a kiss started a reputation that other people believed in and reacted to. An sometimes, a rumor based on a kiss has a snowball effect (P. 30)."         I chose this quote to analyze because it seems like the starting point of all Hannah's troubles. She expresses with this quote that while a silly kiss, and the silly rumor about the kiss turned into so much more. It's so easy for things to "snowball" into something bigger. It was because of this rumor that students at her school considered her "easy". It was because of this rumor that Hannah had trouble making new friends, and we find out later that it was because of this r...
Read more