Middle School Book Club

1. Middle School Book Club Be prepared to be scared! Friday, November 18th 10:00am

2. Skeleton Creek Overview • Strange things happen in the small town of Skeleton Creek - and when they do, Ryan writes them down and Sarah captures them on video. The two main characters record their experiences investigating what many think is a haunted gold mine. Ryan writes in his journal, while Sarah uses her videocam to search out the truth. Forbidden to see each other, they send notes and video clips via email in a dangerous attempt to solve the mystery of Skeleton Creek.

3. http://www.sarahfincher.com/

4. Book Club Purpose • Discussions with peers • Share questions, connections, predictions • Discuss elements of the story • Challenge • To have fun!

5. Literature Circles • Each week you will have a job to complete related to the reading. • Higher level questions to guide your thinking • Student sharing • Student choice depending on interests and strengths

6. Discussion Director • Poses higher level questions about the reading • Guides the discussion • Challenges the group to think in depth about the book

7. Example Discussion Director Questions/Tasks • Describe Ryan as he sees himself. • Compare and contrast Ryan and Sarah. • What text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world connections can you make? • What questions did you have while completing the reading for this week? • What predictions can you make for what will happen next?

8. Summarizer Ryan has been negatively effected by the events that occurred at the dredge. He recounts the accident he had, waking up in the hospital, his injury, and his parents’ reactions. He shares with the reader how that night changed him physically, mentally, and emotionally. Ryan shares his realization that something is wrong with Skeleton Creek. He details the search for information about Skeleton Creek and the dredge that he engages in with Sarah. Ryan tells about the journal he keeps to document his feelings and experiences. The reader also learns about the consequences Ryan and Sarah have suffered because of their night at the dredge. The two friends secretly communicate through emails and Sarah’s videos. Ryan and Sarah’s choices and desire to learn more about Skeleton Creek and the dredge may have a negative and lasting effect on these characters.

9. Literary Luminary • The Literary Luminary’s job is to find interesting, frightening, or thought-provoking passages to read aloud and interpret for the group. • Pg. 5, paragraph 1 I think my favorite writers are those who admitted while they were still alive that they couldn’t live without writing. John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost – guys who put writing up there in the same category as air and water. Write or die trying. That kind of thinking agrees with me.

10. Literary Luminary “I know my writing has changed in the past year. The two kinds of writing – the made-up scary stories and the documenting of events in Skeleton Creek – have slowly become one. I don’t have to make up stories any longer, because I’m more certain than ever that the very town I live in is haunted.” Pg. 6, paragraph 1 • Pg. 8 paragraphs 1 & 2

11. Character Analyzer • The person with this job gives us insight into a particular character by sharing his/her traits, actions, and feelings. “I don’t think I’m a coward – I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now if I was a coward – but I am the sort of person who overanalyzes, worries, frets. When I hear a noise scratching under the bed – either real or imagined – I stare at the ceiling for hours and wonder what it might be that’s trying to claw its way out. (I picture it with fangs, long bony fingers, and bulging red eyes). For a person who worries like I do and has a vivid imagination to match, Skeleton Creek is the wrong sort of place to endure childhood.” Pg. 5, last paragraph • Pg. 17, second paragraph • Pg 29, paragraphs 4-5 • Pg. 31, paragraph 2-3 • Pg. 35, last paragraph • Pg. 39, paragraph 4-5

12. Travel Tracker • Travel Tracker: In a book where characters move around a lot and the scenes change frequently, it is important for everyone in your group to know where things are happening and how the setting may have changed. Even if the scenery doesn’t change much, the setting is still a very important part of the story. • Your job is to track where the action takes place. Describe each setting in detail, either in words or with a picture map that you can show and discuss with your group. Be sure to give the page numbers.

13. Vocabulary Enricher • Vocabulary Enricher: Your job is to look for new, challenging, or interesting words in your reading. When you find words that are puzzling or unfamiliar, write them down in your spiral or journal. You may choose to write the words on a sticky and mark the page with it. Later, you can look them up in a dictionary and write down their definitions. You may also find words in the reading that are significant to the story. Mark these words too, and be ready to point them out to the group. When your circle meets, direct members to the words and discuss them.

14. Process for Vocabulary Enricher: • Write definitions for the words you chose from the dictionary. • Write down the sentence that the word is in. • When you share give the definition and read the sentence. • Include the part of speech of the word. • Include the orgin of the word (Latin, Greek, Middle English) • http://oxforddictionaries.com • Grotesque – adj. - comically or repulsively ugly or distorted: grotesque facial distortions • incongruous or inappropriate to a shocking degree: a lifestyle of grotesque luxury • Its purpose was to find gold, and its method was grotesque. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the dredge sat in a muddy lake of its own making. Origin: • mid 16th century (as noun): from French crotesque (the earliest form in English), from Italian grottesca, from opera or pitturagrottesca 'work or painting resembling that found in a grotto'; “grotto” here probably denoted the rooms of ancient buildings in Rome that had been revealed by excavations and contained murals in the grotesque style

15. Connector Your job is to find connections between the book you are reading and the outside world. This means connecting what you read with your own life, to what happens at school or in the community, to similar events at other times and places, or to other people or problems. Once you have shared your connection to this section of the book, each member of your group will also relate their own connection to the book, although they may refer to a different passage. You may choose to focus on text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections that you make with the reading. Task: Describe the part you connected with in the book, and then explain your connection.

16. Illustrator Your job is to draw some kind of a picture related to what you read in your section. It can be a sketch, cartoon, diagram, or stick figure scene. It can be about something that you read, something that the reading reminded you about, or an element of the story (plot, character, setting). Presentation Plan: When the Discussion Director invites you to participate, you may show your picture without commenting on it, and let the others in your group individually guess what your picture means. After everyone has had a turn to guess, it is your turn to tell them what your picture means, where it came from, or what it represents to you. On the following slides, you will see examples of illustrations that 9th graders did for our literature circles group last year.

21. Creative Writer • Create whatever type of writing you like to share your understanding of the reading. • Poetry • Song • Newpaper article • Letter • Short story • Rewrite a scene in the book On the following slides you will see some examples.

22. Pains, Delusions and Wishes by Megan Pains, Delusions, & Wishes Horrible Pain... I'm burned, Injured, Destroyed. I'm back at home, Where my father is angered, And won't speak to me, But that won't last long. My mother is joyous to have me here. I am not joyous, though. I have such searing pain, That I cower, And become delirious, And see Jeannie, Laughing on the ceiling. I wish Abigail's letter spoke truth, But I've convinced myself, to forget it even existed. After this while, I use a cane to go on my way, But not pain is not fully gone. Physically, not mentally, For I am crippled, Horribly injured, Am missing an eye, And people don't like to make eye contact with me, Not even with my one eye. I wish the pain were gone, though.

23. Perfect Puzzler • For this job you will be able to create any puzzle of your choosing that reflects some aspect of the Skeleton Creek.

24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Each box holds 1 letter. Find out the word. • (7th) In the last months, her father had restricted travels. • (3rd) Had he seen such new and surprising places in six months? • (15th) And he told them everything he had seen. • (2nd) He was correct of course, his father needed to know. • (20th) Meg could hold herself no longer. • (10th) Mr. Dickens took off his hat. • (7th) His trousers, waistcoat too, were yellow. • (3rd) Her father and the man in yellow turned to Meg. 9. (6th) Will we find Orion today Mr. Dickens?

26. Book Club Title • Now is your chance to come up with a title for book club.

27. Next Meeting Friday, December 2nd at 1:00 Read through page 50. Choose a literature circles job to complete. You will be posting on our book club wiki or emailing to your teachers. More info. will follow on this. Can’t wait to see you then!