7th+&+8th+grade

=**Novels:**=



**//The Skin I'm In// by Shannon G. Flake**
**Genre: Realistic fiction**

Lexile Level: 670
 **Description:** The reader has the opportunity to view life through the eyes of a 13 year old African American girl struggling with peer pressure and low self-esteem in middle school. Maleeka is tall, skinny, and dark- skinned and a target for bullies at her school. She loves to write and has an ally, a teacher with a birthmark on her face who helps her to find her own voice.

**Rationale:** This text ties directly into the developmental needs of middle school girls struggling to find their own identity. The text provides an opportunity for teachers to talk about race, color, peer pressure, dialects and choices. Winner of the 1999 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for new authors

** Media Resources: **  Book Review: [] [|peranza Rising] [|Author Interview/Discussion Questions] [|Sharon G. Flake reads from "You Don't Even Know Me."]


 * [[image:lowry-lois.jpg]] ||
 * [[image:lowry-lois.jpg]] ||

//**The Giver**// **by Lois Lowry**

**Lexile level: 760**

 * Description:** The novel is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. When Jonas meets the previous receiver—the "Giver"—he is confused in many ways.The people in his community are happy because they don't know of a better life, but the knowledge of what they are missing out on could create chaos. He faces a dilemma: Should he stay with the community, his family living a shallow life without love, color, choices and knowledge or should he run away to where he can live a full life?

**Theme:** Views of the family, utopian societies, fear, individuality, conformity and adolescent development.

**Rationale and connections:** The rationale is to help students understand the complexity of society, their roles in it, and how community is organized. Themes include adolescent development, overcoming fear, and family connections. The book has received criticism over the years but still provide thought provoking questions and interesting and relevent vocabulary for seventh and eighth graders. Jonas' struggle for individuality is a concurrent theme throughout other novels for this age as well. Utopia vs. Dystopia is also defined. The book also focuses on roles within the family and encourages students to identify with certain occupations and challenges assumptions of morality.

**Media resources: Student project on The giver:** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OvZdiiW6Hg

[|Watch an interview with the author]


**Description:**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Esperanza Cordero, a girl coming of age in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, uses poems and stories to express thoughts and emotions about her oppressive environment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Theme:** Poverty, Child abuse, education, coming of age story

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale and connections:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Cisneros's lyrical prose forces students to see the world through the perspective of an adolescent Latina. Beneath the surface lies a rich network of themes: poverty, child abuse, rape, spousal abuse, the importance of education, hypocrisy, and a host of others. The book explores immigration as well. The book helps students connect to characters that are like them. The heavy latino population in my school will appreciate this novel and the characters. The themes explored in the novel are broad and encompass a lot of the societal pressures that inner city youth experience. Connection to art, diary writing, social studies, and tradition and society could be applied to help with the curriculum.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media resources:** [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> [|Cara Mia Theatre Production] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Watch an interview with the author]

=Plays:=

= = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">//**The Diary of Anne Frank**// by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexicon level: Not available** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre:** Tragedy, Play

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** Adapted from the novel, this text is divied int two acts and takes place during WW II. Anne and her family are hiding in the attic of a small business building in Amsterdam. The play ends with their discovery by the Nazis and her family leaving to be placed in a concentration camp.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Theme:** The strength of the human spirit, the holocaust

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** This easy to read play has some very humorous moments as we see life through Anne's innocent and positive eyes.It can be connected to a unit on hisorical novels and plays.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** [|Westport Country Playhouse interview]



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Philosophical Debate, Allegory, Play**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexile Level: 850**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description**: //Inherit the Wind// is a dramatization of the 1925 Scopes monkey trial in which a school teacher was put on trial for teaching evolutionist theory in a public science classroom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Themes: Religion and Society, Censorship, Social Ethics**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Ratonale:** The debate concerning evolutionist and creationist theories still rages regularly in the public arena. The play features impassioned and powerful speeches by both lawyers and as such is an effective look at monologue. In addition, the play readily offers itself to a unit examining the tension between secular and religious rights.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**[|1960 Film Adaptation]** [|Clip of Above]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** Miller's play is set in the late 1700s and is a dramatization of the Salem Witch trials that took place in Massachusetts. A young girl and her friends convince the city authorities that witches are controlling their small town leading to a witch hunt that has many innocent people murdered. The text is an allegory to McCarthyism and the US government's blacklisting of communists through the Committee on Un-American Activities. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Theme: Witch hunts
====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** The topic of 'witch hunts" is a timeless and what causes a witch hunt are factors worthy of exploration. This play can be tied to social studies unit on both McCarthysim and the Salem Witch Trials, or the history of witches and witchcraft. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Sources:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Short Film** ** [] **



<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**//Twelve Angry Men// by Reginald Rose 1957**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexile Level: Not available** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Character Drama, Play**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Descripton:** The trial of a young man accused of killing his father is under deliberation by 12 jurors whose names are unknown to one another. One dissenting juror forces all 12 to reconsider the case, lest it be a mistrial. As the play proceeds insights are garnered into the lives and motivations of each character.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Theme: Criminal hearing, human conflict, single setting**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** The play approaches the issues faced in normal involvement with the criminal justice system. The basic information concerning the structures and rules of a trial by jury have inherent civic value. The play itself is an excellent example of the power of an ensemble cast. The story occurs within a very limited range of settings and still manages to generate extreme tension, emotion and conflict.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**[|Classic Film Rendition]**

=**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Poems: **=

= = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**“One Art”** by Elizabeth Bishop

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Modern American Poem**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** This easy to read poem is about losing things and the poet's connection to loss.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** I think we would all agee, that this is a topic most middle school students can relate to. It’s funny and easy to read and can be used to introduce stanzas and rhyme. It can be part of a unit on loss, modern American or female poets or connected to a unit on contemporary modern art

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**"Saying Yes”** by Diane Chang

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Contemporary American Poem**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** This contemporary poem focuses on identity, also a relevant theme for middle school students developing and exploring their identity. Chang describes it as sincere and simple. This poem also explores what it means to combine two cultures Chinese and American.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** As our classrooms are so culturally diverse, this is a great poem to talk about identy and what it means to be American. It could be part of a unit for contemporary poets, female poets, or a unit on ethnicity and identity. It could also be tied into a unit on immigration laws and the history of Chinese Americans in the US and used compartively with David Henry Wang's plays.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"HOPE is the thing with Feathers" by Emily Dickinson.
==<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> ==

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Poetry**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexile level: not available**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Text:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hope is the thing with feathers <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">That perches in the soul, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And sings the tune without the words, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And never stops at all,

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And sweetest in the gale is heard; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And sore must be the storm <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">That could aba

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">sh the little bird <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">That kept so many warm.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I've heard it in the chilliest land <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And on the strangest sea; <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Yet, never, in extremity, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It asked a crumb of me.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Theme: nature, hope, love**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale and connections:** This is a classic poem, unfortunately not as popular as it should be. It gets students engaged in themes of hope, growth, nature, and love. It connects the modern student with nature and also shows historical form. This is a good poem for struggling readers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media resources: []**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**"Harlem" ("A Dream Deferred")** by Langston Hughes


<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Poetry**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexile Level: Not available**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Poem:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">What happens to a dream deferred? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Does it dry up <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">like a raisin in the sun? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Or fester like a sore— <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And then run? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Does it stink like rotten meat? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Or crust and sugar over— <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">like a syrupy sweet? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Maybe it just sags <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">like a heavy load. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">//Or does it explode?//

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Theme: metaphors, civil rights, illustration and description.**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** This is a great introduction to Iambic pentameter, metaphors, and images. For more advanced students we can explore the historical content and get deeper into the authors background. We can also use this poem for struggling readers to show them form and passage. This fantastic poem not only cannot only connect to the Harlem renaissance and it's artistic and musical history but can also be applied in a beginning creative writing class.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media: []**

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Short Stories:** =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**"Tsali of the Cherokees"** by Norah Roper, as told to Alice Marriott

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre: Historical fiction**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** This contemporary short story is about the heroic fight and death of the Cherokee leader, Tsali, and his family. When the Georgia troops storm into North Carolina to relocate the Cherokee tribem Tsali and his family refuse to go.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rationale:** This easy to read story is a great entry point into the Trail of Tears and the plight of Native Americans as the Europeans expanded west. It coud also be part of a unit on the art and life of the Chrerokee Nation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** []

=**Informational Texts:**=

= =


 * Genre:** Informational Text


 * Lexile level:** none available


 * Description of book:** Grade 4-8. One out of every five public schools serves fast food, but kids probably don’t know what they’re eating. In this //Fast Food Nation// for adolescents, Schlosser exposes the practices of slaughterhouses, meatpacking plants, and restaurants while teaching kids tidbits about fast food, like the history of the Golden Arches, the process of making a hamburger, and the industry’s contribution to the obesity epidemic. Some of the information is hard to stomach, but curious readers will be intrigued.


 * Rationale and connections:** More than just a litany against the fast-food industry, //Chew on This// is explicit about why kids need to be informed. The authors profile real teens whose lives have been affected by the fast-food industry. This allows middle schoolers to see real-life examples of their peers advocating for healthy change. It also presents multiple views on an industry that has caused controversy in recent years, and encourages readers to think critically about these important questions.


 * Media resources:** Documentary film, //Super Size Me,// by Morgan Spurlock

[|Transcript of the movie on TeachingBooks.net]

[|Book Trailer for Chew on This]

[|Eric Schlosser & co-author Charles Wilson talk about the special ingredient in strawberry milkshakes and other disturbing truths about the food we eat.]


 * Genre:** Informational Text


 * Lexile level:** none available


 * Description of book:** Grade 5-8. This book offers advice in dealing with changes in the school routine, teachers, families, social lives, and issues such as drugs, sexual harassment, and school violence. Pen-and-ink cartoons feature preteens and sometimes parents in a variety of situations. A highlight of the book is the advice given by actual middle-school students. For the most part, it is practical, straightforward, and helpful; it is printed in italics and is easily identified throughout the book. A guidebook-style text with practical advice for common situations encountered in middle school.


 * Rationale and connections:** Erlbach offers a collection of practical tips for making it through that netherworld between the primary grades and high school. This is a book filled with advice about peers, home life, and transitions, each chapter tackles different aspects of a particular topic. "Academics," for example, is broken down into sections: "Why Teachers Give So Much Homework," "How Much Parents Should Help," and so on. The advice is sound, but the real gems are the quotes from kids. It is important for kids to be presented with perspectives from their peers combined with advice from experts. The text includes frank discussion, with Erlbach using the same no-nonsense language whether covering drugs, sexual harassment, crushes, or cheating on tests.


 * Media resources:**

[]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Traig, Jennifer** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Social Issues, Health

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexile Level:** 950

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** In this 1970s memoir, Traig describes how, from the age of 12 until her freshman year at Brandeis, she suffered from various forms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), including anorexia and a rarer, "hyper-religious form" of OCD called scrupulosity, in which sanctified rituals such as hand washing and daily prayer are repeated in endless loops. The daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Traig becomes obsessed with Jewish ritual, inventing her own prayers since her Jewish education is limited. Initially, Traig's family is amused; eventually, they try to help. Still, this memoir is less about suffering than it is about punch lines. When Traig swathes herself in head-to-toe flannel on hot summer days, her mother points to a scantily clad teenager on a talk show entitled //My Teen Dresses Too Sexy// and suggests Traig cool off like the adolescent "in the red vinyl number with the cut-outs over the chest and fanny." Traig spoofs Jewish rituals, cracking up at elaborate bar mitzvahs produced like Las Vegas floor shows and the meticulous analysis that goes into deeming a food item kosher. The author's behavior makes her seem like a character on //Seinfeld// or //Curb Your Enthusiasm//, and her book is a funny though sometimes cursory look at mental illness.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media Resources:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**[|Author Reading]** [|Author's Homepage]

===//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave** //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> by Frederick Douglass === <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Genre:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Informational Text

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Lexile Level:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">N/A

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Description:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This text tells the story of how Fredrick Douglass learned to read as a child. It then begins a discussion of how Douglass recognized his abysmal situation of being a slave at a young age and how literature was one means for him to explore his thoughts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Rational and connections:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This text is accessible to most readers yet offers a history lesson. It could be paired with a required history book to show students, not only a first hand document, but also to draw connections about the very act of how history is recorded.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Media resources:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">