10+lessons+for+13+Reasons+by+Jay+Asher

John Lanphear Katelyn Hadyniak Alex Heidtke Ashley Bartley

10 lessons for YA book

13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

1. Introduction lesson

a. The first lesson we will be presenting will be an introduction to the topics that are going to be covered while we read 13 Reasons Why. We will be discussing some very emotion topics (suicide, bullying, rumors, etc.) and the students will need to be prepared to talk about them in a mature manner. Of course this means you are telling them how to read the text, instead of letting them discover for themselves. A more light-handed approach might be to ask if they know people who have been hurt by gossip and rumors, have them write about it, and ask whether people should be held accountable for spreading them, and perhaps sharing their thoughts one-to-one.

2. Trust lesson

a. The trust lesson will be centered around trust exercises and activities such as trust falls and egg tosses. We are including a trust lesson in this unit because it will be important for students to feel as though they can trust one another, because without trusting one another they will hold back in the discussions, which will make them nowhere near as productive. Trust has to be earned and may come gradually if you let students share in low-risk situations. Not on the second day, however.

3. Listening / reading lesson

a. A recurring lesson we will have is the reading of the book paired with listening to the recordings we will make of Hannah’s recordings. Allowing the students to listen to her recordings will help them to really get into the book and drive the points home with them. Good: but what would be the objective of listening to a specific chapter?

4. Journals

a. An important aspect of this unit will be the journaling of the feelings and emotions student shave while they read. Throughout the unit, students will be required to read one of their journal entries, as well as have one of their other entries read by another student, anonymously if they would like. Describe the goals and requirements of this journal: will they have to show evidence of reading? will they have to reflect on what they read? will they have write a certains length?

5. Short Story / poetry lesson

a. There have been several short stories and several poems we have come across that are very similar in style and in content to 13RW. We are discussing which one(s) we will be presenting to the class. We will assign short essays comparing the two and drawing connections between the readings and their own lives. Allow for at least five consecutive days of reading the novel, but interrupting with a short story. I would actually recommend using these at the very beginning or at the end of the reading.

6. Discussion

a. This will be a recurring lesson. Students will be asked to discuss what they read on several occasions, specifically when they read sections that should evoke more emotion than others.

Describe the format (writing, speaking, responding), the focus of the questions (characters, conflict, expectations), the length of discussion, the size of the group, etc.

7. Who was the worst to Hannah?

a. One of the assignments the students will be assigned will be a short paper about who they think treated Hannah the worst out of all of the 13 individuals she sent tapes too. The day they turn the papers in will have a discussion / debate about who they thought was the worst. It would make for better writing, if you discussed the issues first. How do they judge the characters? By their deviousness? by Hannah's rankings? by Clay's opinions? Do Clay and Hannah evaluate the characters differently?

8. Rumor Lesson

a. By far, the lesson we are the most excited for, and the one we think will be the most fun for the students is the rumor lesson. What will be done is the teacher will start a rumor, with the help of several trustworthy students, about themselves. It will be something about the class (i.e. the teacher is going to bring in water balloons on a specific day and everybody should wear swimming suits). On the day of the lesson, the teacher will ask how many of them are wearing clothes they don’t mind getting wet. This sounds like fun, but does it really probe the danger of rumors? There are probably plenty of real circumstances that would provide examples, rather than inventing one for the class. Examples from their own lives, from the news, from fiction, from poems (see "Spring and Autumn"), from movies (Mean Girls and Election come to mind). You can discuss causes and effects in multiple circumstances.

9. How would this have been from X’s perspective?

a. A discussion, followed by a journal and an assignment. The students will be asked how they think everything would have looked from one of the characters’ point of views. This will lead into a discussion about how they feel they would act if this happened to them, or at their school.

Good; consider which readings/ chapters this would follow-up.

10. Multi Genre Projects

a. The final project the students will a MGP about themselves. The students will be asked to analyze what they have learned about self worth, perceived images of others, rumors, and their fellow classmates and apply it to their thought processes. They will then be given cameras and sent forth to create a documentary about themselves, ala Behind the Music or In The Actor’s Studio.

I like this project, but you should also summatively assess the reading in some way. In the MG project they could write monologues from various characters' voices, they could write news and feature articles about the suicide, they write editorials about real events caused by rumors. There should be evidence that they have connected their reading to the themes.