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- Michael Mingo
- EDLA 615
- Fall 2005
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- When I started to think about an Extension Project, I had no idea what I
was going to do. I’m a band director that does not like to read books
often. I tend to learn more when I work hands on. In class it was
recommended to me for an assignment to read the book Speak by Laurie
Halse Anderson. I’m glad that this book was assigned to me; I was very
interested in reading the book. I was so interested that I even took the
time to learn more about the author and why she wrote the story. (http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-anderson-laurie.asp)
(http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/speak.html) The whole story was a dream of
Anderson’s with real life experiences mixed in. I highly enjoyed the
book and would recommend it to anyone to read.
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- The book is about a young girl who starts her freshmen year of high
school, her name is Melinda. When Melinda goes to school, she is very
quite and shy as though she does not want to be noticed. There is a
sense from the beginning that something has happened to her and that she
feels out of place. We find out in the third marking period that at the
end of the summer before she enters high school, Melinda attends a
party. At the party, she gets drunk and unfortunately is
raped. Shocked and scared, she calls the police and runs out of the
party. She tells no one about her rape, and the other students
including her best friends, turn against her for getting them in
trouble. By the time school starts, she is completely
alone. She withdraws more and more everyday, rarely talking,
ignoring assignments, cuts classes and becoming more estranged from the
world around her. Few people talk to her and are able to connect;
one that does is her art teacher, Mr. Freemen. He works with her to help
her express her emotions through art. At the end of the school year when
Melinda is coming to terms with her rape is when the same upperclassman
that raped her at the party attacks her again. At this point something
within Melinda snaps and repels her attacker. Her defeat of him gives
her closure and she becomes a person again.
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- Looking through different examples of Extension Project, I came across
something that is called a CONNECTOR. I’m always looking for something
that I can use with my own students in band and music. It’s a great tool
for students to use to reflect their own personal experiences with the
book they are reading. At different timed points through out the book,
students in their group can use the CONNECTOR to find connection with
outside world.
- This is also a great tool for me to use in my band were students can use
this for pieces of music and make connection with real life. Many
popular pieces of music are inspired by real life experiences and this
is a great way to show students how to tap those resources to write
music.
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- Name: _________________________ Date: ____________
- Title: ___________________________________________
- Chapters/Pages: _____________
- CONNECTOR: Your job is to find
connections between the section your group is reading and the outside
world. This means connecting the
reading to your own life, to happenings at school or in the community,
to similar events at other times and places, or to other people or
problems that you are reminded of.
You might also see connections between this section and other
books you have read. There are no
wrong answers – whatever the reading connects you with is worth
sharing.
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
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- I feel that my project would be rated as an expert project because of
the relationship between real life and the book. I’m not very familiar
with the use of this program and spent a large amount of time learning
it; I feel that I worked very hard. I believe that I captured the
feeling of the book with the use of the technology and convincinglywould
draw the students into reading the book.
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- Mrcoley.com
- http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/tovashal/bcoley/litcircles.htm
- http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-anderson-laurie.asp
- http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/speak.html
- http://comsewogue.org/~ssilverman/litcircles/silverman/silverman.htm
- Google Images
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