A Manslaughtering Monster?

English Essentials/CP II is a blocked course focusing on the same standards-driven skills as in English II College Prep, but with more remediation. This course is composed of students in the bottom tier of the three-track system. The curriculum is designed to prepare students to simultaneously become stronger readers, writers, speakers, and listeners in addition to preparing them for the High School Assessment Program (HSAP), the state Exit Exam. My students need many opportunities for experimenting with literature—all types of literature, not just what’s found in our textbooks.

So, in an effort to seek out new literature and more creative ideas, I attended Dr. Janet Allen’s It’s Never Too Late Literacy Institute during the last two summers. Dr. Allen has created eight English Language Arts units for high school sophomores. Each unit is developed around a young adult novel that students will find realistic and relevant to their lives. Dr. Allen’s Turning Points: Hero or Monster unit is based on the core text Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon was only a lookout in the holdup of the corner store, but during the attempted robbery the store owner was killed. Steven wasn't even inside the store at the time of the murder. How guilty does that make Steven? Does his participation make him a MONSTER? That is the question left up to the jury and to the reader to decide. I know my students would benefit from reading and discussing Monster, and I am so excited about teaching this particular young adult novel.

The ideal classroom situation would be for each of my students to have access to the paperback edition of Monster. Each student having his copy of the book would be extraordinarily beneficial, and all students would truly take ownership of the story this way.

Your help would provide my students with an the opportunity to discuss a relevant and realistic text to their own lives, while improving their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.