Back on June 15 of this year I wrote about Flipped by Wendy Van Draanen, my school's summer reading book for all 7th and 8th graders. I quite enjoyed the book, and throughout the summer ideas about how to discuss the book swirled around in my mind. While there would be discussion questions provided, I wasn't keen on doing a standard book discussion with 18 kids.
Fast forward to this past Friday, when all of the 7th and 8th grade advisories, in their separate groups, spent a period talking about Flipped. Here's what we did…
At the start of advisory we asked all 18 students to line themselves up in age/birthday order. We then plucked a student from either end and one from the middle to form the first group, continuing on in this manner until there were 5 groups of 3, each with someone from the beginning, end and middle of the line. The groups were given 5 minutes to refresh their memories about the book and charged with making sure that everyone in the threesome knew the basic story line. At the end of the time, each group was asked to share a main event from the book, with the first request being for a brief summation of the story (which forms the trunk of the tree). From their responses I drew a word tree on the board.
The reason for placing the events in the shape of the tree is that a tree was a major component of the story. The words in red are the responses given to the second question noted below. Once the kids had finished pulling out main events from the story, I put two questions to them.
• Since there are so many meanings of the words Flip/Flipped, what are ways that you use the words or what meanings do the words have?• What meaning does the tree have in the story?
Snack was delivered right around when the kids were giving their word choices, and the food helped make for a relaxed yet focused conversation. Each word suggestion prompted someone else to share their word choice, and this sequed to sharing times in our lives when we flipped or an event or person flipped that impacted us. This was the most poignant portion of the discussion, and the aim of the entire activity – to personalize the book and use it to bring a group of 18 students and their advisors together in an ongoing process of supportiveness. We didn't exactly flip head over heels for one another, but we sure managed to share some laughter, seriousness and comaraderie!
Oh, and if you are curious about the book, it's coming out as a movie sometime this fall and you can catch the trailer on the Warner Brothers site.