stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2016-06-15 05:08 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2016-06-15 05:08 pm
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THE CURIOUS INCIDENT Report
I test-drove The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with my ninth graders. We read and discussed the book in a single week. For my largely special-ed classes, this was a fast, fast read. Because of the language, the book was also controversial. I was waiting to see what would happen. Now the unit and the school year are over, and I have some thoughts:
--This was the first book we did in which I didn't read any part of it aloud to the class. Every bit of the reading was homework. Unfortunately, a great many of my ninth graders weren't up to the task. I tracked their reading by having them to annotations in the book or handing in short summaries of the plot. Between a third and half of them didn't read each section, even though I made the audio version available to struggling readers, and there were five sections. This was disappointing, to say the least, especially since the book isn't a difficult or archaic read.
--The ones who ddi read the book responded well to it. They liked Christopher, and they liked the story, and they liked seeing a story from an autistic character's point of view.
--My austistic students, especially, reacted well. One my ASD students, who struggles with school a lot, got very much into the book.
--The swearing didn't seem to bother any of the students. (I didn't think it would.) In class, I often put on a faux shocked demeanor about it. ("Shocking language! I know none of YOU have ever heard these words before. It must be terribly difficult for you to see such things in print.") They usually laughed. "We've seen way worse!"
--The major plot twists (who killed Wellington the dog and what happened to Christopher's mother) truly startled the class and even made them a little upset.
--I pointed out that the author was using wee and poo (as Christopher puts it) as symbols, and the students thought that was absolutely splendid.
--This was the first book we did in which I didn't read any part of it aloud to the class. Every bit of the reading was homework. Unfortunately, a great many of my ninth graders weren't up to the task. I tracked their reading by having them to annotations in the book or handing in short summaries of the plot. Between a third and half of them didn't read each section, even though I made the audio version available to struggling readers, and there were five sections. This was disappointing, to say the least, especially since the book isn't a difficult or archaic read.
--The ones who ddi read the book responded well to it. They liked Christopher, and they liked the story, and they liked seeing a story from an autistic character's point of view.
--My austistic students, especially, reacted well. One my ASD students, who struggles with school a lot, got very much into the book.
--The swearing didn't seem to bother any of the students. (I didn't think it would.) In class, I often put on a faux shocked demeanor about it. ("Shocking language! I know none of YOU have ever heard these words before. It must be terribly difficult for you to see such things in print.") They usually laughed. "We've seen way worse!"
--The major plot twists (who killed Wellington the dog and what happened to Christopher's mother) truly startled the class and even made them a little upset.
--I pointed out that the author was using wee and poo (as Christopher puts it) as symbols, and the students thought that was absolutely splendid.