[LIT] "Freak the Mighty" Ideas

[Don Van Oss]

One of the things that I did was have students create their own dictionary as Kevin gave to Max in the story.  They had to have each letter of the alphabet represented at least once, cover page with a catchy title, and they had to illustrate their pages.  I encouraged both traditional words and silly definitions.  They kids loved making this and I even had a number of students create it the same way Kevin did.  Good Luck!

Ginny White <ginnywhitefl at earthlink.net> wrote:  
On Sep 18, 2006, at 6:17 PM, Chris Booker wrote:
> I'm getting ready to do this novel with my 7th grade Resource Reading 
> class. I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas and/or materials 
> they would be willing to share with a new teacher!
>
Chris, I'll have to look at my stuff at school, but I have used this as 
a class novel. I love it (and its sequel) and so did my kids. I will 
see what I have, but the one of the things we did that was very 
effective was this: Freak has a condition whose name I now can't 
remember and Max is SLD. I had my kids each find 10 facts about each 
of these conditions. They met in groups of 3 and compared their notes, 
paring them down to what they considered the most important 10 facts 
they thought of interest to kids their age and worded appropriately for 
peers; then as a class each group presented their conclusions and we 
discussed the 10 or so facts we thought most important. We then 
created a bookmark with SLD facts on one side and Freak's condition on 
the other. When anyone checked the book out from the library, they 
received this laminated bookmark. It was a neat exercise in providing 
a real product. It also provided a safe way to discuss learning 
disabilities, myths, misunderstandings, and facts. The kids also 
thoroughly enjoyed the movie (compare and contrast) following reading. 
Another fun exercise is to create a dictionary similiar to Freak's in 
the back of the book. I think I actually ordered some packaged 
materials to take things from (I never do it totally their way).

I'll look thru what I have at school and see if there's anything else 
good. I would suggest you check out Rodman Philbrick's website if you 
haven't already.

Ginny White
Fernandina Beach (FL) Middle School


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