The only thing more magical than teaching a rich text is pairing it with meaningful activities. One of my favorite assignments to pair with a class novel is Kelly Gallagher’s “Responsibility Pie Chart” (from his book Deeper Reading).
The Responsibility Pie Chart challenges students to divvy up the blame and decide which characters–and to what degree–are responsible for the conflict at hand. As students slice up the pie, they are challenged by the fact that there is no single correct answer. As they grapple with the question, they realize that the story’s conflict–like life–is not black and white, but rather a complex weaving of factors. 

I originally used this assignment with my middle school students after the climactic fight scene in Jason Reynolds’ When I Was the Greatest.

The past few years, I’ve incorporated the Responsibility Pie Chart into my unit on Sold by Patricia McCormick. Sold is the beautifully written novel in verse about the ugly epidemic of human trafficking. For my freshmen, it brings to life the story of millions of enslaved around the world by focusing on the story of one main character, Lakshmi. It’s a heavy story that leaves readers longing for change and asking “why?”. Why did Lakshmi have to suffer? Which people along the path of her life contributed to her being trafficked?

At the end of the novel I assign the Responsibility Pie Chart. I offer students a blank pie chart (an empty circle) and a word bank of the characters in the story. I ask them to divide the pie chart with the characters they think had a hand in forcing Lakshmi into sexual slavery. Consider her stepfather and Mumtaz; the first is the one who sold her and the latter is the one who kept her locked in the brothel and forced her to be with men. Is one of these guiltier than the other? There are no easy answers.  But as students mull over the story and draw their lines, they also write. Not only do I ask them to create the pie chart, but I also have them defend it, articulating support for their choices.

After they work independently, we discuss as a group. The pie charts students created act as a strong springboard for debate, as they exchange perspectives and text evidence. After reading the novel, this assignment and the conversation that follows help my readers further understand how complicated the problem of human trafficking is. 

The Responsibility Pie Chart is a simple but powerful tool that can be used not only with many, many novels, but also with nonfiction historical texts and current events as teachers guide students to develop their critical thinking skills.
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Maria Copp is a graduate of the Vanderbilt Reading Education M.Ed. program and is currently a Reading Specialist at Nathan Hale High School in Oklahoma.
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What better way to start the year than with a young adult novel in verse? It is no secret that Emily and I love verse novels—we are deeply passionate about what they do to capture readers’ imaginations. Novels in verse push storytelling boundaries—they use rich language, create engaging and complex characters, and develop powerful stories often about deeply personal and socially complex issues.  The narrative structure of verse novels looks different; the plot is developed across verse rather than chapters and the visual elements of graphics and white space become important tools in the storytelling.  The verse novel is a hybrid genre incorporating elements of verse, drama, and prose to tell engaging stories.

Ode to a Nobody by Caroline Brooks DuBois (2022) is a verse novel set in Nashville. On one level, it is a story about Quinn, a tornado, friendship, survival, and family. On another level, it is a love letter to English classes and poetry month. On yet another level, it is a story about how writing can help someone find her voice. It is all of those things and more.  As one of my teacher candidates said, “This book is about writing and seeing kids.”  Another said, “I found 27 poems that I could use as mentor texts tomorrow with my students and I am only halfway through the book!”

I shared this book as a read-aloud to a small group of 4 middle school students.  We started with an activity called “Judge a book by its cover.” Using a picture of the cover, the students do the following:

1. Identify what they notice about the cover.
2. List the “things” that stand out about the images on the cover.
3. Break apart the title.
4. Make an educated guess.

The four students studied the picture of the cover of the book.  The students listed the things they notice on chart paper:
Noticings of things on the cover:

1. I notice the back of a girl’s head and her hair is blowing like it is windy.
2. I notice that there is a house and trees.  The trees are blowing like it is a windy day.
3. I notice a hamster and a game controller flying around. A teddy bear and a skateboard too.
4. I notice that the colors are blues and pinks and salmon colors.  They seem “moody.”  
5. The trees and swing are blowing a different direction than her hair—like it is rotating.

Breaking apart the title:

1. The title is Ode to a Nobody.
2. The two words that stand out are ODE and NOBODY.
3. Ode is an English class word. I think it is a type of poetry—maybe one when somebody died or is real famous.
4. Nobody is a word everybody knows.  It’s common—it often is a negative word. Kind of.

Educated Guesses

1. I think the book is about a girl who writes a poem about somebody who dies in a storm. 
2. I think the book is going to be a book about a tornado because of the wind images.  I think the girl is the main character and she loses her house and her stuff in the tornado because I see stuff blowing in the wind.
3. I think the book is a mystery about a girl who finds someone’s stuff that gets blown away during a storm and she has to find the “nobody” the stuff belongs to and give it back.

 
The educated guesses are based on evidence the students found on the cover; their predictions are close but not exactly what they will find. They are now curious about the book and look forward to figuring out who was the most “right.”  We move on to one more introductory task—figuring out the title and more about the book by focusing on the word “ode.”
We begin by talking about and defining the word “ode.” I start by asking them where they might have heard the word “ode.”  We talk about what it sounds like (owed) and what we think this word means. One student reminds us that he thinks it is “an English class word” and another student says that she thinks she heard it in a video game.  I read them three of the poems from the book “Ode to the Dogwood Out My Window” (pp. 23-24), “Ode to a Stationary Ollie” (p. 32), and “Ode to My Bedroom (and Pumpkin)” (p. 33). 

“I didn’t know you could write a poem about skateboarding!” One student says.  The students nod.  “I thought it had to be about nature and big stuff.”  More nodding. We talk more about the poems and what they mean to us.  Then I ask, “Based on these three poems, what do you think an ode does?”  The students list what they notice about the three poems.

1. Each poem talks about what is special about the thing its about.
2. It seems like the poem wants us to think it is as special as the author does.
3. The poems have details that make it seem real.

The students decide that an ode is a poem that celebrates how special something is and uses details to make the reader believe it.  We then look up the definition of “ode” to discover how close we are.  The Cambridge online dictionary defines “ode” as “ a poem expressing the writer's thoughts and feelings about a particular person or subject, usually written to that person or subject.” The students then wonder, “So this book is an ode to a nobody? Can an author do that?”

The students and I are just beginning our journey together reading this book. They are already excited about reading it.  I look forward to the discussions and writing projects they create! 

Ode to a Nobody is a book that both Emily and I love.  As reading and writing teachers, we are excited about how we are seeing students respond.  As teacher educators, we are thrilled with the responses from our teacher candidates. 

Happy Reading, 
Melanie and Emily

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