Breaking the Rules [of Summer] {{page}}

Implications and Ideas for Teachers for use with [Rules of Summer]

After taking time to introduce and allow students time to read and experience Rules of Summer, allow for discussion and questioning about the text. The following activities are ideas you could utilize alongside a reading of the book to extend learning, challenge perceptions, and create spaces for students to voice connections, thoughts, and ideas.

1. Dramatic Inquiry strategies can help encourage deeper inquiry into the text. By placing students in the role of the characters, students are asked to use the book’s context to create deep connections between the text and self. In Hot Seating, a student takes a seat and becomes a character in the story. The rest of the class takes turns asking that student questions about the book, and the student, as one of the characters responds as if the character was providing insight into the story. Have students take turns being in the Hot Seat! Students could be one of the two brothers, or maybe even one of the birds that appear on every page. Have students explore the thoughts, feelings, and reasoning behind the characters.

2. Arts based activities allow readers to fully immerse themselves within the story by responding in a variety of different modes. After reading, allow students time to create and illustrate their own page to be inserted within the story. As a way to connect to the app, have students “zoom” in on a feature in the book, illustrate it and/or depict it in another artistic form, and tell the story of that scene.

3. Allowing space for students to respond to the book via writing is a powerful way to see students’ comprehension and exploration of what they have just read. The following are a variety of writing prompts that might spur deep thinking:

  • What rules do you think need to be broken? Why?
  • What rules do not need to be broken? How can they be broken in safe ways?
  • What parts of the story are unknown and/or confuse you? Why is this okay? Is this okay? Why? When can this be beneficial?
  • Describe many ways to interpret this book. Why are none of them right? Why are they all right?
  • What mistakes did the boys make? Why is that okay?
  • What obstacles have you encountered trying to be creative?
  • Write the story from viewpoint of one brother and then the other
  • In the article, one of the pre-service teachers came up with her own theory about why the boys should “ Never leave a red sock on a clothesline’” wondering if the boys’ mother would yell at them if they took it. Write your own backstory that could result in one of rules of summer being issued.

4. In the 21st Century classroom, allowing students time to utilize digital media to respond to text, even texts that are already in a digital format, can provide an opportunity to connect to the story via a mode they may be familiar and comfortable. With Rules of Summer, you could allow students to use Twitter to respond to the book or even have them create Instagram feeds reflecting themes, thoughts, ideas about aspects of this book, or use any form of pictorial collage or app the students may be familiar.

Contact Us

Ashley K. Dallacqua, PhD
The University of New Mexico
adallacqua@unm.edu

Sara Kersten-Parrish, PhD
John Carroll University
sparrish@jcu.edu

Mindi Rhoades, PhD
The Ohio State University
rhoades.89@osu.edu

Picturebook [Ideas]

Looking for ways to incorporate picturebooks into your middle school curriculum? Below is a selection of a wide variety of picturebooks--wordless, stories with unreliable narrators, multiple narrative plotlines, and juxtaposition between text and illustration--that are great for encouraging questioning and creating personal connections.

Digital [Resources]

Here are a few of our favorite digital resources!

  • Scribd - A subscription here gives you access to Amazon's digital library.
  • Comixology - A subscription here gives you access to thousands of comics from major and independant comic book publishers.
  • School Library Journal's School Ebook Market Directory - Rules of Summer, as a digital book, is an exception to simply replicating a text in digital form, but changes in narrative apps and ebooks are occurring every day. SLJ’s directory can help educators and librarians navigate other resources for obtaining a range of digital texts!