Revamping a Classic Body Biography Activity in a Young Adult Literature Course - Thankful to @ChrisCrutcher & His Angus Bethune for Inspiration

In other courses, I've borrowed the body biography activity as a way to review a novel and to get students thinking about character identity and constructions. Last night, however, I adapted the activity to first get the students thinking about their own adolescence and then to carry it forward with Angus Bethune, a character from Chris Crutcher's Athletic Shorts.

Disclaimer: I am biased. I have loved the voice of Angus Bethune when I read it as a classroom teacher and take pleasure in knowing he was created in 1989, while I was still in high school. The overweight kid with nontraditional parents, but normal teenage angst, is a wonderful way to invite others into a conversation about growing up, figuring out the world, and moving forward with genetics/family, but on one's own. 

It worked. What the students don't realize is they were creating a foundation for the genre of teen books, without necessarily being lectured about the themes most of them address. I could have Powerpointed my way through history, but rather allowed them to naturally find the themes for themselves any looking at their own lives and the wit of Angus (love it, Chris. So thankful for your brilliant contributions. 

Now, however, it's time to transition to Refugees in Literature and another class this afternoon. 

Yes, they traced their bodies and I provided a warehouse of markers and crayons. They laughed as they thought together and I laughed and the ways they accomplished what I hoped they would.

Oh, to be a teenager. 

Interesting to me, though, is I don't have just pre-service teachers in the course, making me think strategically about the way the curriculum will go forward. I have several finance majors and I'm dreaming numerous ways they may look into book publishing as their final projects....we shall see.