9th Grade -- Creating Ideas for Engaging Plots

the death of jayson porter

by Jaime Adoff

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award

The death of Jayson Porter is an edgy teen novel written in Jaime's signature prose-poetry form. It's about a boy in the inland Florida projects with a really tough life, and he's contemplating suicide--the one thing Jayson has control over. In this gripping story, Jayson finds hope even in his bleakest hour.

About the Author

Jaime Adoff was born in New York City but grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He is the son of award-winning author Virginia Hamilton and renowned poet Arnold Adoff, and his sister, Leigh Adoff, is a beautiful opera singer. Talent abounds in his family! After playing rock and roll music in New York for 10 years, Jaime came back to Yellow Springs and married his high school prom date. His dedication in this book is: For Terri, my wife and best friend. I'm so glad you decided to sit next to me in 5th grade.

Content Standards

Grade Nine -- Writing Applications

1. Write narratives that:

a. sustain reader interest by pacing action and developing an engaging plot

b. use a range of strategies and literary devices including figurative language and specific narration; and,

c. include an organized, well developed structure.

Activity

Students will learn how an author may come up with ideas for their book, and then work on brainstorming ideas for their own narratives. They will read the first three chapters of the book The Death of Jayson Porter for homework the first night.

http://innovativeteen.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-08T04%3A52%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=50. We'll talk a little bit about blogs and how authors use them (like we are) and I'll introduce the students to this particular blog which was started by a teen author. It's all about teaching young people to write. We'll look at some of the different blogs that she's written, especially some of the ones that deal with how authors come up with their ideas. The blog on August 9, 2008, is an interview with author Jaime Adoff about his newest book (at the time) The Death of Jayson Porter. We'll read parts of this interview together.

Jaime talks about how he came up with the idea for this book: "I had the idea for this book for a few years, just sitting on my desktop. I believe I had the opening piece and a few rough ideas and that was about it. It wasn't until a school visit a couple of years ago that I realized this was the book I needed to write. One after the other the students would share their stories, losing a friend or relative to violence. They shared thoughts of suicide, some had even tried."

An interview on WYSO radio's Book Nook with Vick Mickunas is also available at: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-754458.mp3. During the interview, we will listen to Jaime talk about ideas he had for the book. We'll discuss some of these ideas and others that the students have of their own.

Students will spend 5 minutes thinking of ideas to help them generate a list of topics for the narratives they will write. I'll ask them to break up into groups of three to four students and talk about their ideas with each other. Their homework for that night is to discuss their ideas with a parent or guardian and try to come up with the idea that would generate the best narrative. When they come back to school, each student will give me the topic for their story that they will begin writing that week.

Students will continue reading assigned chapters of Jaime Adoff's book each night; and the next day, we'll talk about the different ways the author helps sustain the readers interest, how he uses strategies and literary devices, and how he organizes and develops structure. Students will use each of these techniques as they work on their own stories, and we'll discuss their progress in class and in small groups as they go.

This book also has a discussion guide for teachers at http://www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com/board/displayBook.asp?id=1915.