Perspectives - Weird Series

The Weird! Series

These three books tell the story of an ongoing case of bullying from three third graders’ perspectives. Luisa describes being targeted by bullying in Weird! Jayla shares her experience as a bystander to bullying in Dare! And in Tough!, Sam speaks from the point of view of someone initiating bullying. Kids will easily relate to Luisa, Jayla, and Sam, as each girl has her own unique experience, eventually learning how to face her challenges with the help of friends, peers, and caring adults.

 To be able to have an understanding of the concept of PERSPECTIVES, we used the thinking routine JIGSAW.  The class was divided into three groups. Each group experienced a read aloud of one of the books in the Weird Series by Erin Frankel. After the read aloud and a brief discussion, students were asked to reflect and STEP INTO their character's  thoughts, actions, and wishes. The class then came back together and regrouped in to groups of three, making sure that each story was represented. Students answered the question "What would it feel like to be..." Students were then all given the opportunity to read the other books in the series to experience different perspectives. The discussion that ensued with this learning experience was absolute gold... A multitude of vocabulary words were explored and the enthusiastic engagement was palpable.