Hearts Unbroken

I have had a hard time getting into Hearts Unbroken. However, from page 95 to page 165, I have been reading "like a writer" and learning a lot about Cynthia Leitich Smith's writing craft. I love how the author is tying in world problems that are going on around the world into her book. The main character, Louise Wolfe, works for her school's newspaper, so she connects a lot with the world's issues. Louise has aspirations, talents, a loving family, and a mind of her own. Louise is Native American, and all the prejudice around her, awaken's her activist side. Louise uses her own emotions and opinions to help awaken the world's activist side.

If I were using this text as a read aloud with upper elementary students (6th grade), I would pull in the impact of emotions and opinions in narrative writing.


The passages I would use are:

I happened to glance up at the nearest muted flat-screen TV. The news ticker reported that a bombing in Egypt had been linked to a terrorist group. I counted four screens in my line of vision. Bombing, bombing, bombing, bombing. I felt the tinge of sadness, the shudder of horror. Watching made me feel helpless, but it seemed selfish to look away. 

Suddenly, on four screens, a white girl with jutting collarbones strutted onto the runway in a shimmery, sleeveless turquoise mini, clear platform shoes, and an enormous Plains-Indian-inspired headdress decked out in glittery white-and-blue feathers. Headdress, headdress, headdress, headdress. Our conversation faltered. Our laughter faded. We turned our attention back to each other, where it belonged. Our jovial mood rebounded. When Phoebe, our waitress, returned with pecan pie, Mama said thank you and asked her to turn off all the TV's. 

So, in the example, Louise is feeling two different ways about two different topics that flashed across the four flat-screen TV's that were in the restaurant her and her family were eating at. I would pull this example, and possibly other examples from this book, and talk about how she weaves her emotions and opinions about certain topics that are going around the world.

More than likely, students in 6th grade have probably had a certain situation that they saw on the news or in real life that made them feel some type of way. I would have the students write about a certain topic that they saw on the news or in real life and have them talk about how that made them feel. I would then have them discuss their opinion about the topic they wrote about. I think this lesson would be challenging, but would also be very motivating for the 6th graders.