Speak Study Guide

Speak

 by

Laurie Halse Anderson

Study Guide

Teacher:

Jennifer Smith

English - Grade 9

 Standards and Benchmarks

 Standard 5:  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

LA9.5.1  Uses a variety of strategies to extend reading vocabulary

•  uses context clues to determine meaning (definition, restatement, example, comparison and contrast)

LA9.5.2  Uses Active Reading Strategies to derive meaning from a text

•  understands active reading strategies
  •  predicts what is going happen  and checks predictions
  •  connects prior knowledge of literary elements and personal
  •  experiences to events and makes connections between one event and another
  • visualizes by describing images and sounds created by events and
  • details
  • summarizes the events of the story

Standard 6:  Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts

LA9.6.1  Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of literary genres and their characteristics

• novels

LA9.6.2  Understands the use of complex elements of plot in specific literary works

• exposition
• conflict
• rising action
• climax
• falling action
• resolution

 LA9.6.4  Understands the effects of author’s style and complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work

• point of view:  first person (subjective, detached, observer), third person limited, third person objective, third person omniscient
• foreshadowing
• figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification)
• imagery

Essential Content/ Concepts for Accessible Supplemental Text

1. Vocabulary: using context clues to determine meaning
2. Use active reading strategies for novel comprehension
3. Plot (exposition, conflict, etc)
4. Literary devices (theme, figurative language, foreshadowing, etc.)

 LiteratureUnit: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

How to Use This Study Guide

Please click on the three characters below to see how they help you throughout this study guide.

Speak is a book about Melinda Sordino.  Throughout her freshman year at Merryweather High School, she is silent about an event that occurred right before she began high school.  This event causes her life to spin out of control.  Her friends abandon her and she loses interest in herself, her family, and school.  Melinda’s inner thoughts become stronger as the novel progresses until she cries out for help about the event that caused her such turmoil.  Melinda turns to art and gardening for comfort.  She finally confronts the individual who caused the event and begins to heal as she speaks about what happened to her.

Setting is the time and place in which the action of a narrative occurs. (Source: Textbook, Traditons in Literature)  Speak  is occurring is in the present.  There is something special about the place!

Point of View is the relationship between the narrator of a story and the characters and action in it.  The two most common points of view of first person and third person.  The first-person narrator might offer a personal account of his or her own experiences, past or present, or may focus on what happens to other characters.  The third-person narrator stands anonymously outside a story's action, presenting an all-knowing or omniscient point of view, a limited point of view that centers on the thoughts and actions of only one character, or an objective point of view that describes only what can be seen. (Source: Textbook, Traditions in Literature)

"I need a new friend.  I need a friend, period.  Not a true friend, nothing close or share clothes or sleepover giggle giggle yak yak.  Just a pseudo-friend, disposable friend.  Friend as accessory.  Just so I don't feel and look stupid." (Speak p. 22)

Can you use context clues to figure out what the word pseudo means?

"I have been dropped like a hot Pop Tart on a cold kitchen floor." (Speak p. 21) What type of figurative language is used by this quote?

The exposition  is the beginning of the story. The establishment of a setting and characters occurs at this point. The inciting incident introduces the central conflict  (the problem faced by the characters) and leads to the rising action . The rising action leads up to the climax . The climax is the culmination of events in the story and is the highest part of the story. The falling action  is the events leading to the solving of the story’s problems. The resolution  tells how events and problems of the story are solved.

(Source: http://pulse.pharmacy.arizona.edu/9th_grade/from_global/language_arts/plot.html)

Beginning of the 1^st marking period: Melinda is very self-conscious about her first day of ninth grade. In middle school, she had many friends and now they seem to hate her. She will barely speak to anyone. Melinda feels like an outcast. She cannot even face her self and takes down the mirror in her bedroom. Melinda finds an old janitor’s closet to use as her hang out so that she can skip classes.

Second half of the 1^st marking period: Heather from Ohio is Melinda’s only friend. Heather only worries about herself and doesn’t even notice that Melinda is somehow in trouble. Everybody besides Heather is really mean to Melinda. In art class, Melinda has difficulty working on her tree project. She just can’t get it right. Her parents are too busy to notice Melinda is in trouble too! We meet IT and know by Melinda’s reaction that he did something terrible to her.

"I feel the wall next to the door until I find a light switch. I haven’t stumbled into a classroom; it is an old janitor’s closet that smells like sour sponges. The back wall has built-in shelves filled with dusty textbooks and a few bottles of bleach. A stained armchair and an old fashioned desk peek from behind a collection of mops and brooms. A cracked mirror tilts over a sink littered with dead roaches crocheted together with cobwebs. The taps are so rusted they don’t turn." (Speak p. 25 - 26)

The author is describing what the closet looks, feels, and smells like. What writing technique is the author using in this quote?

"There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs." (Speak p. 51) What type of figurative language  is used by this quote?

2^nd marking period: Melinda is forced to stay after school because her grades are so bad. It is harder for her to talk. Her lips are raw and her throat is sore. The closet is her only safe place. Thanksgiving was a crazy day at Melinda’s house. They end up eating pizza for Thanksgiving dinner. Melinda takes the turkey bones out of the garbage and makes a creative art piece that Mr. Freeman states displays pain. Melinda wants to speak when her parents give an art set for Christmas, but she can’t get the words out in time. She is falling even more behind at school. She is self-destructing.

"I chomp my sandwich and it barfs mustard on my shirt." (Speak p. 128) What type of figurative language  is used by this quote? 

3^rd marking period: Heather dumps Melinda. Luckily she is becoming friends with David Petrakis. IT is harassing her. She gets very anxious whenever IT is around. Her principal and guidance counselor meet with Melinda and her parents. They are finally taking notice to her behavior. David invites Melinda to a party and she has a vivid memory. We finally find out what has been tormenting Melinda.

On page 175 of the novel Speak, Melinda is in the bathroom with Ivy and says, "I hold the cap in my teeth.  I start another subject thread on the wall: Guys to Stay Away From.  The first entry is the Beast himself: Andy Evans."  What is being forshadowed  in this scene?

4^th marking period: Ivy and Melinda’s friendship begins to heal. She is also starting to stand up for herself. She stands up to Mr. Neck and to Heather. Melinda speaks to Rachel and tells her what happened. Rachel knows that Melinda was telling the truth when she confronts Andy at the prom. In the end, Melinda finds her voice when she finally confronts Andy.

What is the climax  of the plot summary in the novel Speak?

The falling action and resolution  occur after the climax  in a plot. What happened after the climax  in Speak?

"One arborist monkeys his way into the pale green canopy, then hauls up the chain saw (turned off) at the end of a thick rope. He sets to work pruning the deadwood like a sculptor." (Speak p. 186 & 187)

Can you use context clues  to figure out what the word pruning means?

Tree are utilized a few times in Speak.  Melinda picks a tree as her art project.  There are also references to a tree in Melinda's front yard.

What is the symbolism  of the tree throughout the novel?

Works Cited

Classroom Clipart (2010). Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://classroomclipart.com/

Halse Anderson, L. (1999). Speak. New York: Penguin Putnam.

Jupiterimages, . (2010). Clipart.com. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://www.clipart.com/en/

Leopard, . (n.d.). Elements of Literature. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://rison.k12.ar.us/leopard/blue_sheets.htm

McDonnell, H., Miller, Jr., J. E., & Hogan, R. J. (1991). Traditions in Literature (Classic Edition ed. ). Genview, IL: Scott Foresman and Company.

Smith, J. M. (Photographer). (2010). Personal Photos. [Photograph].

Torrey Emmons, J. (2009, November 10). Plot Structure. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://pulse.pharmacy.arizona.edu/9th_grade/from_global/language_arts/plot.html