Character Care Label

The goal of this assignment it to help students develop emotional self

advocacy, and research techniques to use when faced with adversity in their real
lives, as well as test their deeper understanding the characterization and hardship
within the book.

Directions: Students will choose one character from the novel that resonates most
with them and create a “care label”.This label will illustrate a instructions to care,
like a tag on a shirt or on a plant, for this character specifically regarding that
character's emotional state. Labels must include five to seven recommended
techniques with accompanying illustrations.

example:
Fito
%100 loveable
Handle with care

Must be fed
Regularly.

Home is in the
People who love
You

Has a bad habit of self

Deprecation, must
Learn to let himself be
Loved.

Therapy is
recommended once a
week

Hanging Fire
The goal of this assignment is for students to compare and contrast the coming of age
elements of the poem Hanging Fire to the elements in The Inexplicable Logic of My Life to
broaden students' understanding of what it means to come of age in their own lives as well as
understand the author’s purpose behind the language devices being used.

Hanging Fire Suggested discussion questions:

BY AUDRE LORDE 1. What does Lorde’s choice to use
I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me prose add to the message of her poem
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his thumb Hanging Fire? What does the prose-
in secret
how come my knees are type language Seanz uses in
always so ashy “TILOML” add to the story?
what if I die
before morning 2. How are the characters in “TILOML”
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed. and the characters in Hanging Fire
similar? What do they have in
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party common?
my room is too small for me
suppose I die before graduation 3. Why would the author repeat “...and
they will sing sad melodies
but finally momma’s in the closet with the door
tell the truth about me closed”? Can you think of repeated
There is nothing I want to do
and too much phrases in “TILOML”? Whistling in
that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom the dark? Word of the day? Beautiful
with the door closed.
Smiles?
Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Create your own poem inspired by Hanging Fire and The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life to
explore your own coming of age story. Think of a time in your life when you struggled with
something and came out stronger on the other end. Try to use poetic devices, especially the ones
we have talked about in class like repetition, imagery, and prose. Fair warning: this may be
shared in class but is not required so feel free to write from the heart, but I will be reading it so
keep that in mind when you choose a topic.