Keating.+My+Sister's+Keeper

· __APA Citation__: Picoult, Jodi. (2003). //My Sister’s Keeper//. New York, NY: Atria Books. **ISBN:** 0-7434-8619-6.

· __Award:__ //My Sister’s Keeper// won The Alex Award in 2005.

· __Summary//://__ //My Sister’s Keeper// is the story of a struggling, distraught family. The Fitzgerald’s oldest daughter, Kate, has struggled with leukemia her entire life; her parents conceived the story’s 13 year old protagonist, Anna, to be Kate’s bone marrow match, and to be a human to donate organs and such to provide life for Kate. Anna lived her life up until the time of the novel blindly donating and giving anything necessary to ensure Kate lived, but at age 13, Anna decides to sue her parents for rights to her own body and medical decisions when she is told she must donate a kidney to Kate. This story is how this struggle tears apart the Fitzgerald family, and twist ending is one that will leave readers shocked and in awe of the unending love between sisters.

· __Critique__: This is a fabulously written novel. The impact of this story will remain with me forever. I knew this was a novel and movie, and I had always heard of it, but had never actually read it myself. I am so glad that I did; it was the most moving and touching novel I have ever read. Furthermore, it raises a lot of topics that would be great for discussion in school like genetics and stem-cell research.

· __Curriculum Connection__: Reading Standards for Literature 6-12 Grades 9-10 Key Ideas and Details

1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

· __Genre__: Non-Fiction

· __Developing Content Area Literacy:__ Strategy 14: Conflict Dissection- Analyzing Relationships in Text The purpose of the Conflict Dissection strategy is to help adolescent readers identify plot elements of conflict and resolution. This strategy will help educators to meet the standard regarding analysis of complex characters as this standard requires students to identify character motivation and character relationships.

*__Before Reading__: The class will discuss the various forms of conflict found in literature. Furthermore, students will discuss characterization and relationships between characters often found in literature.

Students will brainstorm using the title and cover of the novel about what types of conflict might be found in the novel. Students will be responsible for using the graphic organizer “Conflict Dissection Strategy Chart” (found on page 104 of the text) to guide their reading of //My Sister’s Keeper//. The teacher will define and discuss each of the categories on the graphic organizer. (Someone; Wanted/Because; But; So)

*__During Reading:__ Students will begin reading the novel //My Sister’s Keeper//. Groups of students will be assigned a different chapter in which they will analyze the present conflict and complete the graphic organizer, “Conflict Dissection Strategy Chart.” (Graphic Organizer- Figure 14.1 on page 104)

*__After Reading:__ After reading //My Sister’s Keeper//, the teacher will lead a class discussion over conflict present in the novel. Each group of students will defend their input regarding conflict and conflict resolution in the text. An optional extension would be to allow students to write a summary based on the information they compiled in the graphic organizer regarding character conflict in //My Sister’s Keeper.//

Strategy 28, Academic Controversy- Taking Sides on the Issue- would also be a useful strategy for teaching //My Sister's Keeper.//