Self-Selected Project: Discussing "It's Kind of a Funny Story" and Speak

For the self-selected project, Brian, Becca and I each read/watched two texts that we thought sounded interesting and relevant for using in our future classrooms. The texts we chose were the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and the movie "It's Kind of a Funny Story," which is based upon the same-titled book by Ned Vizzini. We chose these two texts because they both discussed many similar topics (depression, finding one’s identity, forming good relationships), were written with a young adult audience in mind, and yet could complement the other because Speak’s protagonist is a girl and “Story” is told from the perspective of a boy, and because each are (obviously) different kinds of texts.

In our group discussion, we first talked about the aspects of Speak that we most liked and disliked. All of us agreed that while much of the book was somewhat sensationalized (i.e. the part where the teacher drives the main character in his car to New York, and the fact that the cliques in the school were so rigidly separate), that the book, overall, had a very true-to-life feel that made connecting with the story and its characters very easy to do. While we all disagreed slightly about how funny the book was (I found myself laughing a lot as I read it), we did all agree that the book had a humor that was appealing not only to us, but that would engage most adolescents as well. Another more general aspect of the book that we enjoyed was that the book had a lot of literary value beyond just having an intriguing plot line. Symbolism, for instance, was everywhere in the book, from the issues with finding the school mascot to the chapter in which the main character talks about the Scarlet Letter. Most than anything, we felt that the book presented opportunities for discussion on a wide variety of topics that could be made relevant to almost any age group.

A few of the main characters in "It's Kind of  a Funny Story,"
 including Zach Galifianakis (guy with the ice cream cone) and
Emma Roberts (far right).

Overall, it seemed that the aspects of Speak that we liked and disliked were the same general things we discussed with “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.” While much of the movie’s plot also seemed sensationalized, we felt that its discussion of a wide range of topics was funny, “real,” and relevant enough to make it a movie worth recommending. We all liked that, perhaps even more than Speak, the movie seemed to put a positive, hopeful look at dealing with depression that would be particularly good for teens to take in. On another note, the movie just had some great acting and cool scenes that made watching it particularly enjoyable.

After our general discussion about the texts, we then talked about some ways in which we might incorporate these texts into our future instruction. We all seemed to agree that while the film had lots of great material that could be pulled from it into a lesson, that showing the entire movie wouldn’t be something that we would do in a classroom setting (both because it contained a few possibly inappropriate scenes and because, well, we think that showing full-length movies in school should be done very rarely, if ever). We all felt that clips from the movie—even if the book it is based upon was not being read in class—could enrich many classroom discussions. 

A scene from the film based on  Speak.

As for Speak, I think we all felt like it would be a good book to consider for a teaching unit for younger high school students (or even middle school students). While we talked briefly about the fact that some parents or administrators might challenge teaching Speak for some of its content, we all thought that the book handled these “grittier” topics in a way that would not only make it appropriate for use in a classroom, but that would encourage important, applicable discussions for students. Even if the book weren’t talk in its entirety, we felt that, similar to “Story,” it contained lots of material that could be used to supplement a wide variety of class discussions.

As for the book club, I definitely enjoyed getting to choose and then discuss texts that I found to be interesting. While reading and talking about literature is something I do almost every day in my major, being able to do this with texts I really want to read in a more relaxed, unstructured setting is definitely not as typical. Reading for school, no matter how well it’s done, somehow seems to make us forget how enjoyable and fun reading really can/should be. Therefore, encouraging students to do a similar book club type activity would, I think, be one way to help students enjoy reading at least a bit more than just having them discuss books as a class.