Novel Study for Ages 10-15 : The Neddiad FLEX Class

A novel study is a way to get inside the author's head and understand how he creates his universe.  

The Neddiad is a fabulous novel written by American author, Daniel Pinkwater.  I won't give too many details here as it might spoil any surprises.  Daniel Pinkwater has written many books that are both humorous and silly, fantastical and entertaining, mind bending and surprising.  This novel study will touch on the common core understandings needed in Middle School English.  
We will cover the following goals of understanding: 

Characters
Plot
Story Arc
Genre
Literary Elements
Cultural/Social context
Paragraph writing 

This course is learner guided and might take small detours based on what students post in the classroom.  Any questions or concerns?  Post them!  They might teach us all something amazing!  

My expectations of you as the learner is to read the book on your own, think about the questions for every week and either write and send or post your answers/observations or if you would rather answer them in a different way such as video, claymation, art, song, poetry, collage, however you feel you want to answer is acceptable.  

Here is the framework by week: 
Week 1: Who is Daniel Pinkwater? Projection of what to expect. 
Week 2: What is a novel?  Tell me about the setting. 
Week 3: Characters.  Venn diagrams comparatives for characters.
Week 4: More character work, flat and round
Week 5: Cultural and Historical setting including First Nations Mythology
Week 6: Figures of Speech
Week 7: Story Arc
Week 8: Final Project Time!

I have worked for many years as an editor and technical writer.  I can assist wherever necessary if as a learner you want to work on your writing throughout this project. If you would like me to grade your work, let me know.  I will expect to work from the first draft, review, edit, second draft/possibly final process with you.  There will be some back and forth.  

As an interdisciplinary artist (that means not only do I play a musical saw, I write books and music, poetry and paint, sew, draw, sculpt etc), I feel that we can express the impact of novels or other literary work as another form of art.  Feel free to show me your answers instead of or as well as writing them.  

If you have difficulty reading the book, Daniel Pinkwater's recordings can be directly accessed on his website pinkwater dot com.
  Dysgraphia friendly as none of the assignments have to be completed by writing. I accept any format be it in song, drawing, video, audio, sculptural ...(you get the picture).