Getting into Speak: "Listen"

Today's classes moved from a lighter tone to a more serious one as we prepared to embark on our first Extended Text of the year: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

To dip our collective toe into the waters of the upcoming book, we read (multiple times), annotated, and discussed the poem "Listen".

This poem was included in the very first pages of the older printings of the book (it is absent from the 10th Anniversary Edition -- but any copy of the book will be fine for reading in class.)

As explained in the book, this poem excluding the first and last stanzas, was compiled from lines written to Laurie Halse Anderson in thousands of letters, e-mails, and messages from her readers. This can be a jarring disclosure, but a powerful one.

If you haven't yet, get Speak. See the post below for resources and recommendations.