Pet

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Monsters in My World”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of Pet’s monster motif by creating a visual argument linking the book’s definition of monster to an institution in our own society.

If the revolution that happened in Lucille before Pet begins were to happen in our own society, what are some facets of our society that the angels might want to eliminate? For this project, you will choose something in our own society that you find especially monstrous. Then, you will create a visual argument that demonstrates why this is something that the angels in Pet would want to get rid of.

Find Evidence in the Book

• Look through Pet for 3-5 pieces of evidence related to what the angels consider a monster to be and jot down quotes and page numbers.

Choose a Monster

• Choose some aspect of society that, based on the evidence you gathered from Pet, would be considered a monster by the angels.
• You may choose a social institution or individual aspects of it, characteristics of individuals associated with it, or archetypal figures that are representative of it, for example. You are not limited to these options, either. Be creative and inquisitive—examine your society with the critical eye that Jam had to develop for her task in the book.

Create a Visual Argument Linking the Evidence to the Monster

• Choose or create a compelling photograph or drawing that shows something monstrous about the aspect of society you have chosen.
• Center this illustration on a page, leaving space on both margins for text.
• In the left-hand margin, provide quotes from Pet that show what the angels consider monstrous. Remember to cite page numbers for these quotes.
• In the right-hand margin, provide facts, statistics, and other evidence from outside research that shows that the aspect of society you are focused on meets the definition of monster from Pet. Cite the source or sources of this evidence as footnotes and/or on another page to save space

Teaching Suggestion: This project can be completed entirely by hand or on a computer—depending on the setup of your classroom; in either case, students will need access to outside sources for research. If students struggle to identify monstrous aspects of their society, you might suggest they consider institutions like prisons, or some aspect of a social institution, like violent police officers, corrupt politicians, domestic abusers, or the like. Students might also be interested in exploring abstract phenomena like poverty or sexism, for example.

In addition, you might want to offer students guidance about appropriate and inappropriate images to include/not include in this project, taking into consideration both the standards of your own classroom and the sensitivities of other students. For instance, a picture that conveys police violence might be an angry officer yelling at someone rather than a graphic scene of police brutality. This is a good opportunity to talk with students about visual rhetoric and the power of implication versus the potentially off-putting nature of explicit images. This is particularly important if you choose to have students display their work by posting it in the classroom or on a class website.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with visual impairments may struggle with the visual component of this project. You might exempt them from finding an illustration and ask, instead, for them to write a one-paragraph vignette of a scene that would make the same point, then follow this with a paragraph or two of argument linking textual evidence to evidence from outside sources. English learners, students with dyslexia, and those with attentional or executive function differences may struggle to sort through the text to find evidence efficiently. You might wish to allow these students to work with a partner or small group for the evidence-gathering part of this project.