Lighting fires with The Revealers:
a resource center for using the book

Quite a few of the people who are interested in The Revealers are adults—teachers, librarians, principals, guidance counselors, parents, and other community members—who want to use this novel to open up the issue of bullying, especially among middle schoolers but also among the grownups in their schools and communities.

I'd like to help. So this Resource Center offers brief accounts and usable materials drawn from many of the most creative, effective projects and study units, centering on The Revealers, that I have seen in my contacts with and visits to schools during the past three years.

For so many young people, bullying is a tough, touchy subject—and The Revealers, as realistic fiction, seems to provide a safe platform for starting conversations. Of course, the novel deals with more than just bullying (though it's never my place to suggest what a reader should find in it). As I have visited schools and libraries and talked with people, I have often been touched by how powerfully young readers have connected with this story, and by how creatively adults in their schools, communities, and families have worked to connect them with it.

My grateful thanks to all the people who shared their work and ideas in helping me put this Resource Center together.

Top projects and fine models from 2007-08 schools

During the '07-08 school year, reading-and-discussion projects with The Revealers unfolded in middle schools from New England to California, from Chicago to Florida and Texas. I visited many - and in autumn '08 I asked teachers, media educators, principals, and others for their thoughts on the most effective, creative things their schools had done to engage students with my book, and with the issues it raises in kids.

Here are some briefings drawn

1. From Soldiers to Softball Players: A Remarkable Community-Supported "Read"
2. How guilty is a bystander? One classroom put a Revealers character on trial.
3. Opening eyes with a "One Book, One School" reading and discussion project
4. Charting bully types and tactics, and comparing The Revealers to Falling
5. Activities and "stations" for a Tolerance Unit
6. Teachers read and recorded chapters for our closed-circuit TV system
7. Engaging Students and Teachers from Start to Finish of a Schoolwide Read
8. Including all grade-level teachers in the reading project

The best projects and coolest ideas from 2005-06

1. Two big, general observations
2. Engaging grades 7-8: Integrated study unit, Cupertino (Ca.) Middle School
   • Integrated study unit plan
   • Integrated study unit exam
3. Engaging grades 5-6: The Costumed Crusaders, Charlotte (Vt.) Central School
4. Engaging a whole school: "Family Feud," Jaffrey-Rindge (N.H.) Middle School
5. Engaging a whole school: Echoing Putdowns, Folsom Elementary School (South Hero, Vt.)

Articles from 2004-05

1. Counselor & Teachers Link Up for "Revealing" Study
2. Designing an In-School Conference that "Clicks"
3. Clever Twist Enlivens "Literary Buddies" Reading Project
4. A Creative Springboard to Students' Own Productions
5. Producing "The Revealers: A Multimedia Play"—in a Middle School

More school and community resources

1. Using The Revealers as the center of a "Bully Out!" study unit
       "Bully Out!" study unit plan (16KB PDF)
       "Bully Out!" state standards addressed
2. How a school's "Webboard" drew hundreds of student entries
3. Jump-starting a reading and discussion project
       First chapter script (13KB PDF)
       Materials for a reading project
4. Discussion questions for middle schoolers
5. An interdisciplinary approach: school bullying survey
       Bullying in Our School — A Student Survey (9KB PDF)
6. A counselor on using the book to build empathy
7. A "community read" with "phenomenal" impact
       Press release for community read (7KB PDF)