By Cindy Sargeant

                                    Writing Activities for the novel HOLES

The premise of the novel Holes is that a young man, Stanley is sent to a camp for juvenile delinquents and is forced to dig a hole every day as punishment for a crime he did not commit. The novel deals with pertinent topics such as: the fight against injustice, rules and consequences, ways to change human behavior, power and control, authority and moral courage.

One way to encourage boys to read is to first of all to get them to connect personally to the novel before reading. Boys prefer novels that they can relate to and that has relevance to their life. One way of doing this with Holes is to ask the students to focus on their own experiences with rules, consequences, authority and power. One assignment that is very effective is one where the students write a letter to the Principal of the school that explains their views on rules and consequences of the school. Following is a variety of Pre-writing activities that can help make this assignment more effective.

Activity One

As a class, brainstorm a list of school rules. The teacher should write these down on the board and the students should copy them down because they will need this information later. During this exercise students should discuss a) why does this rule exist? b) what would happen if the rule did not exist c) is the rule normally followed by students-why or why not?

Activity Two

In groups of three, students should record on a large piece of paper the following chart:

The students choose three school rules and they record them. Next they write down what the consequence is for breaking that particular rule. Finally, as a group they discuss and then record what they think would be a more effective consequence.

The charts are put on the wall and students get a chance to explain their findings to their peers.

Activity Three

Individually, the students should answer the following questions:

a) What school rule do they agree with and why?

b) What school rule do they disagree with and why?

c) If they could change a consequence for a school rule what would they change and why?

d) What is their view on suspensions? Are they effective? Why or why not? What would work better than suspensions?

Activity Four:

Teacher teaches a lesson on how to write a formal letter. Using a model generally works best. The students need to copy this information down because they will need to use the information later on.

Activity Five:

Invite the Principal in to informally talk to the students about school rules and policies. Explain to the Principal that these students will be writing a letter to him/her on this topic. This actually helps students become more enthused about the assignment because they’ve already talked to the Principal. In my situation, many of my students didn’t know who the Principal was because he just started in September so this was a great opportunity to meet him before they wrote him a letter.

Writing Activity-formal letter

Finally, now that the students have generated a lot of information with the previous activities, they are now able to write a formal letter to the Principal. You can set this up in a variety of ways but I gave my students a clear structure for the letter.

            Paragraph One-Introduction of the student and their school history

Paragraph Two-An explanation about a rule the student agreed with and why they agreed with it.

Paragraph Three-An explanation about a rule the student did not agree with and why they didn’t agree with it.

Paragraph Four-An explanation about a consequence they would change and why they would change it

            Paragraph Five-The students views on the effectiveness of suspensions

When the students’ rough drafts were completed they were edited by myself and the peer helper (with student input) and then the class typed them up in the computer lab. One copy was given to me and the other copy was given to the Principal. He read them and wrote a short note back to the student commenting on what they had to say.

This writing assignment helped the students become more interested and engaged in Holes and it also gave them a “voice” in the school. Often these students (grade 10 Locally Developed) are not connected to the school community and they feel left out and isolated. By giving them an opportunity to voice their opinion in an adult and mature way, they felt that they actually could make a difference.