Charting bully types and tactics, and comparing The Revealers to Falling
Writes Suzanne Ringer, a middle-school English teacher at Whitehall Central School in Whitehall, NY:
I do several activities within my classes' reading of The Revealers. One is a chart that I use when we label types of bullying. This has labels like "the sniper" and "the ghost" and describes the methods used by each to get what they want. We use an article from Teaching Tolerance magazine (most Guidance offices get these for free) called "E-Bullying" for a discussion starter on problems caused by the Internet. Junior Scholastic often runs articles on bullying; the Feb. 2006 had an article on what three schools did about problems.
My students have really enjoyed Doug's visits and especially liked an activity that he had them do in creating a scene with believable dialogue. Last year the members of our book club read Falling after reading The Revealers. We discussed the different themes and how the ages of the character were developed differently. They enjoyed Falling as an individual reading.
We love inviting Doug back to Whitehall! It seems every year we do something a little different to help the students get a feel for writing.
Doug's rapport with the junior high kids is fantastic, and even younger grades demand to know if you will be coming to their class. His enthusiasm, sense of humor, and obvious love of writing involves the kids right from the start. They ask for more books that he has written and then discuss which is their favorite!
To find out more, contact Sue at