Wonder Novel Study Part One 🌟

Wonder Novel Study | Pages 11-43

1. The wish August wanted was to have a normal face that no one would ever notice anything wrong with.

2. What it means to be ordinary is to go to school, look like an average human, and to have friends and family. August is extraordinary because of the features and genes that define his face, to not have been public schooled for the first years of his life, and be exceptionally good at his schoolwork, particularly science.

3. When seeing August's face for the first time, people react in a way that can be described as a 'grimace' or confusion. They often point and whisper to each other, in confusion, amusement or sympathy to the distorted facial features August has. If I ever saw August in real life, I would be curious as to what genetic mutation caused his face to look like that. I would also feel sympathetic because it must be hard to face society looking different from everybody else.

4. What the father meant was that he did not think August would have a good or enjoyable time at school. Much like a lamb being sent off to be killed, the Dad did not have much hope it would go well for August at school.

5. In my opinion, if I was the mother of August, I would send him to school. Although his genes are rare, there are many people living across the globe that have to live in society with unique facial features. August is just one of these many and I don't think hiding from people's reactions will be better than being home schooled his whole life. It will be a better opportunity for August to meet new people, learn to know himself more, and feel better about himself without having to hide away.

6. The white lie August's mother told was that a woman who visited their house in the recent months was actually taking a test needed for August to be accepted into his new school. 

She instead had told him that it was an IQ test because she did not to raise suspicion. 

White lies can be okay to tell at certain points, but if it puts someone or their reputation, job, family or relationships at stake, it is not a good idea to do so. 

7. Mrs. Garcia's shiny smile is what August could describe as a fake smile - a smile put on to hide the fact she was frightened, confused, or amused by August's face, and to make sure he didn't suspect anything. 

8. Julian bullies August through a number of sarcastic questions that may not sound mean to other people, but actually hurt August's feelings a lot. Julian asked questions that were inappropriate and made August feel intimidated, nervous, and sad. He cut in front of August, resulting in sending him stumbling backwards. 

                   

What is the learning outcome?

To create and choose your own precept, explain what it means and create a digital display that you can promote to others.
To research the words and learn their meanings.

What learning process have you been using?

As this is a 'Can Do' task I used Google Slides. I have a lot of experience with this and it is easy to embed onto blog posts like this. 
I used an online dictionary on Google.

What worked, what didn't, and what would you change?

What worked is that I really love the way it turned out. My colour palette was inspired by the Wonder website, but I came up with the idea of twinkly white text. I really think the colours complement and contrast each other to make it eye catching. 

What didn't work is that it was difficult to find the right colour match. At first it was a little too dark, then it was a little too light, and eventually I had to take a screenshot from the website and apply it as the background. 

What I would change is I would add a few more details to have something for readers to look at apart from text. Some ideas I had were the Wonder Logo or link to the website. 

What worked was that it was easy to find the word without flipping through an actual dictionary. What didn't was that it was very difficult to put 'mortality' into my own words. What I would change is that I would add pictures to demonstrate what the words mean.