Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Book Club Pick!  #1

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Published by Amulet Books Copyright 2007   

Ms. Beckman's Book Club: Some books are better taught in small groups due to student interest or specific goals for certain class groups. This book is a book club pick because it will not interest everyone, but can make all the difference in a group that is interested!  This book would be a great suggestion for a group of boys who claim that they do not like to read. It is also a good transition book for students going from elementary to middle school. Students involved in book club will be doing similar assignments for different books.

 

Funny, sarcastic, visual, relatable, inferred morals  

 Awards: 

• #1 New York Times Bestseller
• W.A. Young Readers Book Award -2009
• Jeff Kinney was one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People - 2009

 

Summary:  

Greg Heffley's mom decides that he should start keeping a JOURNAL (not a "diary" like it says on the front cover) about his "feelings." In his journal, Greg transcribes his day to day life in middle school: the ups and downs of trying to become popular, running from teenagers, and spending time with his best friend Rowley. Everything is going fine until Rowley, who doesn't care about popularity, suddenly starts getting more attention than Greg! Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a humorous ride in a year of Greg's life. But at the heart of things, it is a story about the relationship between two friends, and how trying to be cool can actually mess up a real friendship. 

    

Reading Level: Lexile Framework 950L, Grade 5.3 

Suggested Delivery: small group read, group instruction

Description: Contemporary, humor    

Key Vocabulary (by page number):  fabrications (48), "legitimate operation" (59), regimen (88), degrading (104), ad-libbing (109), gimmick (142), sod (162), ironic (164), cretin (171)

Teaching Suggestions: As a book club book, students should have a list of things to do as they read so that they can present the book to the class.

1. Have students devise their own vocabulary list as they read the novel. Any words that they have trouble understanding (at least six) should be written down and defined.
2. Students should come up with comprehension questions they will ask their group members about the novel to present during book discussion. For example, for each day that the book is discussed, each group member will ask one question of their group, like: why doesn't Greg sing during the school play? (Answer: Because his brother showed up and is videotaping him as blackmail.)
3. Have students create a visual presentation that will summarize the book for the class. This can be done using PowerPoint, a poster, or even a comic strip!   

Comprehension Strategies

Pre-Reading- Before students begin reading the novel, pose the question "Why is Greg Heffley a wimpy kid?" and use a form of a KWL chart to record. Have students record their predictions on a large piece of paper in the typical K section. As they read, students will add examples of why Greg is wimpy in the typical W section. After reading, students will synthesize their examples into one explanation in the L section.

During Reading- Diary of a Wimpy Kid requires readers to infer what Greg is talking about by looking at the pictures:

 

 

Explain to students what an inference is, walking through an example from the book with students. If the above example was used, you could ask students to explain the scene to you. Once they do that, ask students what Greg learned last year, and how they know that. Students will know Greg learned by looking at the picture. Ask if the author ever stated what Greg learned. Once students understand that he did not, explain that students inferred the event by examining the picture. For further comprehension, have students create their own inferential comic.

Post-Reading- Talk about Greg's logic throughout the novel. Is he right all the time? Hold a discussion with students about certain scenes in the novel when Greg misses the point. For example, on pages 179-185, Greg talks with his mom about how he feels bad for getting Rowley in trouble (he "terrorized kindergarteners" in Rowley's coat, neighbors though Rowley did it, Rowley got sent to the principal). So Greg's mom tells him to tell the truth. Greg does, but he twists it, telling Rowley that he should be more careful about lending his coat to people. Greg then goes home, tells his mom that he did the right thing, and gets rewarded with ice cream. Walk through the scene with students, and ask them where Greg missed the point, and how he could do better. 

Writing Activity: Greg doesn't always treat his friend Rowley as well as he should. Ask students to write a persuasive essay explaining why or why Greg isn't a good friend to Rowley. 

Electronic Resources:

FunBrain 
Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid started out as a  popular web blog on FunBrain.com. This website provides great resources for teachers and students. Students can have fun playing math and reading games and  even reading comics on the site. Teachers can be sure that students are learning while they play, since FunBrain provides teachers with a curriculum guide to navigate the website in a way that will benefit his or her class the most. This site also shows students where Wimpy Kid began, and students can have fun comparing and contrasting the web version and print version of the novel.

Guys Read
Did you know that:

• The U.S. Department of Education reading tests for the last 30 years show boys scoring worse than girls in every age group, every year?
• Eighth grade boys are 50 percent more likely to be held back than girls?
• Two-thirds of Special Education Students in high school are boys?
• Overall college enrollment is higher for girls than boys? (from guysread.com)

Guys read is "a web-based literacy program for boys founded by author and First National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka." The site promotes reading as masculine (since the activity is usually feminized), and provides viewers with male role models who like to read and write. There is also an extensive reading list made by literacy professionals that teachers can use to find books that all readers, but especially reluctant males, can benefit from. After reading, students can look on this website to discover more books that they would like to read, play educational activities, and even read interviews with literacy-minded "guys."

Kinney, J. (2007). Diary of a wimpy kid. New York: Amulet Books.