Noor Kheirieh

11/13/2014
Literature- Based Multigenre Research Project
Instructions: This project will help students explore the different
themes and literary features in the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse
Anderson. Students are required to complete five total genres that
relate to the novel Speak. Ive included suggestions; however,
students are welcome to come up with their own genres they want to
create. Students are required to complete two genres, which will be
showed below. However, they are free to select the other three they
would like to create. This novel explores themes such as: the feeling of
isolation, the inability to communicate, effects of fear, and sadness.
Students will be able to explore these themes as well as come up with
their own themes they discovered in the novel. Start off your project
with an introduction/preface/dear reader explaining your project and
ideas. Create a research paper that connects to one of these themes or
events that occurred in the novel. This research paper should be 5-7
pages and include a work-cited page in APA format.
Requirement #1: Students are required to create a diary. This diary
must have at least five entries, but could have more. Students are
asked to write in the perspective of one of the following (questions to
consider while writing from these perspectives are listed):
A teenager who is incapable of speaking
- What do they see?
- What do they think?
- What do they wish they could say?
- How is life as a teenager when they cannot speak your mind?
- How do they feel?
A teenager who is a victim of violence
- What does violence do to someones self-esteem?
- How can you tell if someone is a victim of violence?
- How might their attitude change?
- What types of violence did this teenager experience?
A teenager who becomes depressed due to isolation
- Whats it like to constantly be isolated?
- What types of thought does this teenager experience?
- Why does isolation lead to sadness?
- What could be done to stop isolation?
A teenager who fears something or someone
- What does this teenager fear?
- What does fear to do someones self-esteem?

How is fear dangerous?

How does this person overcome fear?

Requirement #2: Students are asked to create a Q & A column, similar

to Ask Abby. Students are asked to come up with a minimum of 5
questions that someone like Melinda, would ask anonymously. They are
then asked to answer all 5 questions thoughtfully and in detail.
Students are asked to select three additional genres that they can
choose from. I have included five options; however, they are able to
come up with their own. Of these additional three, one must be a poem
and one must be a visual.
Poem Options:
Create a poem from the perspective of someone dealing with
isolationism
Create a poem from the perspective of someone dealing with fear
Create a poem from the perspective of someone who has a secret
they want to unleash
(Students are free to choose what type of poem they would like to
create as long as it connects to Speak.)
Visual Options:
Choose a line of imagery in Speak and draw what you envision
this would like in your mind
Create a new cover of the novel Speak in relation to the
themes the book contains
(Students are free to choose what type of visual they want to create as
long as it connects to Speak.)
Genre Ideas:
Select a song that you think relates to Speak. Analyze the
lyrics and write a one page essay on how the lyrics and the novel
relate. Attach the lyrics with the essay.
Create your own song lyrics. Imagine this song playing in the
movie Speak. Explain how your own lyrics connect to the
novel. Attach the lyrics with your explanation.
Create a Map To Recovery. This could also be a list of how to
recover from isolationism, depression, fear, etc. Explain how
each step will lead to recovery.
Write a 1st person narrative from the point of view of someone
who underwent something similar to Melinda. It does not have to
be exactly like her experience. It could explore in depth one of
the smaller themes in the novel.
(Other genre ideas are acceptable)

Deadlines
Assignment
Genre Ideas Selected
Introduction
Genre 1 (required poem)
Genre 2 (required visual)
Genre 3 (Option)
Genre 4 (Option)
Genre 5 (Option)
Research & Bibliography

Deadline
January 5rd
December 9th
December 15
December 22
December 29
February 5th
February 12th
February 19
Rubric

CATEGORY

Requireme All
All
nts
requirements requirements
are met and are met.
exceeded.

One
requirement
was not
completely
met.

More than
one
requirement
was not
completely
met.

Originality Product
shows a large
amount of
original
thought.
Ideas are
creative and
inventive.

Product
shows some
original
thought. Work
shows new
ideas and
insights.

Uses other
people's
ideas (giving
them credit),
but there is
little
evidence of
original
thinking.

Uses other
people's
ideas, but
does not give
them credit.

Organizati Content is
on
well
organized
using
headings or
bulleted lists
to group
related
material.

Uses
headings or
bulleted lists
to organize,
but the
overall
organization
of topics
appears

Content is
logically
organized for
the most
part.

There was no
clear or
logical
organizationa
l structure,
just lots of
facts.

flawed.
Sources

Source
information
collected for
all graphics,
facts and
quotes. All
documented
in desired
format.

Source
information
collected for
all graphics,
facts and
quotes. Most
documented
in desired
format.

Source
information
collected for
graphics,
facts and
quotes, but
not
documented
in desired
format.

Very little or
no source
information
was
collected.

MODEL
Dear Reader,
The novel Speak by Laurie Haise Anderson explores the life of a girl,
Melinda, who experienced a tragedy that led to obstacles she had to
overcome. Melinda was raped, leading her to feel isolated, scared, sad,
and eventually made her unable to speak. In my project Ive explored
these themes through a series of genres. Through these genres, Ive
put myself in the place of Melinda and tried to understand how she
must have felt due to the adversity she would have to overcome. I
have done this through a poem, lyrics Ive selected, and a visul. I hope
you enjoy these genres and have a better understanding of the life
Melinda was forced to lead, and also understand the themes this novel
possessed.
Sincerely,
Noor Kheirieh

Poem- Alone, Afraid, Apart

Alone, afraid, apart;
I look around and realize that this is just the start
No one can understand and no one can know,
Alone I must live with this inside my soul
Sometimes I wonder how big this world could be,
How could I be the only one who had seen or been apart?
Those are the moments I go outside,
Standing on my front stoop I look at the sky
That is when I put my life into perspective
Im so small in a world so much bigger than me
Theres more to this life that what I used to be.
Alone, afraid, apart;
That was just the start.
Interpretation: In this poem, I tried to imagine how Melinda felt at
the beginning of the novel, and then how she felt at the end. In the
beginning, no one knew her secret and she did not think she could tell
anyone. This made her feel alone and apart of the rest of the world.
She was afraid to tell anyone and this fear traveled with her until she
realized that she had to tell someone. She eventually told someone she
had been raped and it still did not do much; however, when her
classmates saw for themselves what was happening at the end of the
novel after school, that is when they saw the truth. At that point, she
was no longer alone, afraid, and apart. That was just the beginning. At
the start of the novel, she never thought she would get better and
constantly felt alone, afraid, and apart. However, by the end she
realizes that was just the start of this journey and now she will be on to
newer and better things because she can move on.

Lyrics Essay
HUNTER HAYES LYRICS
"Invisible"
Crowded hallways are the loneliest places
For outcasts and rebels
Or anyone who just dares to be different
And you've been trying for so long
To find out where your place is
But in their narrow minds
There's no room for anyone who dares to do something different
Oh, but listen for a minute
Trust the one
Who's been where you are wishing all it was
Was sticks and stones
Those words cut deep but they don't mean you're all alone
And you're not invisible
Hear me out,
There's so much more to life than what you're feeling now
Someday you'll look back on all these days
And all this pain is gonna be invisible
Oh, invisible
So your confidence is quiet
To them quiet looks like weakness
But you don't have to fight it
'Cause you're strong enough to win without a war
Every heart has a rhythm
Let yours beat out so loudly
That everyone can hear it
Yeah, I promise you don't need to hide it anymore
Oh, and never be afraid of doing something different
Dare to be something more
These labels that they give you
just 'cause they don't understand
If you look past this moment
You'll see you've got a friend
Waving a flag for who you are
And all you're gonna do
Yeah, so here's to you
And here's to anyone who's ever felt invisible
Invisible and Speak
Invisible and Speak
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about Melindas experience of

being raped and the events that followed. This experience left her
feeling lonely or one could also say invisible because she felt that
she was alone. She did not know that other people had experienced
issues with her rapist, until she took action. After she had been raped
she had called the police, which shut down a party. This event upset
Melindas previous friends, leaving her alone because she did
something different that no one else would have at the party. In Hunter
Hayes lyrics, he sings about how this temporary feeling of being
invisible and alone will eventually pass, and one day you are not even
going to remember this feeling. By the end of the novel, Melinda
realized that she was not alone in her experience. These lyrics and this
novel connect because Melinda felt invisible because she was so
isolated from everyone, which was due to the fact that she made the
difference of calling the police when she was raped.
On the contrary of what the students might have believed,
Melinda was actually confident. Hunter Hayes says, So your
confidence is quiet, to them quiet looks like weakness. In these lines
Hayes is not saying that the person he is talking about is not confident,
he is saying that they keep their confidence quiet. Melinda was
confident enough to call the police, regardless of what was going to
occur with her friends afterwards. She was also confident enough to
attend school, even when no one would talk to her. The people around
her might have seen her as odd or weak because of it, but she was

not weak at all, she was just quiet about her strength. In high school, it
is common for someone who tries to be different to be looked down on.
The majority of students conform to what is normal so when there
are a few who do not, they are considered to be the odd ones. The
majority often labels the ones who do act different because they are
not sure why they are not conforming. Hunter Hayes lyrics say, these
labels that they give you, just cause they dont understand shows his
perspective that the majority will label because they do not
understand and it should not be taken personally because itll pass.
In conclusion, Hunter Hayes song, Invisible, and Speak, by
Laurie Halse Anderson connect because they both talk about
challenges students face in the high school environment when they do
not conform to what is normal. This type of song is something I could
picture playing in the movie Speak because it is very relative to what
Melinda is struggling with.

Visual

Explanation:
In this visual, I picked out a quote from Speak that contained imagery.
The quote was, The whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the
memory, is to make it go away. It wont Ill need brain surgery to cut it
out of my head (pg. 81-82). I drew black lines in the braid to depict
the bad memory that Melinda wants to take out of her head.