The Chocolate War- a text suitable for the classroom?!
The Chocolate War deals with the subject bullying and the consequences that may happen when you stand up for what you believe is right. It deals with the fact that you have to be responsible for your own actions and take consequences of them.
I believe that the Chocolate War is a book suitable for the classroom.
It's very important to discuss bullying and why it is going on, and there are many ways of doing this. One way is to discuss it in the classroom, asking the pupils why they think bullying exists.
Another way to do it is to discuss in small groups how the pupils would have felt if they where to be the main characters in the book. With other words some kind of a role-play. This will hopefully make them aware of their own feelings and other people's.
With help from quotations it might be easier for some pupils to connect with different feelings.
It's also important to state to the pupils that everyone has the right to his/her own opinions, and that they always should stand up for what they believe is right. Here the pupils can work in groups, where they can compare what other countries think of this. Let each group have a different country, so that when they present the facts about their country, you can have a discussion in the classroom, and compare what they have found out.
There are many other ways to work with the book, for example:
Some places are described better then others, take a lesson and let everyone draw a place described in the book. Ask them to write down at the back of the drawing why they picked that place. Also ask them to write what feelings they got for this place when they read the book, would they have disliked/liked it better if the circumstances would have different!
You can use quotations and let the pupils work in small groups, writing either what happened before or after the quotation. Maybe they might be able to tu...