In this unit, students will engage in ideas about the nature of bullying through the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio. The novel is rich in complexity and provides many opportunities to explore concepts of conflict resolution and character development. This unit will focus on human needs as a construct for understanding characters and specifically, bullying circles.
Wonder is told from the perspective of different characters which opens up multiple perspectives and insights. The DHP content can be used as a way to look back and analyze the novel after it has been completely read by the class, or the lessons can be guides to bring along and into chapter by chapter reading.
It is recommended that the teacher leader read the whole novel prior to teaching the content to best consider how to match student needs and scaffold discussion of challenging themes when deciding how to implement DHP content. This unit is organized with teacher background, preparation and descriptions of student activities, with specific directions for implementation.
