Lesson Plan: Sheets

Review

Thirteen-year-old Marjorie certainly feels like she may be dealing with some issues way above her age range.  Her mother has passed away.  Her father is depressed.  And while her father tries to overcome his depression Marjorie must learn to take over the family laundry business.  Quickly!

It’s just not that easy, however, for Marjorie.   

The bullying at school isn’t helping her feel much better about either herself or the family business.  And just in case she hasn’t been experiencing too much stress (and childish bullying) a  man in town is badgering and intimidating her by saying that he is going to take over her family business and turn it into a spa and yoga resort.

And even with a mysterious ghost messing around in her family’s laundry business (literally) Marjorie is starting to think that she may be a little tougher than both she and her family first expected, for what she finds in the laundry sheets may just surprise her.

Elements of Story

Plot: After her mother dies and her father becomes depressed, Marjorie must learn to juggle both high school and her mother’s laundromat business where her family works and lives. She’s also facing bullying from girls at school and from a man who keeps showing up at the laundromat determined to take it over and open his own “five-star spa and yoga resort.” To complicate matters further, a young ghost named “Wendell” keeps showing up and making trouble, but in the end that might be the answer to all of her troubles.

Major Characters: Marjorie, Owen, Marj’s Dad, Colton, Mrs. Waffleton, Tessi Waffleton, Mr. Nigel Saubertuck, Wendell, Mr. Duncan

Major Settings: Glatt’s Laundry, Finster Bay Charter school, meeting place for the Dead Youth Empathetics (DYE), Land of Ghosts

Themes: Death, Afterlife, Depression, Bullying, Loss, Family, Friendship

Lesson Plan Recommendation Using the

Common Core Standards (CCS) for Young Adults

Key Ideas & Details
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

Directions for Lesson Plan

Ask students to choose two themes from the story:

Death,  Afterlife,  Depression,  Bullying,  Loss,  Family,  Friendship.

Theme Choice 1: _______________________

Theme Choice 2: _______________________

With their themes chosen ask students to next fill out the below graphic organizer as they read the story, adding elements of story information (character, setting, and plot most importantly) as they encounter them. 

By creating an elements of story guide focused on themes in Sheets students can help themselves better understand the story and, also, help future readers better understand how a well told story utilizes all of the other elements of story to further enhance its themes.