The Running Dream Novel Study (Updated April 2022)

Van Draanen weaves a wonderful story of Jessica Carlisle’s journey of survival and self-discovery. The story will pull you through the pages with a passion. Along the way, the reader will learn about prosthetics and cerebral palsy, both the facts and the feelings, without it ever seeming like a lesson. You will bond with Jessica, feel her pain, mourn her loss, celebrate her achievements, and cheer her to the finish line.

Summary

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses her leg in a car accident. She is not comforted by the news that she’ll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run? Jessica struggles to cope with crutches and her first cyborg-like prosthetic. She feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible, as people do not know what to say or how to act around her. She could handle these feelings if she were not keenly aware that she’d done the same thing to a girl with Cerebral Palsy named Rosa. Rosa is going to tutor her through all the math she has missed. Rosa is the girl who sees right into the heart of her.

Unit Information – 39 total pages (Includes pdf and Editable Word documents)

This novel study includes:

· 254 Novel Study Q & A Resource pages - (12 pages)

· Novel Study Questions Student Handout (9 pages – separated by chapters)

· Novel Answer Resource Page with page numbers – (9 pages)

· YouTube Videos Resource Page (1 page)

The questions are only literal/recall questions that can be used as daily running quizzes as students read the novel. Instructors are free to create their own higher order thinking questions for this novel.

· Vocabulary Student Handout (1 page)

· Vocabulary Definitions Resource Page (1 page – 12 words)

· Novel Study Test (Includes answers and optional essay) (5 pages)

· Essay Grading Rubric (1 page)