I struggled with whether or not to read this story in my classes, but this story has sparked some amazing conversations!   My students have reading and writing disaabilities, and many of them could really relate with Charlie (before the experiment).  As the story goes on, the students raised many questions about the experiment and the underlying storylines.

We’re listening to the story on CD as it is difficult to read the progress reports when Charlie has difficulty spelling.

After the story, we’ll be watching the movie, Awakenings and comparing and contrasting the characters from the story to the ones in the movie.   This is a HUGE skill that will be on the MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments), so it’s important that I integrate this into the existing curriculum…as just teaching “Test Prep” seems to heighten anxiety levels!