Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

 “Continuing Stories”

In this activity, students choose a character and, using the author’s characterization techniques and the novel’s themes, create an original, continuing narrative that explores this character’s conflicts and experiences in the garden and community the following year.

Many of the characters’ stories are left with unresolved conflicts. For example, Fleischman never states whether Curtis’s efforts to win Lateesha back are successful, if Kim’s bean plants allow her to feel closer to her father, or how Maricela feels after giving birth. Choose one such character whose arc you would like to resolve or further explore.

• Brainstorm: Identify both the internal and external conflicts your chosen character has struggled to overcome in the story, and consider how those conflicts relate to the novella’s themes. Next, identify areas of this process that are left open or only partially resolved, and decide which of the novel’s themes you can best explore by continuing the story. Finally, identify and list key stylistic techniques Fleischman has used for characterization so that you can incorporate them in your own writing.