Teach
This Response #3
The
book I chose is called Assuming Names
and is a book based on the true story of a 15 year old con artist (in 1985).
The book is about a 15 year old girl named Tanya who ran away from her home in
Tennessee planning to go to Dallas. Growing up she had on many occasions faked
an accent, pretending to be older than she was, and many people fell for it.
Therefore she decided that she could easily runaway and pretend to be a
countess, so she took money from her parents safe, dressed the part and started
on her way. She hitched a ride from a police officer. With her fake accent, and
lying skills she convinced him she was a countess who had a fight with her
husband and got out of his car. Therefore, leaving herself stranded on the road
with only the cash in her purse. She was then transported to another station
where she con-ed more officers before getting in a cab and leaving. Arriving in
Dallas she continued her charade. Accidentally implying that she was a sex
slave being trafficked, being 15 she didn’t understand why they thought this,
or what they were insinuating. We follow her on her journey and quest to be
known as a countess watching her fool everyone. She encountered the FBI,
Interpol, the DEA, INS, 12 psychologists and psychiatrists, the ACLU, a couple
of sheriff departments, some celebrities, and fooled them all. Eventually when
the charade is up we will follow her adventure as a con artist growing up. We
will follow her adventures, pain, and troubles with her love life. This book is
extremely interesting and attention getting, and the fact that it is real makes
it that much more crazy and unbelievable.
I
will be teaching this to a high school class, and I believe there are a lot of
interesting lessons to learn within this text. We see Tanya’s trouble with
identity which I can make relate directly to my students. All students struggle
with who they are, and this is a dramatic way to show the struggle. Whereas for
most this is a struggle inside people’s minds, the struggle for Tanya was more
outward. The book also shows us the importance of the truth, and the trouble
lies can get you in. But, on the other hand it also shows that it’s wrong to be
brutally honest. Sometimes if you love someone you have to give a little white
lie. The problem is figuring out when its acceptable and when it’s not to lie.
Where is that line?
Along
with all the themes that can be used to be taught I believe the fact that its
nonfiction is important as well. Most students and people in general, me
included, don’t like the idea of reading a nonfiction book. The reason being
that we see them as something that will probably bore us, because its “real
life.” I believe this book will change students opinions on that matter. The
book is interesting and full of adventure, with some love, and many shocking
events. Yet it’s about a real person that actually lived and went through all
of this. Many kids probably won’t believe it’s true because of how interesting,
and captivating it is. Yet right in the beginning of the book are the words; “This
is a true story. (13)”
I
think there are many activities that can be used in a classroom to teach this
book. One of my favorites is to create a new cover, after reading the book. The
cover is always the thing that catches young readers eyes, so it makes sense to
have students re-imagine it. Another activity would be for students to draw out
or write out how they deal with their identity struggle. Whether this is in an
essay, poem, song, or picture, they can find a way to express themselves. The
last activity I will list would be an essay question, I would give them several
prompts to choose from. One could be: What do you think Tanya should have done
differently? Pick a situation and write about it.
References
Thompson, Tanya. Assuming
Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade. South Carolina: Smashwords, 2014. Print.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteYou make some excellent points about non-fiction. I wonder if part of the reason stems from the fact that, in school, so many of the books we HAVE to read are non-fiction. I have usually found textbooks to be boring; I figure a lot of students feel the same way. If you can engage them through a book like this, that’s great! Your idea to create a new book cover – love it. Tanya reminded me of a DiCaprio/Hanks movie – Catch Me If You Can. Maybe you could pair that with your book, and see what your students think of each. Good luck!
Emily, what an ironic meta example--that this "non-fiction" has a character that creates fictional stories of herself. Your discussion of identity and how some struggle inward and others outward is an interesting way to examine Tanya. I know we all tell ourselves "lies" or "white lies" about how we see ourselves--sometimes we build ourselves up and sometimes we tear ourselves down with the lies we believe about ourselves. I think that would be an interesting approach to Tanya's character/personality. Also, I can't help but wonder if this is not a first-person account, does the author have an agenda here with how they spin her story? If it is in first-person, can we as readers trust Tanya to speak the truth about her adventures? This is something I believe we all should examine about biographies and autobiographies, but especially important when the subject is a con artist. Interesting stuff here. You and your class would have fun with this one!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI love the example to have students create a new cover. I am continually interested in how the covers of books change from generation to generation. Sure, there are some "classic covers" but overall there are trends that happen with book covers: I wonder if these cover trends will be apparent in this assignment from generation to generation as well.
I also like the essay prompt about what Tanya could have done differently, but this might actually work better as a power writing session. This is even something that can revisited throughout the book as the reader becomes more and more familiar with Tanya herself.
Overall, this seems like a pretty cool book.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteYou had me at con artist. This book sounds like it has all types of exciting. There looks like there's tons of stuff going on that students would enjoy. Throw in the FBI, sounds like fun.
There's the expression don't judge a book by its cover. I do. I think redesigning the cover is an awesome idea. Especially for a crazy, action packed book like this.
I think you could do a creative writing project with this book. There is so much going on that I think students would get the creative juices going when considering all the different thing the main character in the novel goes through.
I would consider teaching this text. Nice find.