Mosquitoland

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.

“Mim’s Road Trip Playlists”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of Mim as a dynamic character by compiling “road trip” playlists for her journey north and for her journey back home.

Music is important to Mim, and she tells the reader quite a bit about what kinds of music she likes and why. In this activity, you will create two imagined playlists for her—one for her trip north to see her mother and one for her journey back home with Kathy. Use these playlists to demonstrate how Mim has changed over the course of the novel.

Playlist One:

• Create a playlist of 5 song titles, drawing from the artists and genres Mim enjoys.
• Choose songs that reflect how she feels about herself and her life near the beginning of the novel.

Playlist Two:

• Create a playlist of 5 song titles. This time, you have more latitude about which artists and genre to draw from; decide whether you think Mim’s preferences have changed during her journey.
• Choose songs that reflect how Mim feels about herself, recent events, and her life at the end of the novel.

Defend Your Choices:

• Write a 2-3 paragraph journal entry explaining your choices. Be sure to point to textual evidence that backs up your choices and your beliefs about the ways in which Mim has changed.

Teaching Suggestion: Searching for appropriate song titles will be easier if students have access to the internet while they are working on this assignment. Since they will be using the computer to research, you might ask them to create their lists using a program that allows hyperlinking and require that they practice this skill by hyperlinking their playlist entries to each song’s lyrics and/or to performances of each song. You might also allow students to play recordings of some of the specific music Mim mentions in the novel and then discuss how this music contributes to Mosquitoland’s atmosphere.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who benefit from support with reading fluency might work in small groups to gather evidence regarding Mim’s preferences and ideas. The use of a three-column graphic organizer to list Mim’s beliefs at the novel’s beginning, ways she has changed by the novel’s end, and ways she remains the same at novel’s end might be beneficial as well.