1. Journal: What makes life meaningful and fulfilling
Journal: What makes life meaningful and fulfilling? If you had one month to live, what would you do with that time? How would you make it especially meaningful?

2. Day 2
Journal: How does the author hook the reader in the first chapters of the novel? What elements of storytelling draw readers in? What elements of the story have kept your interest? Do you have any advice for the author about how to add interest to the novel’s beginning? Please use specific examples to support your answers.

3. Day 3
How would you describe the main character(s)? Consider the character’s personality traits, relationships, motivations, and beliefs. Give specific details and examples to prove your points. What advice would you give the character at this point in the novel?

4. MEL-Con Prompt (on separate sheet of paper)
Day 4
1) Choose a relationship in the book to focus on. 2) Decide whether the relationship is strong or not strong. Be sure to have three specific reasons for your choice. 3) Write a MEL-Con proving your answer. Use at least TWO quotes and EXPLAIN the importance of these quotes to support your response.
Do either of them conform, in behavior or thinking, to what we normally associate with young cancer patients?

5. Day 8
Free-Write Journal: Describe the various ways the author is building drama, suspense, and/or interest at this point in the story. (RL ) OR What traits and details make the characters in your book more or less believable? What is the effect of these traits? Include several specific examples to prove your points.

6. Day 6
Quote Sandwich: Find a passage in the text where the language and word choice is particularly strong and interesting. How does this passage impact the novel? (Consider characterization, theme, symbolism, mood, tone) Create at least one quote sandwich to support your response. (RL )

7. How characters react to difficult experiences (positively and negatively) is a large part of what makes novels interesting and helpful for us as readers. How do we respond to difficulties in our lives? Do we want to emulate the characters or do we want to learn from their mistakes? Seeing examples of people struggling with difficult situations can help prepare us for decisions that we will have to make. Journal: Brainstorm the positive and negative ways characters in your novel respond to challenge (A list of ideas is okay for this entry).

8. Discuss with a partner/group OR journal your response.
Discuss with a partner/group OR journal your response.
React to the video OR compare and contrast Zach’s reaction to his cancer to that of Hazel and Gus.
Discuss what you have gained from reading or viewing the material.
What lessons can be taken from the material? What specific insights did you gain from the text?
Make a judgment.
Did you like or dislike the text? Why?
Analyze the material.
What is the video’s purpose? Does it achieve its goal?
Did you personally find the information useful?
Will you recommend it to others? What might someone else gain from the video?

9. Based on Zach’s video or what you have been reflecting on in your book, complete one of the following: 1. Write at least one personal goal for yourself to help you through challenges in your own life, and create a visual poster that you can keep in your locker or at home to remind you of this goal. 2. Create an inspirational poster for yourself with an inspirational quote that you want to use to help motivate you through future difficulties. Consider your favorite books/movies, sayings of family members, song lyrics, and famous quotes for inspiration.

10. Day 9
Quote Sandwiches: Choose a character. How has the character developed over the course of the novel? Find at least two quotes that prove the character has changed over the course of the novel, and sandwich them. Consider beliefs, actions, relationships, personality traits, and motivations.

11. Compare Contrast MEL-Con: Choose a character from your literature circle book and someone who you know (or know of) with whom you would like to compare or contrast this character. How are they similar? How are they different? Consider personality, beliefs, actions, desires, relationships, etc… (2 quotes required) You may work in pairs if you wish

12. MEL-Con: What does the novel try to teach us about life
MEL-Con: What does the novel try to teach us about life? State your answer in a thematic statement (i.e. “Life has meaning even, or especially, in the face of incredible challenges.”) Write a paragraph supporting your theme (2 quotes required)
You may brainstorm ideas with your group members but paragraph response must be your own.

13. Extension Activity
Share your theme with group. Nominate best two themes. Discuss how connect

14. The journal prompts were found at the following webpage: “Fault in Our Stars (Green) - Discussion Questions.” LitLovers. Web. 20 Sept <

15. Hazel has changed in spirit over the course of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. The first example is at the beginning of the book. Hazel’s mother says, “Hazel, you’re a teenager. You’re not a little kid anymore. You need to make friends, get out of the house, and live your life” (Green 7). If her parents were begging her to leave the house and go to support group, it shows that she must have really not been outgoing. To show that she has changed, there is a conversation when Hazel’s mom said, “Your dad and I feel like we hardly even see you anymore” (Green 254). Hazel’s mother and father started feeling as though they did not see their daughter anymore; therefore, Hazel is no longer the homebody that she once was. The last example that illustrates Hazel’s change is Hazel saying, “Oh, my God, Dad. He wanted me to write him a eulogy, okay? I’ll be home every. Freaking. Night. Starting any day now, okay?” (Green 256). Hazel has become much more outgoing and even started putting up a fight to go out. Clearly, Hazel is a much different person than she was just a few months earlier. In conclusion, Hazel has changed because she used to be a homebody, her parents now feel like they never see her, and she is even putting up a fight to be able to leave her house.   Sebrena’s paragraph (edited)

16. Mai Nhia’s example (edited)
The Fault in Our Stars, a book about Hazel, a girl who has terminal cancer, and how she deals with falling in love, has an uplifting end to it. To start off with, Augustus, the boy who Hazel fell in love with, has just passed away and Hazel’s friend Kaitlin just called her to talk about him. Kaitlin says, “Then maybe they weren’t for you […] I mean, not to depress you or anything, but maybe he wrote them for someone else.” Then Hazel shouts, “Van Houten!”( ). This quote proves that this book’s ending is uplifting because Hazel has just realized that Gus has left something for her. He left something meaningful to her—something that she has been longing for. Continuing with this, Hazel has opened Augustus’s to Van Houten, and it reads, “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers”(313). Just reading this makes readers feel hopeful because it says that it indicates that human beings have choices even in the face of cancer. The final quote is when Hazel is spending time with her mom and Hazel says, “This is so great. If I’m dead, I want you to know I will be sighing at you from heaven every time you ask someone to share their feelings” (298). This quote proves that this book is uplifting because Hazel realizes that people will still be happy after she dies. It is obvious no that this book is uplifting because Augustus left something meaningful, choices are unlimited, and people will still be happy.

17. Day 5
Journal: Are the characters believable? Why or why not? Include several specific examples to prove your point. In what ways is having a not-quite-believable character harmful? Are there times when implausible characters are helpful for the story?

18. MEL-Con: What is the overall impact of the book
MEL-Con: What is the overall impact of the book? What feelings, emotions, ideas does the author leave the reader with in the final chapters? What thematic message or messages does the book leave us with? (RL )