5 Fun Ways to Use How They Choked, by Georgia Bragg, in Middle School ELA
A couple of years ago, I read How They Choked, by Georgia Bragg for the first time. I didn’t think much of it at first, and then I realized that I could hit SO MANY STANDARDS with this book. (I’m not an affiliate or getting paid in any way. I just love the book.) In How They Choked, Bragg tells the stories of famous people throughout history. Instead of describing them as heroes or people to look up to, she focuses on their foibles and failures. Here are five ways to use this book in your middle-school ELA class.
Pair How They Choked with Nest Animated Hero Classics.
I write more about this in my free pdf of teaching ideas for every 7th-grade ELA standard, but the basic idea is that you pick a famous person like Thomas Edison or Marco Polo and read their story from How They Choked before watching a video about their life as told by Nest. Bragg is cynical and sarcastic, so the kids are always super skeptical by the time they watch a video that paints the person as a “hero.” I have my students compare and contrast author’s tone, author’s purpose, and even narrative details. It’s so much fun!
2. Use the “somebody wanted but so” strategy to summarize How They Choked chapters.
Because each chapter tells an individual narrative, this book offers students multiple opportunities to practice writing objective summaries. My favorite summary template is “somebody wanted but so” (which I talk more about in my free pdf of 144 teaching ideas) and it works especially well with How They Choked because Bragg is NOT shy about describing the opposition each person from history faced. To use this strategy, students determine the “somebody” (Thomas Edison, for example), figure out what they wanted (to get credit for inventing electricity), describe a setback (Westinghouse’s electricity was more practical), and explain what happened as a result (Edison used Westinghouse’s electricity to electrocute animals to prove its danger). The end result is a summary of the chapter: “Thomas Edison wanted to get credit for inventing electricity, but Westinghouse’s electricity was more practical, so Edison used Westinghouse’s electricity to electrocute animals to prove its danger.” There’s no ONE right answer, but it’s an excellent thinking exercise.
3. Point out extreme or absolute language in Bragg’s writing.
If you use Kylene Beers’s and Robert Probst’s Notice and Note signposts, this one’s for you! The extreme/absolute-language signpost is EVERYWHERE in Bragg’s writing. Details are exaggerated for effect, and when students ask the question, “Where is the author coming from?” it doesn’t take long for them to figure out that Bragg is not a fan of the people she writes about. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, definitely check out their book, Notice and Note: Nonfiction. I wrote more about my love for Beers and Probst in this blog post.
4. Tease it during First Chapter Friday.
I usually reserve FCF for books with cliffhangers or at least a continuing narrative, but Bragg’s books deserve a place in the lineup. Students who think they don’t like nonfiction actually love her writing, and that is a huge win!
5. Use How They Choked as a mentor text.
My students often lack a certain amount of personality in their writing, but Bragg lacks no such thing. Her writing is unmistakably her own. I like to give my students random topics (you can use a random topic generator online) and ask them to write about that topic as Georgia Bragg would. They can use specific sentences as models, or they can just capture the “essence” of Georgia if they’re feeling confident. It’s a great lesson in author’s voice.
I would love to hear how you use Georgia Bragg’s books in your classroom. Email me at olivia@distinguishedenglishteacher.com to tell me all about it!
