Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. In what year did a school shooting take place at Columbine High School in Colorado? How do peers play an important role in preventing school violence?

Teaching Suggestion: Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, originally published in 2002, opens with a conflict incited by one of the novel’s protagonists, Matt. Matt jokingly makes a threat to the school in the wake of the Columbine shooting that occurred in 1999. Consider discussing the events at Columbine, which are mentioned in the novel, and why it is important for students to report threats of violence to their school. Depending on your class and with sensitivity in mind, it may be natural for students to want to talk about fears associated with school shootings and violence, your school’s safety plan(s), and what school communities learned after the tragic events at Columbine and other schools.

• This 9-minute video from a PBS affiliate explains one Columbine victim’s experience and thoughts on how peers play a role in reporting school attacks. (Content Warning: discussions of school shootings; disturbing images; language; mental health issues)
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