FieldYALITLens6

 In a classroom setting, blending discussion of __The Orange Houses__ with an exploration of various forms of expression, such as, poetry, music and art would work beautifully, as one of the novel’s main themes is how people express themselves as a means of cathartic release and escape. Discussing how the characters in __The Orange Houses__ express themselves in a variety of creative ways is also a good springboard for a scintillating class discussion—or at least private contemplation—on what students in the classroom do to express themselves when they need an escape from the outside world? Do they write poetry? Do they write in a journal? Do they play music or write lyrics? Do they draw? Do they play a sport? It would be interesting to discuss these exercises of expression, and explore each of them a little more, keeping the question in mind, “how and why do these forms of expression provide an escape?” The students could take their answers and then compare them to how they think the characters in the book felt about their forms of expression as an escape, citing specific textual examples.
 * Viewing The Orange Houses through an Intertextual Lens **

Exploring the individual interests of the students in the classroom could segue into discussing some of those forms of expression in more depth. In particular, poetry comes to mind, since poetics and poetic language is woven so seamlessly into __The Orange Houses.__ Reading other works of poetry—perhaps those that are in the canon for that grade level—would be a natural fit with the Paul Griffin’s novel, and also a way to discuss the classics alongside a more non-traditional book. (And this would only work if the school would allow __The Orange Houses__ into the curriculum, but for this paper, we will assume that is the case!)

I really enjoyed when we read __Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices__ by Paul Fleischman in class, and then found a way to relate our experiences in reading that poetry back to our experiences reading __The Orange Houses__. What I enjoyed most was having the opportunity to perform the poetry, as it is meant to be read out loud with another person. Reading the poems out loud enabled me to hear the words in a new way, since words sound differently read out loud than they do when you read them silently to yourself. Reading out loud made me not only hear the words, but feel them, too. I felt much more attune to the rhythms, flow, parallels and contrasts. My experiences in that activity carried over to when I read __The Orange Houses__, and I was able to read the poetic language in that novel with more interest and awareness. Considering the positive experiences I had with reading poetry in conjunction with the novel, I am excited to see how reading poetry simultaneously with other novels can improve both experiences. I have a feeling that I will discover that the pairing of texts, much like the pairing of food and wine, can enhance the overall experience, as each textual flavor feeds into the other.

Having the students try to write some poetry of their own, using supplementary poems or the poetic language from __The Orange Houses__ as inspiration (as we did in class), would also be a good way to get the students to experiment with some of the poetic techniques they learned from the readings, as well as practice their writing skills and self expression.  