Maniac Magee Read-Aloud Reflection PDF

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Maniac Magee Documentations of the lessons and other things learned....

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Maniac Magee Read-Aloud Reflection Throughout the story of Maniac Magee we learn that many different people react to prejudice in various ways. Some negatively and others positively. Being prejudiced relates to having feelings or opinions towards a particular group of people based on reason. In Maniac Magee, this happens, specifically dealing with discrimination. An example would be the East End was where African-Americans lived and the West End was where the Americans lived, all separated by Hector Street. Yet the separation was not seen by all children. Maniac Magee is first described as color-blind. In the book Maniac states “[I can’t] see it, this color business.” Though he was not blind with color, he could not see race. He was kind to every person that crossed his path. There are numerous examples of how prejudice is presented in the book, but one character I would like to focus on would be Mars Bar. Mars Bar, the East End bully, originally did not like Maniac. When they first met, Mars Bar offered Maniac a bite of his candy bar. He was surprised to see Maniac taking a whole bite of it, even the side that was eaten on. Mars Bar did not trust any and all white people but Maniac advocated that everyone should be treated equally. There was a pivotal moment that happened during a birthday party on the West End of town. The birthday party was where McNab would be, the West End bully. Maniac’s intention of bringing both town bullies together in hopes of unification did not go as planned. Yet through the process, Mars Bar gained respect for him- learning that not every person is the same. One way that I would present this book to encourage students to be more aware of prejudice and false perception would be by highlighting the transition of Mars Bar. He originally started out as the bully, who conquered his fears, learned from his mistakes, and realized it was not as bad as he made it out to be.I would encourage the students to discuss their interactions

with similar situations. From there, it would move into the topic of discussing how it is still implemented in our society. I would have the students select a topic that they are interested in to research about major historical events that occurred related to segregation. Another key topic besides prejudice that is highlighted would be homlessness. Maniac ran from place to place in order to survive. I would encourage the students to understand how Maniac would try to survive without any help. I would assign the choice of having the students raise money for awareness to donate or volunteer at a local shelter. When students are more involved, they become more aware of the hardships. This allows students to grow and learn so that the same actions are not continued....