A Reader Response Journal

The Pigman

By: Jackson Hennes

The Pigman has many scenes that reveal much about the characters in the story. One scene that both tells about the characters and explores the relationship between them is when John and Loraine dress up for dinner in the Pigman and his wife’s old clothes. By recreating this scene with appropriate dress and scenery, the story comes alive and allows the reader to become a participant in the action. This enables spatial learners to visualize and create the story to improve understanding and comprehension. This technique also engages the bodily/kinesthetic learner by allowing him/her to live out the words of the story and make it a more real event in her/his life.

Zindel’s use of dual narrators is a very interesting device. This allows him to explore his many different themes from more than one point of view. He can place opposing views over a theme or concept in consecutive chapters and allow the reader to feel like a mediator between the two views. This technique draws the reader into the story and allows her/him a greater level of enjoyment and participation. It also makes the novel a natural tool for discussing the concept of point of view.

The Ohio Standards benchmark for grades 4-7 of the Acquisition of Vocabulary Standard indicates that students should use context clues and text structures to determine the meaning of new vocabulary words. It also states that students should use multiple resources to enhance comprehension of vocabulary. By using select words from The Pigman, it is possible to meet this standard easily. Vocabulary words can first be introduced to students in the form of a pretest. Next, students may work with partners to determine definitions, synonyms, and antonyms for each word. The reading of these words later in the novel will allow students another exposure and an opportunity to decide if they have correct definitions for each word. Finally, before the spelling test, students will check their vocabulary lists with the words used in context and then write a sentence for each using the correct context. This process meets many of the benchmarks and grade level indicators identified at the web sit www.ohiorc.org/ohiorc_resource_display/1,3820,347,00.shtm.