Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on My Eyeball
By Jasmine Ball, Jane Rauschenberg, and Kellie Hayden
EDCI 592
Dr. Glasgow and Dr. Rice
March 4, 2003
Reader Response:
"I am" Poem
[Mee, S. (1986, September 8). I am. Scholastic Voice]
Edna
I am lonely.
I wonder what it’s like to be normal.
I hear other kids from a distance.
I want to be someone else.
I am lonely.
I pretend that I’m O.K.
I feel isolated.
I touch a raccoon head, and then a tear.
I worry about everything.
I cry easily and often.
I am lonely.
I understand social outcasts.
I say everything’s O.K.
I dream of being in love, and of being loved in return.
I try to make myself take risks.
I hope life gets better than this.
I am alone.
Critical Analysis:
Evaluation of the Characteristics of Young Adult Literature by Paul Zinel’s book Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on My Eyeball.
According to Nilsen and Donelson’s criteria, there are seven characteristics that are used to evaluate young adult literature. I do not care for Zindel; however, Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on My Eyeball can easily be pegged as good young adult literature because it fits six of the seven requirements. Also, those adolescents can be picky and, of course, have their own sense of what is good.
The first requirement is that young adult authors write from the viewpoint of young people. In the novel, Zindel’s main characters Marsh and Edna are your typical teenage outcasts. During the teenage years, every child feels like an outcast at one point in his or her life. Teenagers will be able to connect with these characters. Their viewpoints, however strange at times, do overall echo those of most young people. Everyone wants to be liked, have a family that supports them, and be able to make choices by themselves. Edna and Marsh lack most of this. Marsh’s father is dead and his mother is an alcoholic. Edna’s parents, who don’t understand her, smother Edna. Each is frustrated and has “teenage angst.”
Second, the main characters definitely have the “Please, Mother, I would rather do it myself!” issues. Edna is our main character with this issue. Her mother is desperately trying to find her a mate, even if it is on the computer. She has her arms so tightly wrapped around Edna that she can barely breathe. Marsh, on the other hand, just waits for his mother to pass out for the night to take her car. He does everything by himself without much help from her. He does not want her help at all and because of her condition can “do it himself.”
Third, Zindel avoids speechifying. He doesn’t give them a lecture on wild parties with untrustworthy people. He shows the reader what can happen when a person does these things, a total disaster. I really think he goes too far with the house burning down and the poor raccoon dying. However, the raccoon, “Marsh’s father” had to die somehow, I just wish it wasn’t so violent. He also lets his characters figure out their problems on their own with a little guidance from “dunce” adults. The guidance counselor has the answers, but they really learn from life’s experiences.
Fourth, Zindel includes a variety of genres and subjects. He touches on parental death, drinking, dating, love, alcoholism, friendship, loneliness, and unhappiness. At points this book is comical; thank goodness for Marsh’s antics to give the reader some comedy relief. Edna’s mother is also funny if you can get past the smothering part. Most of the time, the book is dark and moody. Two teenagers trying to figure out their lives going to extremes gave Zindel many avenues.
Fifth, Zindel’s book is basically optimistic, with characters making worthy accomplishments. Edna helps Marsh finally give up his father. She had no reason to do this other than to help another human and get over her fears. She has to give of herself to help somebody else. In my book, that is the ultimate. It does end on a happy note and you do see some happiness for the characters after the police are done with Marsh for taking his mother’s car without permission, driving without a license, crashing it, and setting off fireworks without a permit. I think they might date and even find love, if Edna can get past Schizo Suzy.
Sixth, Zindel deals with emotions that are important to young adults. Teenagers love to read about other teens with problems like their own. For example, dealing with parents and the whole peer pressure issue are monumental in this book. Jacqueline lets her boyfriend pressure her into having the party of the century at her house and she loses everything for it. Also, falling in love is so messy and he gets this love story very messy. Edna and Marsh need so much attention and love; they were meant for each other.
Lastly, Zindel does mention all of the social groups, but he does not include stories about characters from many different ethnic and cultural groups. The jock, slut, popular princess, rich kid, psychos, and ordinary types of high school are all mentioned. However, Zindel does not include ethnic or other cultural groups in this novel.
In conclusion, Zindel gets six of the seven elements of good young adult literature. I think most kids will like this book at the high school level because there are strong male and female characters. Also, crazy things happened, and we all know that teenagers like to be crazy.
Intervention Strategy for At-risk Middle School Readers
Graphic Organizers
Write and Design Online
www.writedesignonline.com
The following are examples of graphic organizers for students to use to help them organize, remember, and learn information gained from text that I found on this website.
Predicting/Evaluating Use to help students activate prior knowledge. It is a group instruction activity that serves as a model for active thinking during reading.
K - Recall what group KNOWs about the subject.
W - Determine what group WANTs to learn.
L - Identify what group LEARNed as they read.
H - HOW we can learn more (NCREL, 1988)
Evaluating Use to show positive, negative, and interesting attributes of a subject, concept, topic, solution, etc., in order to determine the nature of the outcome and whether it will be worth continuing or not. Assign subjective point values to each attribute (1 to 5 and + or - points based on the significance of the attribute), then total (de Bono, E., 1992).
It sounds weird, but I have made significant decisions using this in conjunction with tossing a coin. If I call heads and it comes up heads and that's what I want, I make my decision. If, however, I decide to change my mind and go two out of three, it shows me what I really want to do. The coin toss only works after you have weighed your choices and need to make the final decision.
Analyzing Used to describe a central idea: a thing (a geographic region), process (meiosis), concept (altruism), or proposition with support (experimental drugs should be available to AIDS victims). Key frame questions: What is the central idea? What are its attributes? What are its functions? (NCREL, 1988)