93 pages 3 hours read

Joyce Carol Oates

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2002

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Activity

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Character Interview”

In this activity, students choose a character from Big Mouth & Ugly Girl to interview about what they felt and experienced in the novel.

Choose one of the novel’s characters to interview. Share their unique experience based on details from the novel. Use these questions as examples to guide your thinking; additionally, generate 2-3 original questions to contribute to the interview.

  • What is your persona? Why do you have it?
  • What is your perspective on Matt’s threat? Or, if you are Matt, why did you make the threat?
  • What are you passionate about?
  • How did you feel when Pumpkin disappeared?
  • Explain your actions in the novel.
  • What are your most obvious character traits?
  • How did you feel at the novel’s conclusion?

Practice your interview aloud with a partner. Be prepared to role-play your interview for your classmates.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might be permitted to decide who will be the interviewer and who will be the interviewee. Or, if time allows, they might perform the interview two times, swapping roles and characters. You may want students to work together to write their questions for the interview.