Dancing at the Pity Party
Biography:
Tyler Feder is a Jewish American author and artist based in Chicago. Feder studied Radio, TV, and Film at Northwest University in 2011, as well as earning a certificate in Creative Writing for the Media. She uses her art to promote body positivity in online spaces, such as Tumblr, Instagram, and more. Another focus of her art is the LGTBQ community. She is an artist who speaks to younger audiences, promoting self-love and acceptance.
Growing up, Feder always had a passion for art, specifically expressing herself through drawing. She claims that she went through a phase in high school where her art shifted from drawing and was exhibited through writing. Eventually, she came to the decision that she could combine her love of storytelling and drawing to tell her stories through graphic novels and picture books, such as Dancing at the Pity Party, and Bodies are Cool. She also continues to create prints to sell online, the topics of many of these prints being body positivity.
After the sudden death of her mother, she used this passion to write the memoir above. Feder was nineteen years old when her mother died of cancer. She uses this experience to connect with an adolescent audience who has had a similar experience as she and her siblings. Feder also notes that there is a unique experience in losing a close parental figure.
Feder continues to participate in younger culture by maintaining social media presence as well as collaborating with other authors, producers, and streaming services. This allows her to continually educate herself and others on issues that pertain to adolescents. She has illustrated for books about disability, racism, and body positivity. Each of these books have been aimed at adolescent and younger audiences.
Sources:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2168958/tyler-feder/
https://www.tylerfeder.com/about-2 (Image)
https://roaring-softly.tumblr.com/
Book Review:
Tyler Feder’s, Dancing at the Pity Party: a dead mom graphic memoir, showcases the life of a suburban Jewish girl and her journey through the struggles of processing through grief from the loss of a parent with cancer and adapting to her new normal. Feder’s imagery of her mother, her family, the funeral, the shiva, and her coping mechanisms on backgrounds of pink hues make for a digestible and overall hopeful read of living through such a significant loss. The novel handles dark moments with a touch of humor and compassion, for instance, how reminiscing about a dead parent doesn’t have to be centered around sadness. Feder shows the contrasts between living within a bubble of grief with your family and being strewn out into the real world that continues on with or without you. Real-life is bright, loud, and happy and the unfortunate part is that at some point in time, someone will find out that you lost your mother to cancer, and it will open up doors of awkwardness. Comforting someone about your own grief is hard; sometimes, you want to talk to someone that just gets it. Living with grief is a struggle on its own, but not even having your mother to talk to about it is even more complicated. Dancing at the Pity Party wants its readers to understand that being sad is okay and that coping with grief for days, weeks, or even ten years is perfectly okay too. It’s an inspiring memoir for young readers who may not have anyone to understand what they are going through. It clearly illustrates humankind’s ability to adapt and be resilient against adversity.
Young readers may not be ready for intense titles like “Finding Your Way After Your Parent Dies: Hope for Grieving Adults” or “How to Survive the Loss of a Parent” because such books are typically written for grieving adults. Young adults, teens, and children alike all have something to grieve about, and sometimes that thing is losing a parent to cancer. There should be more novels out there for them. Seeing a graphic novel like this with such a whimsical title comforts young readers and allows them to feel vulnerable without feeling the need to “grow up” and push through the hardship. The fact that it’s a non-fiction novel helps the readers realize that these kinds of things happen to real people and happen to anyone. The subject matter is something that is worth talking about, and it makes our culture’s relationship with death less awkward and more in tune with our mortality. It gives young readers an idea that even if someone incredibly close to you passes away, their impact on your life will be enriching and beautiful and leave you with new tools to get through anything life throws your way. As Feder says, “I’m still here, trying to turn the crap into something sweet just like [mom] would,” and that’s what this novel is about; being able to live a beautiful and fulfilling life despite the grief.
*Photos were compiled from a Google search, and the two book covers on the right are photos from Amazon.com, and the two pictures from DATPP on the left are from ModernLoss.com
Instructional Lesson Activity:
Anticipatory Set (Pre Reading-Stage)
- Prior to conducting the lesson, students will be asked to read Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder. Students will be asked 2 weeks in advance to read the graphic novel in its entirety (allocates time to fit their schedule and also time to grasp the sensitive subject if needed at their own pace).
- When the directions are given, students will also receive a term handout with terminology of graphic novels they will encounter in their read. Students should review this handout prior to reading the novel.
- Additionally, students will receive an Anticipation Guide. They will be asked to complete the worksheet prior to reading the novel.
Direct Instruction
- To begin the lesson, the instructor could swiftly review the terms list with the students. Reciting the important terms and answering any questions that the adolescents may have about the fundamentals of graphic novels. (~5 mins)
- After that review, the students will then begin to apply their knowledge and understanding of the text. Using the Anticipation Guide they completed, students will discuss with their group what they anticipated before reading the book. For each anticipation question they discuss, they will then work together to answer the correlating reaction question on the Reaction Guide. For each question, the group should find an example or page in Dancing at the Pity Party to support their claims/thoughts. Each question’s group discussion could take around ~10 minutes so this body portion could take around 40 minutes
- During this, the educator could monitor, hopping from group to group to see where the students stand on their opinions of the text. They could gather insight from each group to see what points to bring up during the whole class discussion.
Closing Discussion
- After the worksheet is completed and group discussions are done, groups should be prepared to share for a whole class discussion. Each group may share different moments of the text that apply to the questions they answered, allowing the students to see how flexible the text may be. This final discussion is to take up the remainder of the class session, summarizing how the graphic novel performed compared to their first expectations.
- Educator should bring up final points that they want to make sure students understood about the novel and how attitude intertwined with the material.
- Major themes/topics that could be discussed: Grief, Loss, Acceptance, Parental Relationships, Optimism, Feder’s choice of images/diction etc.
Goals
· The goal for this lesson is for students to recognize Tyler Feder’s approach for the central idea of the text.
· Students will be able to understand the basic components of a graphic novel and their impact on visual literacy.
Objectives
· Students will be able to define the basic aspects of a graphic novel.
· Students will be able to describe how the writing style and illustration choice of Tyler Feder helps the central theme become much easier to comprehend.Materials needed
Desks/Tables in separate group formation
Access to printer
Blank sheets of paper (enough to supply handouts to every student)
Sufficient amount of copies of Dancing at the Pity Party
Audio/technological devices (if applicable)
Pencils/Pens/Highlighters
Access to Content for English Learning Students and Students with Special Needs
· Assuming the correct resources are available, I’ll encourage students who need further support to listen to an audio reading of the Graphic Novel and also one of the handout instead of having them comprehend on their own (If there isn’t an audio available for the handout I will personally make one for them).
· If the materials are not at my disposal, either I will read the handout to them or I would have their groups/pairs do a read aloud (at a slightly lower volume to not disturb those independently reading).
· Audible of the novel- https://www.audible.com/pd/Dancing-at-the-Pity-Party-Audiobook/1705033849California Common Core Standards:
English Language Arts Standards – Reading: Literature
· CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
· CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
· CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5 . Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
· CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.6: Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).Instructional Resources:
Jewish Death &
Mourning Traditions:
This article focuses on the traditions, customs, and rituals that Jewish people take before the funeral, during, and after. It is a great way to learn and understand these traditions when reading the book based off of a Jewish author and protagonist.
This article focuses on teaching and explaining what cancer is. It goes in-depth as to what each stage of cancer represents and means. It is a good source because for anyone who has never been exposed to the idea of cancer it is very helpful in understanding what it is as a whole.
Teaching Students About Death & Grief:
Teaching students about death and grief is very difficult and this article does an excellent job at explaining how to best introduce, teach, and create a perfect classroom and environment to discuss such deep concepts.
How to Write a Memoir & What is a Memoir:
This article does a good job at explaining in-depth what a Memoir is and how to create one. It would be a great resource because it can help educators define what it is and how to analyze one correctly compared to a novel or story.
Teaching Strategies of
Graphic Novels:
This is a PDF page that has various formats, ideas and strategies to teach graphic novels. It is helpful for educators because it has fun ways of analyzing and thoroughly understanding what makes up a graphic novel.
Ask An Author: Talking
with Tyler Feder, Author of Dancing at the Pity Party:
The interview is simple, asking the author, Tyler Feder: why they wrote about their mom, the emotion, and everything that went into the book. It’s a great resource because it gives background information as to what went into the creation of the graphic novel. It’ll be helpful for both educators and students.
Graphic Novels Belong
in Your English Class. Here’s How to Use them:
The article was written by Paige Classey Przybylski, a librarian media specialist. She discusses the books with the biggest impacts on her and goes into detail how graphic novels are useful and should be introduced into English classroom settings.
Gene Luen Yang: Comics Belong in the Classroom:
This is a TedTalk given by Gene Luen Yang, an educator on how both comic books and graphic novels belong in every teacher’s classroom. It is a good source because it is an engaging and short 10-minute video that teaches the history of comics in America and how kids are able to learn from them.
“Graphic Novels in the Classroom: Curriculum Design, Implementation, and Reflection”
This journal article is written by Julie Gorlewski and Joanna Schmidt and appears in The English Journal vol. 100 #5 May 2011 pp 104-107. It is an academic article and requires access through Fullerton or another educational institution, but it relates teaching graphic novels specifically to student essays, and it went into how graphic novels could help with the most common types of essays: narrative, compare and contrast, opinion, and problem/solution essays. It is a good source because it gives that connection between graphic novels and more traditional student writing assignments.
“How Graphic Novels Help Students Develop Critical Skills”
This article is a good resource because it defines the importance of the graphic novel and then it tells how the graphic novel might be useful in promoting literacy within the classroom. Specifically, the article mentions that graphic novels are helpful in promoting visual literacy and engaging reluctant readers and English Language Learners. The article ends with some quick ideas on how to use graphic novels in the classroom and includes a list of 11 additional sources that relate to teaching graphic novels.
