Let's Talk Book Project

This assignment was used for a Psychology course, but it would be well suited to any well being or social studies course where students are studying mental health. The aim of the assignment is to build a variety of reading, writing and research skills while also bringing awareness and breaking myths regarding mental health.

Students will choose a fictional book from a list that is provided. All books on the list deal with some sort of mental health concern. Through this assignment they will be asked to read a specific book, identify examples/characteristics of the disorder identified in their book, completing research to further their understanding and to compare facts to compare to their novel, and finally they will be asked to write an essay.
Students who have done this assignment in the past have been engaged and interested as they have some ownership of what they will study and complete their work on.
Included is a detailed list of steps students will work on, a book list of possible reading choices, an organizer for students to identify and address findings in their novel, a detailed rubric for easy essay marking.

In practice this assignment lasted me over a month as students were given 15 minutes reading time at the start of each class, which was followed by teacher instruction on various mental health disorders. However, the assignment provided is quite detailed and can be adapted and changed to fit a variety of different settings.

This assignment is an ongoing assignment where students developed strong skills in
Reading and writing
Research and investigation
Sourcing
Analysis
Critical thinking
Essay writing
Mental health awareness, compassion