For a culminating project to go with the Global Read Aloud middle school book, The Bridge Home, students performed character autopsies. When the students showed up to class, they were greeted with a sign on the door saying “Caution Character Autopsies in Progress, Enter at your own risk”.  The door opens and they are greeted by Ms. Sarrie, telling them that she has just finished getting the room cleaned up and ready for them to come in. As the enter the room, they are given eye protection goggles, they see the  tables covered with garbage bags and papers with body outlines laid out.

For the project, students were asked to peel back the layers of a character from The Bridge Home. They needed to look at five “body parts” (heart, eyes, brain, hands, and feet), draw them on the body outline then answer questions giving details from the text to support their ideas. For example,  they had to draw the hands, then answer what they thought their character would hold if they could only hold one thing.