This power point presentation contains 15 unique slides that all explore the idea of trees as a symbol for Melinda in the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The colors and images are fun and engaging for middle and high school aged students. The lesson begins with scientific information about tree structure and then scaffolds the students into understanding how the different parts of a tree could represent Melinda. It contains several deep, inquiry questions for the class to discuss at various points of the lesson. It concludes with a writing task for students to apply the knowledge they have gained and allows you to assess their understanding of symbolism as a concept. I hope this lesson helps you bring to life some of the more abstract but beautiful language used by Anderson in this text. *FYI-Most information about trees on this presentation was obtained from wikipedia.com*