Letters to a Young Teacher

With all the recent hype surrounding Davis Guggenheim's documentary, Waiting for Superman, and media grandstanding such as NBS's Education Nation and Oprah's "groundbreaking announcement" regarding the Newark, New Jersey schools, it seems only fitting to revisit some original principles asserted by Jonathan Kozol decades ago. A writer, educator, and activist, Kozol is known for his books criticizing the public education provided to urban children in our country. Some of his more famous books include: Savage Inequalities (1991), Amazing Grace (1995), and The Shame of the Nation (2005).

Letters to a Young Teacher, published in 2007, restates all of Kozol's messages, interweaving his thoughts and recollections into correspondence with a new, idealistic teacher in the Boston schools. Although I agree with many of Kozol's opinions, I still found the letter format to be a bit heavy handed. Even though in writing to "Francesca" he is "preaching to the choir," the "letters" read more like "lectures." This book seems to be just another platform for Kozol's fervent views about public education that are evident in this quote:

The children of the suburbs learn to think and to interrogate reality; the inner-city kids meanwhile are trained for nonreflective acquiescence. One race and social class is educated for the exploration of ideas and for political sagacity and future economic power; the other is prepared for intellectual subordination. The longer this goes on, Francesca, I'm afraid the vast divide that we already see within American society is going to grow wider.

I did enjoy Kozol's personal anecdotes and the detailed notes section at the back of the book, and I definitely respect his passion and conviction. The following passage describing his visit to an out-of-control New York City high school lunchroom especially resonated with me.

Visitors from outside these neighborhoods who witness confrontations like this often make the unkind observation that "these students act like animals." But if you treat these kids like animals, herding them along for squalid feedings like so many cattle rather than providing them with even minimal civility, it's not surprising to me that they act accordingly.

My absolute favorite part of this book however was Kozol's description of the type of teacher he recruits. I wholeheartedly agree!

As you know, Francesca, I recruit young teachers every time I have the chance when I speak at colleges and universities. I never recruit people who seem docile, flat-natured, and boring. If they're boring to a grown-up, it seems likely they'll be boring to a class of children too. But if they're dynamic and engaging individuals, if they're in love with children and in love with language and like to read good books and poetry and talk about them with excitement, and if their heads seem thoroughly screwed on, so I feel assured about their personal stability—in other words, if they're the kind of person you'd be eager to have as an intern in your class— I always say, "Come on! Wrap up the courses that you need in order to be certified. Then bring your interesting personality, your energy, your love of beauty, and the academic benefits of your good education into the schools where people with your gifts are needed most."

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

LEXILE 1070

I began to read this book last summer — not this past summer of 2010 but laaaaaaaaast summer, as in August 2009. I bought it special for myself as a treat after having surgery when I knew I would have several days of lounging on the sofa to look forward to. And I haven't finished reading it yet . . .

I've never been a fan of old-fashioned writing, but I do like the idea of being familiar with some of the classics that either I never read or have forgotten about reading in high school. I thought the addition of zombies would make this masterpiece more readable, but boy was I wrong!

I've been pecking away at this book for way too long, and I just can't seem to get through it. One night a few months ago I watched the movie on television and my interest was temporarily renewed. But now it looks like I just don't care enough about the fiesty Bennet sisters to bother reading the last 92 pages.

The Mammoth Academy

LEXILE 880

The Mammoth Academy by Neal Layton is a strange little book. Cute illustrations and a very quick read but not much substance. I thought it would be a good read-aloud for my dinosaur-loving summer school students, but references to body odor and hitting things with sticks are not necessarily topics I want to introduce to this group. Also, hard to believe the high Lexile level.

Note: For some inexplicable reason our "going-into-fourth-fifth-and-sixth-grade" boys loved my Junie B. Jones read-alouds this summer! Go figure.

The Thirteenth Tale

LEXILE 840

Hmmmmm ... there's a lot going on in this book, and I think I liked it. Not totally and completely, but it did hold my interest, and I am still digesting parts two days after I finished reading it. So it can't be all bad. Weird and odd and a little disturbing but not all bad.

I liked the writing style, the gothic sensibility, the mystery elements. I didn't care for the character development, the themes involving incest and sadomasochism, the disjointed pacing. I was pleasantly surprised by the clever story line and the tying together of all the loose ends during the final chapters.

All in all, I would recommend this book. Wish I'd had the opportunity to edit it.

The Catcher in the Rye

LEXILE 790

Just finished the classic The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Now I can say I read it. Problem is, I don't get it. Really I don't. Old Holden is a swell character and all, maybe a little precocious and kinda sophisticated for a 16-year-old, but it was difficult for me to connect with him. If you want to know the truth. Sure teenage boys from any decade are definitely a foreign species to me. I'm not kidding. Take my schizophrenic relationship with my 14-year-old son for instance. It's crazy, I tell ya. He's a madman sometimes!

So, I fell asleep several nights reading this book. I really did. One time I even bit my goddam tongue when my head bobbed while I was holding the book up reading about some boring conversation with old Mr. Antolini, the pervert teacher drinking his highballs.

Okay, this neat little tidbit near the end of the book did catch my attention:

"The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them."

Angst. I can relate to that. Gorgeous!

Walk Two Moons

LEXILE 770

I remember my daughter trying to explain the plot of Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech to me when she read it in fourth or fifth grade. She struggled to convey the story-within-a-story aspect of it, but ultimately admitted that she didn't really like the book. I've always been curious, so this was my next selection to occupy my mind during the mind-numbing process of MCAS proctering. I just finished reading it last week.

It was a good book to go to bed with at night. I wasn't compelled to read it quickly, but I looked forward to rejoining the main character, 13-year-old Salamanca Tree Hill, on her journey with her grandparents from Ohio to Idaho in search of her mother. As they travel, Sal shares with her grandparents the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom. This is the story-within.

Both stories explore the themes of family bonds, abandonment, and independence. I could relate to many elements in this book. For one, I love Sal's depiction of Worry as she ponders the contents of Pandora's box.

"I wondered why someone would put a good thing such as Hope in a box with sickness and kidnapping and murder." She decides there must be another box with all good things in it, "like sunshine and love and trees and all that." She continues, "Who had the good fortune to open that one, and was there one bad thing down there in the bottom of the good box? Maybe it was Worry. Even when everything seems fine and good, I worry that something will go wrong and change everything." (page 175) Yup, I can relate.

Also, Sal's reflection on happiness (page 38) echoes my own journey of self-discovery.

"Oh!" I thought. "I am happy at this moment in time." I was surprised that I knew this all by myself, without my mother there. And that night in bed, I did not cry. I said to myself, "Salamanca Tree Hiddle, you can be happy without her." It seemed a mean thought and I was sorry for it, but if felt true.

Another poignant reference to growing up occurs when Sal recalls her mother explaining the behavior of their dog Moody Blue who began ignoring her six-month-old puppies.

I told my mother that Moody Blue was being terrible. "She hates her puppies."

"It's not terrible," my mother said. "It's normal. She's weaning them from her."

"Does she have to do that? Why can't they stay with her?"

"It isn't good for her or for them. They have to become independent. What if something happened to Moody Blue? They wouldn't know how to survive without her." (page 258)

So simple, so true. The hardest job for a parent is letting go.

Poppy (1)

LEXILE 670/650

Given my recent owl obsession, it's a bummer that the great horned owl Mr. Ocax is the villain in Poppy by Avi. But alas, our heroine Poppy is a deer mouse who avenges the death of her fiance while defending her family from the dangers lurking in Dimwood Forest. During her journey, she meets some interesting characters and learns a lot about herself along the way.

Our last read aloud of fifth grade ties in with our science theme of biodiversity and the food chain. It also incorporates letter writing practice, further exploration of character traits, vocabulary development, and a review of figurative language such as the alliteration found in the speech patterns of Ereth the porcupine.

There are six books in the Poppy series, and it lends itself well

to a variety of elementary lessons. A teaching guide is located on the prolific author's website.

In the book Poppy's Return, I enjoyed the themes dealing with family dynamics: Poppy's reluctance to return to her childhood home, her strained relationships with her teenage son and her sister, the skunk Mephitis's feelings about his lack of family. But the story became clunky for me when the animals take control of an old bulldozer and destroy the derelict New House.

Tennyson

LEXILE 760 ages 9-12

"Brilliant, unusual writing." —Chicago Tribune.

Attracted by that accolade on the book's front cover, I started reading Tennyson by Lesley M. M. Blume while administering the MCAS Math tests this month. It was a book purchased for our classroom library at a recent school book fair. The setting and plot also appealed to me: a once grand Louisiana plantation now covered in vines, two sisters coming to terms with their family's dark history. While I wasn't disappointed by the distinctive writing style and the haunting historical elements, I couldn't agree more with the sentiments expressed in the reviews below.

Blume has an impressive command of the English language, but the story is too contrived . . . It's unfortunate that the author's considerable writing talent lacks a stronger plot.

—School Library Journal

The Fontaine history is complex, evoking horror and sympathy; by contrast, a subplot involving Tennyson’s haughty New York editor feels jarringly cartoonish. Still, many readers will respond to this novel’s Southern gothic sensibility, especially Blume’s beautiful, poetic writing about how the past resonates through the generations.

—Booklist

Visit the Lesley M.M. Blume's website for some interesting links to antebellum plantation houses. Also, Belle Grove is said to have been one of the author's inspirations for Aigredoux.

Wesley The Owl

I "met" Stacey O'Brien in the chat room of The Owl Box on Ustream, watching Molly & McGee, the beloved barn owls of San Marcos, CA. After hearing the story of how she rescued a four-day-old baby barn owl and lived with him for 19 years, I had to go out and buy her book.

I'm reading Wesley The Owl s-l-o-w-l-y because I don't want it to end.

I'm writing about it now because I know my eyes will be flooded with tears and I'll be unable to form coherent sentences when I finish reading it.

Update: As my April school vacation came to a close, I finished reading Wesley The Owl. As predicted, I was weeping uncontrollably—sobbing, sniveling and gasping for breath, mascara streaking my face. I'm not sure why observing barn owls has had such an emotional impact on me. They certainly are beautiful creatures, but I think there's more—something about their expressiveness and intelligence that touches my soul.

Hate That Cat

LEXILE rating for Love That Dog is 1010. Hate That Cat was given the NP (Non-Prose) code.

A few years ago I read Love That Dog By Sharon Creech. Loved it!

This year we read aloud Hate That Cat during our fifth grade poetry unit. Loved it, too.

These books make poetry accessible to elementary students who couldn't be any further removed from the work of the poets that they are forced to read and analyze on standardized state tests. It makes sense to help them to connect with poetry in a way that they can relate to.

The Bell Jar

1140LEXILE

First of all, how is it that I had never read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath before? As a matter of fact, I never even knew it was about mental illness and depression among women in the 1950s. Given my family history, this book should have called to me. I wonder if my mother ever read it.

I'm glad I finally read this classic coming-of-age tale but didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Mostly I was inspired to learn more about Plath's tragic and short life and the convoluted history of the book's publication.

The Bell Jar is the autobiographical account of the period of time during Plath's college years when she was institutionalized in a well-known Boston mental hospital for several months after a suicide attempt. It details her struggles with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar disorder. It was first published in England under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Plath committed suicide a month later on February 11, 1963. The book wasn't published in the United States under Plath's name until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of her husband and mother.

Highly intelligent and perfectionistic, Plath was a typical tortured-artist-type, disillusioned by what she felt was a double standard that prevented women from experiencing life as fully as men. An over-achiever in college, she eventually married fellow poet Ted Hughes and had two young children at the time she killed herself by sticking her head in a gas oven.

In an eerie twist to this story, the woman who Plath's philandering husband had left her for, also killed herself in the same manner seven years later. While Plath had protected her children by sealing off the kitchen in the apartment where she died, Hughes' mistress murdered her own four-year-old daughter by keeping her in the same room. And — I couldn't make this stuff up — in 2009 Plath's son, who was one at the time of his mother's death, took his own life at age 47.

True-life-tragedy!

Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a good read! Finished it in a day, just in time to see the movie when it comes out on Friday. Creeeeee-pppppyyyyy! I saw the movie preview at the theater when I went to see Up In the Air. My well-read friend, Lisa told me about the book—by Dennis "Mystic River" Lehane—and that it had a twisted, Sixth Sense kind of ending. Ooooh, I was hooked and had to get my hands on a copy. All I could round up from the library was the large print edition, but that's okay; I enjoyed every super-sized minute of it!

The setting of the book is creepy perfection, a prison/hospital for the criminally insane on a remote island off the coast of Massachusetts during the 1950s. The suspense is excruciating, even if the writing style is pure, pared down, detective novel prose. The intricate plot includes references to Nazi Germany, mental illness, and the nefarious history of psychiatric treatment, with a little bit of B-movie sex thrown in for good measure. The characters grew on me, and though I wouldn't necessarily have cast Leonardo DiCaprio as U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels, I'll reserve judgement until after I see the film.

And, given my newfound fascination with asylums, I added two more must-reads to my book list: The Bell Jar and Girl, Interrupted.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

LEXILE 950

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. Don't be fooled by the scrawling font or the 950 LEXILE rating, this is a quick read. In two nights—less than 4 hours total—I read two books in the series. These books are amusing, and they definitely capture the perspective of a middle-school-aged boy, albeit a quirky one. Gregory Heffley, our protagonist, isn't embarrassed to ride a girls' bike or to admit he requested a Barbie Dream House for Christmas one year or to have a super-quirky best friend named Rowley.

The writing and the cartoony drawings are witty; no wonder it has been made into a movie which is coming out next month. After reading two volumes of Wimpy Kid, I don't feel compelled to read another, but at least now I understand the appeal for so many fifth grade students. I learned a lot about this series searching for an image of the jacket cover for this blog post. For instance, I didn't know that the author originally published it in daily installments on Funbrain. Or that Jeff Kinney is the creator of Poptropica.

Shades of Simon Gray

LEXILE 900 young adult

When my eighth-grade son was assigned Shades of Simon Gray by Joyce McDonald, my 18-year-old daughter and I were intrigued, so we decided to read it too. She completed it in a day, and I almost gave up when I was halfway through. In a nutshell: interesting storyline wasted on uninspiring characters and humdrum writing. And, the plot has nothing to do with Dorian Gray. I wish it did.

My America / Dear America / My Name is America

In an attempt to jumpstart my job enthusiasm by investing myself in the curriculum, I decided to brush up on some Revolutionary War historical fiction during our winter break. I brought home three selections from our school library.

1. Five Smooth Stones: Hope's Revolutionary War Diary by Kristiana Gregory LEXILE 640


2. The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart by Kristiana Gregory LEXILE 870


3. The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot by Barry Denenberg LEXILE 950

Stones is the account of nine-year-old Hope living in Philadelphia spanning from January 15 to December 27, 1776. It is a is a quick, easy read with historical references to George Washington, General William Howe, King George, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Patriots, Tories, Quakers, the Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, Valley Forge, as well as colonial schools and chores. The five smooth stones refer to the Bible story of David and Goliath and serve as a metaphor for the uneven struggle between the intrepid Patriots and the powerful English army.

In Red Snow, "Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British." This book offers a more graphic description of the hardships suffered by the colonists and the soldiers and delves deeper into the character of General Washington and Mrs. Washington as well as the hearts and souls of the working class Patriots like Abigail's family and friends. As I told my own children, "Imagine the horror of marching through snow for miles with bloody feet as the ill-equipped continental soldiers did?" It's also difficult to imagine how the average person survived in colonial times without central heating and other comforts that we take for granted today.

Will's Journal highlights the conflict between the colonists and the British soldiers in pre-Revolutionary War Boston. I can't describe it better than this review from the School Library Journal:

This first-person account of a 12-year-old boy makes the world of Boston in 1774 come alive. William Thomas Emerson, an orphan, has found work with the kind proprietor of a tavern. In his journal, the boy describes the practical and moral difficulties that citizens of that city encountered on the eve of the Revolution. He writes of food shortages, patriots, traitors, and deserters, and describes daily life, public punishment, and medical treatments. Denenberg engages readers with a bit of intrigue, but it is the integrity and humanity of ordinary people that make this book inspirational. An epilogue summarizes the lives of the characters introduced and includes historical reproductions and a brief account of the actual events that followed the year covered in the journal. Quality historical fiction that should attract a wide audience.
Ann M. Burlingame, North Regional Library, Raleigh, NC
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