Teach With Your Heart

Simply put: this book is awesome. I feel like it goes without saying - or it should, anyway - that I'm a huge fan of the movie Freedom Writers, and am also therefore a huge fan of the book, The Freedom Writers' Diary - which I should probably add on here... - but I hadn't gotten a chance to read this one, Erin's memoirs, until this fall. That's partially because I didn't even know that it existed until this summer. But I bought it and started reading it at the beginning of fall, when I also started my student teaching semester, and it was a great choice. In those first couple of weeks before I took over the classroom and it was a little bit more laidback, I ate this book up. It's so good and so inspiring and so...interesting. I loved reading about everything she did and every struggle she had - and finding that I was having many of the same - and every extra effort she went through to go above and beyond for her students in order to help them learn. I think this is where I would like to soapbox a little bit and say that it's been extremely frustrating to be around some teachers who grumble and complain and talk about their students in ways that no parent or administrator should ever overhear, and this book is a refreshing change of pace, showing that caring about your students is possible. And maintaining that spirit even if you happen to get a job where you're surrounded by people who don't share your spunk is possible. And working a little bit - or a lot - more than the typical teacher so that your struggling students who have nothing going for them is worth it. Because, let's be serious, there are a whole lot of teachers who don't even put the minimum amount of effort or heart into it. So yes, this book is awesome. And yes, I highly recommend it. And yes, I believe that the things that she accomplishes in her career are possible if you actually try to make it happen. It's amazing how much students respond to you when they know you genuinely care about them.

The Outsiders

After hearing about this book for what felt like my whole life, I finally got to read it this summer. (I know...I've gotten a little behind in posting these.) Despite the fact that the dialog is, honestly, a little dated, this book is pretty great and I really enjoyed it. This book explores the cliques and gangs that exist amongst high school kids, and in this plot - and, often, in real life as well - it's the haves versus the have-nots. The story is told from the point of view of Ponyboy Curtis, a young member of the Greasers who is being raised by his two older brothers and under the leadership and example of several rowdy boys who are less than perfect. When disaster strikes, though, the gang bonds together and fights for each other against some incredibly overwhelming odds. This book would be a great instrument for teaching friendship, loyalty, and character development. It's also excellent for appealing to middle school students who may come from adverse backgrounds and be exposed to gangs. Gangs are an integral and primary part of the plot of The Outsiders, but Hinton writes it in such a way that it's not extremely controversial or inappropriate for young students. There is some mild language and there is a murder in the beginning of the book, but if you are concerned about exposing your students to the controversies of Gangsterz or other books similar, then this would be a great second option. I actually had the priviledge of observing a 7th grade English classroom today that is currently reading this book, and the kids were thoroughly engaged and interested in this book. And these were students that I have had the priviledge of teaching before, and who are extremely difficult to engage; they also unfortunately all have lives somewhat similar to the characters in this book, which made it easily and instantly relateable. I highly recommend this book (and the movie, which is basically the word for word script of the book...and which has some extremely amusing footage of teenage Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, etc.)

Boy

Boy, Roald Dahl's autobiography focusing on his childhood, is a humorous story that describes many isolated events and stories from his memories that are eerily similar to the stories that have become the plots of his novels. People who are huge fans of Dahl's work - like me - will enjoy this book and find the ways his life inspired so many of his plots amusing...but I honestly wasn't as swept away by this one as I was anticipating. My expectations may have been too high because of my love for his other books, but I just didn't find it to be at the same level as his novels. I did, though, still enjoy this one, and think it would be an excellent choice for a middle school student, especially if you are assigning or teaching a unit on autobiographies or nonfiction. Regardless of my slight disappointment, this is still a good book and would be interesting and engaging for middle school students, especially rambunctious and adventurous boys.

The Lovely Bones

I'm a little delayed in posting this, but I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold over the summer, and was pretty disappointed. This was one of those books that I'd heard about for years and always been intrigued by, and finally had the opportunity to actually read. It was a very interesting plot and it definitely kept me interested, but there was too much content that I found inappopriate and unnecessary for middle school students. The plot of the novel is by nature fairly advanced and inappropriate for young students, but I thought this Sebold took the content to places that were unneccessary (quite a bit of teenage sex, pedophilic fantasies, strange depictions of life after death, etc.). It's an interesting book, but I would definitely not recommend it for middle school students.