Tim Fredrick's ELA Teaching Blog

YA Lit Review: 'Born Confused' by Tanuja Desai Hidier

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier

available here at bn.com

I don't think it is often that a YA Lit book is written so well - so well, in fact, that I think it could be easily mistaken for contemporary adult literature.  The writing is phenomenal and the story is told brilliantly.  If you love Amy Tan, then you are going to love this book.  Tan's stories have genuine voice and focus on her family.  Hidier's book has a genuine voice, but focuses more on the 17 year old main character's friendship and romantic life.

The main character, Dimple, narrates the story in a truly authentic voice, making up words and phrases like most teenagers.  Dimple is a U.S. born girl of Indian immigrants and, as such, is caught between two worlds.  She feels neither completely Indian nor completely American.  The book tells the story of her trying to find her identity and carve a place for herself in the world.  It is  a story that will be very relevant to first generation Americans of any descent, but also to all teenagers.  Dimple's struggle to figure out who she is the story of every teenager, not just sons and daughters of immigrants.

The main plot revolves around Dimple's parents setting her up with the son of an old friend.  She is to be a suitable girl for a suitable boy.  Dimple, upon hearing this plan, immediately dismisses the meeting.  She agrees to attend but is hell bent on not liking the guy, Karsh.  They meet and it is a disaster.  She tells her best (and beautiful) friend Gwen that the meeting was "like Titanic but without the romance".  Later at a club frequented by Indians, Dimple runs into Karsh and after spending some time with him begins to feel differently.  She beautifully describes the feelings you have when you are almost touching someone you like.  Her friend Gwen interrupts the re-meeting and (unaware of Dimple's changing feelings) blabs to Karsh about how horrible Dimple said the meeting was.  (This scene is one of the most hilarious scenes I've ever read - with Dimple desperately trying to get Gwen to shut up while Gwen unabashedly tells Karsh everything Dimple said about him.)  Afterward Gwen tells Dimple how much she liked Karsh and was planning on courting him -- and, of course, Dimple the best friend was going to have to help her get Karsh.  What ensues could destroy Gwen and Dimple's relationship and make Dimple lose any chance with the completely suitable Karsh.

There are several sub-plots, each contributing to the theme of the book.  Dimple goes through a transformation and at the end of the book sees herself and the world through a different light.  The theme will speak to most teenagers and the book has some valuable lessons to help a teenager through the dark times of adolescence.

This book is not for everyone, though.  The language becomes quite sophisticated in parts and Dimple's voice is extremely unique (and her sentences quite complex).  The fact that she makes up words or reinvents them can make the reading difficult.  She also uses a lot of references in her narration that a struggling (or even average) reader may not understand.  The length of the book - at 500 pages - could be overwhelming as well.  But, this is a perfect book for the confident reader who is very close to making the transition into adult literature.

YA Lit Review: 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfield

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

available here at bn.com

Did you ever wish you could be one of them?  You know, the pretty ones.  They walk down the street with the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect body, the perfect eyes ... Well, imagine a world where, when you turned sixteen, you could be one of them.  In Scott Westerfield's world, when you turn sixteen, you get an operation that makes you gorgeous - a Pretty.  Before then, you are an Ugly.  In fact, you are so ugly, you have an ugly nickname and have to live in a dorm with all the other Uglies.  The nice thing is that everyone is considered Ugly before they are sixteen.

Tally, the main character of the book, is just weeks away from her sixteenth birthday and she wants nothing more than to join her friend Peris in New Pretty Town where all the recently-made Pretties party nonstop.  (Uglyville is high school, New Pretty Town is that 'totally awesome' party school you can't wait to get into.)  Before then, though, she meets Shay who has the same birthday and who isn't quite as keen on being Pretty as Tally is; Shay is quite happy with they way she looks.  With just days away from their birthday, Shay decides to run away to The Smoke, where Uglies go to live a different life.  Tally turns down Shay's offer to come along.  On the day of her operation, Tally is taken to the Special Circumstances office and is told that unless she finds Shay and The Smoke, she won't be getting her operation.  Desperate to join in the fun, Tally makes the difficult decision to be a spy.  She finds The Smoke and a deep dark secret about her own world of Uglies and Pretties. 

After a slow start, I found myself unable to put this book down.  I finished the last 250 pages in one day.  The world Westerfield has created and the issues it brings up about our own society is intriguing.  The characters are rather complex for a piece of YA literature.  This is especially true for Tally who wipes the innocence from her eyes to find out what the world is really like.  Her story mirrors the process of becoming an enlightened adult (making an interesting connection to the Myth of the Cave).  It would be a lot easier to remain in the dark and party all the time, but once she has found out the truth she realizes that there is no going back.  Teenagers will get a lot out of this book.

This book, though, is not for the faint of heart.  It is a brick at 400 pages.  Most teenagers, except for those avid readers, may be put off by its size.  Those who delve into the book may have trouble with some advance vocabulary and the world Westerfield has created.  Those students who have trouble visualizing and comprehending realistic settings may find themselves struggling in a world that requires the reader to imagine, visualize, and go on faith.  I could see that some teenagers will fight through this struggle, especially upon hearing good reports from their classmates.

The book is like no other YA Lit book I've read and I think this will attract many readers.  It deals with real issues in the world (providing for possibly rich discussion), but at the same time deals with real teenage issues in the teenage world.  Because of its focus on beauty, I could see it as a nice lead-in novel to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.  What's even better is that it is the first part of a trilogy and the ending begs you to read the next part.  And, I will be doing that as soon as I can!

YA Lit Review: 'Cut' by Patricia McCormick

Cut by Patricia McCormick

available here at bn.com

This book tells the story of several girls in a residential treatment home called Sea Pines (nicknamed Sick Minds by the girls).  Some are anorexic, others overweight.  Some are drug addicts and other are cutters.  The main character, Callie, is in the last group.  Callie narrates the story as if she was talking with her counsellor. 

In the beginning of the tale, Callie is not speaking to anyone, least of all her counselor.  (This is quite reminiscent of the character in Speak.)  As the story progresses, Callie tells us a little bit about her life.  All is not well at home - her little brother has bad asthma, the mother is afraid of everything (perhaps related to her sons' sickness), and the father is distant.  We find out about how it feels to Callie to cut herself and the release it provides.  The turning point comes when Callie begins to open up more to those around her, starting with the therapist, which makes her realize that she is not alone and that everyone - even those who aren't at Sick Minds - have issues they need to deal with.  The moral of the story is that it is better to deal with and discuss your problems and face them head on, then avoid them.

The book itself is okay.  It is short, but it was not a page turner for me.  I think that perhaps teenage girls might feel differently as the girls in the story represent a wide group of teenage problems.  The reading level is do-able for most students, although underachieving readers might be a bit confused by Callie's use of second person, addressing the therapist as "you".  Teenage boys might have difficulty finding something to connect with in this story, even though the moral of this story would be relevant for them as well.  The only male characters are the brother and the father, and they play a minimal role.

YA Lit Review: 'Peter' by Kate Walker

Peter by Kate Walker

available here at bn.com

Peter Dawson is a 15-year-old Australian boy who lives with his mother and older brother and who is an avid motorbike rider.  After hanging out with his brother's friend David, who is gay, Peter begins to question his own sexuality.  His experience with girls is minimal and he feels himself magically drawn to the 20-year-old David.  The book tells the story of Peter's struggle to identify himself in a community that likes its men to be men.

I heard about this book several years ago, but never picked it up until now.  I'm on a crusade to read as much YA literature as I can this summer.  When I saw this book on the shelf, I picked it up right away and it was difficult to put down.  Walker manages to accurately portray the struggles of a teenage boy dealing with his sexuality without demeaning the topic by resorting to stereotypes.  Many parts of the book are very tender, and at the same time, there are many parts which are quite humorous.  In one case, Peter's sex-obsessed friend Tony tries to hook Peter up:

   "I put in a good word for ya, OK?  I told her you fancied her."
   "Bloody hell! What'd you do that for?"
   "To get a bit of action going for ya!  You won't do anything for yourself.  She likes ya!  She lies it when you wear shorts to school.  She pervs on your legs! She told me so!"
   If I'd been wearing shorts at that moment, I'd have changed out of them.
   "You should have kept your mouth shut!"
   "It worked!  She's all spiffed up.  She's wearing a dress."
   "What's that got to do with it?"
   "Everything!  It means she's itchin'!  It means all you gotta do is go down there, crack a few funnies, hand her a few lines, give her a quick feel-up, and she's yours."
   "Tony, this is your sister we're talking about."

The reading level of this book is definitely manageable for most readers.  The only aspect that might trip up underachieving students the most is that there are several Australian idioms and slang.  While the main character of this book is dealing with being gay, this book really explores how teenagers deal with sex.  The wisest advice that is given to Peter (both by his accepting brother and an anonymous counselor on a helpline) is that he shouldn't let what everyone else is doing and talking about affect what he does.  Peter goes on an exploration of himself and being true to who he is and what he wants to do.  For this reason, I think all teenagers - male, female, gay, straight - will find something beneficial from this book.

Conducting writing conferences

How's It Going: A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers
by Carl Anderson

available at Heinemann




Because I'm looking into helping students become more reflective learners, I've begun requiring my students to come to me for a writing conference for every formal writing assignment.  I have written about this topic before and got some great advice - the best of which was to get students to talk more.

That is easier said than done.

So, I looked towards professional readings and found this great book by Carl Anderson.  I read the first two chapters one night earlier this week.  The next day I held a few conferences and the results were amazing.  Anderson looks at conferences more like conversations.  He also suggests that our focus be on making students better writers, rather than just improving the piece of writing in front of us during the conference.  (A theme I heard repeated at this year's NCTE conference in Pittsburgh.)

He also suggests picking up on students' lines of thought about their writing.  This prompted me to begin asking the question "Is there anything here you would like my help with?" as one of the first questions I ask.  There were many students - more than I expected, to be frank - who did want help with something.  I never would have gotten this out of them if I hadn't asked the question.

Trying to help students with every single mistake they make is also bad news in Anderson's point of view - and I agree completely.  We really need to be focussed with students on what they need to work on.  Having them work on everything that's wrong is too overwhelming.  Anderson says that it is up to us, as professionals, to decide what our students can work on next.  Many times, we should help them with their own line of thought, but he does say that there are times when we need to re-direct students.

What I like most about this book is that writing conferences in Anderson's eyes still belong to the student writer.  It is about what the student writer is doing and how the student writer can get better.  I think many teachers and tutors approach conferences thinking that they have to correct everything about a piece and then they make suggestions about what they would do to the piece, instead of helping students have ownership of them.  When we do this, students do not write the papers - we do.

I've turned into a big fan of writing conferences for the first drafts of writing.  They tend to take not that much more time than commenting (if you include all the procrastinating and "breaks", they actual take less time than written comments) and they are much more productive.  I always felt that students never read my comments - mostly because I never saw my "suggestions" materialize in the next draft.  But I see my students taking what we talk about in the conferences and incorporating them into the next drafts.  The pieces I've gotten so far this year are heads above the past years' - and I attribute it all to the power of conferences.

Exploring the power of grammar

The Power of Grammar
by Mary Ehrenworth and Vicki Vinton

available at Heinemann

ELA teachers - especially those in the secondary schools - struggle with how to teach grammar in a meaningful, efficient, and effective way.  No one says that an understanding of convential grammar is unimportant or that students don't need to be able use it.   It is important and in order for students to be able to be successful in life, they need to show proficiency in it.  They will be judged by the language they use.

At the same time though, it is important for us to recognize that many of our students have cultural backgrounds which use grammars that are different than what is conventially used in middle and upper class white America.  As teachers, we don't want to devalue the language our students use because that is the equivalent of devaluing our students as people.

So, what to do?  How do we balance the recognition that students need to be able to use the convential grammar, while recognizing that their familiar grammar is just as valuable and important?

Ehrenworth and Vinton argue in this book that we must take the emphasis off being "correct" and put the emphasis on using grammar powerfully.  When I talk to my students about this issue, I point out to them that it is important that they recognize who their audience is and that they use the appropriate language for their audience.  They wouldn't necessarily use the "academic" language if they were hanging out with their friends because their friends might think that they were trying to be someone they weren't.  In contrast, they wouldn't use their "familiar" language on a job interview, because the employer they are interviewing with might make negative judgements about them (even if those judgements are biased and incorrect). 

The authors emphasize using grammar to correspond with the message and purpose of the communication.  They say:

These are our goals for teaching grammar: to teach knowledge of convential usage in order to increase power, opportunity, and voice; to teach habits of fluency, inquiry, and experimentation; and to engage students in such a way that this knowledge and these habits are sustaining and flexible. (15) [Emphasis is mine.]

They do not say that the conventional rules are not appropriate or important  - what I think they are saying is that there are different ways to use grammar for different effects and we should be teaching them all to our students.

One such an example is the effective use of sentence fragments.  The authors suggest giving students model texts that effectively use sentence fragments and then discussing with students what effect those fragments have on the reader (for instance, a fragment could emphasize an image the author wants to create).  By looking at effective uses of fragments, students are in turn looking at how not to use them either.  So, the issue does not become "Never use fragments!" because professional authors use them all the time.  Instead, the issue is "You have a fragment here - what was your reason behind using it?"  If a student does not have a specific purpose for using it - one that corresponds to the meaning she is trying to create - than it is not an effective use.

What I like most about this book is that it takes the emphasis off being "correct".  Many of my students have spent numerous years being "wrong" and it has had a negative impact on their self-image.  A student's self-image is crucial in learning - which requires being wrong and taking a risk.  If a student does not see herself as successful, she will not be willing to put herself out there in such a way that is necessary for true learning and growth. 

My students' writing often seems so immature simply because they don't take those risks.  They are stuck in the 5th grade (I teach 9th grade) because they are so afraid of being wrong.  We need to encourage them to be "correctly incorrect." My students were writing poetry the other day and one of my students had the line "Right now, I'm a gurl, but one day I will be a wife."  She asked me if it was okay if she spelled girl that way.  Implicit in her question was that she knew how it should be spelled and she had a purpose for spelling it in a way that utilizes her youth and culture.  We talked about why she was using it and I said that it is okay to use it that way for that purpose.  I then wanted to push her and asked if there was anything else she could change in the line that would do the same thing.  She looked at the line and added a -y to "wife".  The line now read, "Right now, I'm a gurl, but one day I will be a wifey."  This line speaks a lot about the writer and who she is.

Good writers use language - not the other way around.  If we want our students to become good writers, we need to make sure they are in charge of it.  They have know when to use different aspects of language and how.  The Power of Grammar is an excellent primer on how teachers can do that.

If this doesn't make you angry ...

Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifies and Small Salaries of America's Teachers
by Daniel Moulthrop, Ninive Clements Calegare, and Dave Eggers

available at Barnes and Noble

We all know that teachers don't get paid enough.  And, arguably, so does everyone else. But we still receive salaries that are abysmal.

The authors explore some of the reasons behind why teachers don't get paid more.  A lot of it is linked with the sexism of teaching being a largely female profession and the view of teaching being a purely alturistic career choice.

This book offers a lot of the standard arguments about why teachers need to be paid more, and a lot more.  My favorite part of the book is the minute-by-minute accounting and comparison of a teacher's day versus a pharmaceutical sales rep's day.  It is no surprise to those of us who are teachers that the teacher got started much earlier and was working much later (despite the fact that his "official" day was over earlier) than the sales rep.  What is really remarkable is how much is packed into the teacher's day versus the sales rep's.  Even if the sales rep worked the same number of hours, he still wouldn't have done as much actual work as the teacher.

The book also profiles some successful - actually implemented, not theoretical - alternatives to the standard teacher salary.  I agree that we need to restructure and rethink how we pay teachers (and how we structure schools and the school day, in general).  It calls for some radical thinking and brave people to step forward to revamp and improve the current system of pay.  Teachers will have to swallow a lot of concessions in order to receive more pay. 

I agree that it is fundamentally unfair to link teacher pay with student test scores.  But, why is it so unacceptable to teachers and our unions to link salary with performance.  Yes, the principal or some other administrator would be responsible for deciding the salary of teachers.  Teachers reject this because of the possibility unfair and biased administrators not increasingly salaries with actual performance.  But, in the business, non-profit, and every other sector, that's how it's done.  If you don't like your boss, then leave.  If you feel your principal is treating you unfairly or not compensating you fairly, you are free to go.  We (this includes policymakers, administrators, and teachers) must let go of the old ways if we are ever going to be treated like the true professionals we are.

The book should be read by everyone who pays taxes, but sadly I fear that only teachers and other educators will read it.  Its message will be heard by those only in the choir and not those who don't come to church.