Meeting the Author

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the third Young Adult Authors Series of this year, where the featured author was Kwame Alexander, whose latest novel The Crossover was the recipient of the 2015 Newberry Award.

I enjoy such workshops and conferences for several reasons...may we chat about two?

1. This time allows me to spend time with like-minded educators who affirm who I was...and still am inside...and will one day be.  May I explain?  I have always been a proponent of change.  For those who might live in Arkansas, remember COE?  Then ACSIP?  Our school was a field test school for that change.  We volunteered for it...as we did for many such tasks during my first 14 years of teaching.  Back to the conferences I attend...here I chat and am always reminded of who I really am.  I leave affirmed, a very good thing for me.
2. I always learn.  I enjoy learning!  But.  I had experienced a "pit" in my career the day before this conference; while there, thought, it clicked why the pit had become so deep.  May I explain?

The Day Before the Author Event

On a Thursday, a twelfth-grade student walked in first hour and said, "Mrs. Gillmore, I cannot believe that YOU assigned this book."    Please add a bit of incredibility to his tone.  Maybe a touch of dismay.  I just cannot go as far to say disgust.  Yet.  Why the disbelief?  Because of what he knew I considered inappropriate material.

The Day After the Author Event

On Monday morning, this same student walked in and first words out of his mouth were, "Mrs. Gillmore, this novel is awful."  Please picture this intelligent, reserved young man.  Not a trouble-maker.  Not one trying to get out of completing his classwork, for he had read ahead, had finished the novel.  "It does not have a good end at all."

The Pit

Maybe you have experienced such a moment?  I would be so curious to hear how you handle assigning works of literature that result in students questioning what you stand for.  This...well, this was a first for me.  Not sure that I have even begun to recover.  A true low point for me.

Please don't get me wrong...I have had many students moan and groan about texts I have presented and assigned, everything from poetry to the classics, from modern to the ancient, creating in me a desire to find the hook to "catch" them reading.

Why?

I have been told to "get on board" with this curriculum.  A directive.  

The Author

Kwame Alexander writes to give his readers hope.  I sat and listened (for at that point, I had not read his book) and absorbed the excitement in the room of teachers for their students who have inhaled his books.  I began to see students' faces.  I began to dream of one day those students having this same excitement, this same hope.

When asked why more such books are not being published, the Author replied, "They are being written.  They just aren't being published."

It clicked.  Oh.  The book my classes are currently reading and have read, they have little to any hope.  

I remembered...much earlier in the year a teacher-peer making this same reflection.

The Author also noted that he's often asked, "Are your main characters black or white?"

His reply to these teachers, "If they ask, I will tell you."

The kids never ask.  Just the teachers ask.  Please pause and ponder why one groups asks and the other does not.

Hope

There is always hope.  Always.  These kids of mine want books that resolve with the message of hope.

Yes, I hear the counterclaims here:  Life is hard.  Life doesn't always come out like we want it to. BUT there is A.L.W.A.Y.S. hope.

That student from earlier?  "This book reminds me of my dad.  The ending is awful."  As I listened to him talk, I wanted to be able to say...well, I wanted to say a lot.  In climbing aboard, though, I have been cornered.

I "hope" as you read this you are thinking, "I would take a stand."  

I have.  Earlier this year.  Before school ever started.  I still am standing.  Just in a still way, as I have been given another directive from a Higher Power.

I do have hope.  As this train continues to chug, hope still clings.  And to switch metaphors, I am mining a few nuggets from this book.  From these, we analyze and develop our writing skills.

Reason #3 for Enjoying Such Conferences:

• In our building each teacher has a mentor group...my children...me=mom...all my sons and daughters, one of whom does not like to read and is too proud of not reading...ever.  This has been a bone of contention between him and myself as Silent Sustained Reading is a requirement of this established time with our groups of students.  On Monday, I began a read-aloud of The Crossover, displaying the book on the screen, allowing them to read-along.   I noted his interest.
  
  He's a basketball player, a good one.
  
  The main character is a basketball player, a good one.
  
  As I ended the last line, he said, "I got to read that book."
  
  He left with a copy of that book.  Yes!  Success!  Boo yah!
• The Next Day:  I heard him telling more of my "sons," "My dad said, 'What are you doing?  You don't ever read.'"  Yes!  Success!
• Here, in this conference, on my time, having spent my own money, I hooked a student on reading.  Now, I will purchase this author's new about-to-be-released novel...and any others I can find...for this "son" of mine. 
• Did I mention this book is written in poetic form?

This is why I am an educator of literacy, for hope does abound.