The following from La Bloga, via Jacket Copy, was penned by a teacher who uses Baca’s memoir to connect with continuation high school students who are reading at a second to fifth grade level. (I like Baca’s poetry a lot, butI’ve yet to read his memoir, A Place to Stand, or the new novel, A Glass of Water, though it’s on order from the library).
I have to say that in class I read the entire book out loud, but it is a guided reading. The students read along with me, and we build up our stamina so that we can concentrate on the story for up to 30 minutes a class period. My students may not have experienced that childhood luxury of being read to. In fact, one of them remarked to me, “You know what, Miss? I’m gonna get my diploma and then open an after-school homework center and hire you to read out loud!” I replied that I would dig it and that I might be in the market for some part-time work one of these days. But it is the potency of the narrative that hooks them. How many times have they told me that they have never read a whole book until this one? It’s so important to me that they read, that they feel invited to that table of readers and not hang back in the shadows of the excluded. (And it doesn’t hurt that A PLACE TO STAND is highly cinematic in spots.)
I have to say that in class I read the entire book out loud, but it is a guided reading. The students read along with me, and we build up our stamina so that we can concentrate on the story for up to 30 minutes a class period. My students may not have experienced that childhood luxury of being read to. In fact, one of them remarked to me, “You know what, Miss? I’m gonna get my diploma and then open an after-school homework center and hire you to read out loud!” I replied that I would dig it and that I might be in the market for some part-time work one of these days. But it is the potency of the narrative that hooks them. How many times have they told me that they have never read a whole book until this one? It’s so important to me that they read, that they feel invited to that table of readers and not hang back in the shadows of the excluded. (And it doesn’t hurt that A PLACE TO STAND is highly cinematic in spots.)
