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"You are about to read an unusual book. It is rare that a study spans five years, examining an urban teacher and her students in such depth that you can trace ways in which they interact, react, and change over so much time; and it is rarer yet that it is so well written. . . . All teachers who have tried something new will see their students and themselves in Meg and her students. I did."
—From the Foreword
In 1989, Susan Hynds entered Meg Andrews’ urban middle school classroom for what she thought would be a one year study. When she completed her study in 1995, she was no longer able to look at the reading and teaching of literature, the world of the young adolescent, or even her own role as a classroom researcher in quite the same way. Her story holds many lessons for educators who wonder why constructivist practices have not always made it into classrooms. Here, teachers will recognize the struggles of their own adolescent students. And many will also recognize the bumpy road of real-life attempts to emulate the learner-centered classrooms that seem to unfold so smoothly in textbooks and journals.
These pages are rich with:
• Descriptive material about the social and cultural forces that influence adolescents’ literacy development – for instance, taking a hard look at the race and gender issues that lie just beneath the surface of classroom dynamics.
• Explorations of difficult pedagogical questions — most importantly, how to infuse reading within the school walls with the passion many students privately bring to their own writing (to make literature "connect to the inside").
The author makes an argument for a more activist, critical constructivist approach, without minimizing the difficulties faced by teachers of literature as they attempt to negotiate the complicated social, cultural, and political arenas of their own classrooms.
