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Diego Medina Hunter College

SPED 771 11/22/2017

Prompt: Write an Annotated Bibliography

Stork, Francisco X. Marcelo in the Real World. Scholastic Paperbacks, 2011.

This novel follows Marcelo Sandoval, a teenager with Asperger Syndrome, a developmental disorder in the high functioning end of the spectrum. Arturo Sandoval, Marcelo’s father, is a wealthy lawyer that has had the ability to pay for an expensive school for students with disabilities. However, he wants, actually commands, Marcelo to work in his law firm during the summer. He wants Marcelo to interact with people in the “real world”. He wants Marcelo to learn how to be “normal”. Marcelo agrees to this only because he will be given the chance to choose whether to return to his school for senior year or be forced to go to a public school at the end of the summer. While in the law firm, he is able to adjust slowly but requires many accommodations and to quickly learn how to navigate social interactions. Much of this help has come from his beautiful co-worker in the mailroom, Jasmine. Still, Marcelo has trouble identifying people’s motives and realizes that reality is not easy. He is unsure what the “right” thing to do is when he finds out that working for a law firm means defending less than desirable causes.

Marcelo in the Real World is a fantastic book in the way that it explores the brain of a teenager with Asperger’s. It allows the reader a better understanding of how an individual thinks, sees the world, receives and processes information when dealing with AS. What is more important it shows how individuals with disabilities deal with complex issues of identity, education, labor, and relationships. The Lexile Measure of the book is HL700L.

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VTR Routines

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Diego Medina								Hunter CollegeSPED 771									9/22/2017Informal Textual Response #3Write a book review:Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier	A Long Way Gone is the harrowing memoir of a child soldier during Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991-2002). The author, Ishmael Beah, retells his story of displacement, escape from violence, ‘forced’ recruitment, rehabilitation, re-encounter with the war, and finally of escape from the country. Beah’s narrative presents a contradiction: his writing style is quite basic, as that of a non-native english speaker, yet the stories are captivating and makes it hard to put the book down. Each of the 21 chapters makes the reader question the comfortability of being able to read this during leisure time.Beah carefully details his long, painful walk for days away from the violence. The conflict, however, was faster than his steps. After much running away, he was recruited by the army with the ephemeral promise of revenge. The trauma of war hit Beah as soon as he killed the first rebel. He was no longer a child, but a ruthless soldier; as a ruthless soldier he became addicted to drugs and to violence; as a ruthless soldier he became senseless.“None of this is your fault”. This would be the to-go phrase by all the staff in the rehabilitation center where Beah was placed. The UNICEF took Beah away from the war. Beah, as many other child soldiers in the center, brought the war with him. The rehabilitation process in Sierra Leone’s capital was difficult. Children went through a very violent and traumatic withdrawal process. Imagine being less than 15 years-old and experiencing PTSD. I sure can’t. As the fog of war cleared in Beah’s mind, the NGO in charge of rehabilitation found a family member who became his benevolent guardian. His recuperation was a very important story of hope. So important that he was a speaker at the UN Headquarters in NY. Even though his uncle never believed that he went. Yet, as history would have it, the war reached the capital and Beah realized that he could not stay there. If he did not escape, he reasoned, if the rebels did not kill him, his previous army peers would for not being in the fight with them.Beah’s prose is elemental but his story is anything but. This is a must read for those who still do not understand why refugees risk it all to escape conflict.ReferencesBeah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier. Penguin, 2013.

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Diego Medina								Hunter CollegeSPED 771									9/22/2017Informal Textual Response #3Write a book review:Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier	A Long Way Gone is the harrowing memoir of a child soldier during Sierra Leone’s civil war (1991-2002). The author, Ishmael Beah, retells his story of displacement, escape from violence, ‘forced’ recruitment, rehabilitation, re-encounter with the war, and finally of escape from the country. Beah’s narrative presents a contradiction: his writing style is quite basic, as that of a non-native english speaker, yet the stories are captivating and makes it hard to put the book down. Each of the 21 chapters makes the reader question the comfortability of being able to read this during leisure time.Beah carefully details his long, painful walk for days away from the violence. The conflict, however, was faster than his steps. After much running away, he was recruited by the army with the ephemeral promise of revenge. The trauma of war hit Beah as soon as he killed the first rebel. He was no longer a child, but a ruthless soldier; as a ruthless soldier he became addicted to drugs and to violence; as a ruthless soldier he became senseless.“None of this is your fault”. This would be the to-go phrase by all the staff in the rehabilitation center where Beah was placed. The UNICEF took Beah away from the war. Beah, as many other child soldiers in the center, brought the war with him. The rehabilitation process in Sierra Leone’s capital was difficult. Children went through a very violent and traumatic withdrawal process. Imagine being less than 15 years-old and experiencing PTSD. I sure can’t. As the fog of war cleared in Beah’s mind, the NGO in charge of rehabilitation found a family member who became his benevolent guardian. His recuperation was a very important story of hope. So important that he was a speaker at the UN Headquarters in NY. Even though his uncle never believed that he went. Yet, as history would have it, the war reached the capital and Beah realized that he could not stay there. If he did not escape, he reasoned, if the rebels did not kill him, his previous army peers would for not being in the fight with them.Beah’s prose is elemental but his story is anything but. This is a must read for those who still do not understand why refugees risk it all to escape conflict.ReferencesBeah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier. Penguin, 2013.

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Diego Medina								Hunter CollegeSPED 771									9/19/2017Informal Textual Response - PositionalityDavid Takacs paper asks a very important question: “How does who you are shape what you know about the world?” (p. 27). This paper deals about the ways in which identity affects the construction of our understanding of the world. Specifically, it tackles the issue that people in positions of power often are not aware of their privilege. The privilege referred to can be derived from race, gender, socio-economic status. But also, privilege may come from other power relations, such as the one of student-teacher. The two main take-aways provided in the paper are that it is necessary to understand the subjectivity of knowledge. This is a soft, nuanced subjectivity, and not necessarily one that leads to solipsism. Second, Takacs’s solution is a simple, albeit, a strong one. He states that “[i]t’s only by keeping an attitude of mindfulness, a willingness to be vulnerable, and a constantly engaged critical consciousness that I can move and change” (p. 37). In this sense, it is important that as teachers of a new generation we can contest our privileges. Moreover, we should instill this type of critical thinking on our students.ReferencesTakacs, David. How Does Your Positionality Bias Your Epistemology?, Thought & Action Thought & Action 27 (2003).

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Diego Medina								Hunter CollegeSPED 771									9/19/2017Informal Textual Response - PositionalityDavid Takacs paper asks a very important question: “How does who you are shape what you know about the world?” (p. 27). This paper deals about the ways in which identity affects the construction of our understanding of the world. Specifically, it tackles the issue that people in positions of power often are not aware of their privilege. The privilege referred to can be derived from race, gender, socio-economic status. But also, privilege may come from other power relations, such as the one of student-teacher. The two main take-aways provided in the paper are that it is necessary to understand the subjectivity of knowledge. This is a soft, nuanced subjectivity, and not necessarily one that leads to solipsism. Second, Takacs’s solution is a simple, albeit, a strong one. He states that “[i]t’s only by keeping an attitude of mindfulness, a willingness to be vulnerable, and a constantly engaged critical consciousness that I can move and change” (p. 37). In this sense, it is important that as teachers of a new generation we can contest our privileges. Moreover, we should instill this type of critical thinking on our students.ReferencesTakacs, David. How Does Your Positionality Bias Your Epistemology?, Thought & Action Thought & Action 27 (2003).

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Diego Medina								Hunter CollegeSPED 771									9/17/2017Informal Textual Response #2Discuss how you would use this text in your own classroomA Marxist-lens response to Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones	Ward’s book is a great tool to approach literature and class issues in an urban setting. The descriptive parts complement beautifully the character’s dialogue.  Even though the story takes place in a rural setting, many of the themes and characters could easily be encountered in an urban setting (maybe surviving a hurricane is not one we can experience in New York). It is, at its essence, a story of a family’s survival. There are many subjects that can be explored in a high-school classroom: extreme poverty, violent conflict, sexual abuse, abusive parents, and puppies.	It is a real, gritty, story that can elicit thoughtfulness in students about marginalization. There are many activities and questioning lines that can be used to elicit students’ thinking about class and the big questions about society.	One major question will be to ask if students are able to empathize with these characters. Have they experienced/heard of people close to this type of marginalization. The different characters would allow for different entry points: the struggle to be able to pay for basketball camp, the struggle to deal with the loss of a parent, the struggle to deal with teen pregnancy, the struggle to deal with a less-than-desirable father figure, the struggle to make ends meet, etc. Depending on the chapter, character, or storyline, the lesson can then ask, why is this family in this situation. This prompt will allow to explore issues of class by asking students to investigate how could they solve these issues on their own and whether they think that other people (of different classes) are in the same situation. Do they know what systems are there to help the marginalized? Do they know what systems are there to keep this people marginalized? In short, I believe that Esch’s family story provides a powerful and engaging teachable tool to use in the urban classroom settingReferencesWard, Jesmyn. Salvage the Bones. Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2014.

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Diego Medina								Hunter CollegeSPED 771									9/17/2017Informal Textual Response #2Discuss how you would use this text in your own classroomA Marxist-lens response to Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones	Ward’s book is a great tool to approach literature and class issues in an urban setting. The descriptive parts complement beautifully the character’s dialogue.  Even though the story takes place in a rural setting, many of the themes and characters could easily be encountered in an urban setting (maybe surviving a hurricane is not one we can experience in New York). It is, at its essence, a story of a family’s survival. There are many subjects that can be explored in a high-school classroom: extreme poverty, violent conflict, sexual abuse, abusive parents, and puppies.	It is a real, gritty, story that can elicit thoughtfulness in students about marginalization. There are many activities and questioning lines that can be used to elicit students’ thinking about class and the big questions about society.	One major question will be to ask if students are able to empathize with these characters. Have they experienced/heard of people close to this type of marginalization. The different characters would allow for different entry points: the struggle to be able to pay for basketball camp, the struggle to deal with the loss of a parent, the struggle to deal with teen pregnancy, the struggle to deal with a less-than-desirable father figure, the struggle to make ends meet, etc. Depending on the chapter, character, or storyline, the lesson can then ask, why is this family in this situation. This prompt will allow to explore issues of class by asking students to investigate how could they solve these issues on their own and whether they think that other people (of different classes) are in the same situation. Do they know what systems are there to help the marginalized? Do they know what systems are there to keep this people marginalized? In short, I believe that Esch’s family story provides a powerful and engaging teachable tool to use in the urban classroom settingReferencesWard, Jesmyn. Salvage the Bones. Bloomsbury Paperbacks, 2014.

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Response to Speak by Laurie Halsen Anderson

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Response to Speak by Laurie Halsen Anderson

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Diego Medina Hunter College

SPED 771 9/9/2017

Informal Textual Response #1

Literature Circle Response to Speak by Laurie Halsen Anderson

1. What problems do the characters have, and how do they solve them?

Melinda Sordino, the main character in Speak by Laurie Halsen Anderson, is a freshman at Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York. She starts high school with the same social anxiety as many students. However, she comes in with additional stress; she was at a party during the summer and she called the police. Her best friend, Rachel, was very upset by this and has not been talking to her. Similarly, other students dislike Melinda because of this.

Since Melinda has trouble connecting with her old peers and making new friends, she becomes isolated and finds refuge inside an old janitor’s closet in the school. The only class she enjoys is Mr. Freeman’s art class where students have a year-long project of interpreting the same object in different ways. Melinda was assigned a tree. However, she speaks less and less. She does not respond to teachers, to her parents, to counselors or to the principal. Melinda’s brittle state of mind leads her to skip class and to self-harm behaviors. She bites her nails and lips constantly so that they at times bleed. It appears as if she is suffering from a deep trauma.

Melinda, thus, has mental and social problems. There are two important episodes that tell us what her issue is. First, her lab partner and classmate, David Petrakis stands up to the history teacher who is trying to indoctrinate them with his political positions. Second, and most shockingly revealing, Melinda comes to terms that she was raped by Andy Evans during the summer party. She realizes that other girls in the school have also experienced bad treatment by him. When Rachel starts dating Andy, Melinda becomes particularly concerned.

Melinda had a number of problems. She did not know how to speak about what happened to her over the summer. She did not know who to talk to about it. Worse of all, she was afraid that they would not listen or believe her. It took her a long time to realize that what happened was not her fault and that she should speak to someone about it. However, when she alerted Rachel about Andy, Rachel made the situation worse by telling Andy. This led Andy Evans to try a second attack on Melinda in the janitor’s closet. Melinda defended herself and this time there were many witnesses to the situation.

Her problem was very complex. I have never been in such a horrible situation. I cannot imagine what it would feel to be in Melinda’s shoes. This book shocked me. It made me realize the “realness” of the issues that school-aged children may be experiencing at this age.

References

Anderson, L. H. (2011). Speak. New York: Square Fish.