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Holler if You Hear Me follows Gregory Mitchie’s first seven years as a teacher for the inner city schools of Chicago, Ralph Ellison Educational and Vocational Guidance Center along with Quincy Elementary. His first hand look into the lives of minority children, Black and Hispanic, bleeds with intimate details of these young students’ real perspectives and complicated lives. It also depicts the ignorance, carelessness, and exhaustion of some teachers he respected and worked with. The author also credits the biggest influence in changing his approach to student interaction. He chronologically provides the most memorable encounters with students, the lessons he learned as a teacher, and reveals future conversations with some previous students. Of course there were tales of student misbehavior due to peer pressure, problems with family, and economic issues. Some of the shocking events include a false pedophile accusation against Michie, a student's loss of shelter due to house fire, police brutality, and gang fights, just to name a few. It would behoove readers to focus on the positive relationships and inspiration developed from the chaotic events. Holler if You Hear Me is an admirable representation of a teacher's hard work and genuine self assessment.

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Before detailing his experience with the black students of Ralph Ellison, Michie illuminates the fundamental injury of African Americans in his Foreword (1st. Ed.), “they were denied the right to think for themselves about the conditions of their lives, how those conditions came to be the way they were, and how those conditions might be changed,” (XV). His first class at Ralph Ellison, Social Studies, aggressively exposed their denied rights while he tried to keep control of the classroom. Mitchie mentioned that he had been advised maintain control over the students and keep them quiet. However, one particular day the class openly voiced their disdain for not being able to enjoy snacks in class, like a teacher who broke the rule. After realizing how passionate the class was about the injustice, he allowed them to choose their learning which resulted in the class independently leading their own lesson through a mock trial. Mitchie was able to see the intellectual reasoning strengths among the students as they passionately portrayed their official roles as members of the court system. The class’s testimony of the food served in the cafeteria revealed the mistreatment of the students as one student testified that the milk was “spoilt,” (p. 9). This experience created what the teacher always wanted, “an open classroom where kids’ ideas were sought out and valued,” (p. 12). Though other teachers told him he should be more strict, Michie understood the significance of stepping aside and letting the kids control their learning. Before this experience, he took heed to co-workers advice and became obsessed with control of the classroom. Yet he could not effectively engage the class or see their learning strengths until he allowed them to explore their theories.

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When the author arrived to Quincy Elementary, one of his early impactful experiences came with assigning a mentor text called The House of Mango Street. At this particular school, he worked with many English Language Learners of Hispanic heritage. Michie found the book at a Co-op bookstore where he frequently visited to locate texts for his African American students. In an attempt to record an audio version of the book to help his lower language level students, he recruited five female students to read the voice of the main character. Once the girls skimmed the book, they were awestruck by the familiar “inside” language used by the author, Sandra Cisneros. Just by referring to flip-flops as "chanclas," students were able to identify with the writer and ignite self-worth (p. 63). Before the text, students never believed that published authors in America came from the same background, let alone talked about it so freely. The resulting success of Cicneros, along with her surprise visit to the school, showed Michie’s students that similar people can attain happiness and success, without disowning their backgrounds. It truly inspired one of his star students, Nancy, to attend DePaul University, a taboo move according to her family and culture.

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When the author arrived to Quincy Elementary, one of his early impactful experiences came with assigning a mentor text called The House of Mango Street. At this particular school, he worked with many English Language Learners of Hispanic heritage. Michie found the book at a Co-op bookstore where he frequently visited to locate texts for his African American students. In an attempt to record an audio version of the book to help his lower language level students, he recruited five female students to read the voice of the main character. Once the girls skimmed the book, they were awestruck by the familiar “inside” language used by the author, Sandra Cisneros. Just by referring to flip-flops as "chanclas," students were able to identify with the writer and ignite self-worth (p. 63). Before the text, students never believed that published authors in America came from the same background, let alone talked about it so freely. The resulting success of Cicneros, along with her surprise visit to the school, showed Michie’s students that similar people can attain happiness and success, without disowning their backgrounds. It truly inspired one of his star students, Nancy, to attend DePaul University, a taboo move according to her family and culture.

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Self-identity also played a huge role for the students at Quincy as they often called students with little to no English proficiency, "brazers," a term coined by Caucasians to address newly arrived Mexican migrants (p. 80). Michie deciphers the identity crisis. At home, students speak Spanish and watch TV in Spanish, while at school they are punished for speaking English and media viewed rarely displays their own culture. When they are taught about their ancestors in school, they are viewed as villains or victims. They are taught to believe that American culture is superior which prevents developing relationships with new language learners (p. 81).  To better understand their thinking, he began a simple task of having them provide terms of phrases that define Mexican, then American on the board. Michie says that students used stereotypes to define both cultures (p. 84). Mexican were defined as "brazers," bean eaters, and non educated, for example (p. 83-84). Americans were defined as while men, rich people, etc. This was an eye opener as to how the students view their own culture, the superior culture, and their place in culture. He asked students to name famous historic Mexican figures. Only one student could. This exercise led to he and a co-teacher constructing a lesson plan on Mexican history.

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Self-identity also played a huge role for the students at Quincy as they often called students with little to no English proficiency, "brazers," a term coined by Caucasians to address newly arrived Mexican migrants (p. 80). Michie deciphers the identity crisis. At home, students speak Spanish and watch TV in Spanish, while at school they are punished for speaking English and media viewed rarely displays their own culture. When they are taught about their ancestors in school, they are viewed as villains or victims. They are taught to believe that American culture is superior which prevents developing relationships with new language learners (p. 81).  To better understand their thinking, he began a simple task of having them provide terms of phrases that define Mexican, then American on the board. Michie says that students used stereotypes to define both cultures (p. 84). Mexican were defined as "brazers," bean eaters, and non educated, for example (p. 83-84). Americans were defined as while men, rich people, etc. This was an eye opener as to how the students view their own culture, the superior culture, and their place in culture. He asked students to name famous historic Mexican figures. Only one student could. This exercise led to he and a co-teacher constructing a lesson plan on Mexican history.

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Some other methods used to encourage student motivation was to listen engage more with students about their personal lives; even if students were involved in gangs. He learned this from watching Principle Moses Green listen to three students who fought over gang activity (p. 141). Notably, Michie is always able to find positive characteristics from students who display negative behavior. For instance, one of the student’s named Marvelous defamed school property in class. When it happened, Michie primarily couldn’t help to notice how talented the student was in drawing. More importantly, he realized his lack of attention to the student; since he was able to get away with it throughout the class period. He encouraged Marvelous to join artistic organizations at school, worked with him more, and when Marvelous (and his comrades) felt comfortable, they’d reveal inside details about gang life. He learned symbols, their purpose, differences, and struggles. The students even enlightened Michie on the positive aspects of gang life.

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Much of the lack of production or performance from students stemmed from problems at home. At times Michie’s unfavorable reaction would be the precursor to his students crying or acting out, then they’d reveal their troubles. He learned as a teacher to separate the anger he receives from students from what they could be experiencing beneath the surface. 

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Much of the lack of production or performance from students stemmed from problems at home. At times Michie’s unfavorable reaction would be the precursor to his students crying or acting out, then they’d reveal their troubles. He learned as a teacher to separate the anger he receives from students from what they could be experiencing beneath the surface. 

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The testimonies from previous students detailed their defining moments in their lives after being taught by Michie. Most of them did not continue their dreams due to pressing family problems and lack of money. The common denominator, for most of the students was the lack of a father figure and parents who just didn’t know any better. Many of the parents did not have a knack for instilling possibilities their children and some encouraged traditional beliefs, like getting married young. From the majority of the testimonies, it’s evident that they were mostly disappointed in the way their lives turned out as young adults, like Ruby a student who became a teenage mother. However, Michie left a positive and lasting impact on his students. Students like Hector, Tavares, and Juan recalled defining moments in the class with their beloved teacher and others who helped them to define their beliefs and worth. They also expressed some of the struggles they experienced with other teachers who didn't bother to listen or try to understand them (133). Unfortunately, for many it is difficult to make it past the status quo of their disadvantaged economic situations. Regardless of the sad reality, the author maintained loyalty to his students by following up with them. Michie doesn’t claim to have transformed the education system for inner city kids. To his surprise, the students taught him more than he ever knew about minority cultures, inequalities in education, classed society, and meeting students learning needs. This book serves as a guide for teachers to learn how to understand their diverse and disregarded students while applying culturally relevant pedagogy. 

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The testimonies from previous students detailed their defining moments in their lives after being taught by Michie. Most of them did not continue their dreams due to pressing family problems and lack of money. The common denominator, for most of the students was the lack of a father figure and parents who just didn’t know any better. Many of the parents did not have a knack for instilling possibilities their children and some encouraged traditional beliefs, like getting married young. From the majority of the testimonies, it’s evident that they were mostly disappointed in the way their lives turned out as young adults, like Ruby a student who became a teenage mother. However, Michie left a positive and lasting impact on his students. Students like Hector, Tavares, and Juan recalled defining moments in the class with their beloved teacher and others who helped them to define their beliefs and worth. They also expressed some of the struggles they experienced with other teachers who didn't bother to listen or try to understand them (133). Unfortunately, for many it is difficult to make it past the status quo of their disadvantaged economic situations. Regardless of the sad reality, the author maintained loyalty to his students by following up with them. Michie doesn’t claim to have transformed the education system for inner city kids. To his surprise, the students taught him more than he ever knew about minority cultures, inequalities in education, classed society, and meeting students learning needs. This book serves as a guide for teachers to learn how to understand their diverse and disregarded students while applying culturally relevant pedagogy. 