Week 3. Informal Response

 

 

A Step from Heaven is both a heart-wrenching and heart-warming story of Young Ju Park, a young girl who immigrates with her family from South Korea to the United States. This text beautifully details the immigrant experience – the misconceptions about America and the stark realities.  While the story of Young Ju Park is not every immigrant’s story, it is a story worth highlighting in a classroom because the themes of power, social class, and gender are universal and offer multiple ways for students to interact with and connect to the text.  

 

In my classroom I would assign this book and devote class time every day to independent reading.  After several chapters I would gather the class to review what we are reading and weave in questions related to social class (Why was Young Ju embarrassed for her friend’s family to know where she lives?), money (Describe the family’s financial situation upon arriving in the US? Can you identify any economic barriers they encountered?), gender (Why was it so important for Young’s Ju’s parents that she have curly hair upon her arrival in the US?) and language (Young Ju never learns to speak Korean. Do you think this indicates a conscious move away from her culture?).  

 

I would utilize both whole class discussions as well as think-pair-and-share strategies to get kids thinking about the inequalities and barriers that immigrants face when arriving to the US.  My hope would be that after several rich discussions about the text students would be able to make connections to current power and economic structures and how these affect immigrants. 

 

Na, An.  A Step from Heaven. Simon & Schuster. 2001.  

November 17, 2015

Book Report 

     In Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Jack Gantos introduces us to the character of Joey Pigza, a hyperactive young man who unintentionally keeps everyone around him on alert.  Why?  Joey is wired.  Joey is electric.  Joey is unpredictable.  Joey actually swallowed a key.  Gantos provides his readers with emotionally compelling characters and creates a wild ride of a story that will leave you eager to predict what will happen next for Joey.   

     Joey was raised by his emotionally abusive Grandmother until his own mother returns home to take care of him.  If the instability in his home life wasn’t enough, Joey’s experience in school isn’t much better.  Due to his hyperactivity and propensity to accidentally hurt himself, and others, Joey’s teachers are naturally wary of him.  Joey is eventually removed from the general classroom and placed in a special ed room.  As Joey so accurately put it, “I felt like some kind of bad dog that had pooped all over the carpet, eaten the slippers, and attached the mailman, and was now being sent to obedience school” (37).  Ultimately, with the help of his Mom and doctor, Joey finds the right medication to help him maintain a more stable emotional disposition.

      Gantos presents a compelling and relatable story of a student dealing with a learning disability, and navigating a complex system of educators, doctors, and family members who all have opinions on what should happen next for Joey.  This book allows the reader multiple perspectives (student, teacher, family) through which to understand a complicated issue.  

Reference:  

Gantos, Jack.  1998. Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key: Macmillan.