For three years I have taught a 'tracked' below level 7th grade English class. We read "Blizzard's Wake" by Phyllis Naylor. It is a novel set in 1941 in Oklahoma just before Pearl Harbor is attacked. There is a famous blizzard that comes down from Canada in March of 1941. So the setting is realistic and historical. The blizzard is true enough and so is that part of America just before we enter WWII. My low kids loved, loved the novel. The gist is about a guy who is released from prison for good behavior. He was jailed for driving drunk and killing the main character's mother. He returns to the town where it happened. The book is in chapter form and each chapter switches back and forth between the girl and the man, their thoughts, their own isolation; one from guilt and the other from anger. The suspense builds when the girl's father, a doctor, is caught in the blizzard with her younger brother and Zeke, the man, climbs into the car. The family saves his life and there is a twist to this that explains the girl's anger and hate for Zeke. There is even a sort of reconciliation at the end that is believable.
Wonderful discussions even though I read most of it to them. As they got into it, more and more of them started reading it on their own. And whether or not you think students should be tracked, these student started to risk having opinions and thinking more critically then they ever had before. In a regular class they would be intimidated by the higher students who do all the talking. Anyway, I am going to use the novel in my CORE class this year. It is easy to read except you need to bring the historical events into the story and talk about life without television or cell phones. Some vocabulary preview / teaching is needed, but that is not a bad thing. Just a thought. ---- [email protected] wrote: > We do a lot of shared reading so I don't really need the high interest low > readability books as much as books with good plots, but not overly > complicated ones. > > > > Pat > www.pawsofwood.com > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
