Holler+If+You+Hear+Me

Notes:

"My students were not the greatest writers, but, man, could they talk a good story. They may have dropped out of high school, but they held doctorates from the university of life. They were streetwise and savvy; they were ingenious and fragile. They had troubles the world's heads of state would never see. In their short years on the planet they had lived extraordinary lives, and nobody had told them their lives were extraordinary, that they were extraordinary for having survived." (Sandra Cisneros, xi-xii)

"The good news, though, is that dedicated teachers are somehow finding ways to see through the thicket and clear their own paths. Despite the limitations of the moment, they manage to keep one eye fixed on the way way things could be. They understand that the climate in which they are teaching is far from ideal. But instead of despairing or focusing on what they can't do, they say to themselves, "This is my situation. How can I get closer to creating the sort of classroom my students need and deserve? What can I do?" (xxvi-xxvii)

Urban hero-teacher myth - xxiii-xxv

Poem by Julio - "People just don't know . . . We didnot all cross the boarder for some of us the boarder crossed us . . ."

Mock trial - look for academic and non-academic language - funny experience with "enclosed" - p. 11-12 - Did the kids get the concept even though they didn't have command of the language?
 * Chapter 1** - Incident with academic language, "What's a bill" (government), p. 1-3

Classroom Management - Mitchie gets credibility by going to school with Michael Jordan (p. 4); struggles with controlling the class (p. 6); talks about how strict to be vs. giving kids freedom (13); becoming obsessed with establishing control (13)


 * Tavares** - Tavares explains why he lost interest in school - school was boring, teachers were mean, more interested in what was going on outside of school; liked group activities (17) The logic of selling drugs and gangbanging - explains reasons for and against and the constant challenge of not going back (20)


 * Chapter 2 -** Greg takes a new job at Quincy, a school with lots of Mexican immigrants. He's assigned to go to camp. Commentary on overprotective Mexican families (24) Diana's mother tells Greg about the rumor. Kids cursing at each other in Spanish (27-28) Diana's explanation for concocting the rumor - didn't have money for camp (32). Tough-kid Hector breaks down - worried about his sister - Greg wrestles with the rule "never tough a student" - He puts his arm around Hector. (33-34)


 * Hector -** "Teachers would tell me, "You're dumb. You're gonna get kicked out of here. This school doesn't need you." They looked at me and saw a dumb gangbanger. A kid that needed to be put away forever." (40) "I know there's magic in a box somewhere. I just gotta find it. I wanna leave the neighborhood, go to the Marines. I need to go far away. Real, real far away . . ." (42) This section alternates between Hector's mother's perspective and his own. Deals with family issues. "My father was never around. If he would've been there, things would've ben different." (42)


 * Chapter 3** - Reading //Alexander's Terrible, Horrible Day// to second graders - example of thinking beyond the text. Students labeled as the "low group" - the "dumb" class (45) - Armando writing - "reading and writing were painful for him" (45) - his text (46) - Mitchie asks the kids, "What do you want to learn about?" (47-48) - John's poem (the awkward White kid) - (48) - writing as an outlet. Incident with Hector - decision about discipline - private or public confrontation (49) - Brenda wets her pants (50) - "I just wanted the bell to ring so I could go home and be depressed in peace." (50) "I only had to get through 10 more minutes." (50) - Mitchie's kids in the hallway - not following protocol - chided by another teacher - kids don't obey Mitchie (51-52) "The hour I had just staggered through had been all of those things, and it was tempting to lay all the blame on the kids. After all, I was trying my best to help them. I was trying to give them a say in things, to listen to them. Couldn't they see that? Didn't they appreciate it? Why did they have to resist my efforts so vigorously? . . . I was coming uncomfortably close to using the same words I'd used to describe my day - terrible, horrible, no good, very bad - as descriptors for the kids." (52) "But it wasn't their fault. At least, not all of it. The mean-spirited and self-destructive attitudes that sometimes pervaded the group had been encouraged, at least in some part, by the school's actions." (52) "At best, they were being treated as less than adequate; at worst, they were being demonized. Should anyone have been surprised when they acted so aggressively resentful?" (53) "Years of low expectations and marginalization, I realized, would take more than 10 weeks to remedy." (54)


 * Armando** - **great chapter about parents of ELLs and suspension** "Students are supposed to have 10 credits by the end of their sophomore year; Armando has 2 1/2. But unlike many others in similar predicaments, he is hanging in, trying to make it to graduation in spite of the tide that seems to be rising against him. . . Persistent reading woes make all of his classes difficult." (55) "I know my mom and dad would be proud of me if I mad it, if I graduated. My mom, she always tells me she wants me to finish. Some days when I don't feel like going, she tells me, "Armando, you're gonna go to school." And one time I told her, "If you want me to go to school so bad, how come you didn't go?" I shouldn't have said that. I know I shouldn't have said it. 'Cause she really couldn't finish school. . ." (57) (continues to talk about his parents' education) "People say my high school is a bad school, but I don't think so. . . The thing I hate is they suspend you for nothing over there. I've been suspended a bunch of times. I learned to just keep my mouth shut." (58) Description of parent-teacher conferences - "The teacher'll come up with all kind of bad stuff from a long time ago . . . And I fell like, "Why don't you tell her about the good things I do? I'm not all bad." (59) "Man, I'm sick and tired of that. I mean, they're just dropping kids like it's nothing. If teachers want kids to do better, why do they suspend them? Would you do that? If they want kids to do better, they should be keeping them in school, not kicking them out. . . Sometimes you feel they don't even want you there." (59)


 * Chapter 4 -** "For my high school friends and me, a dose of Mexican culture was the drive-thru at Taco Bell. I knew practically nothing about the experiences of Mexican Americans or my students' struggles to come to terms with a dual identity. In fact, almost everything I knew at the time had been culled form one deceptively thin collection of stories." (61) - Invites girls to create an audio version of //House on Mango Street//. "It's just the word," Nancy explained. "It's like a nickname or something. I've just never seen that word printed up in a book before. It's not that it's funny, it's just -- it's like an inside word, you know? Like a word nobody outside knows. You get me?" Nancy had described it perfectly. An "inside" word. The more we read, the clearer it became to me that every story in the book was filled with such elements, little details and nuances that only an insider - a Mexican American - would know. Inside words, inside phrases, inside sights and sounds - peeks into a world Nancy and the others knew well, but had never before seen within a book's pages." (63-64) The girls interpret the text for Mitchie. (64) Nancy's house burned down. Mitchie gives her his copy of the book. "Really, Mr. Mitchie, I'd rather just keep this one," Nancy said. Then after a pause, she added, "Put it this way. Would you rather have an old friend or a new friend?" (66) The girls decide to write Sandra Cisneros. "It was something they had decided to do completely on their own." (A real audience - the hope of a response, but Mitchie's doubt that Cisneros actually would respond.)

"Though the project was officially done, the girls wanted to continue our morning meetings. I was glad. I had come to look forward to our time together as much, if not more, than they had. What had begun as a side project, a spur-of-the-moment idea, a brainstorm born out of necessity, had developed into something truly extraordinary. But as i was coming to discover, that's part of what teaching is about: the willingness to explore with kids, to reach with them, to follow a dimly lit path together, often unaware of the dazzling surprises that may wait around the bend." (68)

"Like a good teacher, she didn't talk at the kids or down to them. She talked with them." (71)


 * Nancy -** Nancy explains her family's reaction when she decides to go to college. Her mom said, "You're not going to college." I was shocked. I said, "I have to go, Ma." She said we didn't have the money . . . 'Til this day, she still doesn't understand what the Golden Apple scholarship I got means . . . The rest of my family, they all work at the meat-packing plant." (73) "I think for most girls in my neighborhood, their highest goal is to graduate high school. If you go to college, that's something beyond . . . For the Caucasians, going to college is normal. But for Mexican girls, their goal - their top goal - is to graduate high sschool. But their dream? Most of them dream about getting married." (74)

"Then if you do go to college, like me, some of your Mexican friends will say, "You're trying to act White." It's like, you can't win." (74) "I don't mind being called Mexican American, but I'd rather say I'm Mexican. Ever since I was real small, when my family would ask me where I'm from, I'd say, "Pues, de Mexico." And they'd laugh and laugh, 'cause I was born here." (75)

"So it's hard to speak up, 'cause i don't speak as good as the rest of the people do. Sometimes I don't think my ideas are good enough, or I don't think my brain is smart enough. I still talk, but I get so nervous, I get all hot and sweaty and my heart starts beating fast . . . " (75)

"I'll never forget when we first started reading the book. It was like - you know how I felt when I first read that book? It was like somebody stripped. That's the kind of feeling I had. 'Cause Sandra Cisneros wrote about a lot of things that are hard to talk about, or painful to admit, but she had the guts to bring them out. . . I never thought you could do that in a book. I never thought that was writing. I always thought you had to have these long, nice sentences, but she has some sentences that are only one word!" (76)

"A lot of the White kids who I take classes with, they want to go teach in the suburbs or back where they came from. They say they can't take it here. But I'm staying. I think the kids will look at me different. They can say, "My teacher lives in my neighborhood. She's lived here all her life. She's just like me." (77)

Designing curriculum around Mexican American themes; learning about, with, and from kids
 * Chapter 5 - Students' Lives as Curriculum**


 * Chapter 6 - Media Literacy/Jerry Springer**

students giving written feedback to their teachers
 * Chapter 7 - Writing for Authentic Purposes - "see if I care"**

Mr. Green - not tolerating bad behavior; accepting kids; writing their stories; writing the mayor
 * Chapter 8 - Writing their lives**

collective action by students; acting not just being acted upon
 * Chapter 9 - Reggie attacked by a cop**


 * Chapter 10 - Graduation**


 * Afterword - important stuff!**