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I have been teaching Toni Morrison's Sula novel to sophomores in urban high school settings for twenty years now. When you regularly work with struggling readers as I have, text selection becomes absolutely critical. And simply put -- Sula has been the single most successful text I have ever taught. What makes Sula so successful for the students I have taught throughout my career is its nuanced perspective on ethics. So many voices have reached these young people up to this age about how to be good people. And yet, so much of what their peers have to offer, and what they see on social media and in the news, offer so many ways to get away with being bad. As adults we know that there is a very wide spectrum between good and bad and it is rare for any one person to be so easily characterized as one or the other. Sula offers a rich and entertaining story by which to discuss this spectrum. And it doesn't hurt that Morrison has shaped her novel in roughly 10-page chapters with a touch of violence and/or romance in each carefully wrapped segment to keep young people tuned in. If a student misses a lesson, Morrison's poetic imagery and vibrant dialogue will quickly draw them back in to the heart of the action to keep them engaged with their learning community and the complex debate about who is good and who is bad!

About my class

I have been teaching Toni Morrison's Sula novel to sophomores in urban high school settings for twenty years now. When you regularly work with struggling readers as I have, text selection becomes absolutely critical. And simply put -- Sula has been the single most successful text I have ever taught. What makes Sula so successful for the students I have taught throughout my career is its nuanced perspective on ethics. So many voices have reached these young people up to this age about how to be good people. And yet, so much of what their peers have to offer, and what they see on social media and in the news, offer so many ways to get away with being bad. As adults we know that there is a very wide spectrum between good and bad and it is rare for any one person to be so easily characterized as one or the other. Sula offers a rich and entertaining story by which to discuss this spectrum. And it doesn't hurt that Morrison has shaped her novel in roughly 10-page chapters with a touch of violence and/or romance in each carefully wrapped segment to keep young people tuned in. If a student misses a lesson, Morrison's poetic imagery and vibrant dialogue will quickly draw them back in to the heart of the action to keep them engaged with their learning community and the complex debate about who is good and who is bad!

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