I teach 8th grade students in Northeast Philadelphia. I teach both native-English speakers and English Language Learners in an immersion literacy program. The students I teach are mostly Black or Latinx, White/Eastern-European, East and Southern Asian. My students come from all over the world and from all over Philadelphia. Despite their differences, they all seem to connect with and love good stories.
The students I teach are smart, opinionated, and analytical; they love analyzing characters and connecting themes we learn in class to the world they live in.
In class, they are engaged as writers, speakers, readers, and thinkers. They are mostly engaged when they can connect meaningfully to the characters and content they are learning about in class.
My Project
I am requesting a classroom set of the novel, "Hurricane Child," by Kacen Callender because many of my students can relate to the main character, Caroline Murphy. In the story, Caroline is bullied by her classmates and treated unfairly by her teacher because of her darker skin; she is also bullied for being in love with her friend, Kalinda Francis, who also identifies as a girl. Lastly, she is bullied because her mom decided to leave her with her father. Despite these experiences, Caroline is resilient, and she fights for the things she believes are right, even when people tell her she is wrong. Like Caroline, the students I teach are resilient because of how our world treats BIPOC and immigrant students.
The main reason it is important for students to read "Hurricane Child" is because it is a culturally relevant story that centers a strong girl who is part of the LGBTQIA community, and students do not often have exposure to such stories.
We will read "Hurricane Child" as part of our "Culture and Belonging unit." Students will begin discussing many of the issues that Caroline faces, such as racism and colorism, homophobia, and abandonment. It's my hope that by starting the year discussing these issues, we will build the groundwork for our classroom to be a safe community where students are not afraid to name racism and homophobia when they see it. Furthermore, students will write daily in their interactive notebooks by responding to higher-order thinking questions and short text-dependent analysis questions. They will also analyze quotes and scenes from the text using a Double-Entry Journal graphic organizer. Lastly, after we finish the story, students will choose a theme they have come up with and analyze how it develops throughout the story by writing an essay.
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