The Coldest Winter Ever for At-Risk High School Freshman

I. Where, what, and who I teach I teach English in one of the most underperforming schools in Brooklyn (30% graduation rate). I teach two classes with fifteen students in a new program designed exclusively for “at-risk” students. All of the students I teach have failed at least one year of high school and many have failed two years. Most of the students have severe family and personal problems and missed the majority of school last year. For the handful of seventeen-year-old students in the program, this is really their last chance to get back on track and graduate before turning 21 and bouncing out of the system. II. Available Resources Even though many of my students are reading several years below grade level, they all show a thirst for “real” books that both connect with their own experiences and expect them to be thinking young adults. This past year we read, and they positively responded to, excerpts from Plato's “Symposium,” Down These Mean Streets, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Bronx Masquerade, and Assata. All of these books are unavailable in my school. After spending the first week of school battling with thirty other English teachers for the copy machine, I went out and bought a laser copier. In just half a year I have gone through almost seven thousand sheets of paper and three toners. While the expense and time spent copying books is aggravating, watching newly curious students flip through stapled copies of books is tragic. Most of my students do not own any books and have no access to books at home. While I have an in-class library, many of the students are not at all curious about the “Ramp-Up” selected collection. At this point, I am convinced that the only way of getting the materials my students need is with your help. III. My Request Many of the repeat freshman are not unintelligent or, after some prepping, unmotivated. Usually they are jaded, and suspicious, and they share a strong distaste for anything smacking of school. Rather than jump right into Walter Dean Myers, Steinbeck and the rest of the prescribed freshman literature, I would like give the students something more compelling. I am requesting a 25 copies of The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah. I have already had great success reading this book with small groups of students. I am confident that Souljah's bracing message and no holds barred prose can awaken even the most jaded student to the joys of reading. IV. A review of The Coldest Winter Ever from Library Journal. The trials and tribulations of young Winter Santiaga are described in gritty detail in this coming-of-age novel, the first by the phenomenally popular rap star who frequently lectures on the themes of this novel: overcoming teenage pregnancy, fatherless households, and drug use in African American communities. As the oldest daughter of a successful drug dealer, Winter lacks for nothing. But after her father moves the family from the projects to a mansion on Long Island, Winters life begins to come apart. Her beautiful mother is shot, her father is sent to prison, and the familys possessions are seized by the government. Winter and her three sisters, Mercedes, Lexus, and Porsche, become wards of the state. Finally, arrested and convicted of transporting drugs in a boyfriends car, Winter receives a 15-year jail term. Sister Souljah herself appears as a character, urging Winter and other young black women to stand up to the men in their lives, abstain from drugs, and practice safe sex. Although the novels writing is amateurish, the message is sincere.