Want to Reach Reluctant Readers (at Long Last)? Teach This Young Adult Best Seller!.. 'On the Come Up'

BOOK REVIEW by Dr. Rose Reissman

Want to Reach Reluctant Readers (at Long Last)? Teach This Young Adult Best Seller!

On the Come Up

Angie  Thomas

New York: Harper Collins, 2019

Grades 9 to 12

Here’s a book that’s the author’s second teen bestseller.  The author, by the way, who is also a well-known performer (to teens), has been all over the media promoting the book.  Still, English teachers and librarians will shy away from teaching it, assuming it has already been read or is known to students.


“On the Come Up” is filled with expletives and slang which lends to the genuine connection the work makes with its intended readers.  Ironically, though, this language, requiring use of the Urban Dictionary by teachers to understand the book, further acts as a deterrent, dissuading teachers from teaching this.  

Perhaps none of this matters to teen readers grabbing it at the library, but what about those teens who never read any books, assigned or unassigned, and who give the library a wide berth, treating it like a quarantine zone? Is there a work that can help teachers get those reluctant readers to make a turnaround and discover that there is so much about their lives in the works of literature they never open? 

 Angie Thomas’s ‘On the Come Up’ is a work that will get teens to read!
This book will have them experience common teen emotions, doubts, missteps, perceived betrayals, and the final realization of who they are and what they value.   


The book’s abundant reviews , hype and sales, and the news that it has been optioned for a movie all seem to suggest that everything that could be known about the plot, a common teen fantasy of making it big f in the Hip Hop music scene, seems to have already been told.

On the other hand, educators can use this best seller’s momentum to get impressionable adolescents to comprehend the emotional, financial, neighborhood culture, family dynamics, and emerging adolescent sense of self, which all figure into every teen’s life… and to do so through the act of reading a book!

Here’s a book by a writer who was once a former teen rapper and now holds a BFA.  It tells the story of a young, Black female whose father was shot by a gang member before his fame went national and whose aunt functions as a member of a neighborhood gang selling drugs.  Importantly, his  work is not only comprehensible to urban youth who share issues of racial profiling by police, being suspended for using language deemed inappropriate by non-minority school administration, but by all teens. What 16 year old has not felt unjustly questioned or punished for remarks or actions?

Despite the face they show at school, who knows the reality teens live behind the doors of their homes; what financial situations, family dynamics, and emotional and pressures societal pressures do they cope with?  What unspoken difficulties must they navigate?  Small wonder many share this book’s protagonist’s dream of a quick shortcut to fame and windfall earnings that will “fix” their present issues in a single swoop? 

This book offers an appealing exploration of Bri’s (the sixteen year old heroine’s) version of the dream. And because it is so appealing and universal, the book is an opportunity for teachers to assume the role of guide, helping students navigate and appreciate its very realistic story, which imparts authentic lessons that all teens need to grasp. 

The work gives real insights into how childhood friends are tested and redefined as they grow up, all the more so when fame and success are involved.  The bittersweet emotions this evokes are wonderfully conveyed here as Bri struggles with unreasonable jealousy over her childhood friend Malik’s new girlfriend and her own new,  more than friend feelings for childhood nemesis, Curtis.

 The work is full of national headlines that are relevant no matter where the classroom may be geographically, suburb, rural town or inner city.  These help ground the book in questions that resonate strongly for its young audience: What is the appropriate security level in today’s society for safeguarding of our high schools?  To what extent is any use of police or security guards traumatic for teens entering an academic institution? To what extent do they target minorities?  If these inequities occur what are the way teens can use social media and cell phone documentation to peacefully address them?  This book is filled with possible peaceable responses; something every teen can relate to, whatever their background. 


These issues can be argued in class debates, in argument writing format, in poetry, in rap, and in music video documentary as detailed in the book.  Most importantly, they are not just framed in this book; they are framed online in news and blogs across the country to which teens can add their own voices.  Writers such as Jason Reynolds, Todd Strasser, Walter Dean Myers, Sharon Draper, and Angie Thomas, herself, have dealt with these issues and students can compare and contrast how they have been dealt with in these other works, especially Angie Thomas’s first book ‘The Hate U Give.’

Another pivotal issue raised here is the extent to which inflammatory rap songs incite violence.  This is one which, has long been raised in the media. As this book has emerged and resonated in the age of life lived digitally, there are resources that teachers and students can turn to; for instance a Spotify listing for all the music and raps cited in the book


https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXbXCZgznpSva

  -
- listed items can be listened to by students and used to query peers and adults about the extent to which such music incites violence.  The book also cites artists whose work is said to have directly caused violence and students can research these and argue the extent to which the allegations are true.  They can also reflect on the text where Bri provides her own arguments in her words and through dialogue with her friends.

Students who are deeply moved by this book might watch the author on You Tube introduce it https://youtu.be/LYww4B7wEPw . They may react to seeing her up close and compare this image with a story that obviously takes something from her life as a teen rapper.

The audio book for this work has a great free sample online that can be used with students to inspire their voicing their own feelings about their last year of high school, or even middle school


Click on image for audio book info.

This is a book which is responsive to how many students feel and “read” life; full of career prospects, family relationships, and more.  It imparts through Bri's works, positive, proactive values to bolster every teen reader, and perhaps adults as well, which are still “on the come up” as the reader faces choices about life that will “tell” who the reader chooses to be:

“I refuse to stand up here and say words that aren’t my own,

Refuse to be a puppet, refuse to be a clone.

I am somebody’s hope. And I am somebody’s mirror.
  .

You’ll never silence me and you’ll never kill my dream.”

These closing last lines said by Bri in her own voice serve to give voice to all “on the come up” to rise to their individuality and personal dreams.  That perhaps is the greatest gift of this work and why teens currently on their own climb need to read it.
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Dr. Rose Reissman is the founder of the Writing Institute, now replicated in 200 schools including PS 205 in The Bronx, New York City.  She is a featured author in New York State Union Teachers Educators Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary strategies developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. Ditmas IS 62 is under the leadership of Marielena Santiago Principal and Michelle Buitrago AP. The Writing Institute Team are: Michael Downes, Angelo Carideo, and Amanda Xavier.

Contact: roshchaya@gmail.com

ISTE Literacy Network’s session, a grab bag of “The New” conveniently squeezed into a vision- and info-packed hour

The passage below is excerpted from the Article "Ba-Boom! EdTech!" which appeared in EdTech Digest July 12, 2019- Education’s explosive ‘next’ observed through the lens of ISTE 2019. UNPACKING EDTECH | by Mark Gura"

" At the annual ISTE Literacy Network’s session, from a grab bag of “The New” conveniently squeezed into a vision- and info-packed hour (actually, I produce this session for ISTE personally), emerged an understanding of the new shape of Literacy Instruction.

‘Technology Based Literacy Resources and Practices with Special Promise’ aims to turn heads and drop a few jaws. It offers solid examples of resources available to take literacy learning to next levels of possibility. Sage Salvo, of Words Live, delivered big-time in the first of the session’s four presentations.

Words Live

I think of Words Live as an engine that delivers instant cultural relevance to lessons that otherwise would be experienced by students as beyond the scope of their interest (boring!). Accomplishing that is quite a feat. Words Live is an online resource that supports teachers and students in easily matching text-based content items being studied (think anchor texts, literary concepts, etc.) with the music that kids are currently listening to—and quickly delivering, through the work of its algorithm, standards-based lessons replete with video-embedded slides that present analysis and examples of how the selected text aligns with and is understood through songs that share themes, concepts, and literary devices.

Words Live provides focus questions, assessment suggestions, and a full complement of instructional assets. A must-be-seen resource for today’s classrooms! Salvo, the creator of Words Live, is an educational visionary with a background in entertainment and both feet firmly planted in a mission to deliver precisely what today’s kids want and need. https://www.wordsliive.org/

Timelooper

Timelooper, built on the session’s increasing excitement with its extraordinary solution that applies VR/AR technology to required curriculum. While many of us are still figuring out how VR can most meaningfully be used to produce important learning experiences, investments in precious student time and attention, that go beyond simply dazzling us all with mind-bending visual effects, Timelooper elegantly addresses actual classroom needs. It offers experiential instruction that transports students into the startling reality of landmark historical events. Students explore these in a virtual environment of extraordinary fidelity; an experience that resonates deeply, taking them beyond the realm of traditionally learned concepts and facts. The experiences crafted by Timelooper provide exciting entry points for learning and applying communication skills: writing, discussion, related readings, and more. No wonder the large number of literacy educators present were transfixed. https://www.timelooper.com/educators

BirdBrain Technologies

BirdBrain Technologies, a student robotics provider, pushed the literacy education parameters even further. One of the most exciting recent developments in the area of Student Robotics is the deep and meaningful connections made with Literacy Learning. BirdBrain Technologies, particularly with its Hummingbird kit, has gone deep here, developing practices in which students explore themes in literature and express and illustrate their learning through designing and building robotic tableaus (I think that term will work here) based on literary works (e.g., Poe’s The Raven). Session participants were given a startling, robotics-driven, easy-for-teachers-to-implement approach to Literacy Instruction that was both unexpected and that offered a vision of what’s next for classrooms. https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/

Nearpod

Rounding out the sessions offerings was Nearpod a student engagement platform that makes technology integration easy—something crucial, in my mind, as so many teachers are still leery of the difficulty and complexity they think they must overcome to make technology part of what they do. Nearpod is also a vast library of content and resources, and Amy Brown demonstrated one of its instructional games in real, synchronous time to the session’s audience who were quick to join the action projected up front on the large screen. They interfaced with the excitement on screen instantly with their phones and other mobile devices. Nearpod, a well-known resource, continues to shape shift, expanding its very abundant body of content through ongoing acquisition of instructional resources, such as Flocabulary. https://nearpod.com/

Also see: Professional Development, Transformed | EdTech Digest

Innovative Literacy Playground

In a STEM-centric learning environment, nothing is more crucial to the body of knowledge students will use throughout their lives than literacy skills. And while clearly, literacy itself is being redefined by new capabilities and possibilities fueled by an ever more functionally rich body of digital resources, the elements of reading, writing, speaking, and listening (the four Pillars of Literacy), remain crucial—although, taking on exciting new ways of manifesting themselves. This was evident at the conference’s Innovative Literacy Playground. Among its offerings:

Supporting Creative Communicators in the Classroom – students communicate their learning through a design process (Melinda Kolk) – Student Writing: Effective Strategies and Digital Tools for Revision (Troy Hicks) – Student Voice and Choice via digital tools action research demonstration (Heather Esposito, Allison Kreiss, and Kelly Healey), Google Forms as a self-reflection tool in the writing process (Jules Csillag), and VR Escape Room Game Creation (Jules Csillag). For a full listing of playground presentations and full titles, click here. "

Advocating for Disability Teen Representation in YA Literature- The Importance of Excellent Craft

Advocating for Disability Teen Representation in YA Literature- The Importance of Excellent Craft

Review and Activities: Unbroken - 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens (2018) edited by Marieke Nijkamp

By Dr. Rose Reissman

Many YA writers and readers are rightfully concerned over the fact that disabled teens are rarely prominent as characters, dreamers or storyteller in a fictive world that prides itself on social justice issues.  Various groups including Disability in Kidlit, We Need Diverse Books and DiversifYA have sprung up to raise awareness and to promote works by authors in YA who write to that cause.  However, sometimes the resulting writings are all about the necessary crucial message of teen audience disability and diversity, but forget the craft needed to engage the teen readers in exploring and in applying that goal in their own lives.

Unbroken - 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens (2018) edited by Marieke Nijkamp – is the exception that joyously demonstrates how superb, individual writer storytelling relating the stories of disabled heroes can captivate readers.  The fact that its thirteen contributors all affirm along a broad spectrum of psychological, physical, and emotional disability makes its success as an anthology that much more meaningful for the contributors and its growing legion of readers.

I initially read the book because it was featured at the public library as a groundbreaking anthology focusing on disabled teen protagonists in contrast to other YA works. 

This anthology does include a broad spectrum of well crafted characters who are: autistic, bipolar, suffer from cerebral palsy, use canes, are vision impaired, have special cognitive needs, suffer from anxiety disorder, stomach/eating disorders,  schizophrenia,  and various other physical and emotional conditions. But the disabilities are not the focus of this engaging anthology which includes scripted stories about the theater, science fiction, horror, culturally responsive pilgrimage experiences, historic adventure, realistic fiction, online advice and more. 

The collection offers an opportunity for students who are in integrated co-teaching or inclusion classes or who need special support or who have other challenging conditions to recognize their lives and experiences in the context of very readable short stories. The majority are published and recognized authors, including Francisco Stark and Kody Keplinger. 

What I like about the work:  Beyond its well crafted stories by writers who also identify as disabled themselves or as disability/diversity advocates, these stories each share an optimistic recurring motif and message.  Every story, whether realistic fiction or not, ends with the key disabled teen protagonist capable of moving forward on a journey or toward a goal or to evolving a purposeful life.  The majority of the stories have the disabled teen focusing on a standard YA challenge: romance, bullying, divorce, finances, finding religion or cultural identity, caring for adult or sibling family members, loneliness and beyond.  While these challenges are complicated by the teen’s disability, the teen’s inherent strength of character, ingenuity, decision making and capacity to accept support from someone outside, results in an uplifting story close that promises a positive, not sugar-coated, but realistic future.

How Teachers Can use this work: Students can review a selected story for the accuracy of the disability as researched and also critique the extent to which the story engages the reader as a well crafted story. representative of a particular genre or YA writing style. In doing so, they will enjoy the sole You Tube review of the book https://youtube/PcCKRJotXmc. 

This review can be used as a negative anchor for how students can film their own reviews or conversations about this anthology.  They may also want to do a podcast or a blog which includes an onsite school, licensed, special needs educator or a counselor and a self affirming student with a disability who wants to comment. In this instance students can also write directly to the editor Mariane Nijkamp http://www.mariekehijkamp.com, the author of This is Where It Ends and await a response from her (she does respond, although it may take a few weeks). 

The Goodreads review of this book allows students or teachers to post comments as well https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35120779-unbroken.

Some students may opt to get more personal in their reviews of the stories and write a reflection about how the story reflects or adds insight into the daily life of a peer or even their own personal living with a disability in the context of regular high school angst. Students select a genre or story which particularly appeals to them and “write themselves” as teens into this story. 

In particular, there are several stories which are focused on aspects of teen life that often support or reflect experiences of students with special needs and disabilities such as “Dear Norah James, You Know Nothing About Love”, discussing a school newsletter romance online advice column. Also “A Play in Many Parts” – how a dramatic after school performance can serve as a metaphoric platform for dealing with disability.

Most importantly, some of the disability behaviors and conditions such as anxiety disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, balancing of meds in dealing with ongoing bipolar diagnosis, schizophrenic hallucinations, and others may be ones in which students can enrich their knowledge of these conditions to support themselves or identify and help other peers who have already been diagnosed or may need to be diagnosed. In addition, students can read the short bios of the contributors to learn more about their writings and groups like Disability in Kidlit http://disabilityinkidlit.com, checking out the #diversifyya hashtag on twitter, and We Need Diverse Books https://diversebooks.org

They might even be part of next year’s 2020 WNDB and Penguin Random House Diverse High School Senior Awards or read the Walter winners (named for Walter Dean Myers) books that celebrate teen diversity.

Ultimately, students can react, as citizens of a diverse YA society, to Ms. Nijkamp’s dedication: “To every disabled reader, dreamer, storyteller- We can be heroes. This one’s for us.” The targeted audience for this dedication is far broader than immediately apparent and this work is so well crafted that it is inclusive of those seemingly without disability. Within it they will recognize and empathize with the challenges they encounter as teens and learn ways to move forward.

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Dr. Rose Reissman is the founder of the Writing Institute, now replicated in 200 schools including PS 205 in The Bronx, New York City.  She is a featured author in New York State Union Teachers Educators Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary strategies developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. Ditmas IS 62 is under the leadership of Marielena Santiago Principal and Michelle Buitrago AP. The Writing Institute Team are: Michael Downes, Angelo Carideo, and Amanda Xavier.

Contact: roshchaya@gmail.com