This post is part book review and part class assignment review! As a reader, I enjoyed the book even though I usually prefer fiction. As a teacher, I appreciated how this story inspired my students and made them think about their futures.
My Junior class spent several weeks reading and studying The Pact, a non-fiction book about three inner-city Newark, New Jersey teens who meet at a school for gifted students. After a presentation from Seton Hall University, the three boys decide that they will make a pact to complete high school, go to college, and complete medical school to become doctors. The program at Seton Hall is what made this possible--an opportunity for underpriviledged kids to become professionals and then practice in their original neighborhoods.
Although the boys graduated with honors from an honors high school, they were still behind in their college requirements and had to attend a summer "boot camp" program designed to help students succeed their freshmen year. Along the way, the three students struggled not just academically, but socially as they had to cut ties to the old neighborhood in order to move forward. Several times, the boys each came close to losing it all by making poor choices and ending up in jail.
At one point, one of my brilliant students asked me why we were reading a book wherein it was obvious from the cover (where the authors were all listed as Doctor) that the three boys succeeded in their dreams. I was all prepared to lead the students through a discussion about this concept, when another brilliant student said out loud, with noticeable scorn, "It's about the journey, you dope, not about the destination." I couldn't have said it better myself.
Students were assigned an art project to go along with the reading. I asked them to research the terms urban art, found-object art, street art, etc. While several students did some awesome research and had some great concepts, they ended up taking the easy way out--I received several poster boards with a collage of pictures on them. Ick! Some of them were really well-done and actually scored well, but I was a bit disappointed that more students were afraid to step out of the box. One project I particularly liked was a collage of sports images, but the student used a Nike shoe box as the medium for the photos. To me, that was a simple aspect that added volumes to the finished project.
I was proud of how well the students scored on this unit. On the multiple choice section of the open-book test, the average score was 85! I knew that all of the students read at least 80% of the book, they retained the information, and they were able to find ways (through journaling) to relate the book to their own lives. That spells success to me!
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