Pages: 140 Price: $18.50 ISBN: 978-0-325-01060-1
For some Americans, images of dilapidated buildings, over-crowded classrooms, and metal detectors are more likely to appear on the sets of Hollywood movies than in their local schools. The realities of large, inner-city schools are distant, abstract. In America's Unseen Kids: Teaching English/Language Arts in Today's Forgotten High Schools, Harold Foster (a veteran teacher educator) and Megan Nosol (a novice English teacher) call attention to forgotten high schools and the students who attend them. They use the term "forgotten schools" to refer to large, urban, high-need schools struggling with low academic achievement, high drop-out rates, and limited resources. These "forgotten schools," which often serve students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and students of color, remain invisible to mainstream society. Disturbed by the authoritarian atmosphere and stifling curricula often found in these contexts, Foster and Nosol encourage urban teachers to 1) build strong personal relationships with students and 2) enact progressive, rigorous curriculum—the kind of curriculum more commonly found in suburban, middle-class schools—to engage and empower all students. In a warm, narrative writing style Foster and Nosol share their experiences teaching English/Language Arts in an urban school and ultimately work to disrupt stereotypes that shroud America's forgotten schools.
For more than ten years Foster, at the University of Akron, has worked together with Sally Eisenriech, a high school English teacher, to coordinate a partnership linking groups of preservice teachers with students at a nearby forgotten high school. Nosol, Foster's former graduate assistant and a student-participant in that partnership, encouraged Foster to write a book about his experiences. Together, they co-wrote America's Unseen Kids, which highlights the efforts of one particular cohort of preservice teachers over the course of a school year to forge personal and academic connections with hard-to-reach students in an urban school. The book is organized into five chapters. The opening chapter outlines the challenges facing urban schools, while the following three chapters focus on the three units they recommend: writing workshops, reading workshops, and Shakespeare. Each unit reflects solid, student-centered, research-based pedagogy, such as literature circles, grammar mini-lessons, one-on-one writing conferences, writing portfolios, a public performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and celebrations of student work. Each chapter includes examples of handouts, suggested reading selections, and other practical considerations English teachers will find useful.
The curriculum itself is unremarkable in terms of innovation. For example, writing workshops center on standard writing assignments, including autobiography, persuasion, and extended response. What is more remarkable is the tenacity with which they persist in the face of the same stubborn obstacles that vex teachers in many urban schools: students reach their classes so far behind in reading and writing skills that it seems hopeless to catch them up; students move away or move on before they get a chance to make a lasting difference; and students with tremendous potential fail to graduate because they cannot pass a standardized test. Teachers, especially urban teachers, will likely recognize themselves in the honest accounts of these struggles, but they may be left with more questions. While neither Foster nor Nosol claim to have any easy answers, they remain firmly committed to high expectations and the virtues of a progressive curriculum to empower all students to achieve.
At a time when teachers are feeling the pressure of increasingly standardized curriculum and testing, Foster and Nosol provide important reminders. They remind readers that students of forgotten schools are most often subjected to curriculum focused on facts and skills, devoid of creativity or student choice — and that when teachers employ engaging, progressive, rigorous curriculum they serve as agents of change, offering all students the rich education they deserve. They remind readers that when teachers reach out to form partnerships with other teachers, professionals and communities members, they achieve more in collaboration than they do alone. In this way, although the book cannot offer simple solutions to complex problems, it does offer both practical and inspirational examples to teachers striving for success with students in forgotten schools.
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