Education, Equity, and The New Kids
I just wrapped up a weeklong visit in the Green Mountain State, where I spent a few days on campus at The University of Vermont. The Honors College selected The New Kids as its Summer Read for incoming freshmen, and as such I was invited to deliver a public lecture on the theme that the students will be considering all year: The Pursuit of Knowledge. I have to say, I really enjoyed writing the speech, which is titled "Learning America: Connecting Cultures in a Brave New World." READ MORE
On Writing Reading Group Guides
Reading group guides can have the feel of an author’s conversation with herself, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your opinion of the author READ MORE
Columbia Journalism grad students study The New Kids
I recently did an interview with a grad student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The interview and two student reviews of the The New Kids were published in School Stories, a publication produced by Columbia journalism students, for a course on covering education. Other books that were read for the class include: Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder, Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough, Class Warfare by Steven Brill, and There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz. I feel honored to be in such great company. READ MORE
Reading Group Guide
It's official! The reading group guide for The New Kids is now finished and finalized. I hope that it will be a valuable resource for all kinds of discussions, whether they unfold in book clubs or high school and college classrooms. The paperback comes out on May 1st, but I wanted to share the reading guide as soon as possible, so here it is! I love getting feedback from readers, teachers, students, etc. If you have a question you want to ask or a comment you want to add, please send me an email! Let's keep the discussion going. READ MORE
Book clubs and class discussions
Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to interact with many thoughtful moderators as well as college professors, high-school teachers, students of all ages, and book-club members. Some of these conversations spawned the questions and topics for discussion that we ended up including in the reading group guide in the paperback version of The New Kids, out on May 1st. Other questions didn't make it into the final reading group guide but were so thought-provoking that I wanted to share them here. If you have questions about the book, feel free to ask them in the comments section, and I will be sure to answer them. READ MORE
A “New Kids” curriculum
Since the release of The New Kids in September of 2011, I’ve received lots of mail from teachers, principals, and other educators who work with English-language learners, so I was delighted to see the positive review of The New Kids in the School Library Journal enewsletter, Curriculum Connections. My hope is that, in addition to reaching a general audience, the book will be useful to ELL educators across the country—as well as to their students. READ MORE
My “Year in Reading”
“Why do we read?” That was the journal prompt given one day to seniors at the International High School at Prospect Heights, a Brooklyn public school that teaches English to newly arrived immigrants and refugees from around the world. I spent a year at the school reporting my first book, The New Kids. During that time I heard many, many journal prompts, but this one made a lasting impression, in part because of one student’s answer. READ MORE
Live from Miami!
Here are a couple of interviews I did about THE NEW KIDS while in my hometown for the annual Miami Book Fair International... I've been going to this book fair since I was a little kid, and it was a thrill to be invited as a presenter this year. READ MORE
