I remember the mother character constantly crying and playing the hapless victim. I wish I could get more in depth, but I have tried to block that book from my memory.

I am also interested in your view of Where the Red Fern Grows as a “sexist book”. Though it has been a long time, I have read the book and did not find it offensive at all. Could you further comment on your opinion? As a literacy teacher, I am always interested in the views that students and teachers have about books.

Finally, I the garden is a great idea to incorporate the book with some real life lessons. You are correct that many students today do not understand the concept of delayed gratification. I am impressed at your creative way to get students involved in literature.

I say this because this blog is meant for just that. It is meant to be a place for reflection on my teaching to help me grow as an educator, and bring people together not break them apart. I would never intentionally offend anyone or put down other people’s work. It is not respectful nor does it show compassion, two values that I take quite seriously.

I am writing this apology because it has been rightfully brought to my attention that my comments about Where the Red Fern Grows, “The Red Fern Grows is not a good book. I couldn’t stand it, and trying to motivate the kids to read it was no easy task.” Were insensitive to the people who had made the choice to include it in our schools curriculum.

The comment earlier asked, “How can you justify writing, “It is not a good book” on your public blog space when your colleagues have spent time writing curriculum that carefully integrates the novel with the concurrent geography unit?” The answer is that I cannot justify writing what I did. You are absolutely right; I did not consider the choices that were made to include this book in our curriculum, and I should have been more aware. I sincerely apologize for offending all parties involved.

Looking at it now, I agree that the language was unfair and harsh. It should have read as it now reads, “Because of my own frustrations with adjusting to a new curriculum and a new school, I had a hard time getting into Where The Red Fern Grows. I was coming from a place where I had nearly complete control over the books I taught, and it was difficult to teach a book that I had never read. We started to examine the text looking for ways to apply basic literary criticism. I found it to be a very sexist book; that made it easy. We tried that angle. We then looked at it historically, socio-economically, but we finally chose to cling to one of the main themes- working hard and being persistent.

In closing let me say that I was wrong to, however unintentionally, criticize my peers in a public forum. This experience has been a good reminder to me that I need to be more careful when I exert my opinions so forcefully. Bad habit. I have actually gotten better at it, ask my wife.

Although I admire the multi-faceted project you designed, I am dismayed that you chose to put down the ASD curriculum choice, Where the Red Fern Grows. The novel deserves its place in the literary canon. It is a story of love and tragedy. How can you justify writing,”It is not a good book” on your public blog space when your colleagues have spent time writing curriculum that carefully integrates the novel with the concurrent geography unit? This novel provided limitless possibilities for a reading enrichment class 1) examine Rawl’s detailed descriptions of the setting 2) explore why Rawls was ashamed to let people know he was half Cherokee and read about the Trail of Tears or extend the reading further into Native American legends or discuss and read other people’s stories of coming to terms with identity 3) read other stories and poems about dogs. Yes, great gardening project, but it is disheartening that you put others down in the process. This does not align with the ASD value of RESPECT. It does not show compassion for your teaching team’s efforts.

Very inspirational. A beautiful blend of modalities. This really plays into Gardner’s naturalist category of the 9 multiple intelligences, and you’ve shown a very real way on how we can foster/develop this in our students. Thanks,

Anthony

Great, thoughtful, reflective practice/praxis. What a great way to create a real situation for reading/writing.

Have you read Kyleen Beers’ book “When Kids Can’t Read; What Teachers Can Do”? It is for grades 6-12 and is an excellent resource.

Check out as well a resource from the Ontario Government:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/library.html

Take care.

Melanie