Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers

Although I think that Myers' writing style and language are great, I had a tough time reading Bad Boy this week. I kept waiting for the climax of the book to occur and even though the story was interesting, it never fully hooked me in. However, one part of the book really stood out to me. Last week, I did a project on speech and language disorders for another class I am taking. Also, many of the students I am working with at my clinical residency receive speech and language services. When I think about my project, and my students, I realized that I tend to focus on all of the things that parents and teachers can do to support their students and how frustrating it must be for the child to communicate. What I did not consider, however, was how the child might be feeling and how they are probably do not think that what they are saying is incorrect. This was pretty eye-opening for me. As Myers' says on page 25, "The therapist kept trying to get me to pronounce my words clearly, but apparently I did not. The trouble was that to me, the words seemed clear." This part made me really reflect upon how I am supporting my students, and how I need to be more sensitive and mindful of where they are coming from.

1 comment:

  1. I can appreciate that this book didn't grab you like the others as biographies/memoirs are often more subtle in how the "plot" unfolds than a typical narrative. If you get a chance, I'd love to have you read my entry on this book and see what you think about how it might be used in 600 or 609?

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