Customer Reviews

Seeking Diversity: Language Arts with Adolescents

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the books that turned my middle school language arts classes around. Through a blend of her refreshingly personal voice, liberal doses of her students' outstanding work, and the clear presentation of procedures and materials that help her organize her practice, Linda Rief offers a portrayal of her classroom that feels real to the middle school teacher. She is one of those teachers who knows how to take the sometimes nebulous philosophies of progressive education, clarify them, and put them into honest practice. There is nothing wishy-washy about her program. The work her students do is rigorous and, as evidenced by their powerful writing and artwork, highly successful. This is one of the books that makes you want the next school day to come so that you can rush into your classroom and start making changes and experimenting. I consider this, along with Nancie Atwell's In the Middle, as one of the classics in the field. We need more reading and writing teachers modeling their reading, writing, and teaching in this way. It is not only a how-to book, it is a book for inspiration.

If you're looking for the perfect book for a new English teacher, this is it. But it's also great if you're looking for inspiration yourself -- and by no means do you need to be a middle school teacher to benefit from it.

My copy of this book is falling apart, because I have fled to it more frequently in times of woe than any other text on teaching. Nancie Atwell's In the Middle is also close to my heart, but Rief's book is more direct and less overwhelming and so more useful in emergencies.

I teach 11th and 12th grade English, but never has this kept Seeking Diversity from being useful, even though Rief is describing her middle school classes. The environment that helps students reach their potential is the same at almost all levels, regardless of who your students are, where they're from, or how old they are. (A qualifier: I know nothing about elementary education, and so won't presume to speak to that.)

If you're looking for lots of theory and post-structuralist analysis, this is the wrong book. But if you're after nuts and bolts, and lots of them, then Seeking Diversity is what you want. It's inspiring, empowering, and tremendously useful.

In an educational world that demands conformity it is a rare treat to experience a teacher who celebrates the diversity and the gifts that each student brings to the classroom. Linda Rief knows the adoloscent mind, but more importantly she understands the heart of these ever changing students. The book opens with a realistic look at what her classroom is like - real voices of real students trying to find thenselves through reading and writing. It is the generous use of the students voices that made this book such an inspiration to me. In reading this book I was struck by the rigor in the curriculum. There is an abundance of reading and writing going on all of the time. The real difference is that the subjects and the books are chosen by the students. Engaging adoloscents with choice, time, responsibility and accountability all show her masterful understanding of this age group. She also reads to her students often and writes with them. It is this mentoring that I found to be the most valuable for me. Linda Rief is a writer showing others how she writes and struggles. It is this realness that adoloscents continue to crave in school. She is the true mentor and in her chapters on writing and reading she lays out a clear theoritical foundation for why she teaches this way. Once I read this there was no going back. In the chapters on reading and writing linda puts in many expamples of student work - and it is these examples that truely show the diversity that is smothered in many language arts classrooms. Linda Rief has a voice that speaks to the middle school teacher. She is in a real school and teaches real students. Hers is the voice of experience. This is very evident in the chapter where she explains that her students sometimes do read the same book or write on the same subject. Her understanding of the balance needed for students and for the curricular demands of the profession should pull in even the most reluctant middle school teacher. But always the balance is tipped in favor of the students need for choice, for exploration, for understanding, for real mentoring, and for the goal of being a reader and a writer for life. The book also contains a wealth of material in the appendices. These materials are a starting point for those teachers who see writing and reading as a mentoring. This is a must book for new teachers and a perfect gift for those teachers with more experience. This is a book that changed the way I teach and has helped me to look for the diversity and the heart of the adoloscent mind.

The purpose of 'Seeking Diversity: Language Arts with Adolescents' is to educate teachers on how to teach literature. Ms. Rief's philosophy is to encourage students to interact with the literature and use it to better themselves. The students will respond with a multitude of responses.

Teachers should encourage individual response and recognize the responses will be different.

Although the philosophy is refreshing and positive, the text is poorly written and padded with excessive examples of student work.

If you are considering the book for your class or to read on your own, you will be disappointed.

Most authors, especially textbook authors, write in an organized fashion. Their goal is to educate the reader using themes which weave and flow through their text. This text contains no clear introductory paragraphs summarizing the author's goals. The inter-chapter text is random and disjunctured. There are no clear conclusionary paragraphs. Over forty percent of the book comprises copies of student artwork, essays, and notes.

Another irratating feature of the text is the excessive use of the personal pronoun 'I'. Although gramatically correct, starting every other sentence with 'I' quickly becomes boring reading. In the second paragraph of Chapter One, eight of the twelve sentences start with 'I'. The writing style remains the same throughout the text.

Remember, this text is meant to train writing teachers. Starting nearly every sentence with 'I' is a style of writing most teachers would steer their students away from.

Although the author is a highly credentialed writer, it is this reader's opinion, you should steer clear of this text.