Recommended Book List

During my winter break, I have been reading some books. I am recommending you these books to read. Here they are:

1. Bait and Switch: The Futile Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich. She wrote about the middle class unemployment and their experiences. Sometimes just having the right education and skills level doesn't mean you'll get another job if you get layoff.

2. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. This book is about low wage workers and how having a full time job isn't helping much to keep them out of debt and poverty. Even people who can do two or three low wage jobs still struggles in providing for their families.

3. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. This book is about comparing two men with the same name who grew up in similar unsafe neighborhoods with one Wes went to jail because of a murder charge while the other Wes went off to college and became a good leader. It's an interesting to read what factors influence one person to make good or bad choices in life.

4. The Circuit: Stores from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jimenez. This book open my eyes on the experiences of migrant children and schooling. I never knew any migrant students who move from season to season. Though I did have a few classmates who move a lot because of their family's job or economical reasons or just family issues. The book made me think on how to educate students who may miss a lot of content knowledge and academic English from all their moving around so much.

How can I build a bond/connection with a migrant child? How can I teach this child efficiently? What should the educational goals for this child? How long will I have this child in my class before this child have to move away again? As an educator, how can I voice about the American education system should be consistent so migrating children will have someone there to help them learn without being shamed for missing so many days of school and lack of content knowledge? So many questions and no answers yet.

5. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol. I just started this book. So far, it's interesting to read about the different standards placed on low-income schools and the poor children compare to the middle class schools and the affluent children. As Americans, we need to voice ourselves that all children should be held to a high standard but also with assistance from well-trained teachers, collaborative school staff and resources to help reach these high standards. So many poor and minority students aren't getting educated in a way to prepare them for adulthood and becoming a positive and productive citizen of the U.S. They are taught in badly cared for buildings, high turnover of teachers and administrators (no consistency of caring adults in these children lives)and prescribed lessons of teaching to the standardized tests. As Americans, how can we ensure that poor children get a good education? Instead of blaming, let's find solutions to better serve these kids. If all public schools are integrated with diverse student populations and high educational standards with proper support and resources, all students flourish.

Here are two books I read for class last term:

1. The Children of E4 by Susan Eaton. This book follows a group of children from a low-income school and their educational experiences. It also follow the court case of Sheff vs. O'Neill which is about a young Black boy fighting for his rights to have a proper education. This book also share some common themes from The Shame of the Nation.

2. Made in America: Immigrant Students in Public Schools by Laurie Olsen. This book report the experiences of high school immigrant girls at their high school. After reading this book, I felt anger that immigrant students aren't treated as well and not getting the education they need. Why are there less qualified teachers to teach ESL and sheltered content classes? Why do the administrators think it's okay to just enroll students will limited English skills in an English only classroom where these students will fail since they don't understand enough to grasp the content area? Why aren't immigrant students' educational needs being met? The issues in this book isn't at all high schools in this country but the author reports that there are many high schools not meeting the needs of the immigrant youths.