Book Talk: Harris and Me

Harris and Me

By Gary Paulsen, Presented by Nicky Jones

 

Summary

 

This novel is based off a summer in Gary Paulsen’s life when he was young. Coming from a troubled home, the narrator (who is never named) has bounced around from home to home of distant relatives. He never forms relationships with his relatives, and he never stays in one home for long. It is 13 chapters of anecdotes chronicling his first experience on a farm dealing with animals and heavy machinery. Staying with Harris and the rest of the Larson family is a wildly hilarious adventure full of farm yard mischief and mayhem. This is a really fun story, and it’s not full of complex material. This is a great story to help get students into reading since it’s full of laugh-out-loud moments.

 

 

Rationale

 

I chose this novel because it’s such a light-hearted story. Even though the narrator is dealing with serious issues in his life, he finds real happiness with the Larson family. Paulsen writes from the heart in this novel and you can feel the narrator slowly let down his guard and allow himself to want to be a part of a family. On top of all of that, this novel is hilarious. Every time I read it, I laugh out loud. Harris and Me never gets old. This novel is great for any middle or high school student, especially one who is reluctant to read outside of school requirements.         

3 Ways to Utilize Harris and Me

 

1.      Engage reluctant readers: American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult readers. This is a good novel to entice students to read for pleasure.

2.      Study narrative styles: Paulsen’s style is very unique in this novel since he never once mentions his name or any name for the narrator. You could use one short chapter from the novel to analyze with students during a narrative unit, especially since if they are going to write a personal narrative.

3.      Character Development: The narrator changes significantly over the summer at the Larson’s farm. They aren’t obvious or instant changes either. His attitude and confidence slowly builds, and that becomes apparent in the way he handles situations and thinks about his choices with Harris as the summer progresses.

 

Obstacles

1.      Language: Harris is nine and the narrator is probably only a few years older, though his age is never specified. They both use explicit language, especially Harris. I believe this would be the biggest obstacle that would come up with this book.

2.      Content: There is nothing overly inappropriate in this book. However, there is a chapter where Harris fries his penis on an electric fence, and the narrator has naked photos of women that are always a topic of conversation for Harris and him. I don’t believe this novel has anything in it that would be considered offensive, but more conservative parents might not like the way Harris speaks and behaves.

 

Readicide

            Let me preface this with, I love Kelly Gallagher. I enjoy his books. I find them to be incredibly helpful and always appreciate his ideas for effectively teaching students. I’ve read four of his books now and I actively use two of them to help me with lesson planning or strategies for working with struggling students. Gallagher’s philosophy about teaching and the way it should be done has definitely influenced my own philosophy. To me, Gallagher is an educational guru that I will defer to throughout my career.

That being said, I am not a fan of Readicide. I do not know what it is about the book, but I struggled reading it. It took me three weeks to force my through this, and even then I had to go back and re-read most of what I’d done because none of it stayed with me. Maybe I didn’t like this because I feel like I’ve read everything in this book in other books written by Gallagher. I didn’t feel like I got anything new out of it. To me, of four chapters, the third one was the most interesting. I enjoyed his take on “avoiding the tsunami” of academic reading that our students will inevitably face. I think focusing on one main factor within an academic novel is a great idea. I know there have been times when I’m asked to analyze so many different things in one essay that I don’t know where to begin. I like focusing on one thing at a time and digging into that one thing as deep as possible, making as many connections to real life and literature alike, and truly understanding that aspect of the novel. I think concentrated focus like that gets left out of the classroom because there’s so little time to cover so much. That’s why I also appreciate Gallagher’s “One-pagers” in appendix c. It’s a great way to keep students focused on one event or character, their purpose, and the intent and audience of it. In three questions, Gallagher has a way to effectively focus students to one analytical skill at a time.

I may not like this book, but I always appreciate Gallagher's worksheets, and this book is no different. I probably won't ever read this book again, but I will definitely us it.

I Read It, But I Don't Get It

            I never realized how much of a difference graphic organizers can make to a student’s comprehension while reading. When I first began my practicum, I didn’t have students take notes of any kind while reading, they just used annotations in the text to mark items that stand out. After reading this, as well as a few Gallagher books, I have begun introducing graphic organizers as the norm to use while reading. Students are no longer just reiterating parts from whatever we are reading, but actually making connections and conclusions. After reading about how Tovani implemented graphic organizers to change the way her at-risk students viewed reading, I became completely sold on their necessity with seventh graders.

            I loved how Tovani described “fake reading.” I’ve wondered about some of my students who read very well by never seem to recall anything from what we read in class. It gets kind of frustrating at times to know they are so close to making great connections, but are just not quite getting it. I now have a term for that as well as a few great ideas to help students overcome “fake reading.” I especially like Tovani’s idea of helping students make connections from new reading to their everyday life. Connections are made to the student’s life, or movies they’ve seen, or music they’ve heard. Personalizing texts really seems to help students understand or want to understand more than just reading the words on the page. I feel like when I was in school, teachers wanted to see more text-to-text connections, but that’s hard to do for most students because they aren’t “well-read” yet. The act of making those types of connections strengthens the mind. It’s not as important what the connections are being made between.

            My favorite of Tovani’s graphic organizers are the ones in appendix B. Right now my students are beginning to go through sources to start formulating their own opinion about endangering wolves. My students will then write an essay about how they believe wolves should be handled in our state. Using the graphic organizers to help students connect the issue to their own lives has really helped students get on one side or the other of the issue. It’s been great to see the discussions my students are now having, and the tactics they are using to try and persuade the other side into agreeing with them.

Social Justice

            If we define social justice as promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity. It exists when all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources, as Dr. Matthew Robinson from Appalachian State University does, then it is clear that social justice is lacking in our educational system. There is an unlimited amount of articles, blogs, and research theories on why social justice is such an issue, and the effects the lack of has on our society. One interesting thing I found is a book titled Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching about Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word, by Linda Christensen. While I have only been able to read through the introduction into the book, I find her position on social justice to be very interesting. Christensen is inspired by writers like Fredrick Douglass and published educators like Paulo Freire. She wholeheartedly believes that by educating the poorest members of society a change can occur that fixes more than the “achievement gap.” Christensen claims that reading and writing are ultimately political acts and that writing should be an emancipatory act. After reading the last article on critical pedagogy and a chapter from one of Freire’s books, it seems that this is the kind of attitude schools need their teachers to have. Maybe talk of a “mute revolution” as Christensen calls it is enough to inspire those failing in today’s school system to fight back. I honestly thought Freire’s words were a bit extreme, and there are still parts of Freire’s philosophy that I’m not on board with; however, I’m beginning to see the need for an extreme change in our schools. I guess that means extreme words need to be written and read by everyone, but especially students in poor schools and form low SES backgounds. I’ve been in the education program for two years now and I don’t think social justice has been discussed enough. I find myself more and more agreeing that we need a “mute revolution.”