In this unusual classroom, a special education teacher and an English teacher, Pam Myette and Jacqueline Dzubak, work with twenty ninth graders who have been selected for a double English period in which they receive extra support to engage with the regular and challenging freshman English curriculum. Many of these students are classified for special education; two are English learners. They have never seen themselves as readers or as college bound, and only two had been consistently productive in middle school.

During the class visited below, students are reading chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird. They have been asked to Talk to the Text and locate and highlight a quote that describes Atticus's bewilderment regarding Maycomb County. The instructions include a question about the author's intent: What do you think Atticus is implying and why did Harper Lee include it?

Text-based Class Discussion

Teacher 1: All right, let's hear some feedback. What do you think?

Cab: (Referring to highlighting he has made on his text, boxed below) Atticus is saying that he knows how to face his children when they ask him a question, but the one thing he probably doesn't want is them to ask questions around the town and get their opinion.

You know what's going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb's usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to under­ stand ... I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town. I hope they trust me enough.

Teacher 1: Why doesn't he want them to ask other people questions?

Cab: Probably their life would change from that.

Teacher 2: (Checking that students understand why Atticus is concerned for Jem and Scout) What is Atticus discussing with Uncle Jack? What is the context of this discussion? What is happening in Maycomb County all of a sudden?

Nola: Atticus is defending the Negro, which is like now people are changing their mind when the Ewells, when before they were for them.

Teacher 1: (Looking over Cab's highlighted text) Cab pulled out some good language here, the whole town has gone "stark raving mad" when anything involves a Negro. In the line before that, what's some other language [Atticus] uses to describe Maycomb's problem?

Teacher 2: Go back to the text.

James: Bitterness.

Teacher 1: Right ... What did he call it?

Sandor: Disease.

Teacher 1: Disease, he's calling it disease. Why does he call it that?

Vincent: I have a question. I don't think it says it's a disease.

Teacher 1: Is he talking about a real illness? A physical illness?

Jason: No, like mental.

Vincent: I thought he was talking about always sometimes always happens each year.

Teacher 1: Okay, it's around. It's contagious.

Awele: He means everybody around seems to be catching this rumor that's going around and so they're saying metaphorically it's a disease, and he doesn't want Scout and Jem to get caught up in that.

Teacher 1: Right, so it's a contagious thing-meta­ phorically. Woo. Good job. Metaphorically. Okay, so metaphorically, the disease is not really a physical illness, but it is a disease of thinking, a way of thinking, the prejudiced way. Did everyone get that?

Text-Based Small-Group Questioning

Following the discussion, students move into small groups, where they share the questions, clarifications, and visualizations they prepared for homework the previous night. Pam reminds students that they are collaborators: "Help each other out. Some people are going to have some good questions. You may dis­ cuss those. Other people may need some help figuring out the chapter. Give them some help. Give them some support. Discuss the chapter. Discuss what is really, really going on, what's important, and what you want to remember and discuss with the whole group."

The questions students share in small groups vary in sophistication, but many are those any teacher could appreciate:

Why did Atticus think it was so important to defend Tom Robinson?

How does the fact that Scout's dad is helping a black man affend [affect] the town and the Finch family?

Why is it so hard for Scout to restrain herself from hitting her cousin Francis?

Why did Scout refuse to fight that mean kid in school? And why is this important?

Small-Group Theme Discussion

In another group, students discuss the themes the class is focusing on in the novel. Clark claims he can squeeze all four themes out of a single paragraph, and his partners check his reasoning.

Awele: Okay, go ahead, explain

Clark: (Reading from the text) "Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him per­ sonally. This one's mine, I guess." That's like she's coming of age, learning new stuff.

Awele: O kay.

Clark: And then, "You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will-"

Awele: That's prejudice.

Clark: "You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't let them get your goat." That's like courage.

Awele: Yeah . . . okay.

Clark: The next one's justice-injustice. "Try fighting with your head for a change ... it's a good one, even if it does resist learning." That's it.

Awele: (Unconvinced) How is that justice versus injustice, though?

Agreeing with Awele at this point, the third student in their group proposes a different paragraph, and the three continue their discussion.

When these previously inexperienced readers graduated from high school, their two ninth-grade teachers held a farewell party for them. Almost all were going on to college, many the first in their families to do so. At the party, students talked about how the class reading routines and the way their teachers respected and worked with them had helped launch them as stu­ dents and readers. Four years later, they held onto the belief that they had become students that year.