I recently met with Betsy Wolf from Readable & Relevant Press to toss around some ideas. It was really great to meet someone with such great enthusiasm and desire to help others. I love connecting with others and she contacted me because I taught her daughter one summer at Furman University, which goes to show you that you never know what connections will lead you to others. I even got some books from her which I would like to let you know about.
The books she gave me were easy to read books about issues that young adults face and written on a fourth or fifth grade level. One book was called Henry Perry Gets a Job which was an excellent resource for those needing a job. Click here for a sneak preview. It gives a lot of information about interviewing. The part that really grabbed me was at the beginning when Henry loses his job because the plant closed down. It deals with the feelings he is experiencing which many people can relate to with our economic situation. I think it tells people that it is okay to feel this way and that you are not alone. I think this would be a great book to use in the classroom because it gives great tips for students and it would be a great way to start discussions about different topics dealing with getting a job.
The other book she gave me was The Devil in Henry Perry’s Cousin which deals with addiction to drugs and alcohol. Again this would be a great book for a teacher to use in the classroom. It would be a great way to introduce a unit on Addiction. It talks about person’s actions while addicted to drugs and alcohol and it talks about the effect it has on people who care about him. At the end of the book there is a question and answer section which would be great for a class discussion.
These books are also available in Spanish.
I think these books would be great to use in a classroom but I don’t think I would give it to my high school special education students to carry around because I think they would be embarrassed by it. I did mention to Betsy that if she wrote more books for the classroom, I would recommend more paragraphs so that it looks more like other student’s books. If you are looking for something like these topics for your classroom, I would recommend these books to use together with the students because the topics are so meaningful and relevant.
Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).
Original Image: Cover of HENRY PERRY Gets a Job
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