A writing teacher writes me! (inspiring boys to write)

When my sister Cynthia and I co-authored Jump-Starting Boys — our book on helping boys ages 7-17 read, write and achieve — we obviously hoped it would touch readers (parents, educators and mentors) positively. We especially hoped so given that the project, supposed to take eight months to complete, turned out to be a  labor of love to write (two years to research and write).

So imagine our delight today when we received the following letter from a teacher. Thanks, Mr. Miller, for taking the time to let us know how it has helped you and your students.

P.S. Happy new year, everyone!

 

I’m learning a lot from Jump Starting Boys. I’m an English teacher at a
Votech high school, and the boys you write about are my kids.

I just finished the chapter on writing when one of my reluctant writers
replied to a comment (in Google Docs) I made about a character’s “slight
death.” I questioned how any death is slight, and he replied that not all
deaths are by violent blunt force.

Now my first instinct is to argue back (the deaths were Candy’s dog and
Curley’s wife) but your lesson caused me to stop. Instead of shutting down
his thinking, I’m going to ask him to write me some examples of slight vs.
violent deaths (not in the essay but in the comments and no points are on
the table).

Thank you for such a useful and enlightening book. My co-teacher and I have
been incorporating young adult fiction into the curriculum, and we’re
letting the classics collect dust in the book closet.

Your chapter on writing is helping us to round out our instruction. Thank
you again.

Chris Miller