“The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, meories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom.” (Lois Lowry, 1994).

My 6th graders read that speech today as an extension of our unit on The Giver.

But, this blog is about a certain 7th grader. It’s a story that is emblematic of the meaning of thanks, hope, and progress.

Thanksgiving went by way too quickly.

But, one reason to enjoy the rush back to school today was to see one of my 7th graders. He called me on Friday of break to share some good news:

“Hello?” -him

“Yes, I got a call from this number that I missed and I wasn’t sure who it was–”

“It’s [JC]!”

“[JC]! Hello! How are you?”

“I finished the book!”

“You did?!”

“Yeah!”

I was pretty speechless after that. [JC] is one of my lowest students, but is aching with so much potential (he hides it well, but it is there). He had some problems picking out and sitting down with a book, and so, back in October, we made a deal.

The deal was that he didn’t have to exasperate himself over the choices of picking a book every week in the library. I would pick one I think he might like out of our classroom library and he would give it a try. But, he had to read the first chapter before he made any kind of decision.

I picked “A Wrinkle in Time.” Classic, at his reading level, and perhaps interesting enough to keep his attention.

It took two days, but chapter one hooked him enough to keep him reading.

His locker is right next to my room, which was the home of the book. We set daily reading goals as he walked into homebase for DEAR (Drop-Everything-And-Read) Time every morning. Most days, he would hit his target. On the days he didn’t, he joyfully admitted that he was talking and staying off task…”It’s hard to read when everybody’s talking!”

(True. Very true.)

We set a goal of 10 pages/day over Fall Break. That would be 50 pages. “50 pages! WHOA!” He exclaimed as we talked by his locker. I told him he just needed to do 10 pages a day. That eased his anxiety, but he still did not meet the mark.

Upon returning to school the following Tuesday, “I had things to do,” he said.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Playing video games! Watching TV! And I went to my cousin’s house!” He smiled wryly. This is the part where, even though I think his excuses are absurd, his expressions melt my heart just a little. I tried not to let on.

“Well, you have a lot of catching up to do!”

Over the next week or two, he struggled with that catch up. He finally met his fall break goal the first week of November, a good two weeks past the deadline.

Small steps.

We continued our daily goal setting and found ourselves at Thanksgiving Break. We set another 10 pages/day goal. This time, we put Post-It bookmarks every benchmark with “Notes from Ms. O’Malley” as reminders.

Cheerfully, we parted.

Then Black Friday rolled around and I missed a call from a Tulsa number while getting ready for an outing. Returning that call was a great teacher moment for me. I asked him what he planned to do with the rest of his break,

“Well, NOW I’m going to watch TV and play video games!”

“Good, [JC]! You deserve the break!”

Today, as he came to school, we talked about the next book in the L’Engle series (which will be in his hands tomorrow), the extra credit computer quiz he will take tomorrow, and how he felt about finishing the book. In his wry, classic [JC] voice, “Good!”

This was a reason to enjoy coming off of a much-needed break and returning to the grind.

Under mountains of work, there are little mines of gold like [JC] and his reading goal.

So many of my students are afraid of books…words and no pictures, symbolism sans action, subtext sans superficiality. We are finding gems in class stories like “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and “The Giver.” But, we are all working on the desire to step into a library and subsequently be overwhelmed by the endless possibilities. That feeling may not come for everyone this week, this semester, this year, but the seeds are slowly being planted. I view this as a necessity; seeds to spur growth that will give all of my students freedom, choices…risks and rewards.

[JC]’s was slow progress, but it was progress. Slow and steady wins the race, eh?

There is more work to be done to continue to help [JC] and his classmates grow. This is a good reminder that it is possible, though. And worth it.

What a good thing to be thankful for — even the smallest victories, the triumph for even just one student. Multiplying that takes some time, and some serious effort, but [JC] gives me hope that it’s possible.

So, the takeaway from this experience? Twofold:

Never give up. Never, ever, give up. It’s all possible.

And, that, as always, books can change the world. Even in small ways.

Let’s see where [JC] goes. And here’s to all of my other students: 55 reasons to be thankful, 55 reasons to have hope in the present and for the future.

~MJ