As I was reading "New Kid" by Jerry Craft, I was mesmerized by the plot of this story. It started off with an African-American student starting middle school and a location with people who are different than him. People with different life experiences, different upbringings and ultimately, different races. This book, written in the point of view from the main character Jordan, gives an insight to the inner struggles he'd face as an African American attending an affluent school. Something to confirm my thinking was the struggles and negative experiences that Jordan had. I have known that many African Americans are racially profiled in schools, stores and public spaces. This book confirmed my thinking and brought to light the negative experiences that African-Americans face. This book opens up dialogue between people to have difficult conversations yet, they are conversations that need to happen. This book will help me become a better person because I have learned the perspective of an African-American when it comes to dealing with negative experiences due to their skin color. It has help me become more receptive and understanding that the experiences of African Americans and their opinions and emotions are valid I need to be addressed.
What I learned from this Book-Head-Heart strategy is that this strategy will help students think of the it gradually asks the deeper meaning of texts. For teachers, we are quick to ask students comprehension questions. As students are going to be asked higher-level questions on state assessments, we can use this for students to further analyze what they've read.
As a teacher, I can see the usage of the Book-Head-Heart strategy. We are currently reading a chapter book named "Fenway and Hattie." Many of my students have never read a chapter book, therefore this is the best experience for me to help them process what they need to be thinking about as they read a chapter book. One of the ways that I can use this in a classroom is by using this strategy at the end of the book. Once we have finished reading the book and had our classroom discussions for every chapter, they could create an essay using the Book-Head-Heart strategy.
Teaching third does come with its own challenges, one of them being that students aren't used of having discussions about text and how to express their thoughts out loud. By guiding students through the BHH strategy, it will create a model for them to create their own BHH.
The BHH not only can be used for chapter books, but also used for smaller books or picture books. Nowadays, so many authors have created books that discuss complex situations or deal with issues (such as culture, social issues, race, etc.) to where the BHH strategy can be used in these these books. Students can create meaningful BHH's with a book that's in their understanding level.
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