Background
Mt. Pleasant High School is in San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley, the mecca for the world’s competitive, dynamic technology industries. This is where the Mark Zukerbergs of the world migrate when they want to be recognized and expand the world’s technology. Over the past several decades, beginning long before it was titled Silicon Valley, the Bay Area has been home to a diverse population, and currently the Bay Area is more diverse than ever. Mt. Pleasant High School is emblematic of this diversity. Most of the students at Mt. Pleasant are first-, second-, or third-generation Americans, but in almost all cases they identify themselves as, or are identified as, hyphenated Americans, something other than simply American. My school reflects the demographics of a growing number of schools across America. It is estimated that by the next decade, the majority of students in America’s schools will be students of color.1 When it comes to literacy, Mt. Pleasant’s students are no different than your average high school student, and its students’ reluctance to engage in literature is reflected in one of our key statistical indicators, the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). The number of students attaining English Language designated “proficient” readers was less than 55%.2
I plan on using this unit with my junior-level English 3 class. When I first started teaching at Mt. Pleasant, placement in a junior level English class was predicated on students’ success in their previous years’ English courses: students had to obtain a grade of C or better in their English classes during their freshman and sophomore years to enter into English 3 their junior year. If they did not meet these requirements, they were scheduled into one of the many alternative or remedial English classes on campus. This process made for a somewhat academically homogeneous teaching environment, and for the most part, an English 3 teacher could expect his or her students to do their assignments and to engage with the reading on some level, and a majority of the students in an English 3 class were reading at or near grade level. However, a few years ago the district made changes regarding how English classes were structured; gone were virtually all remedial English classes. With the elimination of these classes, the once homogeneous English 3 class became a heterogeneous medley of students with diverse academic abilities: a student who earned an A in a sophomore level honors class, a senior who has up until that point been in English Language Learner classes, a special education student who has a processing disability, a student who had passed his or her sophomore English 2 class, a student who had failed his or her sophomore English 2 class--all now comprise an English 3 classroom.
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