Student Audience
Most students enter my small school because they are involved in the juvenile justice system; others are not “in the system,” but they share characteristics that make this the best school for them. We meet our district’s great need for a school or program that can accommodate a concentrated number of students with histories of severe discipline problems, chronic and temporary trauma, the challenges of substance abuse, mental health problems, and other dysfunctions that accompany these things and that hinder school success. They tend to face challenges of poverty and race. This is the last stop for most of them academically; they have been suspended too often or were unsuccessful in the district’s traditional schools. Not surprisingly, they tend to be older than their grade level and significantly behind in academic achievement. They respond to literature, images, and content that are relevant and engaging. Sula is an unpredictable story with characters who share some of life’s hardest struggles with my students and their families: poverty, racial conflict, limited life options, and trauma. For my 11th and 12th grade English classes I was looking for a novel that could be taught within one six week semester, expose them to rich literary craft, and teach them historical events and issues to enrich their generally insufficient academic knowledge of our history. The novel does have mature content; it works for my students, many of whom are emancipated from their families or have their own children, but maybe not all 11th and 12th grade classrooms.
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