pp. 102-118 Summary and Analysis

Mike continues his work with the challenged readers. Instead of having them write about pictures, he tells them a story and has them write the ending. The children were becoming interested in their work with Mike. He discusses the situation with Ben, the supervisor of the team. Ben tells him to have the children make a book of their writings and Mike does this at the next class.

When his time with this group of students ended, there were other groups of students with whom he was assigned to work. Many of the children were considered substandard academically which led Mike to question the curriculum and the assessment testing. The curriculum was more or less mechanical and not appropriate for the kinds of children with whom Mike was working. These kind of children were destined to fail at the...