Bronx Masquerade Reading Journal
1)
Explain how you chose your book.
I chose Bronx Masquerade as my reading for this month for multiple
reasons. When I was an undergrad student,
one of my practicum teachers mentioned it to me. She told me that it is a great book to teach
her CP students at the beginning of the year because they really engage with
the modern plot and characters. Even
though I knew nothing about the plot, I loved my practicum teacher; her
recommendation alone made me want to read it.
Since my practicum teacher mentioned it me over a year ago, Bronx Masquerade has been on my reading
bucket list. Whenever I saw it as an
option for our September readings, it immediately grabbed my attention.
Whenever we engaged in our “Book Pass” activity, I was actually able to read a
little about the plot. Again, it grabbed
my attention. The summary on the back of
the book explains that the main character is given an assignment in his high
school English class, and it affects him greatly. Feeling emotional triggers from multiple
angles, I felt like I couldn’t let this book go.
2) What is the
setting? Why is it important?
Bronx
Masquerade is set in the Bronx (a part of New York City), during the
present day. This is very important to
the story because the audience can find characters to be more relatable. Additionally, most of this story occurs in an
inner city high school setting or in the ghetto of the Bronx. In terms of the story, this is important
because the student characters are studying the Harlem Renaissance. After some debate, students are allowed to
write poetry for the assignment because many characters, especially the main
character Wesley “Bad Boy” Boone, thinks that it would better relate to the
Harlem Renaissance time period. These
students are getting to explore the main topics given in English as they also
get to explore themselves as writers.
In terms of teaching this one day, I
think the setting is important because high school students will find this text
more enticing and relatable. Because the
students are around their age, they will automatically feel more personally
connected with them. Real high school
students will also relate to the setting because it is a modern text. If I were to work in a poor district or with
inner city kids, this novel will also engage in more person triggers because of
the ethnicity and socioeconomic status of the characters in this book. Altogether, the setting says a lot about the
plot itself and how the story could work with real life inner city high school
English students.
3) Write a letter to
a character in this book.
Mr.
Ward,
How did it make you feel when your
students reacted so positively to poetry and poetry readings? I feel like this is a teachers dream! Even though your original assignment was to
have your students write an essay, they seemed to really take this assignment
into their own hands by writing such amazing poetry. Even though you had no way of predicting that
this would happen, I think it is awesome that you allowed your students to have
this creative outlet. You even went as
far as having “Open Mike Fridays” in your classroom to promote this
community. It would have been easy for
you to shut this down, but you stepped back and let you students learn in their
own way.
Also, what was your initial reaction
when students started to open up about such serious subjects? I bet it was hard to balance the personal subject
matter that was being discussed. Though
some difficulties were definitely put on you by the direction some of the
poetry took, I think it was for the best because such an amazing community came
alive through “Open Mike Fridays.” It
showed your students how everyone, from many different walks of life, have
issues. Additionally, I think it showed
your students how they were more similar than they would have originally
thought. Altogether, I think that this project turned out to be awesome, and I
wanted to let you know how much I loved it!
I want to try something similar in my classroom.
Sincerely,
A
Fellow Teacher
