DewaltYALens3

Kyle Dewalt YA Lit Lens #3 Dr. Sherry 3-1-11    Reader- Response After reading // True Notebooks //, by Mark Salzman, I have to say that this is a young adult novel that I really wish I would have had the opportunity to read when I was in high school or even before being now in my third year of college. Not only is it a novel that anyone, young adult or adult could read and enjoy, but it is also a read in which everyone can learn something from. Many texts out there try to teach morals or lessons to the readers. I firmly believe that // True Notebooks //is a text that can most definitely teach everyone about how the simple power of writing down your thoughts and emotions can express how you truly feel. This essentially allows everyone to not keep everything bottled up inside. This novel can also help teach young adults how terrible it is to make tragic mistakes in life and how difficult and emotional it is to have to pay a sentence in jail for what they had done. I think that I was able to connect well with this text, which is new because I have not connected with any of the others for this class and haven’t in general in regards to other books that I have read. While I am not in the shoes of the convicted teenagers in the prison setting, I really connected with Mark. Just some of his original thoughts and emotions that he expressed right from the start entering the L.A. Juvenile Hall were what I would have most definitely been thinking. I would have been questioning whether these students would actually participate or go against me, and I would wonder how I myself could “evaluate poems about AK-47s” (9). I especially connected with the students when they wrote. While I was never truly given an opportunity in my schooling to just freely write what I was feeling without worrying about being penalized for making mistakes, I felt like I would have liked to at a younger age. These students were able to escape their lives and get feelings out in the open, which was something that seemed to be very repressed in their jail settings. When Patrick wrote his first response about his love to his dad, it made me almost want to write something to my own father. Not to be mistaken at all, my father has always been there for me and we have a great relationship, but sometimes I feel very distant from him and do not get the opportunity to thank him for everything he has done for me or the advice he has given me throughout the years. “Even though we are distant, I still love him. I love my dad!” (63). My dad works only fifteen minutes from campus here and I see him whenever I go home, but he is the person in my family that I am distant from and I feel that before it is too late, I need to let him know how truly important he is to me. I strongly believe that students in my classroom would be able to identify with // True Notebooks //. It is a very powerful text that allows for readers own feelings to escape and I would be able to utilize the text with different lessons on writing. I agree with what Mark says to his student’s, “This isn’t a competition—it’s about writing honestly. Writing from the heart” (33); “And don’t worry about spelling, grammar, neatness, or any of that. Just write what’s on your minds” (37). When students no longer have to worry about everything that goes into the process of writing, they can find the freedom to enjoy the actual process of writing. I think that this is something that teachers should adopt into their curriculum because of how hard it is to get students to connect and write quality work. When they learn to enjoy the process of writing, they can then learn the importance of correctness, which is of course important, but isn’t as important as writing reactions, emotions, and their own personal opinions. Students will also be able to identify with the text because it is a very modern work and one that could deal with a friend that they may have or it could also be them in the future if they happen to make a mistake. Through the experience that the students have in the text, students in the classroom can see how important it is to speak up and not be afraid of what others are thinking or to know that there is always someone like Mark to talk to or have as a positive figure in their lives so that they too can try and make it through life. With how much schools are changing in today’s society and how bullying and crime is becoming a constant problem, students need to value what they have and find outlets to get rid of stress or emotions that they cannot control. Through reading this text and also making connections with the different characters, students can possibly work to fight against the problems they encounter. This text allows them to see that life could be much worse for them, but if they stand up for what is right or find an outlet such as writing expressively to things that matter to them; they can rise up and find the positives in their lives. // True Notebooks // is definitely one text that students can connect with and from it they can learn to express their experiences through writing to others in the class or in life in general. If Mark Salzman was able to have this powerful movement work with these juvenile’s, then it is something that a teacher could most definitely try to utilize in their own classroom and try to get students to learn and grow from their writing and bring their emotions and thoughts to the surface. Back to Personal Page