Sample Class Readings
Below we provide example readings of the kind that are often used in Wildcat Writers classes. The readings are organized into sections on community and community-based writing, education, literacy, and race. Many of these readings have been used successfully by teachers in the past. The links to download readings are password protected for copyright reasons (if you do not already have the password, you can request it here). Please let us know if you would like to suggest additional readings for our list!
Community and Community-Based Writing
Tom Deans’ “Exploring Community.” This chapter of Deans’ service-learning writing textbook examines the theme of community. It guides students an assignment to describe and analyze a particular community. Additional readings in this chapter include:
David L Kirp’s “Almost Home: America’s Love-Hate Relationship with Community”—a vignette about isolation and community on a college campus
Tracy Kidder’s “A Moral Place”—a description of how a small town community grappled with a vote on domestic partnerships.
Excerpts from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America-- a French visitor’s commentary on individualism, civic participation, and association in American culture (published in 1840).
John McKnight’s “Redefining Community”—an argument for why the community should be involved in problem solving, and why they should include “labeled people” in this problem solving.
Carolyn Ross and Ardel Thomas’s “Why Community-Based Writing?” A chapter from a service-learning writing textbook, this excerpt gives background on service-learning, democratic education, and what can be learned from participating in various types of community-based writing projects.
Adam Davis' "What We Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Service." This essay challenges readers to examine the power dynamics surrounding service in order to help people be more sensitive to the complexity of service relationships.
David L Kirp’s “Almost Home: America’s Love-Hate Relationship with Community”—a vignette about isolation and community on a college campus
Tracy Kidder’s “A Moral Place”—a description of how a small town community grappled with a vote on domestic partnerships.
Excerpts from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America-- a French visitor’s commentary on individualism, civic participation, and association in American culture (published in 1840).
John McKnight’s “Redefining Community”—an argument for why the community should be involved in problem solving, and why they should include “labeled people” in this problem solving.
Carolyn Ross and Ardel Thomas’s “Why Community-Based Writing?” A chapter from a service-learning writing textbook, this excerpt gives background on service-learning, democratic education, and what can be learned from participating in various types of community-based writing projects.
Adam Davis' "What We Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Service." This essay challenges readers to examine the power dynamics surrounding service in order to help people be more sensitive to the complexity of service relationships.
Education
George Bush's “No Child Left Behind Executive Summary.” In this summary, Bush outlines the major points of NCLB.
Mark Edmundson’s “On the Uses of a College Education.” In this humorous article for Harper’s Magazine, Edmundson looks at the effects of consumerism and complacency on education. He ends with a challenge to students.
Justin Ewers “Class Consciousness.” This 2003 article from U.S. News and World Report discusses the reasons why students from low-income backgrounds are difficult to find at prestigious colleges.
John Gatto’s “Against School.” Public school teacher John Gatto draws on history in this Harper’s essay to passionately argue that our school system works to keep students immature and to foster conformity, submission, and social stratification.
John Gatto’s “Seven Lessons.” In this essay, Gatto launches a critique on the public school system by claiming that it teaches seven lessons: confusion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provisional self-esteem, and one can’t hide.
Greg Graffin’s “Anarchy in the Tenth Grade.” Graffin’s short article discusses the punk movement and the pressure to conform.
John Kozol’s “The Savage Inequalities of Public Education in New York.” Kozol outlines the discrepancies between NYC public school districts in this essay using stories and vivid description from his visits to schools.
John Kozol’s “Separate But Still Unequal.” This essay discusses differences in school conditions and teaching practices between schools that service primarily white students and schools that service minority children, mixing statistics, quotes, and stories.
Gloria Ladson-Billings’ “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools.” Ladson-Billings’ presidential address to the American Educational Research Association uses ideas from economics to argue that we should reframe the “achievement gap” as a longstanding educational debt with cumulative results, and therefore we have a special obligation to address the issue.
“Learning Power: The Myth of Education and Empowerment.” Taking a historical approach, this essay argues that schools are not meritocracies that equalize opportunity for all stdents.
Merrow’s “Survival of the Fittest.” This 2005 New York Times article profiles four UA students as part of a discussion on the difficulties of college life.
Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation.” In this excerpt from his humorous and provocative book Stupid White Men…and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation, Moore examines the failures of our education system, including general cultural illiteracy, lack of library resources, poor teacher salaries and school resources, and the corporatization of schools.
Ernesto Portillo’s “Opinion.” This very short opinion piece outlines the debate about ethnic studies in Tucson Unified School District, advocating for keeping the program.
Richard Rodriquez’s “The Achievement of Desire.” This excerpt from Rodriguez’s controversial autobiography Hunger of Memory discusses the different nature of his academic and working class spheres, highlighting what he gave up to enter academia.
Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average.” This selection from Rose’s Lives on the Boundary argues through personal stories that students who are tracked as lacking talent or motivation can actually have tremendous potential, and explores reasons for why these students do not always engage in school activities.
Theodore Sizer’s “What High School Is.” This essay begins with a description of a typical day of high school, and then moves into an analysis of the difference between the stated goals of education and the reality.
Pete Thamel’s “College an Attractive Pit Stop on the Way to N.B.A.” This New York Times article discusses the trend for students to attend one year of college and then drop out to play on professional sports teams.
Vershawn Young’s “Going Home.” This chapter from the book Your Average Nigga: Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity describes life in the Horner housing projects of Chicago, along with the racism and other obstacles Young faced in school as a child growing up in the Horner Homes.
Mark Edmundson’s “On the Uses of a College Education.” In this humorous article for Harper’s Magazine, Edmundson looks at the effects of consumerism and complacency on education. He ends with a challenge to students.
Justin Ewers “Class Consciousness.” This 2003 article from U.S. News and World Report discusses the reasons why students from low-income backgrounds are difficult to find at prestigious colleges.
John Gatto’s “Against School.” Public school teacher John Gatto draws on history in this Harper’s essay to passionately argue that our school system works to keep students immature and to foster conformity, submission, and social stratification.
John Gatto’s “Seven Lessons.” In this essay, Gatto launches a critique on the public school system by claiming that it teaches seven lessons: confusion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provisional self-esteem, and one can’t hide.
Greg Graffin’s “Anarchy in the Tenth Grade.” Graffin’s short article discusses the punk movement and the pressure to conform.
John Kozol’s “The Savage Inequalities of Public Education in New York.” Kozol outlines the discrepancies between NYC public school districts in this essay using stories and vivid description from his visits to schools.
John Kozol’s “Separate But Still Unequal.” This essay discusses differences in school conditions and teaching practices between schools that service primarily white students and schools that service minority children, mixing statistics, quotes, and stories.
Gloria Ladson-Billings’ “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools.” Ladson-Billings’ presidential address to the American Educational Research Association uses ideas from economics to argue that we should reframe the “achievement gap” as a longstanding educational debt with cumulative results, and therefore we have a special obligation to address the issue.
“Learning Power: The Myth of Education and Empowerment.” Taking a historical approach, this essay argues that schools are not meritocracies that equalize opportunity for all stdents.
Merrow’s “Survival of the Fittest.” This 2005 New York Times article profiles four UA students as part of a discussion on the difficulties of college life.
Michael Moore’s “Idiot Nation.” In this excerpt from his humorous and provocative book Stupid White Men…and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation, Moore examines the failures of our education system, including general cultural illiteracy, lack of library resources, poor teacher salaries and school resources, and the corporatization of schools.
Ernesto Portillo’s “Opinion.” This very short opinion piece outlines the debate about ethnic studies in Tucson Unified School District, advocating for keeping the program.
Richard Rodriquez’s “The Achievement of Desire.” This excerpt from Rodriguez’s controversial autobiography Hunger of Memory discusses the different nature of his academic and working class spheres, highlighting what he gave up to enter academia.
Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average.” This selection from Rose’s Lives on the Boundary argues through personal stories that students who are tracked as lacking talent or motivation can actually have tremendous potential, and explores reasons for why these students do not always engage in school activities.
Theodore Sizer’s “What High School Is.” This essay begins with a description of a typical day of high school, and then moves into an analysis of the difference between the stated goals of education and the reality.
Pete Thamel’s “College an Attractive Pit Stop on the Way to N.B.A.” This New York Times article discusses the trend for students to attend one year of college and then drop out to play on professional sports teams.
Vershawn Young’s “Going Home.” This chapter from the book Your Average Nigga: Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity describes life in the Horner housing projects of Chicago, along with the racism and other obstacles Young faced in school as a child growing up in the Horner Homes.
Literacy
Jimmy Baca’s “Coming into Language.” In this intense and engaging essay, Chicano poet Jimmy Baca tells the story of how he finally decided to learn to read and write at age seventeen while in prison.
Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read.” In this essay, Malcolm X tells the story of teaching himself to read and write while in prison, and outlines some of what he has learned about the history of oppression through books.
Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read.” In this essay, Malcolm X tells the story of teaching himself to read and write while in prison, and outlines some of what he has learned about the history of oppression through books.
Race
Bob Blauner’s “Talking Past Each Other: Black and White Languages of Race.” In this essay, Bob Blauner uses the Rodney King trial as a frame for discussing two different understandings of racism—individual acts based on race (the understanding often held by white people) and systemic injustice against a non-dominant ethnic group (the understanding often held by black people). He also defines terms like “race,” “ethnicity,” “prejudice,” and “discrimination.”
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