Eddie and the Blue Man

Book Talk - the five people you meet in heaven

Kelsey Bergman

ENGL 493

Agriss

Book Talk

February 27, 2017

What is this book about? In this novel, an old man and war veteran named Eddie works as a maintenance man for the local amusement park. Eddie learns about the connections with his earthly life in the afterlife. He dies trying to save a little girl from one of the rides and learns what heaven is really like. Eddie’s life is explained to him by five people, all of whom he meets in heaven. These people were a part of his life in one way or another whether he knew them or not. Eddie wakes up in the same place he died; at the amusement park. The first person Eddie meets is a Blue Man. The Blue Man explains that Eddie is in heaven. He soon learns that he is in the Blue Man's heaven. Throughout the rest of the book, when Eddie meets all five people, he is visiting their personal heaven. Eddie learns that he will soon be in his own personal heaven.

Why I chose this text: the first reason is because the first time I read this book I really enjoyed it. The second reason that I chose this text is because it deals with one of the big questions of life: what is the afterlife like and what is heaven like? I read this book my junior year of high school and it really made me think more about how we live out our lives and what we do with our time. That is how the book so interesting. It makes the reader question what they are reading about and question what the author brings up. I think high school ages are the best years to introduce this book because it is an easy read. It is also not too long so it is not one of those books that will take weeks for you and your students to get through. I think many students would find this book interesting like I did because it is one of those page turner books. Once you start the book, you can’t put it down. You must find out what happens to Eddie next.

Please include some teaching ideas. How do you envision this text being used in a secondary classroom? Provide at least 3 specific ideas for what is possible with this text.

Some teaching ideas would be utilizing group discussion. This would be good especially in a secondary classroom. The book does raise a variety of questions and it would be a good idea for the students to talk about the questions they have about the book. This book also brings up a topic that may or may not be difficult for some students to talk about. It is a topic that challenges the norm but at the same time provides learning experience with how we live our life and what we do with our life.

Another idea for teaching this book is simply to read! This book is not very long and the chapters and sections are also on the short side. I think having a book that does not contain so much detail but enough to tell a story and for the reader to enjoy it is a good idea especially for a secondary classroom. Students who do not enjoy reading that much may find this book easier to read. The chapters are short so the students won’t feel like they are trying to remember so much material at once.
This book would also be a good tool to create a writing assignment. I think it offers up enough ideas for students to be able to write a paper. Students can either do research on this book or simply write a paper stating what they learned from the book, what they thought about the book, or what specific detail or moment stood out for them in the book. Being able to express your thoughts is always a good thing, especially in school.

Please consider some obstacles to using this text. What are the potential issues that may arise from using this text? Predict an administrator’s response to the use of this text. Predict parents’ responses. Predict students’ responses.

Some obstacles may be that students’ parents may not like their child reading about a topic like death. They may also be against their child reading about heaven. It all depends on if they have a religious background or not. As a teacher, you must be careful when picking a book for your students. I think these are the only potential issues that might arise but letting the parents know what books you are planning to have the students read for the year is a good idea. That way parents have a heads up on what material is going to be provided. I think an administrator’s response to this text may be more on the positive side as long as you have an appropriate goal for the use of this text. As for students, it is always a hit or miss. Some may enjoy the story and some not so much. But the short chapters in this book could potentially play a positive factor in the students liking the book.

Anything else you think is important for us to know and understand about this text and its use with students.

I think it is important to keep an open mind when you are reading books. Every book you read must be given a chance. This book teaches lessons about life, death, and afterlife. It causes us to think about our life and if we are living it in the way we choose to. Are we doing the things that make us happy? Are we surrounding ourselves with the people we love? I believe it is important to live life with an open mind and can experience everything you want to experience. I think this similar message could be sent to students. They may learn something from this book but as a future teacher, I do hope that every student learns something from every book they read.

Blog Post: "I Read It, But I Don't Get It"

Since this was a text rather than an article, I decided to just focus on what stood out to me the most when I read this text. I really liked the way Tovani discusses good reading and learning how to be a good reader. I like how he uses examples with his own experience as a teacher. In part one, he begins with fake reading. I like that he starts with this because there are many students who have mastered this. While reading this section, I like that he almost gives the reader a guide to what to do when students are fake reading. In his own experience, he relates to the students and shares with them that he used to do the exact same thing as a kid in high school: fake reading!

I also enjoyed reading about his experience with teaching himself how to read! He joins a book club and he not only teaches himself how to read but he learns how to examine what he has read. Tovani talks about strategies too with his class. He says that a "strategy is an intentional plan that readers use to help themselves make sense of their reading" (5). Tovani also states that "good readers use lots of strategies to help themselves make sense of text" (5). This is so true, especially when you are using a text for a class. Teaching students how to analyze a text and understand what they have read is very valuable.

In part 1.2, Tovani talks about the realties of reading. He says that people often have a perception of reading being "simplistic" (13) and that reading is just "sounding out words" (13). I believe this to be true because sometimes people who are not in school think it is an easy task. But that is not always the case; especially for kids and even older students who struggle with reading. There are different ways of struggling with reading, too. The obstacles that some students have to go through are tough. There are usually teacher assistants who take select students who need extra help into the hallway so they can help those students with their reading.

Blog Post #6: Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

In this article by authors Jeff Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell, they talk specifically about different theorists and important scholars. They talk about how the proponents of critical pedagogy drawn upon these important scholars and theorists (1). There is an argument for an "approach to education that is rooted in the existential experiences of marginalized peoples" (1). Or, trying to find a way to teach all students from all areas with use of critical pedagogy.

Our authors also talk about how they have been "investigating classroom interventions that are built upon the core principles of critical pedagogy" (1). The different tasks and lessons that they have used in urban high school english classrooms. One example is the curriculum that they taught to students at East Bay High school which has a diverse population (5). Their curriculum had texts such as Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Odyssey, Romantic poetry, and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Our authors stated that they believe "literacy educators could encourage a multicultural reading of any text even if the text is several thousand years old (5).

I really liked reading what Duncan-Andrade and Morrell had to say about critical pedagogy and I also liked that they talked about other scholars and theorists and not just Freire. When they talked about the lessons they taught to students they had differing and varying reasons as to why they chose the texts they did and why they decided to teach these texts as lessons. This reading also made critical pedagogy easier to understand not only from the way Freire describes it but having it relate to new media helped a lot. It also helped understanding critical pedagogy in a different way.