Thank You, Mr. Falker

Thank You, Mr. Falker. By Patricia Polacco. New York, Philomel Books, 1998. R I.L. 2-4, Lexile 650L.L. 4.5.

Genre: Realistic Fiction

A story about a student who struggles with reading and writing, and gets picked on by her peers because of it. But her teacher wasn't going to give up on her, he believed in her and that's all she needed. In my opinion, this book is definitely a classic. I think every teacher who has read alouds for their classroom should own a copy of this book. My favorite part is how Mr. Falker believed in his each and every student and never for one second gave up on Little Trisha. Every teacher will have students who struggle and become discouraged with school, especially when other students make fun, but Mr. Falker recognized her strengths and worked off of that. He stood up to the students making fun and showed her he cared. Teachers like Mr. Falker are inspirations to future teachers such as myself. I think this book would be great to use in any elementary class. It has character development, plot development, and a wonderful theme. When kids understand the story, they would begin to be more sensitive to similar situations in there own classrooms. It gives an important message about diversity and differentiation in schools. That everybody learns differently and everybody has different strengths and weaknesses. I think kids can make great connections with this book, and they can learn a lot more than they think from it.

Social studies is more than dates, places, times, etc. It is about the study of our social life and the relationship we have with it. Language is such a critical part of our social life because it is everywhere and we use/need language on a daily basis. Reading and writing is where it all begins.