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| Students like Gisselle Martinez, Vanessa Contreras, Felix Quintana and Douglas Lopez make a personal connection to literature and gain a deeper understanding of real life in Alan Sitomer’s sophomore English class at Lynwood High School in Los Angeles County. |
When Alan Sitomer asks his students to compare the metaphorical fences in their own lives with those in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences, it opens a floodgate of emotions. One after another, students describe the antithesis of white picket fences that have come to represent happy middle-class families.
Students describe parents who have built fences to keep “out” reminders of failed marriages, murdered children, addictions to drugs and alcohol, and temptation to run with the gang. Some students say their families have built fences to keep “in” feelings of failure and despair.
“I try to keep in my feelings of trust,” says one young Latino. “I don’t trust many people. I try to keep in how I feel about my messed-up life since I was forced to leave my dad. I was forced into maturity and never got to be a kid.”
Soon the students are deep in a discussion of how the characters in the play have built similar psychological barriers and are quoting passages from the book that they find to be the most meaningful. Before the bell rings, their teacher reminds them to read the next chapter and be prepared for a test the following day.
It’s a sophomore English class, but it is so much more. It is a place where poor and minority students choose to make a deep personal connection to literature by sharing their own personal and family issues. It is a place where books are not just an assignment to “get through” for a passing grade, but a way for students to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the world. Like the characters in the books they read, students become vulnerable and transparent for a brief moment in time.
Sitomer’s ability to help Lynwood High School students connect with literature earned him the Teacher of the Year award for Los Angeles County in September. [Editor’s note: At press time, Sitomer was named one of California’s Teachers of the Year; he has been chosen to represent the state in the national Teacher of the Year competition. See Story] But nothing is more rewarding, he says, than seeing his students’ faces light up with understanding.
Sitomer, a teacher at the Title I school for seven years, will do anything to build a bridge from the curriculum to his students. He’s best known for using hip-hop music to do that. The story goes that a few years ago he was up in the middle of the night working on a lesson plan on Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. While focusing on the line, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he began to think about Tupac Shakur, a rap artist who had been shot to death. The rapper’s lyrics were not all about violence and negativity; there were also messages about hope and rising up against adversity.
He worked all night building a bridge from Tupac to Thomas, finding commonalities in their words, metaphors and themes. The next day he was tired, but his students were electrified by his lesson and left his class begging for more.
“Essentially, if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain,” says the Lynwood Teachers Association member. “I realized that I needed to build a bridge of relevance and accessibility or my own students were not going to ‘get it.’ From the moment I said, ‘Who wants to study hip-hop today?’ there was 100 percent engagement from 100 percent of my students. It has been tremendously effective. My rates for sophomores passing the California High School Exit Exam for the past few years have been well over 95 percent on the very first try.”
All the hip-hop music used in his classroom is clean. “There is no profanity, no homophobia and no misogyny,” says Sitomer. “While hip-hop does have elements that most assuredly advocate reprehensible behavior, I don’t support that at all. At its core, hip-hop speaks of enlightenment, education and the need to pick oneself up by one’s bootstraps. Some of the elements — violence, oppression and materialism — are fantastic themes to engage my classroom. A lot of critical thinking goes on inside the walls of my classroom. And hip-hop is just another tool in my academic toolbox.”
Along with honing critical thinking skills, Sitomer’s been building an environment of trust. Students say they feel secure that personal information they share won’t leave the classroom, and this safe environment provides them with a valuable outlet.
“He’s a good man who has gained our respect and trust,” says Alonso Galvan. “He’s like a teacher and a psychologist. He connects what we are reading with our own perspective, and it gives us a better understanding of real-life situations. He really tries to help us: He doesn’t just teach something and hope we ‘get it.’”
“We say weird stuff in class that we wouldn’t say to other people,” says Fabiola Barrera. “We may only say it in his class and that might be the only time we will ever say it in our lives.”
“He talks to us and treats us like adults,” says Antonio Montes. “That’s because he wants us to act like adults and be ready for college. And he’s tough. We have tests every other day. He challenges us and keeps us on our feet.”
Last year Sitomer’s students read 14 novels and plays, including Shakespeare. “I have students who literally had never read an entire book and told me they had never done that much reading in their entire lives.”
There’s no conflict between having rigorous, standards-based lessons that are also engaging, enjoyable and meaningful to students, says Sitomer. “That’s the missing element in so many classrooms today with this No Child Left Behind mandate hanging over our heads. Where’s the fun? Where’s the life? Where’s the energy? But you can find it right here, in my classroom.”
