Thursday, August 15, 2013

National Press for Class of 2013's Book!

The class of 2013's book, Halfway to Infinity, was featured in this month's newsletter from the U.S. Department of Education.  Check it out!



STUDENT WRITING INSPIRES

Age 13 and Published

Recently a New York City public school teacher, Vanessa Snowden, wrote to Arne Duncan, "If you give teachers the space we need to cultivate a context for the standards that speak to students, you will see all the ways in which we can create success." As evidence, she sent him a book, the product created when Snowden gave her students the room "to be people." The results are powerful: Halfway to Infinity is an anthology crafted and published entirely by students, from cover to contents, and its 305 pages exhibit a compelling array of literary forays. Each entry offers insight into the complexity and depth of the human experience from the remarkably sophisticated perspective of eighth graders. A few of our favorites (among the many) include "Easy and Completely Accurate Stereotyping: Bigotry for Simpletons"; "A Synopsis of the Modern World in Under Two Hundred Words"; "#thatawkwardmoment When You Can Relate to a Dog"; and "Our Nature Shoved in a Poem."