I+Am+A+Pencil

Swope, S. //I Am A Pencil: A Teacher, His Kids, And Their World Of Stories//. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2004.

Sam Swopes __I Am A Pencil__ is a non-fiction retelling of a writer turned teacher turned researcher in Queens, New York, who fell in love with the writers he helped grow in both skill and in person. Mr. Swopes is a children's book writer who was asked to teach a ten day writing seminar to a class of multicultural students in third grade. In his sessions, he unlocks abilities in the children they never knew they possessed, turning them into writers. Mr. Swope freed them from the chains locking their imagination, encouraging them to think, dream, imagine, and write. Mr. Swope became more than a teacher to these students, his connections with them grew to foster deep relationships where he was genuinely interested in their personal lives. What began as a ten day class turned into a three year journey where Mr. Swope worked with the students, helping them as writers and collecting research for this book.

This book introduces us to each student as an individual, not just as a whole. We are introduced to Miguel, a boy born in Equator, who struggles with family and religious pressures. We meet Aaron, whose imagination grows beyond his written stories, infiltrating his interactions with everyone. Swope shows a genuine concern for the children and shares his interest with the readers of this book. We are given pieces of the students works to read, not simply for Swope to prove his point, but because he is genuinely proud of the work they accomplished.

I loved this insightful book. My favorite part was that I was reading something written by a writer turned teacher, not a teacher trying to be a writer. Swope is sure in his craft, and shares his gift with his students. How he introduces the students to us is so admirable. I felt that I was actually getting to know them as people and writers, they weren't just subjects in a case study. I cheered for their successes and felt heartbroken when they cried.

This book is truly inspirational to anyone who is going to be a teacher of writers. I believe that even current teachers should read this book as a reminder of why we got into this profession, for a love of writing, and a desire to help young writers succeed. Swope's teaching style is one that I admire and wish to emulate in my classroom, knowing each student as an individual, encouraging them to be creative, think outside the box, and find a deeper meaning in what they are writing. I have already placed this book on my library book shelf wish list, and you should too!

"I decided to make the class my project and devote my life to teaching writing for the next three years, In the process, I'd get to know my students' lives and imaginations, and watch them grow as people and writers. It was an exciting but risky proposition. I'd never written a book like this, and I had no idea how I'd support myself because no one would pay me for the two to five days each week I'd be teaching. But at least the research - the teaching - would be fun and rewarding, giving me the satisfaction of knowing I was doing something fun and useful with my life. All in all, it was an arrangement that promised to benefit everyone, and it certainly benefited me: that fall, while I was having dinner with a friend, she asked me if I had fallen in love. She said I was glowing,"(38).

(Talking about the students former teacher Mrs. Duncan, on her retirement)

"While she saw some value in the curriculum changes mandated by the city recently, in the end she couldn't live with them. The new curriculum requires teachers in underperforming schools to follow a regimen - exactly this many minutes for reading, exactly this many minutes for responses, and so on. She said it took the joy and creativity out of teaching for her. (She also said a program like mine wouldn't be possible in the school today; there just wouldn't be any time.) Although Mrs. Duncan felt that the new curriculum would help more children learn to read and write, she knew they'd end up hating school because the process was so boring,"(296).