I went to two elementary schools. 1 for kindergarten and 1st grade and one for my remaining years in elementary. Im not exactly sure why i switched schools but what i remember hearing is my  2nd school was a better school. Both schools were in my neighborhood so the distance from me house wasnt drastic. It was a bit of a longer walk but  never minded. The area in which the school was in was a bit odd. I shouldnt say odd, it was just different. It was next to a hasidic Jewish community, a few blocks from a housing project commuinity, to the left of the school was a predomanitly russian high income community, and to the right was a lower income neighborhood with many middle eastern and hispanic residents. Oh and i also forgot to mention, last but not least, a few blocks away was also a large strip of houses and bussiness almost all italian-american owned. That neighborhood/area is actually in and or referenced in a lot of famous italian mob movies and shows. So it was a melting pot, a lot of diversity but i would say very segregated within the school. From the classes to recess to lunch. All day every day. Looking back now it is really messed up how it was. For example, we had the classes broken up in levels of advancment. The most advaced class being the “sigma class”. This class was full of russian and italian american students. from there none of the classes had special names but they were broken up in levels of “advancment” and the class you were put in for he most part stuck with you from 1st to 5th grade.  Really what happened is the more advanced russian and italian american kids got the sigma class,  the average russian and italian american kids got class A, the more advanced students of color got class B and the average students of color got class C and got mixed with students that didnt know english, struggled to read, write, etc. My mother picked up on this quickly and at the start of every school year you could catch her in the main office arguing with  a receptionist that would blurt racial slurs and refuse to connect her to the principal. Every time my mom waited in that office because the prinicpal had to come out eventully and every year it was the same thing, she would personally request i be moved up in class. they would move me up one class but that wasnt enough. I would get bored in that class and be ahead of most the class but they hated the idea of putting me in the “sigma class’. Their solution? the school would give me the textbooks that the “sigma class” were using and have me work on them after i finished my regular work …(to be continued)

 

SUMMARY

“How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn is essentially about explaining to the reader how to be a better reader. He does this by trying to get readers to look at pieces of writing in a different light. Instead of simply reading a text a reader should consider how it was built. A reader should not just read something, but deeply analyze what they are reading. Its one thing to read something, understanding what you just read is something completely different though.  A good way to ‘read like a writer’ is to ask youself questions such as “what is the purpose of this piece of work”, “who is the targeted audience”, etc.