Partial Transcript of Class Discussion

This was a whole-class discussion of the picture book Rent Party Jazz by William Miller which tells the story of a boy (Sonny) who meets a musician (Smiling Jack) who teaches him about rent parties to raise money for rent during the Great Depression in New Orleans.  The community comes together to help him and his mother.  I read the book to them with a very minimal intro about the Great Depression (because the purpose was to start building context for the G.D. for a later novel).  They wrote in journals and/or turned and talked briefly at some stopping points other than these whole-group discussions.

Discussion midway through the book:
Teacher: What are you thinking?
DeAndre: It was a hard time for them.
Crystal: The owner was unfair.  You know how some owners today give you a day or a week longer to get the rent?  It's not fair, he wants his money fast and in a hurry.
(Many class "yeah" responses)
Jaihad: Maybe the party can be for other people, he also deserves more chances than just one, so then people know it isn't fair.
Teacher: Can you say more?
Jaihad: Like, it's not just for one person or for one family.  It could be rent parties for everyone.
Ky'asia: Maybe when the man Smiling Jack was little, this happened to him too.
Destiny: (To Crystal) Some landlords aren't like that.  Some landlords are friendly with the people who live in the house, and they give them more time or help them pay the rent.
(Some class "yeah" responses)
Crystal: That's still unfair!  (She goes on to explain why it's unfair for landlords to have some tenants they support and others they do not.)
Journee: Landlords today, they sometimes - well, he should do this, he should give them more days to get the rent together, because that way at least he still gets his money.

Discussion at the end of the book:
Teacher: What are you guys thinking now?
Ha'Lija: I want to compare what I wrote first to what I wrote just now.  I wrote it was a hard time and people were arrogant and didn't help others.  Then at the end I wrote it was still a hard time but people were helpful.
(I pushed for response from class)
Destiny: She's right, sometimes people help and sometimes they don't.
(Looooong pause)
Teacher: You know, in 5B [the other class] they discussed some about whether this would happen today.
Journee: I'm in between.  In some neighborhoods, it might happen, but also people might come to the party and not give money.  (She went on to differentiate between family/friends and just neighbors).  And there are some bad neighborhoods where people can't go outside to parties.  But then again, people might give money if it's a life threatening situation just because they know it will help you.
Majid: Most neighborhoods, people wouldn't help.  They don't care, they don't even know each other.  But in my neighborhood, they know each other.
Teacher: Would your neighborhood help you like that?
Majid: Yes.  I know everyone in my neighborhood.
Samantha: Some people might take money out of the bucket.
Angel: You can't really trust all the people.
Ky'asia: I think when Sonny gets older he'll do the same thing.  He'll learn the trumpet and help people.
Jewel: You know that saying, that what goes around comes around.  I think that if Sonny and his mom get rich, and have money, they'll help other people later.
Majid: You know that show, Everybody Hates Chris...(Spun off into a long story from the show that sort of related)
(Discussion became overlapping responses based on movies/shows)
Teacher: Okay, so we're going to wrap up, any other thoughts?
Journee: Some people just say, "Rent's your problem, not my problem."

My intention in this discussion was for it to be student-led (primarily) and for me to take less of a directive role.  For that reason I tried to keep my questions really open.  I hoped that it would help acclimate my students to the time period but I didn't have really specific goals beyond that.  I wanted to see where they would go with the book.  Initially what I was most interested by was the fact that at first, the class got very engaged with the idea of the unfairness of the landlord, and by the end of the story there was a lot of back and forth about different neighborhoods.  The sense seemed to be that other people are generally bad, but the people they know are generally good.

In terms of social dynamics, there were 6 boy conversational turns (2 of which prompted by me to add on) and 13 girl turns.  The class consists of 9 boys and 15 girls, and 2 boys were out that day, so the dynamics would inevitably be shifted somewhat but it was still something that stood out to me.  Crystal, the girl who brought up and continued to press the unfairness issue, is not usually a student who participates much or has a lot of academic capital in the classroom (although she is reasonably popular socially), so I was surprised to see her so engaged.

Other thoughts?  I will post the transcript from 5b tomorrow if you want to see both...and we can maybe discuss how this fits in with the Lewis book.