Have you ever experienced teaching a tough text and didn’t know how to talk about it? Or been afraid to have a tough talk about a tough text? This book is a must read to help you through those difficult times in the classroom. Tough Talk Tough Texts: Teaching English to Change the World is written by Cindy O’Donnell- Allen and has changed my outlook even before teaching in my own classroom. In chapter 1 the book starts off by introducing you to three teachers and their experiences with tough texts and tough talks. Tough talks “refer to the specialized communication students use to address the controversial topics that arise in tough texts, texts that raise difficult issues and treat them in complex ways,” (O’Donnell- Allen 6). Civil discourse is talked about a lot throughout this book which is how we talk about things well civilly. It is important because it can help with our understanding of certain aspects of the world. Tough texts include things under cultural relevance and relatable characters that can make it hard for you as the teacher and the student to discuss. But don’t worry, there are strategies to help you choose tough texts for your class in this book. I learned that there are questions to keep in mind when looking for tough texts. “Does this book focus on significant issues that my students are likely to see as relevant?” “Are these issues treated in complex ways?” (O’Donnell- Allen 34). Although these may be difficult to bring into the classroom at first, it is what students want to learn about. This book also provides ways in which you can get student and parent approval of texts. If you provide a list of suggested books in the syllabus you can have students read it over then show their parents and come back with a signature of approval for them to read certain texts. This can then help you separate your students into book clubs! If some students want to read book x others may want to read book y and this method can help with the process of separating students. Some tough texts will be good for individuals or groups or whole class but its all about figuring out your students and what will work the best. This book provides so many activities and appendix’s that offer tough texts and strategies when teaching them.
I think this book can be helpful to secondary teachers in both english and history classes, maybe even science if there are some tough things to talk about. I think as a society we often shy away from talking about certain things because we are afraid to offend people or come across as being rude. This book can help teachers really address their students to the best of their abilities. I think this book could even be assigned to students for them to read about or read parts of it before they start getting into tough texts and tough talks with their classmates and teachers. I think it is easier for students to talk about things with their peers rather than their teachers and this book along with tough texts really can start to break a wall down in my opinion. I think if we can keep civil discourse in mind, maybe tough talks will slowly start to go away and different parts of the world won’t be so hard to talk about anymore.
