Taking a student-centered approach from the first chapter to the end, Ms. Christenbury outlines an approach to teaching from the beginning by starting with why we, as English teachers, choose our profession. She ends the book with a section on The End of a Lifetime Teacher. As her title states, the profession is a journey. What moves her book from chapter to chapter is the writing style she chooses. It is very personable and easy to understand her message. A unique feature of the book is a section that is dispersed through each chapter titled For Your Journal. Christenbury is asking her readers to keep a journal by writing reflections on ideas that are given. The section, For Your Journal, promotes a concept that Christenbury sees as essential in the character of a teacher.

       Other traits of the book that I found helpful were the author’s use of examples, quotes from teachers and students, and applications to a classroom setting. At the end of each chapter, she offers a list of resources that are helpful to the subject she has addressed. In classroom application, she gives an excellent example of how The Color Purple could be taught with each of the models of teaching (p.45-46). All of her methodologies are followed by classroom applications. Teacher and student quotes bring "real" life to her material. It is evident that Christenbury’s work is grounded in research and brings in all sides of the argument. Christenbury does not write as one who comes from the sidelines of education but as one who has been the coach. In the first chapter, she writes:

Adolescents don’t come to school to see you or to go to class: they come

to experience the real action: one another. In some ways you and your

class are merely the backdrop of the play. (p.18)

      Making the Journey encompasses many areas of the classroom. Some major areas I found insightful were the author’s views on tracking, fifty-minute periods, YA literature, teaching writing, and rules of discussion. Christenbury’s view of tracking was especially convincing since I see this at the school I am currently doing my field experience. Tracking has become a way to cause division in schools. "Kids are placed into tracks for reasons other than out-and-out ability and intelligence." The problem I see with tracking is that teachers, despite their best effort, are not open minded. They perceive certain things about students because of the track they are placed in and "they are not allowed to change"(p.28). However, Detracking America’s Schools, points out that "there is clearly a case for detracking on equity grounds: however, as a result, students currently in upper-track classes may suffer major losses in achievement test scores." The authors of this article bring to light that "high track classes received more educational resources than low track classes." Christenbury is of the opinion that "kids tracked in the higher brackets cannot always be assumed to be smarter, and the kids tracked in the lower brackets cannot always be assumed to be slower" (p.26).

        In the section on fifty-minute periods, Christenbury writes on the constraint of time. With few ways to improve this constraint, a teacher’s classroom needs to have variety with focus on large groups, small groups, and individual work. This section brought to my mind the idea of block scheduling. The school I am currently doing my field experience in is on block scheduling. Donald Weller has written a comprehensive article on this scheduling method. His research has found that "using a block schedule has revealed many benefits, including increased student achievement, improved critical thinking skills, enhanced school climate, more collaborative learning and teaching practices, increased opportunities for curriculum enhancement and more active, student-initiated learning." Weller believes, through his extensive research, that block scheduling helps to alleviate this time constraint. I would like to have Christenbury’s view.

       Motivating students was a constant in all of Christenbury’s practices. There are four major tasks a teacher needs to do:

• A teacher must gain student’s attention.
• A teacher must insist that student’s perform at the level of their ability.
• A teacher must provide consequence for learning.
• A teacher must recognize and insist.(p.36)

A teacher has to motivate her students, the gifted as well as the slow-learner. In another article I read by Thomas Parish, he brings up the fact that all three factors, motivation, teachers, and students, need to be in place to improve the situation. The topic of motivation was especially important to me because I see a teacher as being able to reach all students. Christenbury states that "teachers cannot learn for the student, cannot study for them, and cannot be motivated for them." Along with motivating students is dealing with the alienated student. A colleague of Christenbury’s , Nancy Rosenbaum, came up with her approach to the alienated student or the apathetic learner. Her plan was entitled "Big Bucks". Rosenbaum’s class consisted of unmotivated junior and seniors who needed guidance in life after high school. The plan consisted of using fake $500 bills as a reward system for certain behaviors. For example:

Being on time to class four times in a row: $500

Showing a 10 percent improvement in score from pre-test to post-test on certain subjects: $500

Being exceptionally polite and pleasant: $500

Then, Rosenbaum outlined what the students could purchase with their earned money. Some examples of those were:

Going to the bathroom during class cost $500.

A trip to the library to study for something else was $3000 for half the class period, $5000 for the whole period.

Big ticket item: students could purchase the entire final exam for $9,500.

Many critics would not accept this idea of barginning but Christenbury points out that the plan was a huge success. The students loved it because it brought the "real" world and the learning process together. Most important was the motivation of the students to learn.

      Young adult literature was an area that Christenbury related her view of teachers being inclusive, not exclusive into practice. She points out that many critics describe the use of YA literature in secondary education as only necessary for those students who are unable to handle "real" adult literature(p.120). Christenbury argues the point that many "students just stop reading around the middle school years and never take the habit back up" (p.120). How do teachers incorporate this form of literature in the classroom? Christenbury suggest pairing a YA book with one of the classics. For example:

To Kill A Mocking Bird can be paired with:  Words by Heart(Ouida Sebestyen); More than Meets the Eye(Jeanne Betancourt)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be paired with:Julie of the Wolves(Jean Craighead George); Come a Stranger(Cynthia Voigt)

"Keeping a student reading is one of the gifts of YA literature." I could also see YA literature helpful with your inclusion classes.

        One area that new teachers need guidance on is writing, the assessment and teaching of it. Christenbury discusses the use of 2 models in writing. The traditional model is teacher determined, limited on prewriting and time, no help from the teacher and response is from teacher only. The new model is teacher and student determined, extensive in prewriting and time, help from teacher and writing groups, and response is from the teacher and other students. "Much teaching composition teaching today concentrates on the act of writing and rewriting and less on the finished draft"(p.182). In my view, the new model enforces the practice of teaching students to be critical thinkers. This method of writing improves their process of thinking. To go along with Christenbury’s methodology, the authors of Measuring attitude toward writing: A new tool for teachers have developed a test to measure a student’s attitude toward writing. Kear, Coffman, McKenna, and Ambrosia concluded that "if we are more knowledgeable about students’ attitudes toward writing, then our writing instructional practices can potentially benefit." Christenbury would be in agreement because she writes throughout the book on the advantages of pretesting students to discover their base knowledge. Another area of the writing process is the grading. I agree with Christenbury that there should be one grade and not a split grade-one for grammar and one for content. One grade relates and relies on the other.

       The area of discussion is a topic for many teachers in secondary classes. The overriding theme is the role of the teacher and the student. The teacher is no longer the "sage on the stage" as one of my professors pointed out. With the more student centered approach, students are taking an active role in classroom discussion. Christenbury states teachers should be flexible and follow the student’s lead. She outlines ways to have this become a natural environment in the classroom. Some examples of these are:

• Arrange your class so that students can see each other
• Learn about wait time and practice it
• Give students time with their own answers
• Have students talk to each other, not just to you

Discussion is an important tool for the teacher because of what it reveals in the students.

        McKeown and Beck in their article Getting Discussion Started also bring to the table a process called Questioning the Author. In this method, the teacher encourages "students to consider authors as fallible human beings who may not be clear or complete in conveying their ideas." The chapter on Discussion in Making the Journey is approached from the teacher’s as well at the student’s point of view, a useful innovation.