Never mind that he and Noah failed to make the high school baseball team yet again, and Noah’s love interest since third grade,Sam, has him firmly in the friend zone. Walt is convinced junior year is their year, and he has a plan to help them woo the girls of their dreams and become amazingathletes. Best friends Walt and Noah decide to use their voices to grow more good in the world, but first they’ve got tofind cool. When America is not so beautiful, or right, or just, it canbe hard to know what to do. And the surprise ending shines a spotlight on the issues related to our current socialdivide, challenging perspectives and inspiring everyone to make their voice heard. Like Noah as he recalls his witness of Walt’s murder, I remember.Swing (Blink)BOOK DETAILSeries: Blink Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Blink (October 2, 2018) Language: English ISBN-10: 0310761913 ISBN-13: 978-0310761914Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.5 x 8.6 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)Book DescriptionNew York Times bestselling authors Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess (Solo) tell this lyrical story about hope, courage, and love thatspeaks to anyone who’s struggled to find their voice. I re-feel the hurt from each and every story, like Walt’s, of my Brothers, lost at the hands of inequitable systems. My PTSD is triggered in the battle of being Black in this country. Then I reached the end… Walt’s brother is displaying PTSD, reminding me of the men in my family suffering from PTSD post-war. It felt like I was reading a story playout from my childhood about my slugger big brother and his baseball-loving friends. My initial reaction to Swing was that it felt like home. Personal Connection with Text- Reader Response Strategy We have a responsibility to educate our youth on the realities of societal issues that each citizen plays a role in and is responsible for helping to improve. There is an undeniably evident need for these controversial topics to be confronted in our classrooms.

By the end of the unit, students will create an argumentative essay based on the research of systems that contribute to the inequities we face in today’s society.

We are exploring, specifically, societal issues as they appear throughout the text.

The novel is used in the curriculum as an anchor text for a unit on tradition and progress. I went into the novel with little background information after having not researched in an effort to maintain my anticipation and element of surprise. The text, which I highly anticipated reading, was introduced to me as part of what I’d be teaching in class this semester. Themes such as love, race, politics, and violence appear throughout the novel that is written in poetic form. Swing by Kwame Alexander showcases the story of high schoolers, Noah and Walt, as they search to find their cool while juggling to understand major aspects of life.

Kwame alexander swing