Review of What Did They Say?
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Natalie Weiland
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Review of What Did They Say?
[Following is a volunteer review of "What Did They Say?" by Todd Sherman.]
In What Did They Say?, author Todd Sherman looks back on his teaching career by highlighting his students' funny and witty comments throughout the years. The author, who taught middle school language arts for 23 years, had a tradition with his students that they called “Quote of the Day,” in which any off-the-cuff comments made by students were written on the whiteboard for the class to collectively enjoy. Sherman collected the quotes over the years, compiling them into one book along with the stories behind them.
Overall, I found the author’s use of student quotations as a means of documenting his teaching career to be a fun, lightweight reading experience. The book is organized into chapters that focus on specific subjects, such as food, sports, or anatomy. Sherman then includes an introductory anecdote to introduce each chapter and the corresponding quotes within, scattering additional anecdotes throughout to tell some of the stories behind the quotes. I appreciated this approach and felt as though it helped keep the book from becoming one big list of unconnected quotes.
Given the stories and descriptions behind each quote as detailed in the book, it’s clear that the author maintained a fun classroom atmosphere and stayed in touch with many of their students in the years following. Occasionally, I worried for the students’ privacy when mentioned in the story, as the author sometimes included last names, where a student ended up going to college, or other personally identifiable information. I assume that this was cleared beforehand with the students mentioned, but when it wasn’t explicitly mentioned that this was the case, it was concerning to think that anyone reading the book could find Sherman’s former students on Facebook.
Since this book isn’t story-based, my rating is largely based on the reading experience and technical quality of the author’s work. Since Sherman was a language arts teacher, the book is well-written and low on grammatical errors. The inclusion of the longer explanations behind some of the quotes helped to balance any potential monotony that would result from having a book of standalone one-sentence quotes, and contributed to an overall light-hearted and pleasant reading experience. Taken as a whole, I rate it five out of five stars, and would highly recommend this to my teacher friends or to anyone looking for a unique and lighthearted account of a decades-long teaching career.
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What Did They Say?
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
In What Did They Say?, author Todd Sherman looks back on his teaching career by highlighting his students' funny and witty comments throughout the years. The author, who taught middle school language arts for 23 years, had a tradition with his students that they called “Quote of the Day,” in which any off-the-cuff comments made by students were written on the whiteboard for the class to collectively enjoy. Sherman collected the quotes over the years, compiling them into one book along with the stories behind them.
Overall, I found the author’s use of student quotations as a means of documenting his teaching career to be a fun, lightweight reading experience. The book is organized into chapters that focus on specific subjects, such as food, sports, or anatomy. Sherman then includes an introductory anecdote to introduce each chapter and the corresponding quotes within, scattering additional anecdotes throughout to tell some of the stories behind the quotes. I appreciated this approach and felt as though it helped keep the book from becoming one big list of unconnected quotes.
Given the stories and descriptions behind each quote as detailed in the book, it’s clear that the author maintained a fun classroom atmosphere and stayed in touch with many of their students in the years following. Occasionally, I worried for the students’ privacy when mentioned in the story, as the author sometimes included last names, where a student ended up going to college, or other personally identifiable information. I assume that this was cleared beforehand with the students mentioned, but when it wasn’t explicitly mentioned that this was the case, it was concerning to think that anyone reading the book could find Sherman’s former students on Facebook.
Since this book isn’t story-based, my rating is largely based on the reading experience and technical quality of the author’s work. Since Sherman was a language arts teacher, the book is well-written and low on grammatical errors. The inclusion of the longer explanations behind some of the quotes helped to balance any potential monotony that would result from having a book of standalone one-sentence quotes, and contributed to an overall light-hearted and pleasant reading experience. Taken as a whole, I rate it five out of five stars, and would highly recommend this to my teacher friends or to anyone looking for a unique and lighthearted account of a decades-long teaching career.
******
What Did They Say?
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Sammi Super Snapper by Rachel Williams
