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Why Teachers Use THE HOOPSTER in Class

• Today's generation of readers wants to see themselves in their literature. In The Hoopster, students see themselves.

• The Study Guide to The Hoopster is exactly what real teachers need because real teachers wrote the study guide.

• Multiculturalism is a gigantic movement in education reform that educators are eagerly embracing.

• Accessibility for Second Language Learners is very high.

• The Hoopster counterbalances media stereotypes and portrays minorities in a positive light.

• It is time for an evolution (and revolution) of the society's perception of minority teens.

• The novel is an engaging, human story - not simply an ethnic tale. The Hoopster transcends race, color, gender and creed.

• The author is currently an inner city high school English teacher. He knows his audience.

• Many other school districts have already adopted the book into their Language Arts Curriculum with great success.

Overall, The Hoopster promotes the idea that reading can be fun and enjoyable - and not merely a "task".

English teachers have already ordered thousands of classroom copies of The Hoopster knowing that contemporary, accessible literature which students are internally motivated to read provides them with the opportunity to accomplish many goals they have for their classroom. This book is where the appeal of basketball meets the core elements of an English curriculum in a story that is inspirational and uplifting.

SCROLL DOWN FOR A FURTHER EXPLANATION OF WHY TEACHERS ARE USING THE HOOPSTER IN THE CLASSROOMS WITH SO MUCH SUCCESS.

Merits of Teaching The Hoopster

Today's generation of readers wants to see themselves in their literature.

The protagonist of The Hoopster is an African-American teenager who likes to play basketball, hang out with his friends and listen to hip-hop music.

The Hoopster is a work of literature that is reflective of a positive minority experience (with positive minority role models). Unfortunately, this is underrepresented in our standard curriculum.

Contemporary literature that reflects the specific language and culture of today's modern reader automatically puts the The Hoopster at an advantage when it comes to promoting literacy because students, as they identify themselves with the characters, settings, language, and moral dilemmas in the novel, are motivated and excited to read about a world in which they are quite familiar.

Question: So The Hoopster is highly appealing to students for numerous reasons. But what makes it educational and what is the appeal for teachers?

The Study Guide to The Hoopster is exactly what real teachers need because real teachers wrote the study guide.

This study guide was written FOR real classroom teachers BY real classroom teachers and it allows modern day educators to meet a slew of modern day academic agendas. People who know what it is really like to be in a contemporary, multicultural and racially diverse classroom brought their experience and excellence to this guide.

The Teacher's Study Guide to The Hoopster addresses over 34 Language Arts Standards, includes 31 writing prompts, has over 50 SAT words with vocabulary exercises designed for retention, includes far reaching literary connections to other works of literature and film, comprises extensive literary terminology, is differentiated for G.A.T.E. curriculums, is being incorporated into A.V.I.D. curriculums, boasts the opportunity for multi-media assignments to be integrated into the classroom and offers a $500 college scholarship to students based on a an essay prompt taken directly from The Hoopster. (That's right, homework that pays cash.) See Study Guide Outline for more information.

Teachers know that one does not necessarily need to read Kafka to learn about foreshadowing, plot or character arcs in literature. The Hoopster teaches these elements, too. Getting students excited and interested to read the books they assign allows them to teach all of the elements of literature that they teach using the "classics."

The Hoopster has numerous universal themes that can be used as a bridge to make the "classics" more accessible to the modern day, multicultural classroom. (The Study Guide does this for the teacher while aligning the lessons to Language Arts Standards.)

The consensus, number one literacy hurdle in Language Arts by teachers is that students are NOT doing the assigned reading. With The Hoopster, students have been more than keeping up, they are even reading ahead because they are internally motivated to read due to their natural interest in the story. The Hoopster speaks to the hearts and minds of the modern day teenager.

Multiculturalism is a gigantic movement in education reform that teachers are eagerly embracing.

The Hoopster brings positive minority role models into the curriculum.

It is estimated that fifty-six percent of the students in the state of California are NOT white yet the overwhelming amount of books we read in school feature Caucasian characters. The Hoopster infuses diversity into the curriculum.

Accessibility for Second Language Learners is very high.
The Hoopster taps into Second Language Learners prior knowledge and uses environments and cultural dilemmas these students are already familiar with from their own experiences outside the classroom to build literacy skills.

The Hoopster counterbalances media stereotypes and portrays minorities in a positive light.
Though broadcasts images would lead us to think differently, well over 95% over black American teenagers are NOT in gangs, selling heroin or on death row. The Hoopster is a story about real people that does not condescend to fear-inducing stereotypes that build walls between the races. The Hoopster tears walls down.

The Hoopster shows how minority parents want a good education, high paying jobs, happiness and success for their children just the same as Caucasian parents - an obvious, yet seldom illustrated lesson in our modern day prose.

In essence, The Hoopster speaks to the heart of authentic California teenagers, the kind that are rarely represented accurately and fairly by mainstream media.

It is time for an evolution (and revolution) of the society's perception of minority teens.
The appeal of "gangsta" and "thug" images needs to be replaced with images of "cool" teens that are socially responsible, do well by themselves (and others) and seek to fashion a quality life for themselves in a "respectable" fashion.

The Hoopster is teaming with "cool" characters who handle their business through brains, education and hard work. Teens are thrilled to see that good guys not only exist… they win.
Blacks. Hispanics, and most minorities (actually, most thinking people) are thrilled to see a shift in the portrayal of their people take place in literature. The Hoopster speaks to hearts and minds of this increasingly growing crowd.

Ultimately, the novel is an engaging, human story - not simply an ethnic tale. The Hoopster transcends race, color, gender and creed.
The story has laughs and tears, pain and love, heart and soul. The Hoopster has been compared to being like "Good Will Hunting for African Americans".

The author is currently an inner city high school English teacher.

He knows the students.

He knows the environments, culture, setting and language of modern teens.

He knows what contemporary students respond to and how to access their inner motivation to succeed.

He also knows what teachers go through and has assembled a team of five outstanding educators to create a study guide that meets teacher's current needs.

Southern California School Districts have already adopted the book into their Language Arts Curriculum with great success. And multiple other school districts are in the process of adopting The Hoopster onto their approved books list for Language Arts Instruction.

Overall, The Hoopster promotes the idea that reading can be fun and enjoyable - and not merely a "task".

Keep in mind that solely reading works that were written MANY years ago set in societies and cultures that no longer exist has the potential backlash effect of creating animosity towards reading in general for today's modern day, ethnically diverse student.

Contemporary students want to be able to relate to the environments and predicaments of their protagonists and if they do not, they can "turn off" to reading in general. (And isn't one of the major points of reading books in school to try and foster a lifelong love of reading? Leave it to the U.S. Educational System to directly cause the opposite effect of what they wish to happen. The Hoopster remedies this need.)