What is a BookJam?

The materials are standards-based and geared toward achieving core curriculum objectives. Also included is a dynamic spectrum of 21st-century, hands-on learning projects. The Alan Sitomer BookJam, written by an award-winning teacher and YA author, will help students nail core standards, raise test scores, and return teachers to a position of strength. Alan wrote this program using materials from his own filing cabinet, which have proven themselves by increasing test scores in Alan’s Los Angeles, California classroom.

Alan Lawrence Sitomer was named California’s 2007 Teacher of the Year. He is also the critically acclaimed author of numerous books that engage young adult readers. In 2004, Alan received the prestigious award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English and in 2003 he was honored as Teacher of the Year by California Literacy. As an educator, Mr. Alan (as his students like to call him) works as an inner-city high school English teacher in Los Angeles and is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. His young adult novels include The Hoopster, Hip-Hop High School, Homeboys, and The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez, published by Disney. Alan is also the author of Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics, a text used in classrooms across the United States to engage disconnected students. To find out more about the other contributors to The BookJam, read About the Authors.

CLICK HERE to find out more about the core of the BookJam, and how it relates to the Common Core Standards.