Dear Saul,

     You claim that students should actually think deeply about what is going on in the book so that they can take away life lessons and applicable concepts, but the literary standards emphasize fluency and speech, literary elements and vocabulary knowledge.  (In fact, maybe you should brush up on your knowledge of  educational reforms!)  I believe that concerning the education field, these elements are far more important than what some people claim as "applicable" concepts.  What will life lessons do to help students on a test?  And if the students "enjoy" the learning, but cannot pass a state test, what good does it do us? 

     Concerning your newfangled idea of technological use in a multimodal classroom, I can't help but notice that 53% of teachers do not routinely use technology, and it seems to be working fine.  I have certain objectives that I need to meet.  The students must master grammar usage and basic reading comprehension, rather than learning new technologies in this Transactional Process, you speak of; I simply don't understand how you see literacy and technology as one unified entity. 

                                                                                                        Much love,
                                                                                                                 Sara