The Secret School

This was a kind of a good book.This book is about this girl who is 14 and teaches at a secret school.Also,know one knows about it.

I enjoyed this audiobook. The story was a sweet one, with nice character dynamics.

School gets shut down in a twon because the town can't afford it any more. The oldest student who is one year away from graduating steps up and becomes the teachers for all of the younger kids. They secretly run a school and are hoping not to get caught. This book is really cute. I enjoyed it.

This is another great book by Avi. What is best about Avi is his ability to write in so many genres. This fiction pieces is set out west in the 1920s and is about children in a rural area fighting to get an education when the real teacher is called away for the rest of the term. The motley group of

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children vote the smartest 8th grader in as teacher and agree to keep their experiment in education a secret. Avi does a great job in keeping the reader engaged in what could have been a very dull book. However, Avi has great skill in character development, and never leaves the reader frustrated by a slow plot or static characters.

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Avi is one of the authors that I always expect great things from, and I am never disappointed when I read one of his books. The Secret School is about a fourth grade reading level, but perfect for a class that I teach of struggling readers. This quick read (about 150 pages, but larger print than

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normal) is about a valley of farmer's children that go to school in a one room schoolhouse. Their teacher is leaving because her mother is ill and the school board has decided to close the school. Then a student (Tom) decides that they could continue going to school if one of the other students (Ida) becomes the teacher. After a night of thinking about it, Ida decides that if the whole class agrees on it, then she will take over as teacher. The only thing is, they can't let the school board know, so the secret school is born. Ida learns that it is difficult becoming the teacher, as well as studying herself and working on the farm, but for the most part everything goes well, until...
I'm sure that you can figure out some of the problems that erupt when you have a secret school, but you'll have to read the story to find out more. All in all, this is a great book that can get student's thinking about what it was like when everyone went to school in the same room regardless of age. There are lessons about motivation and helping one another as well. As a teacher, I would encourage others to take a deeper look at what it would be like if we were not forced to get an education. I think that if our students begin to really look at what privileges they have now, they might not be so upset when they have to get up in the morning or do their homework. Also, there are tons of history lessons that can pop up from discussing this book.
It's a small book but can lead off to greater things. I highly recommend it to beginning novel readers, struggling older readers, or teachers that want something quick and sweet to start off their units.

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teacher leaves in the middle of the term, Ida wants to finish 8th grade so she can go on to high school, so the kids continue to arrive and study and leave, with the hep of the class troublemaker.

Read in conjunction with a Colorado history unit. Make connections between nonfiction texts and this story.

Have students write about a time when they have had a hard time balancing multiple responsibilities, like Ida did in the story. How did they decide what to focus on? What were the

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consequences?

Complete a character study on one of the story's characters: Ida, Tom, Herbert, etc. How did they change from the beginning to the end? Where will they go next?

Writing topic: If you were Ida, would you have become the teacher? Would you want the school to stay open? Use information from a study of the current times, including economic situation, women's suffrage, job opportunities for women, etc.

Imagine that your school board is having a meeting to consider closing down your school. What could you do to stop them? What could you do that Ida could not have in her time?

Write the pros and cons of going to a one-room schoolhouse with a mixed age group of kids.

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This is an engaging story about very determined and hard-working children. Because they are farm children, they have great responsibilities at home and at school. Ida's parents support her but need her on the farm--so they stress that she keep up with her farm duties even though she's taken on

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extra responsibilities at the school. They also warn her that she cannot go onto high school unless she can find free room and board (because they can't afford to send her). Similarly, a boy named Herbert dreams of running off to join the navy to escape his difficult situation at home with a father who doesn't value education at all. Readers will gain a good sense of the times in terms of inventions and daily life for rural children in 1925.

This would make a good story for classroom teachers to read out loud (a chapter at a time) to their class. They could incorporate some of the inventions mentioned in the book, like radios and cars, in science units to learn how these work. They could also reflect on their role as students and what school and learning mean to them. Ida is very inspirational because she values learning so much and works extremely hard to make her dreams come true. Students could write about their dreams and what they need to learn to achieve them.

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The secoret school.It starts when theres these girl named Ida and her little brother Felix they started driving through town to get to school felix is pushing down on the peddels whill ida is driving.I dont want to give the story away so I will real want you totry to read it I will realy recomended

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it.

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It is 1925 and Ida is a very strong and smart 8th grade girl. Her goal is to become a teacher, but to do so she has to pass the 8th grade and an exam to get into high school. Her teacher has to leave unexpectedly and the school is closed down, but Ida has a plan that she will become the new

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teacher. The school eventually finds out, but Ida still passes the 8th grade as well as the exam.
This book is set in the mid 1920’s and it discusses the model T and how children of all ages attend the same school with the same teacher.
In the classroom, I would have the kids give me some examples of how things have changed since the 1920’s. Also, I will ask the student’s what do they want to be when they grow up?

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This is one of those slim children's paperbacks that populate classroom bookshelves in gradeschools, but since it is by Avi, you know it is made from good stuff. This was different from some of the other Avi books I've read -- we all know The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is one of my

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favorites -- in the fact that the adventure is a little more subdued, a little more ordinary. It is still adventure, however, and it's of the educational kind, which teachers will appreciate. And, just because your teachers like it, doesn't make it a boring book. :) It may not appeal to the short attention spans of speed-craving 21st century youths, but it's a pleasant book none the less.

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It was a good book to me.It was funny when the car went into the ditch and they got all muddy.I liked when she became a privite teacher at a secret school and know body new.I also liked when the school board lady came in and almost closed the school.The muel got into the school.And to find out

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other events you will have to read the book The School Story by AVI

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Elk Valley, Colorado, April 1925; a poor area of sheep ranchers. A single room schoolhouse with eight students from grades 1 to 8. Benches, pot bellied stove for heat, well-used books to study from and Miss Fletcher as teacher.

When the children arrive, that April day, they are told that Miss

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Fletcher has to leave to go take care of her ailing mother and the school will be closed for the rest of the year. An early start to summer vacation!! But when the children stop and think about it they realize that the whole school year will be for nothing. Ida and Tom, the eighth graders, won't be able to take the final test that will allow them to go on to high school. Something both of them have worked hard for. The young ones won't advance to the next level. They will have to repeat the school year. What to do?

After thinking it over and taking a vote, they decide to create a 'secret' school. Ida will be the teacher and they won't tell the school board as they know it would be shut down. Everyone is sworn to secrecy.

Will they be able to pull it off? Will they be able to take the tests and move up to the next grade? With home chores, papers to grade and her own work to learn, will Ida pass the test.

Life is not easy in this part of the country and at this time. The story gives a good illustration. Entertaining and written so that the reader wants to read it. A good read.

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It is 1925, and Ida Bidson is just an 8th Grader in school, but when something tragic happens all goes downhill until Ida Bidson steps in to become a teacher of "The Secret School"
I really liked this book because it show determination in Ida, and her students. My favorite part was when they

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received great news that they can run The Secret School to pass their grade. My favorite character was Ida for stepping up and doing to right thing to help the students of the school, and to help her. My least favorite character was Mr.Jordan for ruining the dreams of the children throughout the book. Read The Secret School to find out more.

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This spunky girl takes on almost more than she can haul tale seriously pushes the bounds of credulity but stays charming enough that we want to believe and doesn't quite cloy.

Well written. Nice read, especially if you like teaching.

Ida wants to get to high school but she can not because the school is shutting down. So she trys to be the teacher. but it does not work out with her eing in school and being teacher and having crushes.

First sentence: On a cool Monday morning in early April 1925, Ida Bidson, aged fourteen, carefully guided her family's battered Model T Ford along a narrow, twisting dirt road in Elk Valley, Colorado. "Brake and clutch!" she shouted. Ida, only four-feet-eleven and unable to reach the floor of the

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car, knelt on the torn seat and gripped the steering wheel tightly. Her seven-year-old brother, Felix, hunched on the floor before her and used his hands to push the brake and clutch pedals down.

Premise/plot: Ida desperately wants the chance to go to high school. Ultimately she wants to go to "normal school" and get her teaching certificate as well. But this eighth grader may not get the chance to graduate eighth grade dashing all her future dreams. Why? Well, their current teacher is leaving abruptly--a family emergency. The school board had decided to end the term early. The two eighth graders wouldn't get a chance to take their final [final, final] exams and graduate. The two wouldn't be permitted to go on to high school the next school term. But Ida, well, she has BIG dreams. And when someone suggests that she should be their teacher for the rest of the term, well, it makes a lot of sense. It has risks, for sure. She'll be a secret teacher at a secret school. Will she get a chance to take her exam? Will she be going to high school after all?

My thoughts: I love, love, love stories of one-room schoolhouses. This one was a PERFECTLY PERFECT fit for me. I loved getting to know Ida. I loved getting to know all her classmates/students. I felt the story was fleshed out. It felt very REAL. I cared about these students and their families. I wanted more, more, more.

I don't know WHY I'm just now discovering this one. But I am super thankful I read it.

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