Korman, Gordon.
THE UNTEACHABLES
New York : Balzer & Bray/HarperTeen 2018
IL 3-6
ISBN 9780062563880

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Mr. Zachary Kermit is a burnt out teacher. One year left before early retirement and now he’s stuck with Room 117. Room 117, the unteachables. All the students that don’t fit anywhere else. Behavior problems, attitude problems, emotional problems, and educational problems. They are all here in room 117. It’s a nightmare for both sides. Mr. Kermit never thought he’d be teaching them, and the unteachables never thought they would get a teacher with a worse attitude than theirs. What a crazy combination but it might just work. Somehow, the unteachables might just be the class that Mr. Kermit needs.  (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award nominee, 2020)

Booktalk #2

What happens when you pair a burned out teacher with a classroom full of misfit students, including one who is not even registered to attend school? You get The Unteachables by Gordon Korman, the story of Mr. Kermit, who used to be one of the best teachers in the school but after a cheating scandal in his classroom 22 years earlier is now just trying to make it through the year so he can retire. Mr. Kermit is assigned to teach SCS-8, a class with seven middle school students who no teacher can handle and no teacher wants. It takes the teacher next door (who has a connection to Mr. Kermit’s past) to make Mr. Kermit realize he is still a great teacher. Mr. Kermit in turn inspires his students to believe in themselves even if no one else does and accomplish what no one thought that they could.  Gordon Korman tells this engaging story in alternating chapters told from the perspective of the students, teachers and administrators in Room 117.(Prepared by:Patti Barker, Bryson Middle School, pbarker@greenville.k12.sc.us)  (South Carolina Book Awards, 2020-2021)