David “DJ” Jennings sat in the front row of his eighth-grade English class at Waldo Middle School in Salem. He’s tall for a 13-year-old — over six feet — so his bent legs stick out from under the desk.
Despite it being the first class period on a Monday, DJ listened intently. His gaze darted from his notebook to the projector in front of him as he matched his notes with his teacher’s. The class was plotting out the characters and their obstacles from recent stories they’ve read.
“I want you to remember a particular poem that we read at the beginning of this unit,” teacher David Mann said to the class. “It was called, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.’ Can anybody remind me what that poem was about?”…