89 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2020
    1. Step 2: Research the problem.

      Researching a problem can be done by holding dialogue and having conversations with our students to learn more.

    2. After they reached a consensus on identifying the problem, I asked the students, “What do you think can be done to change the name?” Silence. Wait time. Heads shook from side to side. I ob-served subdued bodies and even slumping at desks. As if in a chorus from an Aztec or Greek drama, the students raised their voices and spoke:

      This kind of hopelessness is derived from the systemic racism ingrained in the United States. I understand that we want students to be aware and question the world around them, but we also have to consider the daily hardships they face...this takes time!

    3. As a result, I sought a way to intro-duce them to critical praxis as a “reflection and ac-tion directed at the structures to be transformed” (Freire 126). This was largely driven in my belief in changing conditions through nonviolence, civil discourse, and— if necessary— civic disobedience to change conditions. Change can unfold through models from Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Lu-ther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta, among others.

      Based on earlier readings on theories, I know that critical praxis relies on student engagement but also on their understanding of social creations to determine why change should occur. This has to approached carefully because of the associated trauma with mass incarceration is in close proximity of this school (and student lives).

    4. My awareness of students’ love of literature and writing, ranging from poetry and short stories to young adult literature, guided me to select texts that could extend the conversation to texts about humane treatment. We had previously read two literary works that presented the words sweep and dirt in separate connotations in the poem “How I Learned to Sweep” by Julia Alvarez and in the chap-ter titled “When I Was Dirt” from the novel Car-amelo by Sandra Cisneros.

      This is a more organic way to listen to student voice and opinion, often times this policing occurring in schools causes students to not want to speak up in fear of being punished and/or ignored.

    5. Tardy Sweep (see Figure 1). The students’ concern stemmed from the connota-tion to refuse and trash.

      The high school I attended also did tardy sweeps for when you walked into the school, and at the beginning of each period. I understand that it's meant to help regulate attendance, but perhaps schools need to look at why students are unable or unwilling to meet these demands. I don't think it improved tardiness, it made students want to be absent.

    1. Across these activities, she noted how Khaleeq and his peers were actively engaging in the community by questioning and writing journal entries about visible signs of gentrification.

      To do more, we must learn more. I always appreciate effort to reach out and understand others' circumstances.

    2. During an interview, Rendell recalled how some teachers talked negatively about his familial circumstances and academic potential. He shared:I did school OK, but you start thinkin’ on what they said. Like, “You know where you from, don’t hope for too much,” or “It’s alright you don’t know that,” or “Don’t worry about doing well,” or, like, “College? No, just get ah trade.”

      I've noticed teachers doing this as well with their expectations. They have little to no confidence in a child's ability that the quality of a lesson or assignment is simplified so much that it becomes a chore for both parties to work on. I wonder if selective classes like AP and honors add to this narrative?

    3. (p. 210). Examples like Bledsoe contest essentializing mischaracterizations of Black adolescents as uneducable, irresponsible, and inclined to criminality. As we argue, this contestation is important because it demonstrates the valuable role of Black adolescents producing counternarratives to negative perceptions about who they are and what they allegedly can or cannot do.Counternarratives, or counterstories, represent one tenet of critical race theory. While they take a variety of forms (e.g., personal stories, others’ stories, compos-ite stories), Solórzano and Yosso (2002) define them as a “method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told” in order to “shatter complacency, challenge the dominant discourse on race, and further the struggle for racial reform” (p. 32).

      This is an act of resistance to the negative generalizations and stereotypes of Black people. Negative generalizations are so prevalent that when positive news is shared, some people are in shock/amazement.

    4. In addition to viewing literacy as cultural, as critical, and as a social practice, Neuman and Rao (2004) contend that “literacy also involves engaging with and creating a range of texts, building on the languages, experiences, cultures, and other assets of students, and communicating and expressing understanding in multiple ways” (p. 7). This type of communication happens individually and with other people.

      During my undergrad courses, we learned that there are so many ways to be literate; a limited perspective would have you believe that a child just 'can't read' if they capable yet of looking at printed letters and words.

    5. When students are sitting in classes hungry, when they cannot see the words on the board or on the page, and when they experience school as a place where they are regularly bombarded with standardized tests, we have to wonder: Education as a great equalizer for whom?When they are forced to learn under conditions that rely on English Only and zero-tolerance policies, we have to inquire:

      The goal of the education system should be consistent with the goals of educators; but social constructs interfere with all of our lives. This reminds me of my earlier linguistic classes; if the goal to 'help' students or conform them to a popular ideal?

    1. fairy tales were selected because they represent a set of narratives that most young children are exposed to in early literary interactions or through educ

      This impacts young children's perspectives and their imagination of the future, as well as how life should be. White cinderella becomes a young girl's dream, as this is what she was introduced to.

    1. parent and community groups concerned with the educational experiences of African American children

      There seems to be a false narrative in mainstream media that African American parents do not support their children's education. This is far from the truth. Community forums such as this and the push to stop the closing of 50 schools in predominately African American areas in Chicago refute this narrative.

    2. Writing Our Lives is a project situated within community spaces

      The authors of Pose Wobble Flow give several reasons for writing in community. "It sharpens our thinking. It improves our final product. It also allows us to speak with authority about the writing process from the inside out." To create a space for writers in Writing Our Lives must sharpen the thinking of adult and youth writers. Garcia, A., & O'Donnell-Allen, C. (2015). Pose, wobble, flow: A culturally proactive approach to literacy instruction (p. 84). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

  2. Nov 2020
    1. Equally as important, these teachers offer urban middle school students opportunities and tools to counter narrate—simultaneously critiquing and reimagining the places they inhabit and the often-negative stories told about them

      This reminds me The Stories They Tell, where students/teachers explore all the injustices, explicit and implicit, to transform original knowledge. I think this is the goal of a democratic education.

    2. nalyzing graphs of obesity trends and informational articles.nCollecting and analyzing neighborhood data to determine whether they live in a food desert

      I wonder if this unit was only implemented in an ELA class or if it was cross-curricular into math and social studies classes. I notice many interdisciplinary elements; I would maybe do this unit to conclude several subjects.

    3. Urban spaces, for example, are dense ecologies with complex networks of materials (both “natural” and human-made) and histories of race, class, and power dynamics (e.g., changing neighborhood demographics, systemic housing discrimination). Acknowledging these dimensions of urban environments disrupts notions of place as “external to the social world” (p. 2) and suggests the importance of attending explicitly to space and place in justice-oriented pedagogies.

      I think this can be seen through the gentrification of neighborhoods where people of color were originally pushed to - they continue to get pushed out. The construction of Lincoln Yards comes to mind.

    4. three gas stations

      Not only are many South Siders living in a food desert, but they also must deal with inflated prices. Canned and packaged foods in gas stations are one to two dollars more than at most grocery stores.

    5. Components of the unit

      This is such a great unit. In Pose, Wobble, Flow (Garcia, A. & O'Donnell-Allen, C.), the authors describe a culturally proactive teacher as one who "advocates for educational transformation and push back against existing inequitable systems." Kara seems to fit this description with this food justice unit, which includes multiliteracies and encompasses many content areas such as math, history, social studies, and health.

    6. In the five blocks around the school, Kara’s students found one grocery store whose selection was “not great,” three gas stations, a drugstore, a corner store, and a bulk candy store.

      Across from our school is a corner store that some students visit before class. They may buy chips, candy, soda before eating their school breakfast. The breakfast consists of pancakes or muffins reheated in a package, milk, and fruit on the side. Some students will not eat the fresh fruits in the school breakfast because they have already "eaten" snacks from the store. We can teach our students at young ages how to eat healthy meals.

    7. Super Size Me

      This documentary highlights the harmful health changes Spurlock incurs as he ingests fast food for 30 days. Minority communities have access to fast food, but it causes obesity and increases in cholesterol. The availability of food is unjust if communities can not readily access fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables.

    1. mentors

      Group mentoring for African American males can have positive rewards. There may be a lack of black volunteers in a particular urban area; therefore, one or two males/females mentor several boys. Mentoring can take the form of academic, social-emotional, or vocational help. https://nationalmentoringresourcecenter.org/index.php/component/k2/item/177-mentoring-for-black-male-youth.html

    2. wanted

      It makes me think about why we need to create spaces. The spaces are exited. The problem is how teachers can invite students into the space, and comfortable to write and share their thinking in the spaces.

    3. They see and experience violence on multiple levels—physical, verbal, emotional, intellectual, through media, through bullying. They are aware of violence against immigrant youth, against Black and Brown youth, and against transgender youth.

      Along with an instructor who is African American, this is also another way that students are comforted. It is unfortunate the hardships and trauma that children and young people go through, but a space is made for them to express their ideas and emotions. I think it's different than traditional writing assignments because of the grading element.

    4. I knew that the commonly held view of Black children as nonwriters and nonreaders who were disengaged from learning was false.

      This goes along with the internal bias people have on the type of language Black children may engage in - linguistic racism towards AAE.

    5. I do not ascribe the word radicalto suggest that youth writing is somehow atypical, unique, or extraordinary. In fact, I use it to point to the opposite—

      I suppose that radical applies more to the point of view of an authority figure; and their own expectations of young people.

    6. A student who was participating in the Writing Our Lives after-school program shared this with me, explaining the difference in her writing experiences in and for school versus outside of school and in her personal life. As she expressed being underwhelmed and under-challenged by the school’s writing curriculum at the time,

      In schools, we may call this extracurricular or enrichment. When so many students are performing below grade level in a classroom, kids like this sometimes get forgotten.

    7. In school you kinda contradict yourself and you kinda like, you know, cover up some stuff, like you kind of hide yourself in school but when you’re outside of school, it’s like you open yourself up. You unfold everything.”

      I think this is true for students of all ages, from grade school to college. As an educator, I try to ask students about themselves but sometimes what they say is filtered.

    1. For instance, social jus-tice–driven hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #AmINext, #ShutItDown, and #ICantBreathe illustrate how “Black Twitter is successfully harnessing the power of its collective identity in order to express the views and beliefs of a group that is marginalized by dominant ideas in mainstream media” (Williams & Domoszlai, 2013).

      This has greatly contributed to spreading knowledge of injustice and demonstrations. However, even Black spaces on social media are disrupted by the very people discriminating people of color. I often see people taking information and terminology for their own use; taking some of the power away from the originators.

    2. Though Wafer was eventually found guilty of second-degree murder, many mainstream media outlets initially focused on whether McBride was drunk or high as opposed to focusing on why Wafer shot and killed McBride before

      This was also the case for George Floyd, instead of focusing on the real issue of excessive and abuse of power of the police, people tried to shift the blame to Floyd.

    3. For example, phrases such as “he was bullied,” “she had a troubled past,” “he had a hard home life,” or even “he suffered from mental illness” are frequently used to justify the crimes committed by White suspects. In cases where empathy is not shown, White suspects get characterized as a “lone wolf.” The lone wolf narrative attempts to shift our attention away from how these acts are part of a legacy of terrorist attacks committed by White supremacists. This pattern was demonstrated in the case of Dylan Roof, who brutally murdered nine Black people at Emanuel African Meth-odist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Many media outlets described Roof as a “white supremacist lone wolf” and commented, “we don’t know why he did this.” Conversely, the media’s framing of crimes committed by Black people and other people of color tend to perpetuate stereotypes about the entire community they represent. T

      This is a huge problem in American society because it generalizes a large group of people. It causes fear and it's used as an excuse in issues with police brutality in public and educational spaces. How often do we hear about present day KKK and white power groups the way we hear about gangs?

    4. rarely posit Black people in positive ways. Even when Black people are victims of violence, it is rare that their accomplishments are named in the media. Conversely, the media are careful about how they represent White criminals, usually portraying them sympathetically.

      This reminds me of the incident with Christian Cooper. In Central Park, Mr. Cooper was bird watching and asked a white woman to put a leash on her dog. She responded by calling 911 to claim that a Black man was threatening her life. Some new outlets were sympathetic, and her lawyer also said that any repercussion is 'cancel culture'. Mr. Cooper graduated from Harvard and is well-respected, and in my opinion, this is why the media begrudgingly did not try to portray him negatively.

    5. Furthermore, the Spring Valley incident reminds us that schools and classrooms are not exempt from assault against Black bodies. In other words, the same racist brutality toward Black citizens that we see happening on the streets across the United States mirrors the violence toward Black students that is happening in our nation’s academic streets. As Black women, moth-ers of Black children,2 educators, critical scholars, and spiritual beings,3 we are devastated by the ubiquitous assault against Black people, and we know that Black children are suffering too.

      Not only in mainstream media and academic environments, but also in the medical field. I have read that Black women's concerns are more likely to be overlooked in medical institutions. Prejudice against African Americans is prevalent everywhere.

    6. ill (2015) emphatically asserted in a tweet following the incident that “NOBODY would be asking what that little girl did to deserve a police assault if she were white.”

      This can be seen in less extreme manners in the classroom, which is a gateway to thinking that this mindset is acceptable. Automatically thinking of a Black child as full of deficits hinders the educational system of this country because it allows microaggressions and other racist actions to continue.

    7. White criminals, usually portraying them sympathetically.

      A recent example (2020) is Lori Loughlin, convicted of conspiracy in connection with a college admissions bribery scandal, received permission from a federal judge to serve her prison sentence in her choice facility.

    8. Listen to them.

      Teachers have a responsibility to become a part of the disruption. After listening to students, we must keep the conversations going. The text mentions that the pedagogy of healing does not indicate a "completed recovery." Indeed, these lessons are just the beginnings of critical literacy conversations.

    9. If that girl got out of the seat when she was told

      Just these 3 words "If that girl," imply otherness. The CNN analyst's language seems to say, "This is what a girl should do, but that girl was in the wrong." We do not have to be concerned about an officer assaulting us because we always do what we are told.

    10. White school resource officer.

      In August 2020, Chicago Public Schools voted whether to maintain school resource officers in the light of George Floyd's death. The majority of schools decided to keep the officers in place. Are we treating our youth as adult citizens requiring policing?

    11. language

      I love this. It engages students in learning content knowledge and teach students use the power of their own fund of knowledge to fight for their rights.

    12. media

      This is a good beginning. It's crucial to teach our student critical media literacy and use critical thinking to obtain or ignore the information they read.

    13. By providing a safe place for students to share their ideas and to make students' voice to be heard.

    14. evidenced

      They always publish things they want people to believe in order to manipulate majority minds. Even happened in social media, show large quantity of information that they want people to read to make people stand with them especially to the youth.

    1. writing a business- oriented let-ter

      There is a film in which the running joke shows that if you are of the majority population and want to change a situation, you must "write a letter" to those in power. The offending party will coward in fear and quickly appease the letter writer. Unfortunately, many minority students do not believe they have access to the power of the written word. This research-driven unit allows students to address the mistreatment of the administration through respectful letter writing. As teachers, we need to stress critical literacy as a way to bring lasting change for our students and their communities.

    2. “With remarkable consistency, schools serving low- income, non- White children disproportionately produce the citizens who will spend most of their adult lives in the least desirable and least mobile socioeconomic positions (prison, low- ranking military positions, and service labor)”

      The school-to-prison pipeline supports the evidence for this quote. http://ijjc.illinois.gov/tags/school-prison-pipeline

    3. “I’m tired of hearing this over and over again: ‘Freeze! You’re caught in a Tardy Sweep. Don’t move!’”

      Treating students as criminals with police wordings as "Freeze" and "Don't Move" has the opposite effect of encouraging students to go to class.

    4. Since then, Michelle Alexan-der and others have shown in their research that the prison incarceration rates increased full- blown to 600 percent from the mid- 1960s until the 2000s to now reflect a “racial caste system” (Alexander 2).

      This percentage of incarceration rates is startling. Instead of genuine civil rights in the 1960s, the courts unfairly incarcerate minority citizens. Rather than provide equity in the form of health, economics, education, etc., we punish students when they commit crimes (which stems from inequity) then incarcerate them believing we no longer have to "deal" with their crimes-out of sight, out of mind. The "racial caste system" is evidenced by formerly incarcerated persons lack of employment opportunities. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html

    1. ppro-priately, multiple approaches are warranted, given the numerous instructional and institutional chal-lenges facing Black girls in public schools.

      I think it's also important to note that there are Black girls of different background like Afro Latinas, African girls, Middle eastern etc. that identify as black in America. It would be meaningful to have literature that strays from the trope.

    2. Collaboratives and non-profit organizations including the Black Girl Lit-eracy Collective, BlackGirlsRock!, and 12- year- old Black girl Marley Dias’s #1000BlackGirlBooks have worked to decriminalize lit-eracy for Black girls.

      Resource: The Chicago sector of Girls Inc is a program that works to empower young Black girls.

    3. En-glish education teachers expose Black students, and Black girls in particular, to mostly Western European thought and tradition that mutes the racial, ethnic, and gendered experiences of individuals who look like the students whom they are teaching (Willis et al.).

      A classic text that teachers use is To Kill a Mockingbird and it's problematic because the point of view is for the white experience.

    4. Black girls are still experiencing slav-ery through more modernized weaponry that has advanced beyond shackles and chains.

      The student population at my school is majority Black and Latinx. Every year, I am dismayed to hear from my students that they are unaware of many important figures of color, but they are able to tell me about the typical well known white men - Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, etc. Many teachers believe that having a character with brown skin in every other read aloud book is representation, but it's not. I am a firm believer that White-only curriculum must be dismantled.

    5. Persistent societal images that negatively por-tray Black women and girls have contributed to normalcy and the mosaic of Whiteness as pure and innocent while Blackness is seen as inhumane or representing death. Black girls are often character-ized as Jezebels, Sapphires, aggressive, or sexualized to the point that they are deprived of having any in-tellectual currency and curiosity

      In Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools Morris discusses the double standards of girls of color and white girls. If a Black girl stands up for herself, she is seen as defiant. A white girl does this and she's viewed favorably. Adults that have these kind of beliefs need to reevaluate why they think the way they do. Like in the doll experiment, adults are projecting their own discriminatory ideas onto their children.

    6. School is a racially violent space that has caused Black girls to be physically assaulted for perceived classroom defiance. These acts of state- sanctioned violence and state- sanctioned incarcer-ation have been historically predicated on Black bodies, and they are simply reemerging within

      Black girls are often overlooked in schools and in children's literature; in classroom libraries you will see more books about Black boys as protagonists as opposed to girls. Being ignored or overlooked is another form of silent violence.

    7. Schooling practices that criminalize tradi-tional Black hair care methods and styles further perpetuate this.

      There is something fundamentally wrong in telling a child that they do not live up to the American ideal of beauty because her hair does not look like Cinderella. This mandating of hairstyles is reminiscent of the Black Codes mentioned earlier in the text. Zero- tolerance school policies should not refer to the type of hair to which you were born. Black students are threatened with a suspension due to their hairstyles. http://theoklahomaeagle.net/2017/07/18/when-black-hair-violates-the-dress-code/

    8. Black Code

      These examples of the Black Code testify to the afterlife of slavery:

      • Race was defined by blood; the presence of any amount of black blood made one black.
      • Employment was required of all freedmen; violators faced vagrancy charges.
      • Freedmen could not assemble without the presence of a white person.
      • Freedmen were assumed to be agricultural workers and their duties and hours were tightly regulated.
      • Freedmen were not to be taught to read or write.
      • Public facilities were segregated.
      • Violators of these laws were subject to being whipped or branded

      https://sites.google.com/a/email.cpcc.edu/black-codes-and-jim-crow/black-code-and-jim-crow-law-examples

    1. Let’s turn, now, to Native American Heritage Month and its intersection with Thanksgiving. Many teachers read aloud children’s books about the “First Thanksgiving.” Some classrooms take part in reenactments, with kids dressing up like Pilgrims and Indians or, perhaps, Wampanoags. Most of these books and activities default to stereo-types where Native people are shown in feathered headdresses and fringed clothing— items worn by Plains Indians rather than anything the Wampa-noag people would have worn.

      With my own students, we have a long unit about the discovery of the Americas and the history of holidays such as Thanksgiving. The essential understanding was that no one can 'discover' people, they were already here. It's difficult to undo misconceptions when they are presented everywhere - social media, books, cartoons, maybe even previous teachers. An area for growth I have to include is more literature about actual tribes - I went over brief histories but students need to know more about the culture.

    2. In contrast, Peter Spier’s (1992) Noah’s Ark is not labeled “folklore,” but “Bible stories— O.T.” In fact, all three are creation stories, but the Christian story is treated differently. This difference in how Native and Christian creation stories are treated privileges Christianity, perpetuating institutional-ized racism that keeps in place the ideologies of a society that is predominantly Christian.

      Systematic racism has deep roots, from when the Spanish and European countries explored the New World. The goal of exploration was to gain riches and 'introduce' new people to the dominant religion of the time. We can feel this othering in religion even today, with many discriminating people of different religions. How can teachers discuss this in a way that doesn't condense or dismiss the hardships of people throughout history?

    3. There are more than 500 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States today, each with distinct systems of governance, languages, locations, material cultures, religions, and, of course, stories! Some people are taken aback at the word “nation” as applied to Native nations because of the tendency to group Native peoples with other minority groups in the United States.

      This reminds me of Teaching For a Living Democracy by Block. The author describes the community efforts of acknowledging and celebrating the history and customs of the Maori people.

    4. Historically, “Indian” was commonly used, but over time, more people began using “Native” instead. Most recently, “Indigenous” is emerg-ing as an alternative, as seen in the movements to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

      It is important to be specific with how people want to be identified. This should be a global norm. For example, in Mexico, there is still a division between the poor and rich and internally based on the differences in appearance. To use the Spanish form of "Indian" is also insensitive to people who identify as "indígena." That term is used almost as an insult for those who have 'indigenous' features.

    5. cultures passed down from many generations with complex practices and traditions— hardly primitive.

      It is very intentional to disregard the culture, language, and stories of Indigenous people. By casting Indigenous people in a primitive light, the larger culture will not consider their personhood.

    6. They are ubiquitous and mostly written by people who are not, themselves, Native.

      Also, consider films directed by those who are not native can do irreparable harm by inaccurate depictions. It is difficult to "erase" negative film images. This text focuses on critical Indigenous literacy for children. This age may be the best place to begin questioning who benefits from these films and books.

    7. tendency to group Native peoples with other minority groups in the United States.

      This tendency is especially true of reporting SAT/ACT scores by race/ethnicity. Indigenous people, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders scores are often grouped. To add insult to injury, these test scores are sometimes categorized as "other."

    8. When teachers use Thanksgiving as the vehicle for their instruction about Native peoples, they are inadvertently locat-ing Native lives in the past.

      I read the world as an African American female. I can relate to this statement of locating Native lives in the past. During February, which is traditionally Black History Month, school bulletin boards, films, books all depict either slave lives or biographies of Dr. M. L. King. These narratives are essential to include. Seldom are African American narratives centered on the lawyers, doctors, professors who also impacted American lives.

    1. In the context of the recent presidential election, teachers have verbal-ized their fear about speaking to the origins of the harm persistent in their classrooms: comments of xenophobia, racism, religious intolerance, and misogyny all regularly issued by Trump. If teachers are to take up the task of collective healing in classrooms, such work must begin by establishing trusting relationships “within which the wounded of divided communities can engage in critical and productive dialogue” (

      This lends itself to more of a true democratic classroom where the teacher and student both need mutual respect to analyze what is going on in their world(s).

    2. One area of this work that is particularly resonant with our concerns here is the exploration of the intersections between shared, collective traumas and more intimate, personal traumas; witnessing of and testimony to life stories as pedagogy; and classrooms as sites of vulnerability and embodied experience

      This reminds me of the foundations of many projects explained in Teaching for a Living Deomocracy. Block's projects resulted with his students (mostly) invested in the work because it revolved about their stories and the stories of others.

    3. Listening to teachers and students that day and in the weeks leading up to and following the 2016 election provided striking and poignant reminders that students of all ages carry with them into school the myriad worries, ideas, and oft-repeated phrases of indoctrination spouted on television, websites, and in neighborhoods.

      In 2016 I was a "pre"student teacher observing different schools all over the city. I remember feeling overwhelmed as the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first generation college student. Now, I can say that I was experiencing uneasiness from both roles as a student and educator. An obstacle that teachers with similar backgrounds as my own would be to control their fear when discussing current events with parents and children.

    4. even as we also recognize that some readers did and, perhaps, still do support President Trump.

      It's important to make this distinction because we don't want students to mindlessly assimilate our beliefs. It's difficult to be unbiased with politics, but some students (and their parents) may have beliefs that clash with the educator's.

    5. I am struggling with how to teach today and the next few days.

      I personally feel that educators are often overlooked and overworked, especially with remote learning expectations during this pandemic. It's become normalized for teachers to be expected to have things together, but the reality feels like this quote.

    6. However, such settings can be paradoxically fraught for both

      So glad the authors mentioned teachers and students in this statement. During this pandemic, teachers are expected to put their lives on the line; Latino teachers face fears and anger concerning immigration; African American teachers face frustration concerning police brutality. A "safe space" is difficult but necessary to achieve for both teachers and students.

    7. each-ers are generally not prepared to address the intersections of healing, politics, and emotion in classrooms.

      We are so pressed to implement Common Core Curriculum and push students to achieve high standardized test scores that it leaves little time for dealing with emotionally traumatized students. Yet, if we do not address students' traumas and show concern for their well-being, they will push back against testing because it does not meet their immediate concerns.

    8. not only is knowledge itself embodied

      This notion of knowledge as embodied is fascinating. We compartmentalize knowledge. PE teachers' domain is health and activity, but not literacy. Literacy teachers' domain is reading/writing but not movement. Our bodies respond to the knowledge of inflicted trama and/or hate.

    9. In considering emotion and trauma in classrooms, witnessing serves as both action and metaphor for the kind of presence necessary in classrooms

      Acknowledging trama is the first step in healing.

    10. When absent in teacher education programs and national policies, it is little wonder that many English teachers may be both stymied and fearful about addressing the civic, healing needs of classrooms

      This is true. As a second year teacher, I don't know how to address this political topic that happen the same time as the pandemic. There is a standard for me to refer to.

    11. The nuances of a “safe space” for SEL in our classrooms requires looking across social, political, and cultural factors for all members of a school community.

      We need to be vulnerable in order to take care of all of our students whose come from different background.

    12. English educators must address trauma in classrooms, while also recognizing how individuals and groups are positioned differently in the material and emotional stakes of this election.

      Just last week, my students asked why we only take one day off, we should take days off until the election settled. They can't focus in class because they worried about the election. I felt the emergence of anxiety in my students, and it depressed me. They need to face a new round of election every four years. How can I address this hot topic to them?

    1. “I want to know your story,” only to have your story told “back to you in a new way. Tell it back to you in such a way that it has become mine, my own” (p. 343), and no longer yours. She continues: “Re-writing you, I write myself anew. I am still author, authority. I am still the colonizer, the speaking subject, and you are now at the center of my talk” (hooks, 1990, p. 343

      In the text, Critical Indigenous Literacies by Debbie Reese, she notes that "#OwnVoices stories—a hashtag created by Corinne Duyvis to describe a book that is written by someone who is of the particular culture being depicted. The idea is that the quality of a story is improved when the person creating that story is an insider who knows what to share and how to share it with outsiders. " When others write your story, they can own it and resell it at their leisure.

    2. Allen’s (2015) study of Black males who are academically successful reveals that their drive to succeed is often influenced by their parents’ high expectations

      Parental roles in black males' success is an appealing area of research. What actions, conversations are available to young black males in the home? How do parents set the bar high for academic expectations? What motivates parents to push for academic success?

    3. However, in the com-munity, he was viewed as smart and knowledgeable.

      Khaleeq positioned himself as a valuable resource in this research study. He was a bridge between his adolescent peers and the researchers. He was knowledgeable and respected among his peers and his community.

    4. “Our struggle to live never matters to other people,” is poi-gnant for a number of reasons. First, it points to his belief that Black lives and, by extension, Black history, struggle, and liberation, do not matter to others, or to say it more explicitly, to many White people

      This is why there aren't enough texts and books about minority.

    5. adolescents can develop literate identities if they have access to resources such as supportive writing communities. She

      Agree! As educator, we need to bring cultural related resources to them.

    6. Thus, it is important for literacy scholars to consider what literacy means and represents, and how and for what purposes young people engage in literacy events in relation to out-of-school time and space.

      This is an important point. I wonder how African American students get to enjoy learning literacy and engaging in literacy event when current literacy curriculum have nothing to do with their lived experience.

    7. technology

      Agree! They always close schools in areas who need school the most!

    1. During this time, every student reads their piece. As students read, we laugh, cry, and create community, but we also teach and learn from each other.

      All students write and participate in the read-aloud. Then all take notes on each person's narrative. All the students have to "buy-in" to this process because they bear such intimate thoughts and feelings. Creating this safe place was crucial to the sharing process.

    2. Often one novel will provide the center, or core, and I’ll surround it with other texts, role-plays, videos, improvs, museum visits, speakers.

      It is innovative to create units with multiple literacies and not binding learning to just one or two texts.

    3. And then there was the graduate who returned and chided me for not preparing her with any “traditional” literature.

      This is a difficult balance to maintain for literature. Although critical literacy engaged Christensen's students in high school, many colleges only teach and accept "traditional" (white) literature.

    4. I knew what didn’t work, but I still didn’t know what did work.

      According to Handsfield, in Literacy Theory as Practice, "There are no actual curricula that are considered to be CRT (Critical Race Theory) instructional programs." Christensen had to create literacy units that met her students' individual and collective needs as students of color.

    5. I prayed that none of my students or colleagues would see the article.

      I have the exact same feeling. What would students think about themselves when they figure out how the world, the society called them and label them? The influence is negative!

    6. As students read, I ask them to take notes on each person’s narrative and to think how their classmates felt about their homes.

      This is a social emotional skill as well, within the topic of empathy.

    7. t’s big and it’s messy. It combines the reading and writing of poetry, fiction, essay, historical documents and statistics, lots of discussions, read-arounds, days of writing, responding, and revising of student work.

      I wonder how this classroom looks like when students are in various part of the writing process. In Teaching for Democracy, I was reminded that it may be difficult for an outsider to notice everything that's really going on.

    8. “sancocho of English and Spanish,” the poet Denice Frohman says,

      This poem reminds me of the book "The Pushout: The Civilization of Black Girls in School" where cultural differences add to ignorance. In the book, some girls were described as rude or loud, but they grew up learning from their parents to ask questions if they were confused and to stand up for themselves.

    9. I prayed that none of my students or colleagues would see the article. This wasn’t how I framed my students or my work. Yes, many of my students qualified for free and reduced lunch.

      I appreciate that this text began with this distinction. It bothers me when fellow teachers define kids by labels out of their control - it's a deficit mindset. Also, this enables the savior mentality.