As language arts teachers, we continue to live in a time when students are forced to jump through alienating academic hoops because of low test scores, especially in schools serving poor communities. But as teachers, we have more academic space than we inhabit.
I love the optimism of this message! ! (https://goo.gl/images/kqh1FU)
write a piece of historical fiction.
What a creative assignment! I think most teachers shy away from having students write a piece of historical fiction because we often don't know if they know enough about a time in history to be able to do it. But once Christensen takes them through this history of housing, students would certainly have had they need to inspire a fictional story from that era!
After personalizing the unit,
"Personal relevance is as vital to the learning brain as it is to the person learning." (https://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-relevance-improves-engagement)
At the end of the read-around, I tell students to write the “collective text” from the class.
I love this writing task for building community. Now, the stories belong to "us" as a class.
And second, I ask them to write a narrative about a time their homes were lost, stolen, or restored.
I love this idea for a personal narrative. I'm wondering when this assignment takes place in Christensen's class. Has she already established herself and her classroom as a safe place to share? How much community has already been built among her students in order to be able to read these aloud to one another?
taught me that teaching language arts means plumbing my students’ lives to bring their stories and voices into the classroom as we examine racial injustice, class exploitation, gender expectations, sexual identity, gentrification, solidarity, and more.
I wonder what Lisa Delpit would think about Christensen's approach? I read an excerpt of Lisa Delpit's "Skills and other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator" for a writing class I took. From what I remember, she adopted a philosophy that included both fluency and traditional writing skills because she believed only allowing African American students to succeed with process writing that embraces their vernacular was creating a greater equity gap. Here is a line I found on the web about the text: " What Delpit suggests is a combination of fluency and skills in the classroom, because both are necessary to have any success in dominate culture's world. She writes "if minority people are to effect the change which will allow them to truly progress we must insist on "skills" within the context of critical and creative thinking [fluency]" (p. 19).
They needed a teacher who could unleash their beauty on the page and their capacity to discuss and argue in the classroom.
I love a noisy classroom. In my opinion, it's the measure of good lesson. The lessons that create silence among my students are the ones that I know need reworking.
instead build a curriculum that puts students’ lives at the center
This is my first time teaching English 12 (I've mostly lived in grades 9, 10, and 11), and there is an injustice research project in quarter three. I've been scared to death of it. I didn't know how to wrap my head around the complexities of "research any injustice in the world." Really? I thought it was too broad for my students and felt compelled to offer a list of 10-15 on which I knew I could find quality resources. I didn't. I let the students choose - and the most beautiful, poignant papers and projects are being created. Students chose injustices that have affected them personally and their papers are better because of it.
And then there was the graduate who returned and chided me for not preparing her with any “traditional” literature.
I struggle with this daily. It's a delicate balance when teaching learners who are reluctant and struggling readers--do I foster a love for reading by offering texts that are relevant and modern? Or, am I creating a greater equity gap by not exposing these students to the "classics"?