The effects of the collective plan of action be-came evident when the school principal and staffmembers responded to their book publication andsubmission for review.
I love this. This encourages the students to speak up and help them realize they do have a voice, because they were recognized for their efforts.
The feeling of voicelessness creates a senseof internalized powerlessness for students in theirschooling and preparation for learning and success.
This is powerful because alot of minority youth dont feel like they have a say so or can make a difference in the community, because they feel like they dont matter. this is stereotypes society places on them, this is why allowing them to write about their reality helps them resist this perspective on themselves
My awareness of students’ love of literatureand writing, ranging from poetry and short storiesto young adult literature, guided me to select textsthat could extend the conversation to texts abouthumane treatment.
This is great because she is choosing articles and readings that best suit her current classroom. She is actually picking something that her students are interested in to further the conversation and allows them to engage in.
I began to learn about how systems worked againstworking communities
the people who are most affect by the system is the minority community. Black and Latinx communities always get the short end of the justice system. They are always guilty until proven innocent, and rarely the other way around
counter narratives through their culminatingproject: a position paper in which they synthesizedinformation throughout the unit and proposed ways toaddress obesity in the African American community.
Great follow up assignment, this is something that allows the to propose their ideas on how to change their environment. another activity that allows them to have a voice and engage in the assignment
Throughout this unit, Kara asked her students to makeuse of their knowledge of their own neighborhoods,positioning them as experts about the places theyinhabit. In one of the first activities of the unit, studentswrote and performed spoken word poems abouttheir neighborhoods (e.g., important/noteworthyintersections). However, they also complicated negativestereotypes of the South Side
Poetry another form of literacy that these students probably wouldnt ever have thought to explore but because she invited them to write about something they knew or identified with. they were able to enjoy it.
Kara addressed the foodindustry and obesity through a critical lens examiningrace, power, and place
Kara used this as a way to connect the students current environment. examining how race, power, and location can has a connection with food quality.
Kara cultivated her students’ urban literacies byencouraging them to draw from their local knowledgeof self, culture, and place; to critically situate their localknowledge in broader sociopolitical contexts; and to craftcounter narratives.
I like this idea by the teacher to invite her students to write about their perspective of their reality. this allows student to connect on a personal level. Collaboration between students promotes the most academic acheivement.
Choose books by Native writers.
Choose authors that are Native if you want to teach about Native culture. This should be the case for all cultures, using books that are written by authors of that culture that has first hand experience with it, is the best way to teach it. This is the definition of literacy.
Another problem is the “myths, legends, andfolktales” books that are marketed as Native. Theyare ubiquitous and mostly written by people who arenot, themselves, Native.
Another example of "Americanizing", these books and authors are not Native American, not saying they shouldnt be able to write about their experiences but the main books being published about Native American culture are by Non-indigenous authors
the larger culture needs to unlearn andrethink how the identities of Indigenous peoples arerepresented and taught
Alluding to my last annotation, America needs to teach indigenous culture. Not just say Native American, Because this just Americanizes their culture and beliefs. America forces their standards and beliefs onto other cultures.
MostNative people prefer to name their specific tribalnation because being specific helps non-Nativepeople learn that we are far more diverse than whatthe terms “American Indian” or “Native American”evoke
It shows more respect for their culture if you address them by their actual tribal name. I feel like just saying Native American is a way of "Americanizing" their culture.
Our narrative process of listening to, documenting, and analyzingtheir stories allowed us to access rich layers of data about how they voiced andstoried their experiences in the world.
This allows students to connect at a higher level, by hearing and analyzing and digesting each others stories. This to me is the best way of getting students writing juices flowing and allowing them to get to know one another creating a safe learning environment.
Thus, it is important for literacy scholars to consider what literacy meansand represents, and how and for what purposes young people engage in literacyevents in relation to out-of-school time and space
It is hard for students to engage in literacy and writing when they dont relate to the topics they are writing about. It is way easier for students to engage in. Teachers should invite students to write about something they are passionate about.
Additionally, we are also aware that public education has not lived up to its fullpotential—as a great equalizer, a leveler of the playing field—for the very peoplewho need it the most. Urban public schools that serve a large demographic oflow-income students of color are often on the chopping block when it comes toreceiving adequate funding to renovate facilities, modernize technology, replaceoutdated books, hire teachers early, and ensure that all students have access to afull-time staff of nurses, therapists, and counselors.
alot of schools that are mostly minority students lack the funding and resources to be successful. I know in my school growing up we had to share text books, didnt have the up to date equipment. lack of teachers. I had a substitute teacher for 75% of my 3rd grade year because my teacher quit due to the lack of pay
Education is the great equalizerin a democratic society, and if people are not given access to a quality education,then what we are doing is creating an underclass of people who will challenge ourvery way of lif
I do believe everyone should have access to education and the opportunity to learn. Those who dont have access to a full education are at an extreme disadvantage, they dont have the same opportunities of success in society because they dont know as much as the next. I also believe the more people that are educated the better it is for society as a whole
Black girls mustbe exposed to and seen within the subject that theyare learning while also given the opportunities forcounternarratives and resistance to injustice
Black girls need to be given the same opportunities to learn and to excel as their counterparts. We also need to fight against the narrative of the inferiority of the black community. we need to fight against stereotypes and that are constantly thrown on us. but the school system needs to give us the chance to do so
When the only images that Blackgirls see of themselves in the classroom are rootedin their dehumanization, it sends messages of dis-affirmation and educational neglect that may neverbe emancipated.
Reiterating my previous annotation, Black girls are only taught that they were and are still treated inhumanly. They are always neglected and shown less love and attention than the rest. The school curriculum needs to do a better job of connecting to the black community
When Black girls’ identities, ways of learning, andleadership capacities are symbolically bonded bychains through a White-only curriculum, cultur-ally biased literary texts, and pedagogical standards,Black female students are in fact experiencing nor-malized racial violence.
There is no curriculum geared toward the black community especially for young black girls. they are one of the most marginalized communities. It is a form of slavery but of the mind. Being shown that they dont matter constantly through school curriculum is awful and needs to be changed.
Persistent societal images that negatively por-tray Black women and girls have contributed tonormalcy and the mosaic of Whiteness as pure andinnocent while Blackness is seen as inhumane orrepresenting death. Black girls are often character-ized as Jezebels, Sapphires, aggressive, or sexualizedto the point that they are deprived of having any in-tellectual currency and curiosity
The worst part is that black women are treated the most unfair in society. they arent seen as smart, beautiful, and pure, when in fact they are all of those things. Societal stereotypes set these false representations of the black community, and try to diminish our equality
Johnson (2015) suggests that within mainstream media, young Black victims,particularly Black boys, tend to be presented as guilty adults. Black youthand children are hardly ever portrayed as victims or labeled as “children” inthe media in comparison to young White victims and suspects.
Unfair treatment from the beginning, they see black children as adults, Trayvon Martin was a child, but the media tried to make him seem like he was a bad person. when in reality all he had was a some skittles and a drink, minding his business walking home. The media tries to find the worst pictures to make him seem like something he wasnt, and this is the case for the majority of situations that take place
Houck’s comment captures the critical role that mainstreammedia play in the “debasement of Black humanity, utter indifference toBlack suffering, and the denial of Black people’s right to exist”
We see multiple examples of the unfair treatment of black Citizens. We see examples of police brutality and the reoccurring persecution of innocent people because of their skin color. Even the back lash we get as the black community for creating the #BlackLivesMatter because we feel as if we dont matter in society. They powers thats be start the #AllLivesMatter saying to belittle the black community
Rather than seeing the girlas the victim, Houck faulted her for the attack, which is troublesome butunsurprising, given mainstream media’s coverage of brutality against Blackbodies.
Again the issue with media is that they portray black people as the attacker in every scenario. constantly feeding into the stereotype of Black people being the bad guy. you see it every time on the news, innocent people being harmed or killed but still being blamed for the situation
If that girl got out of the seat when she was told, there’d be no problem.But apparently she had no respect for the school, no respect for her teacher,probably has no respect at home or on the street, and that’s why she actedthe way she did”
It seems that the media portrays a view of African American students to the world without even knowing the extent of the story. feeding into stereotypes
Healing is not a singular journeyof moving from hurt to being fully healed, but an ongoing path in whichattention to healing and critical youth development have to be made partand parcel of teaching and learning in classrooms
Healing is something we must promote to the students. not something that just happens overnight or even quickly. its something that has to be the primary focus of educators.
more than simply passing upa missed pedagogical opportunity. Rather, not discussing the social falloutafter the election is an act of denying the full humanity of students in schools
It may be okay to discuss what is going on in the country with your students and get them into discussion to allow them to form their own opinions about what is taking place. This can be used as a tool to encourage student collaboration. but teachers must refrain from forcing their opinions onto students
But at least we had our sup-portive networks; we know that for many teachers and teacher educators theexperience was the inverse of ours, with colleagues and families triumphantand very few sharing a sense of devastation.
People were very open about how they felt about the outcome of the election, teachers, educators, and parents all showed a clear opinion to the students about who should have won and whats going to happen to the country because of the outcome.
acknowledging our personal dismay withthe outcome of the election, even as we also recognize that some readersdid and, perhaps, still do support President Trump.
I think that teachers should not try to push their political views onto their students. Instead we should allow students to develop their own opinions and beliefs based on the information that they are given. I think this also encourages them to do their own research.
I wanted tocreate spaces where youth writers define, understand,challenge, and use writing in and out of school and wherethey are critical ethnographers of their own writing lives.
This should be the goal for every school, to encourage writers to be the best they can be, so they can be elite writers outside of the classroom as well. you do this by challenging them in the classroom and inviting them to write about something personal to them
I knew that the commonlyheld view of Black children as nonwriters and nonreaderswho were disengaged from learning was false. Thiswas a dominant misconception, however, because ofthe power given to writing and other literacies that areschool sanctioned and assessed. Parents and communitymembers understood writing to be the timed writingtasks for standardized exams or the demonstration of theconventions of writing on school assignments
The stereotype behind the black community is black students arent good writers. we as educators dont work hard enough to help defeat this stereotype. we should be encouraging students to write as much as possible, to give them a chance to be great
“undergroundwriters. . . . When you see these studentswalking down the halls, you would neverknow that they were writers.”
this reiterates what I was describing in my last annotation. Schools should know if.a student is a genius of a writer. The school isnt getting the max potential out of each student, because schools dont take the time to get to know their students or the opportunity to display their writing skills
n school you kinda contradict yourselfand you kinda like, you know, coverup some stuff, like you kind of hideyourself in school but when you’re outsideof school, it’s like you open yourself up.You unfold everything
This is the exact opposite of what school should be. the classroom should be a place that students feel like they can be themselves. I was the same way. No one really knew who I was or my true personality was, or even what I came from or dealing with. You wont get the most out of a student when they have this mindset.
Students have writtenimaginative stories set in nightclubs where jazz greatscame to play and their grandparents met and fell in love,cafés that once held the laughter of Black voices, or thebasements of an elder’s home where neighbors organizedto protest urban renewal.
This allows students to think more deeply about their identity and where they came from even if its fictional. You get and idea of what their perspective is on their heritage and their background. And its a topic that they are interested in and will think deeply about
After students write, we arrange the desks in a circlefor a read-around. The read-around is the living roomof our classroom. During this time, every student readstheir piece. As students read, we laugh, cry, and createcommunity, but we also teach and learn from each other.If I had to choose one strategy as the centerpiece of myteaching, it would be the read-around. It provides boththe writing text for my classroom and the social textwhere our lives intersect and we deepen our connectionsand understandings across lines of race, class, gender,nationality, and sexual orientation.
I love this, I know we have done similar activities in our classroom. I feel that this builds a safe learning environment wear everyone feels safe to share and express themselves. these are the the environments of higher educational achievement because the students can communicate with the teacher and their peers effectively.
I bring in students’ lives in two ways. First, the unititself is about their lives and the unfolding narrative ofhow racial inequality, displacement, economic disparity,as well as resistance and resilience are currently playingout in their neighborhood. And second, I ask themto write a narrative about a time their homes werelost, stolen, or restored.
I think this is powerful, because this allows students to express what may be going on in their home environment. this allows them to connect with each other and allows the teacher to get an idea of whats going on and how you can relate to them. this also allows them to write about something that they can relate to and want to talk about
I stillhadn’t created classrooms that matched the classroomin my imagination, where students read, argued, andwrote passionately. I moved in the right direction when Istopped believing that I was the one who knew and theywere the ones who needed to know. I became curiousabout what I didn’t know
As an educator, you have a plan in your head that you want to execute. A plan that you think will benefit every student but the reality is nothing goes according to the way you picture. Teaching is about adapting to your classroom the different personalities and backgrounds of each student