began holding free writingworkshops at local community organizations and publiclibraries.
These workshops had a great turnout rate. I wonder what the workshops looked like. Was it an open free write space? Were their prompts? What supports did students have when writing? What levels were the students writing at?
validate the writing practices that young people alreadyengage in
I like that it is validating what youth are already doing. It does not try to teach them but instead focuses on what they already do well. Another reason why teaching to our student's interests is so important!
I define radical youth literacies asways of knowing, doing, writing, and speaking by youthwho are ready to change the world
This in an odd way reminds me of the early controversies with Kanye West. What he says seems to be so sideways but it's his truth. With the exemption of his recent antisemitic comments which clearly just spread hateful messages.
while there are others that remaininvisible and are deemed less important.
This reminds me of a student who only enjoyed writing raps. I changed all of his assignments to be a rap. We need to value our student's interests.
A critical literacy meansthat students probe who benefits and who suffers, howdid it come to be this way, what are the alternatives, andhow can we make things more just?
This is an important and interesting way to examine text. Through whose lens is this written in?
When I stopped attending to test scores and startedlistening to the music of my students’ voices and seeingthem as “more than a score,” I increased my capacity toengage them.
Connecting with our students is vital! A healthy rapport is absolutely needed with all and each of our students.
error of the department that hiredme—was to see these students as “disadvantaged” insteadof seeing their brilliance.
this! it's easy to look at the wrongs but our kids come with so many advantages we just need to listen to them!
Their test scoresguided our work.
This is so frustrating. As a SPED teacher data is at the forefront of what I do but it completely misses the bigger picture. Our students are more than just numbers. A one-hour test is not a true reflection of a student as a whole.
s the effect that uncritical consumption of mainstreammedia narratives of Black people can have on media consumers and Blackyouth
School-to-prison pipeline! This is exactly how it starts and continues.
Hill’s critique was put out via Twitter,whereas Houck’s was broadcasted on national television.
Interesting point. Which message had the potential tor each more people? Which message was mass distributed quicker and louder?
has no respect at home or on the street, and that’s why she actedthe way she did”
How can he assume this based on an incident that happened at school? Based on a video he saw. He does not know the student or even the whole situation he is examining. He feels so comfortable making these assumptions because of the stereotypes and the way Black people are portrayed in society. He's also victim-blaming the student.
White school resource officer.
Here begins the problem. Why do we need resource officers in school? What message does that send to students? Who are they there for?
Far more expan-sive than developing students’ emotional skills, English educators and thechildren, youth, and families with whom they work must help remake andrepair the world.
I love this! I love that it focuses on more than developing a student's emotional skills but also focuses on understanding a student's emotional state. Understanding the world we live in and how it effects our kids.
The nuances of a “safe space” for SEL in our classrooms requireslooking across social, political, and cultural factors for all members of aschool community.
This is an interesting and important point. A "safe space" is more than a cute comfy corner. It's an overall feeling and understanding of the who and what. What is it safe for and from what are they safe from?
teachersare generally not prepared to address the intersections of healing, politics,and emotion in today’s classrooms
We may not be prepared or have received formal training on this but it's a huge part of our job. This has also just been amplified after/during COVID.
get blamedon Black youth rather than on the structural inequalities endemic to US society
this is so powerful!! These are all things out of students' control. This also reminds me of the over-representation of bilingual students in special education.
“Education is the great equalizer
Education can only be an equalizer if it is given the same to everyone. Unfortunately, this is not the case within CPS. The resources are vastly different from school to school.
autonomous model presentsliteracy as a set of skills for decoding and producing printed texts, whereas theideological model conceptualizes literacy—or, rather, literacies—as connected tomultiple modalities and forms of communication.
In order to be a comprehensive reader a student must go through and "pass" both models. I don't think its one or the other but instead one before the other.
We Can Do Better: RethinkingNative Stories in Classrooms
I like the suggestions they offered. These are simple ways we as educators can be intentional with how and what we teach.
movements toreplace Columbus Day with Indigenous PeoplesDay.
Not only replace the name of the day but what is taught. Columbus should still be taught, but the truth of what he did.
I ask teachers to rethink literature usedto teach children about Indigenous peoples
It is important to also rethink how they are using this literature. What history/message is it telling?
(re)presenting
I am curious to find out why they chose to write the word this way. Representing indigenous communities and/or presenting what?
The CFT modelencourages these girls to take traditional fairy talesand rewrite the narrative from their perspective
I love this! After reading linguistic justice I wonder what language is being used in these fairy tales.
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.
This is such a powerful truth! it speaks volumes about systemic racism.
Black people have experiencedand are currently living in racialized terrorizationthrough policing, mass incarceration, and sur-veillance of their bodies
It's so sad that policing begins in the early elementary years. This connection reminds me of the school-to-prison pipeline which studies the connection between minority students ending up in prison from our public schools.
White-only curriculum, cultur-ally biased literary texts, and pedagogical standards,
This aligns with the text we read in this class Linguistic Justice which studied how policing the black language was modern-day segregation.
The feeling of voicelessness creates a senseof internalized powerlessness for students in theirschooling and preparation for learning and success.
and this sets them up for how they will behave as an adult. Always feel like what they have to say is not important. This is amplified by our minority students.
They noted the differences presented in the poemand novel chapter, and they wanted alternate waysof wording that would be less hurtful and punitive.
I would have loved to see examples of this or know what the original hurtful and punitive language was being used. It's so sad the our students are realizing this and how embedded it is in our literature.
“If you treat students more professionally,then they are likely to act more professionally.”
This is so important with any grade! Our students all bring their own experiences and we need to give them the space to share their thoughts. Adults often feel as if kids don't know any better.
I would learnthat the incarceration rates increased at an acceler-ated pace then and to the present. As a high schoolstudent, my choices and world shrank more as myfriends abandoned their studies
This reminds me of the school-to-prison pipeline. The national trend where youth are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal legal systems.
omething that a person may begenetically predisposed to and unable to “just stop”without intervention
I love how well-studied this was. It didn't put blame on just the person for "choosing" to be fat or is just "lazy". Instead, it examined why people can be obese like genetics, where they live etc.
Reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Pollan, 2006)and watching the documentary Super Size Me
Multiliteracies! A documentary and a nonfiction text. Love to see both!
“fighting for the rightto the city”
This reminds me of gentrification. The people of color fighting to stay in their neighborhoods as it continues to get whiter and more expensive.
Spatial justice can be understood as being premised onthe idea that “justice, however it might be defined, hasa consequential geography, a spatial expression that ismore than just a background reflection or set of physicalattributes to be descriptively mapped”
This definition still seems confusing. What I'm getting from it though is justice is more than where you live on a map? Or it is talking about how where you live on a map can effect your justice. This reminds me of the way our schools are funded. Even though they are all Chicago Public Schools the resources are vastly different on the north side compared to the south side.