I didn't realize that most people group native literature as one whole genre...even though there is a lot of diversity among tribes.

Such a simple change but it can be so impactful!

We generally hear how history books are often told from the perspective of the "winner" and how they see the other party as lacking something or being uncivilized. However, in this comparison, it is interesting that a Bible story can have the same end result of perpetuating racism and be seen as a "truth."

This reminds me of the importance of a collective classroom library, sharing students stories with each other and incorporating these stories into our classroom libraries.

This reminds me of the importance of incorporating stories that our students can relate to in the classroom environment. However, sometimes stories can be more harmful than we think rather than good. So it is important for educators to research the authors that they are presenting

Exposing our students to experiences or stories first-hand written by insiders will impact the way our students see the world.

During my schooling experience, I had the opportunity to witness the reality of some indigenous tribes. My school offered an opportunity for community involvement that allowed me to see the context and the power of the communities that are most of the time silenced by the dominant culture. Exposing students to such experiences pave the way for a rich and deep classroom discussion that could help students to value the diversity and honor indigenous communities.

This section reminded me Dr. William Shcubert's book Curriculum: Perspective, Paradigm and Curriculum. He is a big advocate of a similar view of teaching and learning and critical literacies. Teaching our students and being mindful when reading between lines and asking questions to ourselves, pondering whose story is this, whose truths are being exposed and who are silenced, is a great way to reflect and approach teaching pedagogies.

The value of voice and authentic language is unmeasured. The importance of educators recognizing various vernaculars of languages used is undervalued. Slang and the use of phrases within dialects of a language have value and meaning, they should be recognized in academic settings as well.

In these first sentences, the author tells what seems to be a reflection of the sociocultural historical theory. She does not only provide mere lessons to help on academic skills but also directs attention to students' apprenticeship. Her teaching practices allows students to develop multiple ways of understanding the world. #CI45022

Less emphasis is needed on test scores and more importance should be given to the skills students already have and know. Their lives are rich with culture and experiences that is valuable and important.

At the heart of teacher, the focus is a delicate balance of inclusion, culture, and motivation. Academic pursuits follow after.

All students want to learn, they are motivated, the label of "disadvantaged" does nothing to support their continued growth.

This resonates with the ideas of "white is right" and white saviorism. But this is an ideology based in the deficit perspective that needs to be shattered. Sprinkling whiteness to an issue is like putting a band-aid on a viral infection, the problem is deeper and not surface-level. And if it is not stopped, it will quickly spread.

This section reminds me of "Linguistic Justice Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy" by April Baker-Bell when she discusses the importance of Black students understanding Black English and it's history, and the nuances of "flava" in speaking AAVE that do not exist in White Standard English.

Engagement is the first hurdle and it's often the biggest one. Obviously, the next is finding what works.

Learning from students and valuing their experiences and knowledge is imperative to creating the classroom you want to see.

I like the use of the word 'sustain'. It's application fits nicely because the literacy skills need to be sustainable and obtainable. Writing and reading do not go away, being a proficient reader is imperative in a life of success.

I think having a balance between both social justice and critical academic skills is important. I feel like in this day in age it is either one of the other; either you care solely about social justice or solely about academic skills. Personally, I'm in the middle of this spectrum. I do believe that teaching social justice is important and critical but I also understand in order to navigate real world power dynamics you have to a set of foundational cognitive skills at your dispense.

Responsive teaching and community based readings make lesson smore meaningful and memorable. There seems to be a greater amount of engagement when this happens.

As teachers we have a responsibility to teach skills that will help students move beyond the classroom space. Part of our job as experts in literature is to ensure that our students are able to read the world.

Making class content related to the students is always a sure fire way to make it engaging. If it is not engaging then we, as educators, might need to reflect on what we can do or why it isn't engaging.

Try as we might it is important to really understand that this hierarchy will not go away. I think we need to teach student Standard English not because it is a better language, but because navigating through power relationships requires knowledge about Standard English.

Who controls the narrative and who the major players are within writing a text is a huge portion of the control that is allowed to happen in "disadvantaged neighborhoods".

We do have more power than we think and the fight for what is right and give student's a voice through their writing.

This is such an important skill that students can carry throughout their lives. This is as important as reading "on grade level" or spelling correctly

Especially important to help students be able to do this with a variety of texts in this digital word

My department is currently trying to advocate for this, but our admin is demanding we focus on the data that shows low scores. Even we say kids also can score low because of a variety of reasons...

Yes! And as a white educator, I am constantly finding myself reflecting on my teaching and thinking whether or not I am conforming to the white - only curriculum or thinking am I doing something about it? It's so important that I do reflect on this all the time and ensure that my students are experiencing a diverse and culturally responsive curriculum and not a white-only curriculum.

This is why I always try to find stories that include characters who reflect my students AND characters who do not reflect them. There are many different people outside of the classroom and it's important for young learners to know that yes our classroom is a community, but outside of the school walls and beyond the borders of their country, people come in all shapes, shades, and sizes.

A strong claim, yet highly accurate! The damage this can cause is deep-rooted.

Again, I argue that it should reflect the world and society at large, not just the classroom. If a class is limited in its racial/cultural make-up, they need to be aware of what exists outside their classroom as to not build a sense of superiority or inferiority to others who they have yet to encounter.

This is an example of the "modern weaponry" mentioned earlier in this section. Weapons have evolved past the limits of physical abuse and into the mental and psychological realm of creating damage. The inclusion of Disney movies has my mind running to how the enslaved status of the princesses took a physical form (Belle and Rapunzel), a symbolic form (Snow White, Aurora, Ariel), or was inhibited by their sex and the roles deemed appropriate by society (Mulan and Jasmine).

This made me think about the recent outburst that fired when the new ariel movie came out and individuals were acting all shocked and offended. 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, this is a toxic trait that can follow into adulthood

Thinking about how Individuals should be represented as a whole and not in a deficit based lens. Literature and thinking about often that young adult literature can push these concepts that uphold stereotypical depictions

I really like this article, in particular, this section where authors provide recommendations of materials and strategies to teach our students to think critically and develop their own stories with characters that look more like them so as to counter those dominant narratives. This section also reminded me of the book Trombone Shorty, by Troy Andrews. This book is also a perfect way to show our students that not all the traditional or popular stories are about imaginary white characters, but that there are also real heroes, people that look more like us who are making history through their talents. Trombone Shorty tells the story of a music prodigy with New Orleans roots. Really fascinating and catching, this def aligns with the article.

It is definitely important to provide a holistic and diverse curriculum so as to honor all of our students' narratives and funds of knowledge.

Agreed - and not just classroom libraries, but also school libraries, community libraries, field trips to theater performances and movies, etc.

I like this word choice. It really captures what this article is going for.

Yes! I often teach a rhetoric unit to our students. Inevitably, we have to talk about or discuss a speech given by Donald Trump. I often share one of his speeches not to polarize or trigger my students but to get them to see how powerful rhetoric can be...up to the point where a whole nation elects a nonsensical man to be president.

And English classrooms can be powerful sites of healing!

While sometimes it is difficult to discuss these topics, it is still essential that we do.

I still recall this day, I was a student teacher at the school that I currently teach in. We actually did not teach that day and took the time to talk to the students and have an open discussion of the fears that they had because of this. #CI45022

This has only been amplified since covid. Teachers across the board were under prepared to reengage and reenter the class after the year of remote learning and the many losses students faced.

This made me think about the meaning of hidden curriculum. How are we ensuring as educators that we are addressing state standards while also addressing the needs of our students social and emotionally. This also makes me think about how we can intertwine transformative healing practices into our everyday curriculum

It's important to offer students an opportunity to reflect and connect through shared traumas and lived experiences. I have found that in my classroom when students are given this opportunity they often leave class having a new profound respect and understanding of one another.

I appreciate how the question posed gets students, and people, to consider their role in relation to everything else. The question gets students to reflect on their intersectional identities and how it has impacted them and their place in society.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. English teachers are often left to help students navigate their trauma and anything related to SEL. Rather than placing this responsibility on English teachers, the responsibility should be a collective effort by all educators.

I agree! And I always find myself frustrated when having these types of conversation with people who aren't in the classroom. I always argue that I am trying to meet the needs of all of my students, and that means that I will sometimes contradict the politics of society which are taught at home.

I think few people recognize the actual teamwork that goes into SEL - the teamwork between administrators, teachers, families, and generally communities. It take support from all sides to make students feel loved and cared for. I feel that, too often, people pit teachers against parents (I've even fell into that trap myslef, by trying to avoid calling home for fear of an angry parents, or by using vaguer language in an email to avoid promising anything). but when it comes to actual matters of the ehart, cooperation between all of these facitions matters.

Absolutely. I remember in one of my preservice classes, our professor told us that, as teachers in the humanities, we would be more solicited by students to deal with the emotional and personal side of student life. It is so difficult to help them decode the world around them when we struggle with comprehensing it ourselves.

Often times external factors are often overshadowed in the class room environment. These factors can pile up and cause traumatic experiences in the classroom. I think it is important for educators to honor and recognize these in the classroom. When we pay attention to how our curricula can honor students traumas and relate to experiences in the classroom.

This reminded me of a policy that my school follows called "corrective restorative practices" thinking about why a students critical consciousness more in depth rather than implementing strict discipline.

This paragraph and this statement puts perfectly into words the way I feel about school shooters.

Again, mainstream media and social media often posits these issues as simple moments rather than complex systems of inequity.

This reminds me of a unit that I am currently teaching on civil responsibility. Our central text is Elie Wiesel's memoir night. A major theme of his novel was that he did not blame the Nazis that were in the concentration camps individually, rather he placed both blame and shared a warning that indifference and dehumanization were the real culprits. Just like this comment by ridding black people of their humanity, having indifference toward their suffering, and denying their rights leads to incidents like this one.

Failing to acknowledge the intersections of race and other events is what leads to media representation that focuses or poses issues as black or weight. It is time for media and society at large to stop using color blind theories to examine injustices.

It's upsetting that they use the anger and disappointment of one person to reflect the protests of an entire movement and organizations that is fighting for the equity of an entire race of people. This just goes to show how they try to minimize the issue by making it seem like it's a "violent" protest, when the activists aren't

When considering the diction that is used in one article/headline vs the other, one is made out to be a victim of his mental health (the white male) vs being a corrupt thug (black male). I often have these relevant conversations with my students, especially when discussing how they have to prove themselves much more than their white counterparts.

Yes! Schools were intended to be a place of "refuge" for students and yet there are too many people working as educators who seek to support systems of oppression rather than dismantle them.

It's disappointing to know that public figures that many people idolize and seek for "truth" draw these types of conclusions when it comes to how Black and Brown youth are marginalized in society. From what the media presented, Houck drew the conclusion that the young lady was not being "raised right" due to what he called a "lack of respect," despite him not having access to the whole picture.

Importance of educators to implement the same tools of education that benefit white students. Thinking about the traditonal concept of education as white supremacy followed by damaging narratives from the mainstream media about black youth. An example of this off the top of my head is thinking about gun violence in chicago and how often the news is always reporting shots on the southside of chicago, when something happens vise versa it does not get as much coverage and I think this is to protect the "image" of the community that it is flawless and perfect which is a damaging concept.

Not to mention that we learn by doing - understanding how the media constructs narratives to favor some parties is supported by doing the writing themselves.

I agree! This year in my teaching I have found a particular difficulty in arguing against what my students bring me from TikTok. While not directly related to BLM or the dehumanization of people of color in the media, I have found it increasingly difficult to give students the tools and lenses they need to view all media criticially, mainly due to the voracious nature of these platforms algorithms.

Interesting text of collaboration in classrooms, I often feel that feedback is important for students and is often overshadowed with negativity. Positive feedback is an important and crucial and creates a classroom environment that is good for rapport.

I believe that this step is the first step in creating a new critical lense in classroom. Students who feel included, supported, and safe in school often feel more fulfilled. Interestingly I would argue that schools where the populations is mostly people of color allow the opposite and when the idea is presented it is fervently detested by teachers and educators.

This is an interesting argument to make, one that I would like to dive into. I would also want to argue that WHEN is an important factor as well.

Easier said than implemented.

I have recently gotten into the idea of social reproduction and how certain factors influence education and curriculum leading to the question if we are truly in a democratic society as the core principles of a democratic society are in direct competition with a capitalistic society.

Counterstories are under utilized within the schools and can greatly help students gain perspective and deeper understanding on issues or events.

I remember conversations about work when I was younger, not too much conversations were around the concept of college, and rather trade work.

Students notice change in their communities this is not a new concept or something that should be shocking. I think that it is important that we bridge our community into our curriculum, incorporating storytelling, and providing lessons that are engaging.

It's a powerful approach to inquiry. This can help uncover the decontextualized view of students of color and reconstruct their own selves. The social model, discourse and metacognitive thinking needed to empower our students can impact their lives.

Another very important point to highlight. Giving voice: this is another claim that the author Kathleen Collins (2003) emphasized as her reason to conduct her research. By 'giving voice' to our students, we empower them, we learn from them and they succeed.

Supportive Writing Communities: Author Collins (2003) in her book Ability Profiling conducted a study for which she worked closely with a student of color who was seen as underperformer, rebel and uninterest in school work. She got involved in Jay's everyday life in and out of school and found out discrepancies on the expectations people had about Jay at school and in the community. The author related that the teacher and Jay's classmates were different from him, they were white and that made Jay want to 'fit' and act as something he wasn't which caused him troubles. However, when observed in his community, Jay was able to be the boy he was, and nobody had any complain about him nor his behavior. It's a really interesting perspective and a good way to depict or illustrate the reality of many of our students.

This piece relates to author Collins (2003) and her book "Ability Profiling," which depicts a child's struggle to be seen as competent in school. This type of study helps to make visible the reality our students face throughout their academic and community lives.

I think it's inestimable the improtance which 360 degree visibility and support is for student literacy. Children (of all ages) need to know that they are centered in their social circles.

I'm always suprisied by the notion that some people hold that literacy skills (specifically reading and writing skills) are only taught and performed at school. I've always been grateful for the continuous literacy support I received at home, and it was never a direct instruction type of support.

The Writing Our Lives project's goals reminds of authors who touched upon 'resistance' in the book titled Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum: Communities of Color and Official Knowledge in Education by Au, Brown, & Calderon, 2016. In this book they describe how, historically, people of color, were seen as less educated and those who produced in academia were never mentioned, just because of their skin color. There has long been rejection and prejudice in regard to 'the ability' of people of color in academia. In this case, the article and the project described depict a great opportunity for those who have long been relegated, to show who they are and resist to the dominant narratives. This is an impactful project for several youth who, I hope, now have a space to speak out through writing. #CI45022

This is a strong statement showing that students will continue to be there, no matter how technology changes or what new methods are created, they will write their stories, share their thoughts, and be heard.

Transactional reader response theory highlights the importance of connecting with the environment and how we interact with the world. Allowing students to connect their lived experiences with text or media by critical thinking and writing is a great opportunity for them to construct their own meanings, hence, change the word as it is the aim of the writing project. Theory and practice are well merged. #CI45022

I like the use of the word "radical" here because it shifts the problem off of the students and onto the structures of power that radicalized their writing experience.

This is something I can do. Often when reading articles about social justice in education I tend to get overwhelmed and feel like I don't know where to start. However, this is something that I can realistically implement in my classroom.

The author's definition of 'radical' reminds me of the scholarship of Dr. Schubert, who highlights the different ways to 'teach the knowledge that is worth knowing for WHOM it is intended to.' In this regard, the definition of radical, inspired by Freire is a reminder of the importance of being involved and experience the world so it can be transformed in different, but positive and impactful ways through literacy. #CI45022

Totally false! It is frustrating how society focuses on the students and blames them on an individual level...yet ignore the systematic racisms that are embedded in our society and educational systems.

This is an example of tough choices we need to make in the classroom. I for one always teach the 5 paragraph argumentative essay, not because I'm particularly a fan of this type of essay but because it is what the English department aligns on. I often cut out creative writing because it is not seen as "acceptable" or rigorous enough.

The connection between Writing Our Lives' project and the critical literacy theory perfectly match the idea of honoring students' funds of knowledge and affirms the worth each young writer's culture has through their ability 'to read the world.' #CI45022

Teachers have also have to show students the process of writing. Students need to see older people and "professionals" struggle with writing. Sometimes students disengage because they think they can't write because it's difficult. Normalizing the struggle can reengage some

This is not limited to practices of writing, but also styles, vocabulary that not validated by schools.

Thus merging the skills they already have those they need to acquire.

This reminds me of the idea of "low stakes" vs "high stakes" testing in schools. I absolutely think that writing has become a high stakes task - a task which demands students to acknowledge that they are being assessed and should write with the purpose of being read. However, writing - like many other school-related tasks - should have a low-stakes impact outside of the classroom as well as inside of the classroom. Writing can and should be personal in the majority of the time a person is writing; this includes student writing.

This reminds me of Delpit's argument about the culture of power: certain languages or behaviors are more valued by those in power to reinforce that power. Here, writing creatively is a devalued form of writing - or, more broadly, a devalued language - and is pitted against the more academic writing we as English teachers must teach and are generally more well-versed in.

It is interesting to read these guidelines. I think about how in my own classroom space that we are often doing quite a bit of writing activities. I get a handful of questions from students like "isn't this art??" I provide students the opportunity to write about art since I feel like that is often overlooked, especially in middle school art curriculum.. I like to stress that art is not always about creating and creating! but it has a process to it! For us educators, regardless of content area we should be providing opportunities for students to use these guidelines in our classroom spaces.

This reminds me of some of the teaching practices that I currently use in my art classroom. I use the phrase "everyone is an artist" quite a bit. I notice that my students would often groan and disagree and say "I'm bad at art!" I wonder if I took an approach like this if some of my students answers would shift or change? "I am a___artist" I think this approach would reframe the measurement of success and create opportunities for students to realize their artistic identities..

Thinking about the importance of educating our children on our own stories, histories, and identities.

So often ELA classrooms are pressured to focus only on analytical or argumentative writing, yet the most persuasive writing is that which evokes empathy. Narratives have transformed perspectives, and this practice seems to return the merit of personal writing and give it a noble status in the classroom.

This is a conversation that I frequently have with colleagues in my English department. Changing and adpating curriculum takes a lot of time in all the stages: before, during, and after. It also is something which seems to be very fluid: we must change according to the students we have and our current context(s).

I feel like this is the paradox of evaluating teaching in general. Teaching is more than our presence in the classroom - which is often a criticism we launch (or at least, a criticism that my colleagues and I launch) when we are observed for 15 minutes a semester and our given a formal assessment of our teaching; yet, our teaching also hinges on the face time we have with our students, which is the accumulation of our time and energy spent preparing for class. Any evaluation that comes from anyone who doesn't spend 24 hours a day for a week with us can feel flat.

Linda C was an author that I read in undergrad, I believe it was an article called "Rethinking Schools" it was about honoring students names and in particular I enjoyed an activity called a name poem. However, when I first gave this activity to my students I realized that my students did not have the foundational skills to create a poem, so we did some backwards thinking and did a few lessons on that. The second time around it went really good. This section reminded me of some importance towards academic skills.

Being on the MTSS committee at my school, we are often so focused on assessment and comparing students scores to other students scores, I often found that they do not enjoy my input on testing scores since I feel that it is little to none of information that truly captures a student. I suggested a check in and out program at my school for these students to ensure that they are even in the right headspace to learn for the day. Linda C makes some excellent notes about how we should stop viewing our students as test scores and numbers.