Our thanks to partner author Samuel Jaye Tanner for contributing to the 2019-20 Marginal Syllabus! A brief bio is included at the end of this article, and you can also learn more by visiting Sam's website.

Welcome to the 2019-20 Marginal Syllabus and our November conversation! This is the first article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." Our reading is part of the second LEARN syllabus co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus sparks and sustains public conversation about educational equity through collaborative technologies and partnerships. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech.

One on hand, this is a pretty bold assertion -- all white people is assumed in this sentence. Painting large brush strokes like that is always precarious. On the other, the second line is very poetic and attuned to the nature of change.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you are using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• [Why annotate?] (https://s15138.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Why_-Infographic.pdf) Michelle King of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project explores the “whys” of annotation with a focus on convening and curating dialogue, playing and noticing, and co-authoring professional learning.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group

DiAngelo argues that white people should try to "be less white." I wonder how Tanner feels about that idea, which seems markedly different than understanding whiteness as a racial identity rife with challenges.

This is such a powerful example. Has anyone else been in a position where they automatically asked for a person of color's opinion before stating their own?

This is part of that exhausting burden of shouldering mentioned earlier.

Reading the work of black authors is not just about making black students feel included.

Black people hear this consistently from other black people. But it's rare for me to hear a white person ask himself this, and it's very interesting.

People are more than lists of privileges and we are not done with the work once we've checked all of the boxes.

The self-doubt of not deserving advantages and privileges, imposter syndrome, guilt, shame...

I think this eagerness to reconcile race refers to the strong urge to separate the individual from the atrocities of one's race, ie. not all white people. Even if logically it goes without saying that an individual isn't responsible for an entire group, the tendency is to take this very personally.

Is this the project?

And if he talked "black"? What would have the reaction been then, I wonder? I appreciate the storytelling here, of bringing us into an important moment, and being confronted by a student (in a way that clearly has resonated over time).

The power of story .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfBTIhKEXy0

I tried to highlight this entire sentence but the page break broke my highlighter -- this insight seems important to me in this context of race and identity (and ultimately, how teachers in the classroom can become more attuned to race and equity and access). So, this is a note to myself (and you, if it is helpful) to come back to this sentence as an anchor point.

Hmmm. I'm not sure this is true, actually. There are many others who push against white supremacy who are white, who are organized and active, who confront it. Maybe not enough. We all need to do more. But to claim that the force of disruption is only people of color seems to overgeneralize the real world.

This is a pretty strong and powerful, and provocative, way to frame this piece. I had to pause here. To think about this. For it is true, but is it true for everyone who is white? Everyone who is not? This is a signal that this piece will push to us examine our own identities.

Powerful question; I appreciate this reflective stance in response to student comments and questions.

I love this use of theater and the physical nature of it (referring back to my notes about physicality above). In my own experience, I do think physical theater helps with really hard ideas and conversations. Sam talked about this a bit - at 48:13 he talks the way that "race is an embodied thing, it is an emotional thing and the one thing I love about theater ... you don't have to talk about race in these overaly rational ways that almost sometimes take us away from the deeply felt experience of it."

He then describes more about the ways that he and colleague have recently been engages in an inquiry project using improv theater with elementary students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJT1pZCMddA#action=share

I have been thinking about this on a personal level as I read children's books to my niece and nephew who are African American. It's not enough to just show black people doing great things - for example Jackie Robinson - without unpacking what it means to be "first" and what was in the way in the first place. I am still trying to figure out the right language to shift the narrative in a way that makes sense at 3 and 6 yo.

Yes, I have seen this happen; helpful to unpack this here. Wondering how my colleagues at local sites approach these conversations in the context of their work and institutes? What could we rethink and rework?

haunting/haunted

hesitation/hesitating

shoulder/shouldering

exhausting

A lot of words in this essay are very physical, like grapple. I will note a few below that I highlighted as I was reading this.

Dr. Baker-Bell was a Marginal Syllabus partner author during the 2017-18 "Writing Our Civic Futures" syllabus. Read "The Stories They Tell: Mainstream Media, Pedagogies of Healing and Critical Media Literacy" by April Baker-Bell, Raven Jones Stanbrough, and Sakeena Everett published in the January 2017 edition of English Education. Dr. Baker-Bell also recommended to the Marginal Syllabus team that we include this article in our current syllabus.

Dr. Johnson is a partner author with this 2019-2020 LEARN Marginal Syllabus. We'll be reading and discussing Dr. Johnson's article “Where Do We Go From Here? Toward a Critical Race English Education” in June of 2020 as the concluding conversation of this syllabus.

"When did you become white?" As a teacher educator, Sam asks some version of this question to his white pre-service English teachers during their coursework. The question serves as a prompt for a writing exercise and subsequent discussion. If you self-identity as white, you may want to consider, and perhaps also respond to, Sam's questions:

• When did you become white?
• And what and how have you learned from this?

I'm curious to dig into this notion of the logics of white supremacy. One such logic is to confine the definitions of "racism" and "white supremacy" to overt actions of violence and gross forms of discrimination, while dismissing more subtle but pervasive forms.

I visited my daughter's class last year- she's in fourth grade- and students were presenting poster sessions about famous Coloradans. Several of the students studied Chief Little Raven, including my daughter. In each poster session about the Southern Arapahoe Chief, white children would speak about the duplicitous actions of the whites and I was glad to hear the students talk plainly about violence and theft. I went home that day wondering how those white students were making sense of the profound messages their studies held for them about their own race.

I grew up understanding acts of racial hatred and intimidation as "white supremacy." White tolerance for inequitable conditions, and the failure to investigate the ways white privilege perpetuates inequity are at issue here.

A key point in this piece and, to me, an important distinction in equity work.

The author is explicit about trying to get a feel for a constructive way forward.

This connects back to the comment I added earlier: this is an incredibly fine line to walk and we must be careful of decentering whiteness while also making room for the honesty of white people.

Yes. I am also complicit and I will never be absolved. This is the work of a lifetime.

While I never have taught in a predominantly white context, this echoes my own experiences in educational spaces, especially with my fellow white teachers and educators.

My early teaching career also forced me to grapple with my whiteness. For the first time in my life, I had sustained, daily experiences of being the only white person in the room. I had already explored my whiteness through a mentor who encouraged me to name and grapple with my own internalized racism. I believe this allowed me to approach my students with a humility and awareness of my own racism.

I agree that this important work for white people to take up in educational spaces. However, I feel the danger of taking up all the air in the room as white people grapple with their own biases, behavior, and supremacy. In conversations about diversity, justice, equity, inclusion white people can eat up all the time with our feelings of white guilt. How do we allow for space for white educators to take on this work without taking up all the space for discussion? How do we do this work without silencing our peers of color who aren't as privileged as we are?

I have found Robin DiAngelo's work to be helpful in my own racial identity work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwIx3KQer54

I'm also white and will be annotating from this white identity.

Teachers can connect the books to their own specific state or residence. This would allow for strong connections to be made amongst students, and even amongst the community.

Although not commonly thought, this statement is true. Rather than living in the past, teachers should be using activities that surround Thanksgiving as a way to reteach about Native peoples.

This is important.

Identifies a solution to the issue at hand.

Privellege v.s. Oppression

Sterotypes such as this are harmful when reinforced in the context of literature.

Allows for those who are directly impacted to have voice, and speak upon their own experiences from a first person perspective.

Crtical questions that aid in overall students understanding of Indigenous People.

I found the question "whose voices are not being heard" to be the most impactful. It allows students to read beyond the text and realy assess where the root of the issue lies.

Issue being addressed throughout the article. Importance placed upon teaching students/children about Indigenous people.

Teacher's are given the opportunity to select literature for their students. It is expected for the literarture to be well-versed and fairly represent Indigenous communities. Societies greatest downfall is in the fact that we are not knowledgable on communities that differ from our own.

I think the act of "unlearning" is an important takeaway. Although sterotypes are common in today's society, that does not justify them being used.

Helps bridge the gap in societies current misunderstanding regarding Native people and tribal nations.

Michelle's work connects with #marginalsyllabus

I'm interested to learn more about this "we" and how the group functions on an individual and collective level. I also read the title as a way for the members of the "we" to distinguish themselves and "how [they] do it" from other groups and how those groups do "it," which I'm assuming is teaching English with technology. Last note: I now have Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" in my head as I begin the article, which is a plus.

As a White educator, I am constantly reflecting on the ways I am complicit in normalizing racial violence. By naming it, I hope to dismantle it. I have to assume that my Whiteness will make me blind and I have to actively move myself into uncomfortable questions about my complicity and stay there so that I don't continue this cycle of violence.

Here is another way this harms Black girls: there are very few children's books that focus on the relationship with Nature that feature children of color. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/05/the-lack-of-diversity-in-childrens-books-about-nature/590152/

As a white person teaching in a classroom with predominantly Black students, I was struck early in my career with the way my own racial identity and my students' racial identities were part of the readers experience--reading To Kill A Mockingbird together we had a collective moment of confusion when I realized that they were reading Scout, Jem, and Atticus as Black characters while I understood them to be White. It was my first realization that so many white authors describe white characters without mention of race and every other ethnicity is named. My White privilege had blinded me to this fact for my whole life.

This is reminding me how I had a history of Education class in graduate school that included Song of Solomon as required reading and how powerful that was in my experience in that course. Makes me think more about the ways I might bring in literature by Black women into my current graduate teaching.

Reminds me of Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's recent work -- https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=ebony-elizabeth-thomas-on-magic-imagination-gap-and-the-dark-fantastic

My African-American nephew recently worked on a hands-on STEM project at school that asked him to figure out how to get Rapunzel out of her tower. While maybe a great problem-solving project in many ways, these stories with white characters (not to mention the gender dynamics here too) continue to get replicated through the disciplines. This article has me wondering how a counter process could be used.

A powerful statement for us as writing project educators to reflect upon and engage.

That work is available online here (first 3 pages), and here (last 2 pages).

This talk is a must-watch for educators today. https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg

This is a powerful example of youth activism that has helped shed a light on the scarcity of Black girl characters in classroom libraries and in the books English classrooms foreground. https://youtu.be/U2nN01Pwv_E

The curriculum subtly teaches them they belong in a lower station while reinforcing for white students that their stories have primacy.

Our thanks to partner authors Jemimah Young, Marquita Foster, and Dorothy Hines for contributing to the 2018-19 LEARN Marginal Syllabus! Bios for each partner author are included at the end of this article.

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our Month conversation! This is the second article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in social learning analytics? View visualizations of this conversation and gain deeper insight into collaborative reading and discussion. Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

And thank you CITE! CITE is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal whose support for the 2019 Marginal Syllabus is most appreciated.

Thank you Kira Baker-Doyle! The Marginal Syllabus is most appreciative of partner authors who agree to have their scholarship publicly annotated to support openly-networked and interest-driven professional learning. Read more about Marginal Syllabus author partnerships.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in social learning analytics? View visualizations of this conversation and gain deeper insight into collaborative reading and discussion. Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the summer 2019 Marginal Syllabus and our fourth conversation! This is the fourth article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Connected Learning in Teacher Education." This Marginal Syllabus has been co-developed in partnership with the Connected Learning in Teacher Education (CLinTE) network, the journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open and collaborative web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education.

What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial educational technology. Thanks for joining us this summer!

And thank you CITE! CITE is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal whose support for the 2019 Marginal Syllabus is most appreciated.

Thank you partner authors! The Marginal Syllabus is most appreciative of partner authors who agree to have their scholarship publicly annotated to support openly-networked and interest-driven professional learning. Read more about Marginal Syllabus author partnerships.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in social learning analytics? View visualizations of this conversation and gain deeper insight into collaborative reading and discussion. Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the summer 2019 Marginal Syllabus and our third conversation! This is the third article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Connected Learning in Teacher Education." This Marginal Syllabus has been co-developed in partnership with the Connected Learning in Teacher Education (CLinTE) network, the journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open and collaborative web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education.

What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial educational technology. Thanks for joining us this summer!

And thank you CITE! CITE is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal whose support for the 2019 Marginal Syllabus is most appreciated.

Thank you Betina Hsieh! The Marginal Syllabus is most appreciative of partner authors who agree to have their scholarship publicly annotated to support openly-networked and interest-driven professional learning. Read more about Marginal Syllabus author partnerships.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in social learning analytics? View visualizations of this conversation and gain deeper insight into collaborative reading and discussion. Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the summer 2019 Marginal Syllabus and our second conversation! This is the second article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Connected Learning in Teacher Education." This Marginal Syllabus has been co-developed in partnership with the Connected Learning in Teacher Education (CLinTE) network, the journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open and collaborative web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education.

What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial educational technology. Thanks for joining us this summer!

And thank you CITE! CITE is an open-access and peer-reviewed journal whose support for the 2019 Marginal Syllabus is most appreciated.

Thank you partner authors! The Marginal Syllabus is most appreciative of partner authors who agree to have their scholarship publicly annotated to support openly-networked and interest-driven professional learning. Read more about Marginal Syllabus author partnerships.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in social learning analytics? View visualizations of this conversation and gain deeper insight into collaborative reading and discussion. Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the summer 2019 Marginal Syllabus and our first conversation! This is the first article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Connected Learning in Teacher Education." This Marginal Syllabus has been co-developed in partnership with the Connected Learning in Teacher Education (CLinTE) network, the journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open and collaborative web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education.

What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial educational technology. Thanks for joining us this summer!

I didn't notice this in my first read. It is a link to a lesson plan on Read Write Think. It strikes me that the kind of social annotation we're engaged in here could help groups of teachers share their reactions to these plans and results from teaching them.

A great lens for teachers and school leaders.

It is so important that Alexander's work foregrounds this piece. The problem of mass incarceration must guide the decisions teachers make in the classroom. Her writing should change syllabi, revise rubrics and rearrange the furniture in classrooms.

Highlighting the importance of the knowledge we already possess revalues the voices of the students and the stories they can gather from family and community members.

The hope with new technologies is that we can continually press forward in negotiating what is socially sanctioned. As norms for political discourse change with the advent of new media, how can we put our fingers on the scales of justice to advance equity? I hope we can advance this type of writing.

Everardo shares more about this persistence and the long labor of this work in the discussion with the authors (start around 4:00 as he starts to describe more about the context): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpJZo8uKKbg

This notion of counternarratives is a strong core theme throughout the LEARN Marginal Syllabus readings this year, https://educatorinnovator.org/campaigns/literacy-equity-remarkable-notes-learn-marginal-syllabus-2018-19/

Our thanks to partner authors Everardo Pedraza and Joseph Rodriguez for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! A short bio of each author is included at the end of this article. And a Connected Learning TV webinar with both partner authors, and regular Marginal Syllabus participants, will go live on Tuesday, May 7th (and will be included in this annotation, too).

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our Month conversation! This is the second article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

This seems most important ....

Maybe she did this but it would be neat to see this as a map ... maybe even a layered map, with student narratives overlayed on top (like with ThingLink or something)

and maybe history is another layer in this dense geography -- what has happened before echoing (for good or for not) into what is happening now in any given space ...

Noting that these educators have been working with each other in an inquiry context.

She does this masterfully too -- listen to her describe the way she supports youth in following shared inquiries and discovering for themselves the interconnected elements -- start around 15:45 with Chris's question and go to 29:45

https://youtu.be/Gq9AQvjh_PY

I find this really interesting; how inquiring into (spatial) justice itself supports literacy development. A powerful notion that speaks to the ways we develop literacy socially and communally and based on shared purpose.

The Right to the City Alliance has turned this work from lefebvre, and turned it into a movement. I have cited their work in a previous class I taught. Find out more about them: https://righttothecity.org/,

and here's a video from them: https://vimeo.com/87908751

This is a kind of reading assignment that can help students see the transferability of the thinking strategies we bring to both our neighborhoods and the texts we use to study them.

One of my big takeaways from this reading, which for me includes the conversation we had about the text in the webinar (embedded below), is the importance of Tara's inquiry stance. When she was asked to teach using Engage New York's Common Core-aligned curriculum, she asserted both her agency and her curiosity by inviting her class to research and address an issue that resonated with them. To me, her process as a teacher is instructive. https://youtu.be/Gq9AQvjh_PY

Literacy here fosters agency for youth as they understand their place in complex systems.

This seems like a replicable way to ask youth to develop counter narratives at the same time they develop their voice as writers.

This specific explanation reminds me how important it is for us to unpack the word "urban" when we talk about urban schools. Understanding the power of Kara's teaching moves requires us to understand how those moves are responsive and community-specific.

Extending the focus on literacy to non-traditional texts, events and places is vital equity work. We have to understand how biased the traditional framing of literacy is.

An excellent example of this, also in Chicago, is the Mexican-American area known as Pilsen. One way the community has taken control is through the development of street murals, described here: https://interactive.wttw.com/my-neighborhood/pilsen/art-as-activism.

This open access version of "Cultivating urban literacies on Chicago's South Side through a pedagogy of spatial justice" is being publicly read, annotated, and discussed as a part of the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus. To learn more about this project and discussion, click Page Notes (above) to access additional information and linked resources.

Our thanks to partner authors Andrea Vaughan, Rebecca Woodard, Nathan Phillips, and Kara Taylor for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! Additional biographical information about the authors is included at the end of this article. And a Connected Learning TV webinar featuring all the authors will be broadcast on Tuesday, April 2nd and also embedded in our annotation conversation, too.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our April conversation! This is the sixth article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

Through the companion interview of Debbie on CLTV, I also noticed I was reflecting more on the experience of Native peoples across space as well. In the interview she discusses the fact that all native/indigenous people do not look alike and you very likely have indigenous students in your class without even knowing it. This definitely got me thinking about the indigenous populations here in the Philadelphia and mid-Atlantic region.

In the CTLV discussion with Debbie Reese, she talked about the mass hanging/execution of 38 Dakota men in 1862 signed off by President Lincoln was in office. She says she looks for it's mention in any book about Lincoln created for youth and has yet to see it. I had to look it up to understand more myself having no knowledge of it. Here are Wikipedia I found it under Dakota War 1862: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862

I think it's so important for us to be aware of and to teach about these intricacies. It's important that we recognize whose land we're on. One resource I like to use is the map at Native Land.

In the neighboring town, middle school students pushed and argued for this change, which has had some ripple effect in our communities. read more

I so appreciate having this formulation made explicit. Failure to recognize native nationhood is erasure. Thank you.

This reminds me of an NPR article I read a few years back about more historically accurate maps of the Native American Nations. The type of research and composition that lead to the development of these maps could guide the development of research and composition efforts in schools. I like the article because it points to a more accurate historical reference as well as activist work of a young person.

This is something that feels both subtle and horribly pervasive in the way we think about Native people, always presenting them in historical contexts rather than as part of the modern world.

While there is much we need to unlearn in schools about Native people, the challenge of unlearning is compounded by a supply and demand issue with publishers and teachers who expect their literature about Indigenous cultures to match the general stereotypes we've been raised on.

This open access version of "Critical Indigenous Literacies: Selecting and Using Children's Books about Indigenous Peoples" is being publicly read, annotated, and discussed as a part of the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus. To learn more about this project and discussion, click Page Notes (above) to access additional information and linked resources.

Click here to read the latest tweets tagged #OwnVoices.

"Established in 2006, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical perspectives and analysis of indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society." Visit the site to read book reviews, Native media, and more.

Our thanks to partner author Debbie Reese for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! A short biography of Debbie Reese is included at the end of this article, and you can also learn more about her here.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our March conversation! This is the fifth article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

The Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX) is developing this guide to help practitioners put the theory of connected learning into practice. We are sharing this draft to:

• Apply the guide by enabling you to share your own insights and reflections. Use annotations to share thoughts and questions inspired by the guide.
• Encourage interaction and peer professional learning by enabling you to reply to the comments of others. Reply to other people's annotations.
• Invite feedback to help improve the guide. Use annotations to share resources and suggestions.

Thank you for engaging with the guide, your own practice, and with each other. On the last page of this draft, please add your name and organization so that we can add you to the list of contributors.

This is powerful insight.

I am thinking of how the recent trend in adolescent literature is finally doing some of this -- showing us the lives and thoughts of people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and how valuable that is for understanding each other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-huIZghog8o

Such a stark contrast between sense of identity inside the school vs outside in the community/world. How do we as teachers find a way to bring those worlds together in meaningful ways? This is what we need to be considering ... (as we are, here, and elsewhere). His voice here is a powerful reminder of that.

Thank you for contributing to the development of CLX's Connected Learning Guide. We'd love your help with three things:

1. Share your reactions to any part of the document. We welcome praise and constructive critiques.
2. Share recommendations of resources that you think should be added.
3. Be interactive. Use this as a platform for peer professional learning.

Lastly, if you came to this document online, be sure to tell us who you are by adding an annotation on the last page so we can list you (name and org) in the contributors section.

Thank you!

Connected Learning connections?

I agree, too. I wonder how the Charter School debate plays out in this, though. Charter Schools are public schools, but they exist off to the side. Do they also contribute to the greater good? The ethics of what happens to existing public schools as Charter Schools siphon off resources is a real debate.

Here's our Connected Learning TV webinar with partner authors Valerie Kinloch, Tanja Burkhard, and Carlotta Penn, also featuring regular Marginal Syllabus participants Michelle King and Cherise McBride - enjoy! https://youtu.be/XzK4jD3QaaY

I wonder again how we might bring in these methods of data collection into teacher/school data analysis practices...rather than allowing the standardized testing data reign supreme.

One thing that occurs to me is the way school can sometimes be more interested in other purposes of school: socialization (follow these rules or else) rather than on the purposes listed here.

Is it emphasizing space as much as networks? Social network analysis conceptualizes schools as a "network in a box." It is by nature a closed network. This matters in terms of conceptualizing what is happening in the learning of our students.

Google Books: Literacy in theory and Practice

I really appreciate this framing of the definitions of literacy: wondering how I can personally make this more visible in my work with teachers around literacy.

I wonder about how adoption of CCSS support and/or undermine the need for this type of soul-affirming literacy work.

It is not only this bombardment but the attendant stress and depersonalization that comes with these standardized tests.

One way Michigan has been addressing this idea is by trying to get at equity in school funding. Hopeful our new legislators in all our branches will help make this happen: https://www.fundmischools.org/

Our thanks to partner authors Valerie Kinloch, Tanja Burkhard, and Carlotta Penn for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! A Connected Learning TV webinar featuring all three partner authors will be broadcast on Tuesday, Feb 5th, with the video also embedded here in our annotation conversation. Brief bios for all three partner authors are also included at the end of this article.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our February conversation! This is the fourth article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

It's an honor to be cited by Maha and Autumm in their paper! This particular article was published at the end of 2018 as "Equity-oriented design in open education." Here's the journal's version as well as an open access preprint.

Important concepts. Also, in online places, we often refer to the idea of Affinity Spaces, which has similar resonance. From Gee's work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B29PLiltESs Social Justice is at the heart of our mission statement for the Western Massachusetts Writing Project -- all programs designed through WMWP must reflect our mission statement. This all comes out of work done years ago with NWP's Project Outreach, whose resonance continues at our site today.

As I'm thinking jotting notes about what "urban" connotes in this text and what it means to me, I'm reminded of my one and only experience attending the NWP's Urban Sites conference. Unlike other conferences I'd attended hosted by various organizations, this literacy conference foregrounded equity. I remember Black educators remarking during the close of the conference that they felt heard at the urban sites conference in ways they never did at other kinds of convenings. Since urban is so often used interchangeably with negative terms, I want to think more about how it could mean equity-focused, or be related to a predisposition to listening for understanding amidst diverse perspectives.

Here "urban" seems to be synonymous with troubled.

In our conversation about this piece the authors discussed how the word "urban" has come to mean all kinds of things when we discuss the contexts for teaching and learning. Reader respondents also asked what the article meant by "urban." On my second read through this piece, I want to pay attention to what the term signifies here at the same time I pay closer attention to what the word means for me. I've described the schools I work in as urban for so long, I can become more intentional about what I hope to communicate about the place, the students and the teachers' experiences.

Our thanks to partner authors Allison Skerrett, Amber Warrington, and Thea Williamson for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! A short bio for each scholar is included at the end of this article. Also, all partner authors joined Marginal Syllabus readers and facilitators in a Connected Learning TV webinar about this article that will be available to view via Educator Innovator on Tuesday, January 8th - please watch as a complement to reading and annotating this important article!

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our January conversation! This is the third article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Dz8oz3Sb4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIsma9GtJlU

A recorded discussion with the author about this work and article can now be found now at CLTV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU9U9qEfKhk

Our thanks to Dr. Marcelle Haddix for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! To learn more about Dr. Haddix, please read her bio at the end of this article.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis and a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and our December conversation! This is the second article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

I believe the introduction of texts like Christopher Bell's TED Talk, "Bring on the female superheroes!" and reading activities like the Twitter think aloud in the video below shift students' positioning to an agentive position, where they can choose to shape public discourse. https://youtu.be/bwbkhqlD2XE

I'm reminded of Bronwyn LaMay's work Personal Narrative, Revised: Writing Love and Agency in the High School Classroom

We annotated a chapter from that book a few years back: https://educatorinnovator.org/writing-love-and-ourselves-in-the-classroom-and-beyond/

I appreciate Antero and Elizabeth's use of "our classrooms" throughout this piece; we are in this together.

This seems like a real anchor point of the piece for me ... how to ensure our classrooms are spaces where this kind of sharing and understanding, and compassion and empathy, might happen.

And later, through deeper narratives

https://youtu.be/oAVO9H264aw

Antero Garcia provides background on the writing of this piece in this clip from the full Educator Innovator webinar.

Words matter.

Good to acknowledge this. The votes didn't come out of nowhere. They came from within various communities, and communities of practice.

This sounds like something I said to my wife. And she said to me. And we all said to each other.

This seems like an overseen dimension of teacher prep, right? As if teaching can occur in a vacuum and emotions need not be addressed or recognized in the classroom, let alone be brought in explicitly and handled with sensitivity.

If you are joining a Marginal Syllabus conversation for the first time, or if you're using Hypothesis to annotate for the first time, here are a few useful notes and resources:

• Reading with other people is a unique learning opportunity. Share annotations that spark conversation and deepen our collective inquiry. Consider how you might listen with your annotations. Create space for other people and multiple perspectives. Remember that discussing controversial topics is challenging and may be a new experience for some participants.
• Here’s how to get started with Hypothesis plus a great collection of education resources
• Are the margins getting crowded? Here’s how to join an annotation conversation with crowded margins
• Want to annotate privately within a group? You’re very welcome to use this article for private conversation, so here’s how to create a private Hypothesis group
• Interested in learning analytics? Follow this conversation via CROWDLAAERS

Welcome to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus and the October/November conversation! This is the first article we will read and publicly annotate as part of "Literacy, Equity + Remarkable Notes = LEARN." LEARN has been co-developed in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Hypothesis. The Marginal Syllabus convenes and sustains conversation via open web annotation with educators about issues of equity in teaching, learning, and education. What's "marginal" about the Marginal Syllabus? We partner with authors whose writing is contrary to dominant education norms, we read and annotate in the margins of online texts, and we discuss educational equity using open-source technology that’s marginal to commercial edtech. Read the full 2018-19 syllabus here.

Our thanks to partner authors Antero Garcia and Elizabeth Dutro for contributing to the 2018-19 Marginal Syllabus! Learn more about Drs. Garcia and Dutro by reading their bios at the end of this article.

What an important issue to point out. I wonder how the #marginalsyllabus could help with non-dominant scholarship? We should certainly interrogate why other cultures' scholarship is seen as less when we so publicly struggle with our public ed systems.

All the more reason that voting is important -- they are our elected officials.

The transition to asking people how they will vote in response to the dizzying 24 hour news cycle is a key strategy that I appreciate here.

Will you remember that children in cages were a thing on the news, and a policy initiated by our government?

Will you remember that violence against women in the workplace was minimized, as has been our tradition?

Will you accept "thoughts and prayers" again as a response to the shooting of unarmed people in a place of worship?

Finding teachable moments in the darkest of places.

Here are some issues I have as this annotatory process grows.

1. If the annotation continues over a period of weeks, then how can we attend to it?
2. If an annotation flashmob's mentality is "one and done", then should we not say that from the beginning?
3. How can we keep the spirit of care and vulnerability as issues become more fractious and as weaker ties begin to crowd into the annotation space?

I am more and more drawn to the work of Damon Centola on the spread of 'behaviors' through networks. I would like to substitute "behaviors' for literacy and begin to apply Centola's work in the classroom. He has a new book coming out on Monday and I have put a talk of his on Vialogues so that we can annotate that: https://vialogues.com/vialogues/play/44449

Aside: When an annotated space reaches a critical mass I think we need summary behaviors or further highlighting and notification procedures. Kevin has already done so in one post. We might call these emergent writing or emergent behaviors.

This work strikes me as important and reminds me that we can place black women writers and related equity issues at the center of our curriculum for all students. The stories and issues we deem worthy of study communicate their cultural importance.

Answering the call with this annotation activity .. thanks, Troy!

Need to explore? Me, too.

https://knightlab.northwestern.edu/

During one round of Hear My Home, I had taken my friend Anna's soundscape and refashioned it into a multimedia piece, complete with poem:

Check out Anna's Soundscape on Zeega

Found Poem from That Passage:

starting pulse;

the streets

make rhythms of

our voices, heard,

the American acoustics

of politics, march

in protest, explore

contemporary sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIZ-uG2UTgI

(with apologies to Cassie and Jon)

Hear My Home

f you are an educator, in what ways can you imagine incorporating and building soundscapes into your curriculum and practice as a classroom teacher? What benefits and/or constraints do you anticipate for yourself and/or your students?