I can imagine this was a very rewarding feeling for the students that partook in this collective action plan. One of the many things I am taking away from our work this semester is how important it is for students to see their work come to life--whether their work results in social change and transformation or is published or shared across various contexts and platforms. Just as students' learning processes should connect their experiences both at and out of school, so should the culmination of their learning.

Yes, and for many students, particularly students of color, this feeling of voicelessness may already exist and be rooted in various contexts. As Pedraza and Rodriguez state, many students have relatives that are incarcerated or work under unsafe and unfair working conditions. We should keep this in mind when working with our students...yes, they are experiencing this at school right now, does this connect to their experiences outside of school? How can we best support them?

This reading as a whole demonstrates the power and impact of language. As Pedraza and Rodriguez mention throughout, the word "sweep" has different connotations and functions, evident in their text examples by Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, and others. For these reasons, we as educators should be extremely mindful of the language we use--with our students, to describe our students or our classes, and more.

The irony! Instead of working with working communities, to meet and address needs, we have systems that purposely work against them.

This is critical for students to consider because it demonstrates the impact that social structures and systemic racism, among other oppressive systems, impact different areas of one's life, including healthy foods, their accessibility or lack of, and consumption.

YES--language is powerful and the language we use matters!

We must introduce and teach texts that are written by the "insiders." These stories should be written by individuals who form part of the culture that is written about. As educators, we need to be critical of texts we introduce to our students--who are they written by, what are they about, and who are they written for?

This reminds me of Paulo Friere's "read the word and the world."

Yes, I completely agree and could not emphasize this enough. This is something all educators should keep in mind as they cultivate their classroom space and environment, alongside their students.

This is powerful. It demonstrates the multimodality of literacy and the different ways in which one may already be engaging with literacy, especially those that may be deemed as "non-traditional" because they are not occurring in the classroom.

This made me think of Black Boy by Richard Wright, an autobiography in which Wright details his upbringing and experience as a Black man in the Jim Crow South. Similarly to Khaleeq, and consequently to racism and oppression, Wright details the ways in which he positions himself within society and how/where others position him.

This reminds me of a scene from the documentary "Precious Knowledge," which I highly recommend. The school's teachers are in a meeting and one of the school's white teachers states that the students are damaged, "culturally damaged" and describes how learning has become irrelevant in their lives. Another teacher in the meeting, a Latinx man, responds by describing how students have a dysfunctional relationship with school and not learning, primarily because of the ways in which the educational system (and the structural inequalities in place, as stated in this reading) do NOT serve Black and Brown students.

Both the scene from the documentary and this statement demonstrate how the blame is put on the students and not the racist and oppressive systems that push them out.

"Precious Knowledge"

This makes me think of student choice and voice. For example, in order to decriminalize literacy for Black girls, it would be great to give students the opportunity compile a collection of literacies by and for Black girls. Just as Marley Dias created the resource guide #1000BlackGirlBooks, what can our students do to decriminalize literacy and claim/reclaim their narratives?

As part of CFT and CRF, this would also serve as excellent opportunity for storytelling in the classroom between the students. Are there intersections between the students' stories? Do they reflect their lived experiences? How do they counter or respond to the dominant and privileged White narratives?

Not only should we include these authors and texts in our classroom, but we also need to be critical about the lens through which we approach and teach them.

Yes, this is a great reminder. Healing isn't quite a destination, nor is it a singular journey, as the reading mentions. It is ongoing, continual, and more challenging at some times than others. This is something we must remind ourselves and our students of.

I completely agree with this statement, and it reminds me of a critical point made in Pose, Wobble, Flow by Antero Garcia and Cindy O'Donnell-Allen that teachers cannot be apolitical in the classroom. In order to create a safe space in the classroom, we need to recognize who we are creating this safe space for and from who/what, and why we are creating a safe space. We cannot do this without acknowledging the social, political, and cultural factors that impact our students' lives--something that can be very much political, and for some, even controversial.

I really like this idea, and it reminds me of a point that is made in Pose, Wobble, Flow by Antero Garcia and Cindy O'Donnell-Allen. How we can encourage our students to take their work to the next step? What are ways in which their work in the classroom can lead to change in the classroom and beyond? For example, the students could hold a school assembly to present their protest signs or post them on a social media platform. That way, their voices and work are able to reach others beyond the classroom and keep the conversation going.

I completely agree with this statement and do think critical media literacy should be viewed as a tool that Black youth can use to do just that--deconstruct and rewrite narratives. Additionally, I think critical media literacy would also support students in their critical thinking of the media they consume and produce. What is the intended message? Who is the targeted audience? Who created this piece of media? Is this piece credible? As mentioned throughout, the media that is shared with the public, particularly the media that to pertains to the Black community, is framed very strategically and intentionally to harm, stereotype, and criminalize, and this is something we should all be extremely mindful of.

This is fantastic. It gives students the opportunity to take their own lived experiences and what they learned in class from their texts and each other to create a piece of their own.

I appreciate that the author frames the read-around in the classroom as a living room. It makes the classroom sound and, as I can imagine, feel like a safe space for students to learn, grow, and share their stores. This is extremely important, especially when students are sharing such personal and influential moments from their life.

This reminds me of the "mirror-window" element that multicultural literature may bring into the classroom. Students are given the opportunity to see themselves represented in a text while learning about the lives of others. This would allow students to identify the intersections between their lives and stories to those of others, as this reading mentions.

As educators, we need to view ourselves as learners. The exchange of ideas, opinions, and perspectives that occurs in the classroom should be a collaborative effort between the teacher and students. When we've made this realization and enact such collaborative efforts, only then will we be able to view our students as capable to produce and share knowledge.

Yes! It is imperative for students to see their teachers as writers and even witness or take part in some of their writing practices. By doing so, these writing practices may appear more accessible and less intimidating to students. This may also challenge the students' idea of who a writer is and what they look like, encouraging them to embrace their writer identity and use this representation as a driving force.

This is a great way to begin exploring one's identity as a writer, especially for youth who simply may not see themselves as one. For students who may not see themselves as writers, we can then ask, "How do you define writing? What kinds of writing practices do you engage in everyday?" By posing these questions, we are also challenging their perceptions of writing and encouraging them to view writing as something that also happens outside the classroom.

As educators, we should definitely work towards creating these spaces for our students in the classroom, but we should also recognize that these spaces may already exist for our students outside of the classroom. With this in mind, students should be granted agency in creating and designing this space--one that meets their needs, allows them to explore their identity as a writer, and more. This could be a collaborative effort between the teacher and students.

Youth are writers and we need to see them as capable of producing their own knowledge and works that go beyond analytical or persuasive essays.

I think this is extremely powerful and demonstrates the role that writing played in his life. It would be interesting to learn why or which part of the writing process led him to feel this way about writing.