- May 2019
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During the 2017–18 academic year, the pio-neering students’ pursuit of equity through English language arts continued to bestow humane practices for students who follow them at Sunnyside High School, their alma mater. Indeed, our students need various platforms to voice their concerns and gain support that guides them responsibly as emerging researchers for social change in their school and civic communities. We teachers and leaders of language arts are a beacon in their quest for just spaces and learning with teach-ins and teachable moments—in and outside of school
There is work to be done, to be done, to be done . . .
And our students receive us with open arms if we care, listen, and grow. It is an exciting, laborious adventure.
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“We won’t be able to do anything!” “Who will listen to us?” “They [staff] won’t listen to us. We’re just students.” “What is there to do about it, anyway?”
We can undo these comments by demonstrating care and attentiveness in the lives of adolescents. Mr. Pedraza does so and more--in his teaching, readings, and after-school projects with students.
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“How I Learned to Sweep”
The poem by Alvarez is powerful and a recording appears here.
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Randall S. Sprick
Here is an example of inhumane language and practices advanced by leaders in consulting positions that provide professional mis- and under-development with damaging results.
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Sweeping
Vang's poem affirms the lives and plight of young people. Moreover, he offers their ways of living and seeing hope and solace in the face of injustice.
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If students violated the Tardy Sweep policy, they faced a six-step accountability proces
That adolescents know the positions of power and listening confirms their deep knowledge and intuition in the face of indifference from many adults in schools and communities.
Their power and agency can be awakened in the presence of teachers when we practice the Latin verb assidere, "to sit beside" our students to enact the true meaning of the word "assessment."
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YPA
It is significant to note that the new name is youth-LED participatory action research.
The word "youth-led" is powerful and sets the stage for gaining more voice and agency in thes lives adolescents.
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Newpaper carriers--boys and girls--faced mobs and violence in many ways across the US and in the face of child labor and endangerment.
Some of today's rhetoric of violence applies to journalists and reporters today in this and many other countries, although laws protect children. Consider the newspaper boys and girls' Strike of 1899.
All of these literacies I bring into the classroom with footage and children's voices.
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