Skip to main content

Being Disruptive (With Texts)

 


Dear English Language Arts Methods candidates,

As you enter your senior year, student teaching, licensure, degree, your own classroom, I thought that the most loving thing I could do as your professor is give you summer reading. So ʻONO! (and I am not being facetious, it really will be utterly delicious)

Choosing summer reading options when I taught Advanced Placement in high school as well as when I taught 8th grade was really the most joyful thing I did during spring break. Your first lesson is to always give readers choice (a) and try to make the choices as diverse and disruptive (b) for the scholars that will be coming into your classrooms. If you feel like literature may be so deliciously challenge worthy that you need to send a parent letter home, or even that for a little bit you are afraid that you may be fired. . .well you are heading in the right direction. Choosing summer reading options gives you a chance to dream about your students that you do not yet know. Your choices are a way to introduce yourself to these scholars and to have a get to know you conversation with them through text.

Choosing summer reading options gives you the opportunity to be the hero by putting in young scholar's hands those "windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors" (c) that they did not know they were missing in literature in the first place.  

Choosing summer reading allows you to reimagine spaces - classroom spaces, library spaces, spaces at large that help students be seen, be recognized, be healed. Over half of students in the US identify as students of color. Over 1/8 are served under the individuals with disabilities act. Over 1/6 of your students are living in poverty (NCES 2023). More than 4/5th of LGBTQ+ high school students report feeling unsafe in their current schools. (GLSEN 2021)

Choosing summer reading options allows you as BIPOC, AAPI Indigenous humans and future educators to live your principles  (d) in creating an environment for learning as well as live your craft by being readers, writers, story tellers who teach your young scholars to harness their own mana and voice as readers, writers, story tellers. 

So here is the assignment (and I hope you got a chance to visit the links above first - you are going to need to read it any way):

• Either use a case study student from a previous class, or choose a reluctant reader you know between the ages of 12 - 18. You are reading for them this summer so do not go to your "comfortable genre."

Read YA or middle grade texts that you would wish for them (not necessary, but try to use current books - like last 5 years)

Find 3 that you would like to pass on to your scholar (can mix genres, modalities, fiction, non fiction, graphic novel, etc.) Your book hope for would be that these three would be the impetus for them to read more.

Write your short book talk, blog about, record somehow enough information about what the book is about and why you think your reader will enjoy it so that you can book talk it this fall. 

Need help finding books to borrow from the library? **If you do not have a public library card. . .seriously? This is part of live your craft.

Hawaii State Public Library - staff picks for teens

ALAN - Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE

American Library Association YALSA lists

The Walden Awards

Remember that even when you use these lists, keep your disruptive lens on and your young scholar in mind. 

Finally, here is my own blog, Minding the Middle that I have had for over ten years. 2024 is not a big reading year (100 YA books)  however, I read for diverse readers and diverse ages. I privilege BIPOC and AAPI literature but they must be BIPOC and AAPI authors. There is a difference, and there are definite gaps in some areas, but that is a conversation for another time.

Enjoy your summer and enjoy your reading!

Kumu

The link references:

(a) "The danger of a single story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TEDGlobal video, July 2009 18:32 Link 

(b) #Disrupt Texts.org - website. Pages to pay attention to: What is #disrupttexts? - memorize their we believe - live it in your own space and join the work: https://disrupttexts.org/lets-get-to-work/

(c) Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop talking about how she defines the need for multicultural books through her analogy of mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors

(d) Core principles from #disrupttexts


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kino (an indigenous logic model): post 1 of 4

Passion I have. What I need is to practice my elevator speeches, those short informative program synopses that can be done in the time it takes to ride the elevator.  Of course it will take me 4 posts. Post 1: The honua: building on solid ground The Alana culture-based education course is graphically depicted by the above logic model. The honua (green box), the earth, represents the mo'ok ūauhau, the geneology of this program that informs and guides the building of this course. Dr. Shawn Kanaʻiaupuni and her team lay the foundation for culture-based education (CBE) modeling and immersion within the course. Dr. Walter Kahumoku and Keiki Kawaiʻaeʻa, in consultation with Dr. Bernice McCarthy (4Mat) bring to the geneology the work of moenahā, a curriculum planning concept based on the way kupuna taught. Makawalu, literally eight eyes, is a concept practiced by Kaʻimipono Kaiwi and her teachers at Kamehameha Kapālama to encourage multiple perspectives in the standards-b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Battle of the Sexes

Ok, it's not a battle, but after being married for 20 years, I realize that there are some things that fall into the "mom's job" category, and there are some things that are strictly dad's domain. Mom's job is to find things. For 20 years I have lived in a male dominant household. The fact that the majority of the toilet seats in my house remain in the down position is a testament of the power of the one and only alpha female. However, what I can't do is teach my children (and my husband) how to do what I call "mom looking" versus "man looking." I don't need to explain this for the moms. They know exactly what I'm talking about. The guys are slower to catch on. I'll type s-l-o-w-l-y. Here's a typical "man looking" conversation: "mom! (or Cat!), where's the ______ (insert anything from socks to the car)?" "It's in the _________ (insert my instructions like refrigerator, garage, o...
3 comments
Read more

5 things that teachers do when they are in all-day workshops

1. Listen attentively for 10 minutes Presenters: welcome to your worst teaching nightmare. Teachers learn how to be antsy from their students. If you have a lot of middle school teachers, expect them to act like middle schoolers, ADHD disorders and all. You have 10 minutes to hook us and we want to get up, move and be active every half hour. 2. Talk to our neighbor while the presenter is still talking This practice is a natural way for teachers to use each other as a sounding board for the connections they are making to their own teaching (or they're just gossiping). If you can't tell the difference between productive noise and idle gossip, you need to go back to the classroom and practice. 3. Text and read posts When speakers talk about another author, or another concept, we get on our smart phones and look up the links so we can expand our knowledge immediately. (Or we're blogging or catching up on our email). Don't be offended. Only kick us out if we don't realiz...
2 comments
Read more