Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Harm & Healing ABAR Reading

My preparation for leading a guided reading during our book club yesterday looked like this: 


I’m grateful to Dr. Sarah Donovan for making space for me to help with this Anti-Bias, Anti-Racism (ABAR) education work within her verse novel book club. We met last week to share thoughts on the book club, the books, and ways to address what felt like a need.


There are a lot of excellent books being recommended to teachers to add to their classroom libraries, to use as read alouds, to use with student book clubs, but is there enough guidance on how to do this mindfully and in a racially and culturally conscious way? There is a lot of mention of culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy, but is there enough (un)learning and support given to support that work? 


I hope that districts and schools support their teachers with the necessary professional development to continue this work (or start it, as the case may be). But if history shows us anything, teachers will be scrambling to learn this on their own- alongside the anxiety of rolling out face-to-face, hybrid, or remote learning during a pandemic... so I found myself anxious that perhaps a well-meaning teacher might deploy one of these books and unintentionally cause harm.


As a way to address this, Sarah invited me to share a way to read a literary passage containing bias and/or racism with students by modeling a guided reading using an ABAR lens. (Of course, I was nervous, feeling imposter syndrome sharing my thinking, but I tried to make it clear that I’m not an expert and that I’ve been learning for years and will continue to learn and do better for years to come... that is a big part of this type of work!) Then, fellow book club participants practiced this.


My thinking about sharing literary passages containing examples of racism and/or bias is that whatever population of students we may work with, we need to...

1️⃣ be intentional about how to present these passages in ways that do not perpetuate the bias or racism, even unintentionally; 

2️⃣ teach students how to name unfairness, injustice, and oppression (use words like racism, sexism, classism, prejudice, transphobia, xenophobia, homophobia) and 

3️⃣ reaffirm aspects of their/others’ culture that may have been affected by the text by highlighting the healing the author may have written into their text.


We shared a set of questions to help teachers think through the passage and perhaps discuss that passage with students to unearth and address bias and/or racism.


Three fellow educators found and shared passages and their thoughts on the harm and healing portrayed. Another educator shared these words:

 “What resonates through these moments is the power that individuals have to repair the harm happening in every moment. Using this lens allows/empowers us as teachers to address moments of harm thought the school day with our kiddos.


My teacher heart loved that this was shared! My hope was/is that this naming of harm and highlighting healing would be an entry into ABAR work which is rich and complex, though difficult work, to empower students and our communities. 


Repeat: I’m not an expert, I’m learning more every day. I’m looking for more educators to learn from and/or alongside me. Let me know if there’s an ABAR educator/education blog or website you recommend!

Friday, July 24, 2020

New Kid: Black Boys Belonging

Just finished reading

📖 : New Kid by Jerry Craft

We follow Jordan- a 7th grader from Washington Heights who loves to draw- as he navigates a new school where opportunities and microaggressions abound, while trying to maintain friendships with kids in his neighborhood whom he doesn’t seem to have the time for with the new lengthy commute and wealth of homework. This book deftly develops themes around identity, culture, racism, class, friendships, and belonging. The graphic novel form, the humor and steadfastness of the protagonist, and the lessons he learns inspire such hope! Highly recommend the book for middle schoolers. Keep reading for my take-aways.


🙋🏽‍♀️

Take-Away 1️⃣ 

I finished this book within a day! While BIPOC have a range of experiences in PWI, this book captured some of my hard-to-describe experiences as a brown student on financial aid in an independent school in Chicago. I know this book will speak to many students who feel unheard and overlooked. 

👩🏽‍🏫

Take-Away 2️⃣ 

As a teacher, I cringed at the portrayals of the different teachers... I started matching my teachers to characters. Then, paused to reflect which one I was most like!

👩🏽‍💻

Take-Away 3️⃣ 

I have to give graphic novels more credit and incorporate them into curriculum intentionally. Any other graphic novels I need to read ASAP?

📖 

I would highlight: around pg. 88 where Jordan and Drew talk about feeling like outsiders, being stereotyped and judged, family pressure, and their careful work to help people at the school not view them as threats (only to have a White teacher overhear their parting and mischaracterize it as threatening). This moment of vulnerability and connection was powerful; and I realize, so rare to see between boys in books for this age!  So many moments to sit with and moments to celebrate... can’t wait for the new book by Craft: Class Act! 

❤️ 

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Verse Novel Book Club frustration

I have explored the frustration I described after the book club from Jasmine Warga’s Words for Home. For me, the frustration comes from three places:

1- being misrepresented and feeling unheard in the breakout small group share,

2- feeling alone in my sense of the anti-bias, anti-racism (ABAR) power of these books,

3- feeling weighed down at yet another reminder of all the ABAR work to be done.

ONE- being misrepresented and feeling unheard. 

I was frustrated when our small group spokesperson didn’t actually share what WE discussed, but just their own POV and embellishment. Was it some form of the “soft censorship” that K. A. Holt described? Perhaps. Is it what many BIPOC feminists call out in white feminism? Perhaps. But it happened twice. So I know it wasn’t necessarily about me and the BIPOC-ness of what I said- not exclusively anyway- it’s likely about her, the type of student she is, or maybe her perception of her role and/or this group. 


So what can I learn from that? As a teacher, it makes me wonder how many times students in front of me have felt misrepresented. I’ve seen students get quieter for all kinds of reasons; and as a fellow introvert I’m constantly working to identify and address those reasons, if they are a retreat due to harmful behavior. What if they felt what they shared in a small group wasn’t deemed worthy for the whole group? How do I prevent that? Make it very clear what the role of a small group spokesperson is; practice with students; role play scenarios to avoid students feeling misrepresented or unheard. Teaching authentic listening, not just listening to confirm your own ideas or to argue with them. Teaching students skills of summarizing and synthesizing, without bias. Reinforcing the idea of disagreeing with someone respectfully rather than just ignoring ideas you don’t agree with. These are all things I do to some extent, but in this moment I think I don’t do enough intentional work around this.


TWO- feeling alone in my sense of the power of these books to address the biases + racism plaguing the US.

It sounded like the resounding takeaway from the book (and I’m oversimplifying, but not misinterpreting) was: “this book will show our students that immigrants can be good/nice/not-dangerous!” It felt like a disservice to this book, even though I know everyone responds to books differently.


It’s 2020, but the urgency of the topics plaguing so many BIPOC and immigrant communities doesn’t seem to be there for the majority of the participants in this book club... or at least it wasn’t openly expressed.  Why is the urgency not there or not being expressed? Perhaps the teachers in this book club do not live nor teach in these communities. But don’t they see the news? Can’t they make the connection that they in fact have even more reason to address these topics if they do NOT in fact live nor teach in these communities? 


During the share, I did hear someone say that some teachers in their small group (immigrants themselves) were glad to see the representation in YA novels. I hear them, and representation matters! **That we are still fighting for something as simple as representation, positive representation, joyful representation, we-are-not-a-monolith-and-contain-multitudes representation is not new to me. The simultaneous power of a story and the danger of a single story is not lost on me; I’m a 35 year old woman of color. It is yet another reminder of the work to be done.**


I guess I should be grateful that the group is willing to take a step forward into teaching their  students “immigrants can be good/nice/not-dangerous”? 


So, what can I learn from that? 

Just like in Other Words from Home, when confronted with people’s prejudice, their ignorance and fear... the answer was to lean on the opposite, those who know who you really are, strive to understand you, and love you. Sooo, it’s about reinforcing the good lessons, not just the negative realizations: there may be so much more work to be done, but there are clearly so many more people willing to do the work. Those people may be in different places, but progress is being made. We are working towards progress, and hope is an important part of the work. 


THIRD, feeling the weight of yet another reminder of the ABAR work to be done. 

It’s not that I don’t know that THERE IS SO MUCH ANTI-BIAS, ANTI-RACISM WORK TO DO already (see news, literally any news), and that I’m not grateful so many are experiencing an awakening to the problems of racism (re: ongoing protests, book sales, webinars). To fight for equity and justice, we must name where there is racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, or any ignorant prejudicial behavior. I tried my best to name it as portrayed in the book to open a conversation with other readers. I was excited that this book was going to get into the hands of so many educators across the country through this book club... and then I saw the videos posted and heard the conversations, and I was disappointed that the takeaways weren’t ABAR; that they were of the old-fashioned colorblind and teach kindness variety. It drained me of energy.


So what can I learn from that?

To Dr. Donovan’s point about balancing the limited time we have and disrupting the single story... that is the struggle in so many classrooms, I’m sure; and I used to feel so, so much pressure in this balancing act (tbh: still do). I also feel so much pressure in getting the ABAR work right. I am reminding myself that the best way to feel less pressure is to engage in the work with others, finding like-minded people to help share the burdens and share additions to the toolbox to do that work, and continue finding the energy to come back to the work. I don’t have to carry the weight alone. The more of us out there, anti-bias, anti-racist educators working to help students find their voices and selves, the less balancing each of us has to do, right?  Right! And the better the world will be tomorrow.


Glad I worked through the frustration and back into the hope!






Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Verse Novel Book Club #2: Other Words for Home

Yesterday: Verse Novel Book Club Mtg #2, led by Dr. Sarah J. Donovan

📖 : Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga 

Drawing from observations of her father’s Syrian friends’ experiences, research done with her Middle Eastern community, and her big brain as my students would say... the novel centers on the protagonist of Jude, who moves from her home under civil unrest, with her mom, joining an uncle in Cincinnati. We follow Jude as she navigates questions of identity, culture, language, prejudice, and belonging, all while continuing to worry about and miss her family in Syria. Highly recommend the book for middle schoolers. Keep reading for my take-aways.

👩🏽‍🏫

Take-Away 1️⃣ 

As a teacher, I appreciated the challenge Dr. Donovan gave us of producing a CERR vblog on the book. I was not shocked that I scripted out various versions, recorded several times, with some technical difficulties, before I finally made my first far-from-perfect vlog I could share with the book club. It deepened my appreciation of the work and bravery my students put in when I ask them to try something new and share it with classmates. 

🙋🏽‍♀️

Take-Away 2️⃣ 

As a reader, I loved this book! As a daughter of Mexican immigrants and a teacher of Latinx immigrant and Mexican-American students, I found so many moments portrayed in this book that called out to me and would perhaps also resonate with students. Particularly hit hard by a question Jude asks, “Why do they hate us?” I decided to make my first vlog focused on how Jude copes with the incidents of prejudice and xenophobia she experiences. I shared with a friend how powerful a book like this would’ve been for me as an adolescent and how grateful I am that it exists today for my students!

👩🏽‍💻

Take-Away 3️⃣ 

As both a teacher + learner, I left the meeting feeling awkward, frustrated, and dissatisfied. Appreciated that Dr. Donovan shared resources about how to critically read + analyze texts, including particularly using a feminist lens, the question if this text qualifies as #ownvoices (your thoughts appreciated). I’m grateful to my UTEP educators for training me with such tools. I enjoyed the write-in and subsequent activity to convert our work to verse; love how students react! These activities weren’t the source of my frustration; I am still reflecting on what was.

📖 

Passage I shared: pg 168. It really resonated with me, especially as I see photographs and footage of children in cages near the border. What Jude expressed on this page relates to themes of migrant guilt, family, privilege, sacrifice, and responsibility.

✊🏽

I loved this book and look forward to the next one!

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Verse Novel Book Club #1: White Rose

Yesterday was my first meeting of the Verse Novel Book Club led by Dr. Sarah J. Donovan @sarahjdonovan9, we read Kip Wilson’s @kipwilsonwrites White Rose! Based on the true story of a German resistance group who were caught and executed for distributing “treasonous” leaflets speaking out against the Nazi regime, the novel centers on the protagonist of Sophie as she grows up and rejects the indoctrination to the interrogations she undergoes as a member of White Rose. Highly recommend the book for 8th graders and up. Keep reading for my take-aways.

👩🏽‍🏫

Take-Away 1️⃣ 

As a teacher, I appreciated the use of video clips from different sources to help us better understand verse novels. Plus watching clips- as opposed to entire videos- together, left room for more ideas in our short hour together. Now that we’ve been enticed, we can still go and watch the rest of the video on our own time to extend the learning! 

🙋🏽‍♀️

Take-Away 2️⃣ 

As a reader, I need to read more verse novels! So many from BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors and/or with said representation were mentioned, I added them to my TBR wish list. 📚 

👩🏽‍💻

Take-Away 3️⃣ 

As both a teacher and learner, I 💜 the Read In that Dr. Donovan had us start out with in small groups. Preparing to read aloud a meaningful passage without the expectation of having to share an explanation tamped down my anxiety, connected me with the writing, and allowed me to use my voice! I have found once an introvert like me has started talking, it’s easier to feel included and increase the likelihood of my participating again... I wonder if anyone else felt that way?

📖 

Passage I shared from White Rose: page 74, titled “Selflessness” as it really resonated with me, especially given the times we are in. Themes Sophie expressed on this single, powerful page: guilt, willful ignorance, sacrifice, justice.

✊🏽

I really appreciated this start and look forward to the next one!