Critical literacy seems to be the name of the game these
days in the education program. While this term can be interpreted a number of
ways I best see it as reading a text in order to learn about the power
dynamics. Who has power, how is it shown, and how can its distribution be most
equitably enacted is something that classrooms have been doing for a long time
now as Social Narrative Writing: (Re)Constructing
Kid Culture in the Writer’s Workshop by Lee Heffernan and Mitzi Lewison has
shown. Most of the references made in the text were nearly twenty years old. As
bell hooks reminds us in Narratives of
Struggle and Teaching to Transgress
that reading critically is important to creating a more equitable culture.
Social Narrative Writing argues that students as young as 3rd
grade are able to see how their actions affect others. This is done through
reexamining the writing the students do in class. Students are often asked to
write creative stories or personal narratives. There were problems in each of
these scenarios that caused the teacher much distress. Creative fiction
assignment often came back as parodies and imitations of popular T.V. shows.
Personal narratives repeated the same patterns of babysitting misadventures or
common sport tropes. To make the writing process more meaningful, students were
asked to create narratives where injustice was present. This was scaffold by
anchor texts that examined various identities (race, gender, size, nationality,
etc). Not only did students learn about other people and their struggles but
created pieces of real fiction that incorporated identities that weren’t
present in their writings of the past.
School is a vehicle by which
culture is taught. The adage “I learned everything I needed to know in kindergarten”
isn’t far from the truth. The American culture attempts to value sharing,
personal space, responsibility, among other simple tasks every 5 year old is practicing
in school. This extends on into
middle-school, high-school, and out of academia. We are enculturated on how to
think and behave and these expectations are often reinforced by teachers.* When
we chose texts that are old, dead, white guys, we are telling everyone who
falls outside of these identifiers that they, as writers, don’t matter. Student’s
aren’t oblivious. Students want to see what they view in the mirror in the
books they read and in the authors that write them. This is why representation
in the media is important. To create assignments of critical writing, we are
asking our students to represent each other in their writing.
As bell hooks says in “Narratives of Struggle” “…to address
more intimately is not to exclude; rather, it alters the terms of inclusion.” We
ask our students to bring more of the world and all it’s peoples into their
writing, we are adding to the inclusion of those people into all facets of society.
It makes us empathize, evaluate, and relate to each other on a deeper level
then when we just read about injustice. It makes us accountable. When we are
accountable, when we are asked to claim agency, we empower ourselves and
others. It allows us the “freedom to explore and act.” (Heffernan 436)
Charles,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughtful blog on the Social Narrative Writing article. This exercise for elementary age children also struck me as empowering and with just a simple shift in emphasis on personal narrative - write about injustice. The students became more accountable to their peers who were being bullied, but wasn't it interesting that most teachers weren't stepping in to address bullies? Students shared their own struggles, and as you said "created pieces of real fiction that incorporated identities that weren't present" in past writings. I would hope such changes are long-lasting for these students and that their empathy, once expanded, continued into their adolescent years.
I was also surprised by the point Tristi made, that teachers rarely intervened in the students stories that involved bullying (which was almost all of the stories). I’m really curious if this lead to any changes among faculty and staff at the school. One question that I was left with after this reading was how Lee was able to keep students from using stereotypes when writing about characters of a different gender or race than themselves? Perhaps it just “didn’t come up,” but it does seem like a distinct possibility. It is possible that this is all part of building empathy, trying to authentically put yourself in someone else’s shoes, not just use cheap tricks to create a character.
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