Her new course, Black Voices, has a syllabus stacked with contemporary African-American literature and media. An LRNG Innovation Challenge grant allowed her to turn the class into an even more engaging experience for her students.<\/p>\n
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A student performs an original poem at the Guthrie Theater.<\/p><\/div>\n
The LRNG grants\u00a0stem from a partnership between the National Writing Project and\u00a0John Legend\u2019s\u00a0Show Me Campaign<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to help educators extend time and space for connected learning<\/a>. The connected learning theory posits that learning happens on a continuum\u2014in school, as well as at home, work, and among friends\u2014and is driven by students\u2019 own interests and life experiences.<\/p>\n In addition to analyzing published work, Black Voices students write and perform their own pieces, with guidance from professional spoken word artists. Twice a week, educators from the nonprofit arts and culture organization\u00a0TruArtSpeaks<\/a>\u00a0teach the course alongside Vasich. TruArtSpeaks works to cultivate literacy, leadership, and social justice through the study and application of spoken word and hip-hop culture.<\/p>\n Throughout the semester, the experience of people of color is “prioritized,” Vasich said, rather than being relegated to a unit in a broader literature class. The new course, which drew more students of color than Vasich\u2019s other classes, delves into systemic racism, intersectionality (the interconnected nature of social and racial classifications), and resistance. The students study Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin, Michelle Alexander, and Octavia Butler, along with a variety of other media, from critical theory and podcasts to Beyonc\u00e9’s “Lemonade.” Vasich wants her students to see that issues of race and identity permeate culture, in many contexts, and that a critical lens comes in handy beyond classroom literary analysis.<\/p>\n “I want them to be able to transfer these skills to their everyday lives,” she said.<\/p>\n However, it is important to Vasich that the students not only consume the texts and media, but create their own work simultaneously.<\/p>\n “Reading texts from authors of color at the same time as producing your own texts allows you to see value in what you have to say too,” she said, not just what others say about you or your work.<\/p>\n
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In a poem called\u00a0The Old and New America<\/em>, one student wrote, “I was born where bondage turns\/people into unequals.”<\/p>\n