{"id":13958,"date":"2021-03-31T12:51:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T19:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=13958"},"modified":"2021-06-07T08:53:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T15:53:11","slug":"revealing-the-human-and-the-writer-the-promise-of-a-humanizing-writing-pedagogy-for-black-students-learn-marginal-syllabus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/revealing-the-human-and-the-writer-the-promise-of-a-humanizing-writing-pedagogy-for-black-students-learn-marginal-syllabus\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealing the Human and the Writer: The Promise of a Humanizing Writing Pedagogy for Black Students\u2014LEARN Marginal Syllabus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe professor, who identified as a writer, wanted her students to witness the vulnerability involved in storying one\u2019s experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our April reading for LEARN: Marginal Syllabus looks at a high school creative writing course that is the site of collaboration between a university professor and a local public high school. Latrise Johnson, a professor at the University of Alabama, has reimagined her academic role by teaching creative writing at nearby West High School in order to investigate in- and out-of-school literacy practices of historically marginalized youth. In this article, Johnson and her co-author Hannah Sullivan share the instructional choices Johnson made in her work with youth, as well as the student writing that resulted, in a class that foregrounded the students\u2019 knowledge and lived experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the second month\u2019s reading from the Spring 2021 LEARN Marginal Syllabus<\/a> co-developed with the National Writing Project (NWP) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) with support from Hypothesis. Each month, March through June, we invite educators to collaboratively read and discuss an article published by NCTE that investigates the intersection of literacy and equity. Each reading with related author discussion will go \u201clive\u201d on the first Monday of the month.<\/p>\n

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This month\u2019s reading and author discussion<\/h4>\n

Click on the article link to read and annotate:<\/em><\/p>\n

Revealing the Human and the Writer:
\nThe Promise of a Humanizing Writing Pedagogy for Black Students<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This month, we invite you to read about the contrast between so-called \u201cbest practices,\u201d which can dehumanize and deculturalize Black students, and a more humanizing approach to literacy instruction employed by Latrise Johnson in a semester-long creative writing class. In an effort to center and support student\u2019s cultural identities, Johnson created a space designed to reflect African diasporic participatory literacy traditions, to support students in engaging with mentor texts selected to honor their language, histories, and literacies, and to write in response to assignments like \u201cthe 25 things you don\u2019t see when you look at me.\u201d In this article, the authors share and celebrate the student work the class generated while inviting teachers of English to reimagine the way Black students can write themselves into learning spaces in order to challenge racism and assert their humanity. It powerfully points to the generative reading, writing, and literacy learning possible when schools set aside the deficit- focused perspectives through which Black students are so often viewed.<\/p>\n