Readings

Orientation

How are the social practices of the Philadelphia Writing Project and the National Writing Project generative for learning and transformation for teachers, students, families, and communities?

Pitts, J. (2020, May 15). Teaching as activism, teaching as care. Teaching Tolerance.

Golding, S. (2020, May 28). Maintaining professionalism in the age of Black death...is a lot. Medium.

Pre-Institute

How and why might we (and/or have you) had students grapple with "hard histories" in your classroom? What roles might historical primary sources place in these learning experiences?

How might seeing (argument) writing as participating in an ongoing, intergenerational conversation influence our teaching of writing? How might we view and support students' writing (and arguments as) "on the verge of understanding"?

Bain, R. B. (2006). Rounding up unusual suspects: Facing the authority hidden in the history classroom. Teachers College Record, 108(10), 2080-2114.

Harris, J. (2006). Introduction. In Rewriting (pp. 1-12). Utah State University Press.

Reddy-Buttkovich, K. (2007). On the verge of understanding: A district-wide look at student writing. National Writing Project.

Texts for Elementary Teachers

Duke, N. K. (2019, March 4). Speaking up for science and social studies [Video]. YouTube.

Jefries, H., & Thomas, E. E. (2019). Teaching slavery through children’s literature — Part 1, Season 2, Episode 5 [Audio podcast]. Teaching Tolerance.

Petersen, M., & Birch, M. (2013). The disruptive/transformative potential of the Common Core State Standards. National Writing Project.

Reese, D. (2018). Critical Indigenous literacies: Selecting and using children's books about Indigenous peoples. Language Arts, 95(6), 389-393.

Vasquez, M. (2017). Writing to disrupt inequities. In Critical literacy across the K-6 curriculum (pp. 37-51). Routledge.

Texts for Secondary Teachers

Drake, F. D., & Brown, S. D. (2003). A systematic approach to improve students' historical thinking. The History Teacher, 36(4), 465-489.

Jefries, H., & Oliver, S. T. (2018). Dealing with things as they are: Creating a classroom environment for teaching hard history, Season 1, Episode 4 [Audio podcast.] Teaching Tolerance.

Krutka, D. G. (2020). Move slower and protect people: Toward social media inquiry and activism in social studies. Social Education, 84(2), 113-117.

Mirra, N., & Garcia, A. (2017). Civic participation reimagined: Youth interrogation and innovation in the multimodal public sphere. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 136-158.

National Writing Project. (2017). Real world histories: Six videos that model and inspire.

Day 1

What does it mean to teach in these times?

Clayton, C. (1989). We can educate all our children. The Nation, 249(4), 132-135.

Lytle, S., Portnoy, P., Waff, D., & Buckley, M. (2009). Teacher research in urban Philadelphia: Twenty years working within, against, and beyond the system. Educational Action Research, 17(1): 23-42.

Smith, C. (2020). How culturally responsive lessons teach critical thinking. Teaching Tolerance, 64, 51-54.

Day 2

How do we center healing and justice in our classrooms and curricula?

Everett, S. (2018). “Untold stories”: Cultivating consequential writing with a Black male student through a critical approach to metaphor. Research in the Teaching of English, 53(1), 34-57.

Garcia, A., & Dutro, E. (2018). Electing to heal: Trauma, healing, and politics in classrooms. English Education, 50(4), 375-383.

Kendi, I. X. (2016). Prologue. In Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America (pp. 1-). Nation Books.

Rivera-Amezola, R. (2020). Preservation and education: Teacher Inquiry and the “family and community stories” project. Language Arts, 97(5),324-329.

Day 3

What does it mean to take an inquiry stance on practice and make practice public?

Hicks, T., Whitney, A. E., Fredricksen, J., & Zuidema, L. (2016). Helping teacher-writers begin to write. In Coaching teacher-writers: Practical steps to nurture professional writing (pp. 25-50). Teachers College Press.

Lytle, S. L. (1993). Risky business. The Quarterly, 15(1), 20-23.

Lytle, S. L. (2008). At last: Practitioner inquiry and the practice of teaching: Some thoughts on "Better." Research in the Teaching of English, 42(3), 373-379.

Day 4

How do we design professional learning to support teachers in learning in and from practice?

Darling-Hammond, L. Hyler, M. E., Gardner, M., & Espinoza, D. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.

Lieberman, A., & Friedrich, L. (2007). Changing teaching from within: Teachers as leaders. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Pacansky-Brock, M. (2019). Untangling academic transformation through untethered, equitable professional development. Educator Innovator.

Day 5

In what ways might advocacy and activism be central to teaching?

Check, J. (2002). Reflection & reform: Five myths about reflective writing. National Writing Project.

Lieberman, A., & Friedrich, L. (2010). Epilogue. In How teachers become leaders (pp. 95-102). Teachers College Press.

Reed, S. (2013). A teacher activist’s response to schools closing. PennGSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 10(1).

Reed, S. (2009). Public figure Samuel Reed. Philadelphia Public School Notebook.