Educational Curators
"We can't consider which texts to teach without also considering the students in our classroom who are reading them" (Garcia & O'Donnell-Allen, 92)
Chapter 5
highlights the importance of teachers acting as curators in order to provide
culturally proactive reading options to students from diverse backgrounds.
Key components of teachers
as curators:
·
disrupting traditional curriculum
·
fostering students' choice in reading
·
pushing students to work past challenges that arise when reading
·
mirroring your own passion for reading to shine through your role
as an educator.
As we’ve discussed at length throughout this program, teachers must provide their students with
culturally sustaining lessons and reading opportunities that reflect their community.
If we are assembling
a list of “just right” books for our students, what kind of message do we want those
books to reflect? We must take an active role as educational curators in
selecting texts that bring controversial topics such as race, gender, class, and
religion to the surface. The author discusses how traditional canonical text
such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and To Kill a Mockingbird do not reflect
today’s diverse society and need to be supplemented with other materials that
follow the same themes and questions but with a contemporary connection in
order to bring conversations together.
“Western stories typically
encountered in classrooms can severely limit our students’ assumptions of what is
possible in the world” (96)
I remember (begrudgingly) reading some of these traditional
texts wondering how this relates to current day and wanting to read stories
that reflect my interests and lifestyle. I was rarely given the opportunity to
choose books that interested me as we were given a selection of texts based on
our reading level and district requirements. While I appreciate these timeless
texts, I feel it’s critical for my teaching to provide students with more diverse
texts filled with characters from different backgrounds, lifestyles, and cultures
in order for my students to feel well represented. I agree with the both/and approach recommended by Garcia and
O’Donnell-Allen of introducing students to books that expand their thinking
while also allowing them to choose texts in order to identify as readers. Before
reading this concept, I leaned towards allowing full students choice when
choosing texts, but now I understand how too much information and options can “discourage
student agency”. I found myself laughing because I related this idea to times I
have been given too many options (often when deciding what to eat for dinner)
and feeling overwhelmed and telling my husband, “I can’t decide you choose”. Frustration
and anxiety are met when students are aggravated with the process of finding
content they feel is the best fit for them. What are some ways we can implement the both/and approach to allow personal
growth while giving direction?
Finally, I found the last component of the chapter to be especially
insightful for my own teaching practice. In order to be a teacher curator, we
must demonstrate passion for reading and learning. I appreciated the tips on
how to actively share your passion for reading with colleagues and display
these interests to your students in order to show learning is never-ending. While
the authors acknowledged it’s hard to keep up with reading personal interest texts
in the midst of a busy teaching schedule, this passion will be mirrored through
your teaching and ultimately your students. I will need to continuously reflect on the
question of “Am I demonstrating the same
passion for reading that I want my students to have?” throughout my
teaching career.
After diving deeper into the idea of both teacher curators and student curators, I found this youtube video and blog (http://www.spencerauthor.com/content-curation/) by John Spencer. I think his concepts of what it takes to be a curator are relevant to both the teacher and student roles. Also his graphics are fun and engaging so that makes these topics even more exciting! Enjoy!
Samantha Mazanowski
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Garcia, A., O'Donnell-Allen, C. (2015). Pose, wobble, flow: A culturally proactive approach to literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teacher College Press.
Sam, I enjoyed your memes and added video. The video helped breakdown how students can become curators. This was very helpful.
ReplyDeleteWell, first thank goodness I do not plan on teaching in high school. It would be a big stretch for me to demonstrate my passion for reading. I find it hard to grabble staying interested in a chapter book, let alone dissecting it to carry on a discussion. I so envy all of you passionate reader out there. After reading in chapter 5 about the five parts of a curator and reading the definition of text as “includes words on paper, images on digital screens, and messages encoded on other surfaces like canvases, sculptures, and billboards. (p.91)” I can start to formulate myself as a curator of literature. I can envision a lesson where students take pictures of their community and build a story about the culture/self.
I believe my experience is with the “Great Books and Core Knowledge Curriculum (p.98). Reading books such as Lord of the flies and Grapes of wrath and then filling out pages of questions. I cannot entirely agree with the concept of curating books as it limits the students involved in their education. This might partly be my angst for reading comes. If my high school used the both/and approach I might not have a developed a textual lineage of “enabling texts.” The both/and approach gives the students a chance to explore and guide their interested which will expand their horizon.
Freebody and Luke’s four resources model of reading (code breakers, text participants, text users and text analysts) break down how to interpret a text. I think this concept will help me as a teacher when I try to bring music/songs into the curriculum. In the article by Lauren Leigh Kelly “Hip-hop texts can serve as a useful supplement or entryway into the traditional English curriculum.” (p. 51). I believe many students find themselves taking on dual identity when in school. I was Rock (Glam Rock) student that the teachers could not relate too or even try to connect subject to during school. It just was not an English class, but art classes were very structured and I was hamstrung on my creativity. This caused anxiety and frustration and lack of passion for the student and drove them away from education.
Sam, I like your statement: “teachers must provide their students with culturally sustaining lessons and reading opportunities that reflect their community.” If we are not reaching our students at their level first, then building them up to be educated people, we are pushing them aside. I prefer to be a teacher that welcomes students into the classroom and life. Not force life and education upon them.
I only developed a love for reading after grade school so I completely understand the issues of curating books and your experience with reading a book and then filling out questions. The both/and approach is how I plan to get my students excited about reading so that they don't a hatred for reading as many do during grade school. I also loved your idea of taking pictures and using multimodality to teach literacy as i believe this is critical to developing cultural and critcal competency for the surrounding world. I look forward to seeing how you (as someone who doesn't have a passion for reading) incorporates literacy into your classroom through a different lense.
DeleteSame with you, growing up I was never encouraged to read outside of what we were forced to read during school. In high school, we had summer reading that consisted of large, 'canonical' texts that I had zero interest in. I feel that if our teachers curated the list of reading with more options for us to choose from, or even if we created a summer reading list that was approved by the teachers, the process would have been so much more beneficial for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the last chapter made a large impact on my ideas of teaching. I am not a huge reader, mainly because I felt I never had time growing up to leisurely read books I enjoyed -- it always was reading the books chosen for me in English class. I think your point about our passion will be mirrored through our students is huge. If students see us reading and discussing reading, in any form of text, then it will create drive in them to do the same. There are so many good points in this chapter that I will take with me, but the main element is to curate a better library for myself so that I can do the same for my future students.
I think we are on the exact same page in regard to the importance of curating books for ourselves and our students. Its truly a shame that the teachers we had didn't allow us to choose books of interest because i think that would have changed a lot of how we view reading in school. I think most people have a negative view of language arts classes becuase of this and hopefully we can change that through our knoweldge and the ideas we learn in this class. My only worry about curating a better library for myself is how I will have time to read these books, lesson plan, grade, and still have time for my family and outside life. I guess ill just have to keep in mind how important it is for both myself and my students and make it a priority.
DeleteSam, this was an insightful post! I like you, did not enjoy some of the traditional texts we read in school because they didn’t relate to or interest me. This is something that all generations seem to have in common. No one likes reading the texts in school but then as we grow older we act like it’s criminal to not require teaching these “classics”. One of my babysitting charges was reading “Of Mice and Men” for class. He was required to annotate the text to prove he’d read it. When I asked him what the book was about, he recited the same script that I remember hearing when I read the book in school. I realized that though I remembered reading the book, I didn’t remember the content. I think the same is probably true for many students.
ReplyDeleteI think that one way we can implement the both/and approach is by checking in with our students. If they're feeling overwhelmed by having too many choices, we can help them narrow it down by suggesting one or two titles that we think might interest them. Ideally, by this point we'd have made enough of a connection with them to understand where their interests lie. Another idea is to offer 2-3 supplemental titles for each unit for students to choose from. That way they can have some ownership over their reading titles without feeling overwhelmed by having to research what they should read next.
I agree with all your points and love your ideas about narrowing down book suggestions based on the student's interests. I think when students have so many choices they often feel overwhelmed and ultimately pass off reading as a chore instead of something that can be fun. Building that relationship with your students is key to this and many other aspects of education and creating a culturally sustaining classroom. I hope my students see what reading can be instead of reading books where they won't remember the content.
DeleteGreat post, Sam! I also found the last part of the chapter on showing our passion for reading and learning very interesting and directly applicable to my teaching. I have two teacher friends who I think do this very well. One is a 5th grade teacher. Her school requires her to assign kids to read for at least 20 minutes each night. At the beginning of the year, she made a pact with her students that she would do the same thing as her ‘homework.’ She also challenged them to read more by rewarding them for reading more minutes a week than she did. The second is a high school English teacher. She has a Facebook album called ‘Prose and Cons’ where she reads and reviews a wide variety of books.
ReplyDeleteFor me personally, I have always made time to read for pleasure—even in the midst of the business of school. I struggle with the other two guidelines given by Garcia and O’Donnell-Allen, especially reading texts that ‘better appraise [me] of ELA instruction and literacies research’ (p. 105). This is especially hard for me during school. I read so many research studies for homework that I don’t want to read any more on my own time. Unfortunately, I could give excuses for the rest of my life as to why I don’t read research. I have gotten better in the past month with reading to be informed. I now read the newspaper semi-regularly and browse headlines online. One area I feel like I could improve in my reading habits (especially if I want to demonstrate a passion for varied and meaningful reading) is reading a wider range of books. I need to read books that I don’t agree with, that are written by people different than me, that are about people different than me. If I want my students to do this, I need to do it first.
That is very impressive of your teacher friends! I think thats a great idea to required 20 minutes of reading per night and it allows for us to continue our learning during that time too. I have a friend who has a youtube channel where she reviews books from various genres. I'm always impressed/envious by how much she's able to read with a busy work schedule as well as the variety of books she reads. I agree that its important to read research for the betterment of our students and education in general. I think when we aren't reading it for required readings we will be more willing and excited to read those type of papers since its the field we all are interested in.
DeleteRachel, I love that idea from your teacher friends! I also have a friend who teaches 6th grade Language Arts and she creates book challenges for herself and then posts reviews about books shes read on her Facebook page! I was reminded of her page when I got to the end of the chapter and how she makes a point to read the "for fun" books that her students are reading. She takes book suggestions seriously and she makes sure to talk about the books so students can see that she does value their interests and opinions.
DeleteI grew up with parents who were always reading for leisure and encouraged reading every day, even if it's just a little before going to bed every night. But then high school and college happened, and reading felt forced and dense and reading assignments were too overwhelming so passionate reading took a back burner. Personally, reading for fun comes in phases and I find myself enjoying collecting books for my bookshelf rather than reading them. But I think there is value in passionate reading that comes from other medias like blogs or lengthy articles online and even audiobooks. I loved how the book made the point about "reading books that you look forward to picking up daily (Garcia, O'Donnell-Allen, 2015, 104)." I laughed then they mentioned that even trashy romance novels are acceptable, because I think that's important to passionate reading. Because it really doesn't matter what type of books or texts that you read on your own time, being passionate about reading for personal pleasure can seep into other contexts, even if it means reading research studies for class! LOL
I really enjoyed your post, Sam! I think it definitely mimicked a lot of my own thoughts.
DeleteRachel and Emma, I love the ideas your teacher friends have shared with you and modeled for their students. I think they are great examples of Garcia and O’Donnell-Allen’s point that as teachers we should be consuming “newspapers, student pop culture like films and music, and online blogging sites (which) all help inform you of the kinds of subtle changes, vocabularies, and interests that are filtering into your classroom (p. 105).” As we get older, as hard as we try, we begin to lose touch with what the younger generations are being exposed to and embracing in their daily lives. It is crucial that we as teachers don’t become complacent in familiarizing ourselves with what our students are interested in, so that we can engage them better in the classroom and use them to supplement, contrast, and critically think about more traditional texts.
I have always been a fervent reader to the point where my parents would have to literally put their hands in front of my face to get my attention. However, like the rest of you, in high school and college I really had to work at making time for the books I enjoyed, since reading the assigned reading often took a lot more effort and weren’t as enjoyable. I do think there is something to be said for reading some books that you wouldn't chose for yourself, because I think it requires you to use parts of your brain that you wouldn't normally. It can also expose you to new ideas whether you agree with and enjoy them or not. I think this is why the “both/and” approach is integral to ELA classes.
Sam, thank you for this post. I have always been an avid reader. However, I have noticed that I now read my phone much more than books. While listening to a radio program once, someone likened the endless scroll on his phone as being on the thousandth page of the world’s dumbest book. I related to that sentiment. Since then I have tried to lessen my media consumption on my phone because the content can be really mindless. I am not engaging with the information as I would in a book because the substance is often superficial. I read much more “guilty pleasure” text than material that challenges my thinking. I am mindful about my choice of books to include work by authors with very different lived experiences than my own. When I was a child, I felt like I had to read all the classics to be well read.
ReplyDeleteThe stories we chose to tell and include in the curriculum send messages about who is valued and important in society. Most of the so-called classics that comprise the literary canon are written from the point of view of white men. We must broaden our definition of worthwhile texts to include media, games, websites, social media. Referred to as multiliteracies, these examples illustrate the ways the idea of literacy has moved beyond the ability to read and write. As stated by Garcia, there must be, “equal emphasis on the cultural and linguistic diversity of the students we teach (Garcia, 2015, p.92).” Meaning we must move beyond the traditional literary canon which reinforces the dominant culture. The curriculum should be as diverse as the student body. Even in schools with affluent, white student populations, multiliteracies need to be included to avoid reinforcing the idea the dominant culture is superior to marginalized people and their understanding of the world and cultural contributions. Additionally, people learn more when they are exposed to ways of thinking and being that are different from themselves. We have the responsibility to make curriculum content relevant to students’ experiences. Helping students develop a critical consciousness is crucial for students to prepare them for the world in which they live.
I loved your thoughts on "mindless reading" and how its becoming detrimental to our intellectual growth. I find myself with the same problem of mindless scrolling and reading about things like pop culture rather than information that will actually push my mind and make an impact on me as a teacher. This really should be everyone's goal so that we as a society become more knowledgable on real life topics rather than celebrity gossip. I also agree with your points on the "classics" that don't accurately represent today's society and the diverse cultures within it. In order for our students to relate to stories we need to provide them with books that represent their cultures, backgrounds, and interests. We can't expect students to be fully engaged if they can't relate to the story.
DeleteAmber, your quote about the endless scroll is so true. I can definitely relate. As I read the first paragraph of your response, I thought, "She is curating her own literacy". You are doing exactly what was being described in the book: you are pushing back on what is currently accepted as okay (mindlessly scrolling on your phone), you are making critical choices of what (and who) you will read, and through doing this, you are cultivating your passion for reading. Honestly, this would be a perfect real-life story/example for your students - explaining how you curated your own reading choices. In fact, this has challenged me to be more mindful of my choices. So, thank you!
DeleteSam great post! I couldn’t help but laugh on your comment about going out or what to eat. My wife can never decide even after I’ve named a million things or places. I wrote a little about the saying the “more is less” on Will’s post. I related this to teaching the golf swing. It could easily get out of hand on what needs to be fixed when sometimes it’s the little things that need to be accomplished first. The book mentions on pg. 101 to “tune out the noise” when being a curator of information. The power starts with us as the teacher. If not used correctly, we could harm our students learning. We don’t want to discourage but only empower our students to want to learn more about relevant material.
ReplyDeleteI liked the end of your post about our passion in our teaching and how it relates to our students. I never was a big reader growing up and honestly to this day do not read much. The only books I’ve read were required by the school. It does make me wonder if my teacher showed me more of a passion for reading about more relevant material that maybe I would enjoy reading today. I think I really would. This biggest reason was that the books that were chosen are boring. So, when I teach, how do I show that passion that I’ve never really had? I’m not sure and it makes me nervous. But I do know that showing a passion for reading is important and it will show through my students. If I’m not aware and always thinking critically about texts, my students will have a greater chance to be discouraged about reading. Much similar to my own experience.
I think your concerns are very valid and we all are worried in some aspect of how we will be able to show passion while balancing everything else we are required to do. It doesn't seem like theres enough time in the day for all the things we need to do to create a culturally sustaining and critically conscious classroom. I think figuring out what kind of books interest you without being required to read them and becoming a curator of your own library will help you and your students. Also encouraging your students to read based on their interests and building a relationship with them will help make sure they don't feel discouraged about reading.
DeleteI feel that the idea of being a curator really brought culturally sustaining pedagogy (especially in literacy) to life for me. The key components helped me break down this theory into manageable steps I can take towards being a culturally sustaining educator. Big picture ideas overwhelm me; I need small actions I can take - and this chapter gave me some of that. As far as how I would curate in my own classroom, I want to remember that literacy is no longer canonical texts or even books outside of the canon. Today's literacy includes so much more: print, oral, and visual communications - documentaries, television, illustrations, multimedia texts (p. 92). We have so much at our disposal to engage every student. But this kind of relates to your comments about having too much information at your disposal being too overwhelming! The more information, the more necessary it is to have careful, deliberate curation. We can't just use technology and media without having a purpose.
ReplyDeleteI also related to the call to be a passionate reader (as most of us did). Although I love to read and get lost in a good book (I've ALWAYS loved to read), I've found myself putting aside any extra reading during our classes. I feel like my brain can't take anymore! However, I know that I want to display my passion for reading to my students, so I'm going to have to make time (and brain space). I think setting a goal of a book a month would be good motivation while I'm teaching.
I really enjoyed your post, Sam! When I reading the chapter, the notion of teaching students to be curators themselves reminded me of Wood Ray’s idea of teaching children to think like and live like writers (and authors). I think, for us, teaching young students to curate their own texts would be along the lines of providing the students with ample and a variety of options of texts and encourage them to choose those and the topics in which are important to them. Then, by getting to know this information about our student (cultural, background, and interests), we provide leads, locate materials, bring in or connect them with texts, etc. that fit with their interests. Obviously this would require a lot of extra work on our part outside of school, but it is necessary because teaching the students that their interests are valued and showing them not only books but numerous modes of text constitutes reading/literacy at an early age will empower them. It will provide them with an example of how they can be curators of text themselves, and guide them in the future.
ReplyDeleteTaberski (2004), “Children learning to read are active agents, initiating and assuming responsibility for their learning. They continually integrate new findings into their framework of knowledge about language and texts, replacing what no longer works with revised theories and fresh information,” (p. 3). This is important to note because early readers define reading by what they are reading. In chapter 5, Garcia and O'Donnell mention that the older a student gets, the more narrow their conception of what literacy is, as they are continually exposed to the traditional canon texts and traditional classroom literacy activities. This can and does completely turn (at least some) students off of reading and can lead to a reluctance to read or a struggling reader -- this was me. If we teach and enable students to be curators of their own texts early and if we introduce them to numerous/various culturally relevant texts, we can greatly expand their knowledge, understanding, and efficiency in/of literacy and of/with text. We can provide them with a cause/reason and desire to read because we are providing them with a choice (of text and topic). This will (or at least would have for me) inspired more enthusiasm and engagement in reading, rather than just reading for a grade.
So, what/how can we and must we do? “Reflecting the vibrant language that occurs in the “real world” in the texts you curate enhances students’ capacity to effectively read, interpret, and interact in their civic world,” (Garcia &O’Donnell-Allen, p. 93).