Language is never neutral--Paulo Freire
As I have stated, trauma in children is not an anomaly. It is an anomaly that we assume they can quickly get over their stressors and that they do not affect the classroom environment. Working with disenfranchised children, who at times need food, empowerment, reading lessons, and coping mechanisms has led me towards a critical literacy pedagogy. By this I mean one that “[questions] power relations, discourse, and identities in a world not yet finished, just or humane.”
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In my early years of teaching, I thought my middle school aged children enjoyed controversy, but in fact, I now see that they appreciate truth. We will be reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers, a novel with an incarcerated youth as protagonist. It is impossible not to acknowledge the powerful prison industrial complex that affects us consciously or unconsciously while reading the book. In fact his lawyer tells him her job is to make him seem human in the face of a jury that believes he is a monster simply for being a young black youth. By connecting the novel to a societal issue, students become curious and have more reason for inquiry. This immediately connects personal or communal experiences they may have lived through.
My students must be purposefully engaged in works of literature. The methods I utilize include creative and critical reading and writing, debates, and conversations. I like to use a multi media approach as well. I present using songs, lyrics, videos, images, collages, political posters, guests and any possible way to hook their attention. Once they buy in, we can learn. I say we, because I like to consistently remind them, that they guide the learning and that one class period may be very different from another. I also state that I am learning from them and the experiences they bring into the classroom. It is necessary to honor their knowledge.
I choose these strategies because my students are energetic, resilient, artistic, and I am considering their multiple intelligences.
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I emphasize their strengths and explain we are all intelligent in our own ways. My approach directly links to individual and community trauma because we have a space where the personal can be voiced, where the trauma can be observed, and where in a classroom we can support each other in learning and in life. Our internal and external conflicts are connected to that of characters. As Ira Shor states, “Since the 1960s, dialogic and student-centered methods from expressivist, feminist, and other critical teachers have foregrounded the personal and the social as the subject matters Dewey called for in his reference to ‘vital impressions and convictions.’ ”
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In our class I teach and speak and have them explore, think and create, with conviction. This reduces—if not--erases disruptive behavior, lack of motivation, and any other distractions. Words have the power to heal us.
