Stories are as important as food and love.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In her beautiful TED talk, The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes her childhood perception of the houseboy who worked for her middle class family in Nigeria. Her mother told her that the houseboy was poor, and chided Chimamanda when she didn’t eat all her food, describing how hungry the houseboy’s family was and how they would love a plate of food like hers. One day Chimamanda’s family visited the houseboy’s village where she saw a beautiful, handwoven basket made by the houseboy’s brother. Chimamanda was startled that his family had such talent and skill, and that they were obviously so hard-working. Her single story of the houseboy was that he was poor.
For the last 12 years, I have worked in high-poverty schools in Georgia in various capacities. Inevitably, poverty forms a strong storyline for those of us who spend a lot of time in schools where economic need is obvious. We say things like, “Ninety-eight percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch,” or “Her mother has two jobs and doesn’t have time to make sure she gets her homework done.” But this poverty story line is already well-known, and its familiarity interferes with authentic connections with students, which are essential for teaching and learning.
The problem with single stories, Chimamanda explains, is that they impede relationships. It is very difficult to connect with someone when we only see one dimension of them, when we let our stories “flatten” them. Chimamanda suggests that rather than telling and retelling single story lines about people, we can go straight to a second story, a story that elevates them to the place of shared humanity. By attending to children’s second stories–starting with “secondly”–we can create a more balanced narrative about them, which affects them, us, and our interactions.
The children with whom we work are much more than the income or formal education levels of their families, and we cannot reach or teach them well until we see their second stories first, learning to appreciate the ways they are more like us than different.
What are your students’ second stories? What can you do to make your students’ second stories your first memory of your experience of them this year? How will you lead with these second stories as you communicate with the teachers who will work with them next year?
This week we look at student research. Plus more as always — enjoy!
Jan Burkins
Contributor, Choice Literacy
Jan Burkins collaborates with Kim Yaris at Burkins and Yaris — Think Tank for 21st Century Literacy, where their blog and their instructional resources have drawn a national audience. Their new book, Reading Wellness, is available through Stenhouse Publishers.
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Gretchen Taylor is streamlining research check-in with her middle school students by using Google Drive, and in the process gets data that is far more useful for her teaching:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1928
Late in the year is a great time to reflect upon what really matters in teaching and learning beyond test scores. Katherine Sokolowski does just that in What I Know to Be True:
http://readwriteandreflect.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-i-know-to-be-true.html
You can access Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” at this link:
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Katherine Sokolowski helps her fifth graders build notetaking skills for research:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2154
Jillian Heise’s middle school students design text sets late in the school year. It’s a great activity for discovering how they have grown as readers, as well as a gift to next year’s class:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=2211
In this week’s video, Andrea Smith helps a group of boys take notes during an owl research project:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1609
In an encore video, Ruth Shagoury interviews sixth graders about their reading at the end of the year to promote reflection:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1987
That’s all for this week!
