It is a daily struggle to identify and combat powerful social structures (white supremacy, heteronormativity, sexism, ableism, etc.) in my lessons, assessments, discussions. But, I am trying to learn more about these structures by attending grad school classes and reading new theory texts. 

Right now, I have completely restructured my units because teaching American Literature through literary movements centers White, male, straight voices, depicts Indigenous voices as a homogenized past voice, and ignores the violence and laws that forbade people of color from producing literature in stereotypical forms. Instead, my students study literature through mediums: poetry, novels, plays, film, comics, and if I have time video games. My texts focus on representing marginalized voices, allowing students to think about which voices they cite in their own work, examining how our language choices reveal power structures, identifying how their own biases impact their interpretations of the text, and evaluating the authorial bias present in each text and my own bias in how I present a text to them. It really allows them to develop critical thinking so that they can form their own opinions on messages in the future. I continue to try to disrupt normative views of literature by focusing on counter stories and almost counter lessons (if that makes sense).