Strategy Summary:  The concept of the literary canon is running rampant throughout secondary schools across the country, yet it is rarely recognized for its true purpose. Christina Torres' article The Power of Words: On "Classics" and "Canon" offers strategies that steer away from adhering to the single story that is often perpetuated within literature that is considered to be a part of the canon. Thomas suggests that "They (students) should learn about those communities (Communities and perspectives  historically silenced) from people actually in them, not someone else writing about them." It is heavily recommended throughout this article that literature that falls under the category of "the classics" or "the literary canon" should be a part of the curriculum taught in the classroom, but not all of it. Thomas even goes as far as to say that "The concept of 'classics' is a societal construct built on people in power deciding that it was worth study and doesn't discount the fact that there were possibly other great books overlooked for other reasons." 

Strategy Adopted: Last semester, I took a class that completely shifted my view on literature. This class was called "LIT 101: Cultures and Canons" and was taught by the brilliant, Dr. Mindi McMann. Before entering this class, I had never heard the term "the literary canon," yet my mind was completely blown once the concept was understood.  As a future educator, I plan on addressing the idea of the literary canon from the beginning. It is so important for children to understand that great literature does not need to be written by the same kind of people. Like suggested by Thomas, I plan on including both the classics AND literature written by historically marginalized communities as well. I am also really excited to eventually work on building a class library in which students are encouraged to pick up a book that intrigues them. In my classroom library, I think it is imperative to include an extremely diverse spectrum of literature, authors, characters, and plots. It is absolutely crucial that students see themselves represented within authors, characters, and plot lines. 

Education Week. 2022. The Power of Words: On "Classics" and "Canon" (Opinion). [online] Available at: <https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-the-power-of-words-on-classics-and-canon/2019/04> [Accessed 5 May 2022].

Strategy Summary:  Jacqueline Jordan Irvine's Complex Relationships Between Multicultural Education and Special Education: An African American Perspective explores the ways in which relationships with students are the gateway for providing students with a culturally representative classroom and safe space for all.  A strategy that Irvine emphasizes is the training and or hiring of teachers who are "culturally relevant, persistent, open minded, reflective, complex thinkers and risk takers." This strategy argues that teachers should be change makers and way pavers for students and even other staff members as well.  Irvine explains that "Culturally relevant teachers assist students to change the society, not simply exist or survive in it. They directly confront inequities in society such as racism, sexism, and classism" as well as "teacher educators should encourage their students to see themselves as social reconstructivists who dismantle systems of racism, inequality, and oppression, and advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves." So the question becomes...how? How do I become culturally relevant and create an open space for future change makers?  The answer lies within relationships with students and creating an open dialogue. 

Strategy Adopted: As learned from not only this article by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, but also by my experience at StemCivics High School for my practicum, there is no point in teaching when children do not feel safe and loved. My first plan to make all students feel comfortable and to pertain an open dialogue is to begin each class time with something reminiscent of "morning rug time" that is often used in elementary classrooms to begin the day. Naturally, if I am teaching in a Middle or High School classroom, it would look different, but I still think each day should start from a foundation of care and love. Another way that I would aid in creating passionate, change makers is to not tip toe around topics and subjects that deeply influence not only the literature that we explore, but also that surrounds our society, such as classism, racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. Finally, it is critical that students feel comfortable in sharing their stories and experiences within our classroom community. 

  Irvine, Jacqueline Jordan. “Complex Relationships Between Multicultural Education and Special Education: An African American Perspective.” Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 63, no. 4, SAGE Publications, 2012, pp. 268–74, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487112447113.

Strategy Summary: Drexel University's School of Education's How Do You Manage Diversity In The Classroom? does a great job in offering many feasible options for teachers to create a much more responsive classroom environment that addresses cultural diversity. However the main strategy employed in this article remains sweet and simple-communication. The article mentions "If students feel appreciated and comfortable with their teacher, there's a better chance they'll feel comfortable talking with and respect their peers in the class-and communication is the core to a culturally aware and inclusive classroom." A big part of the idea of communication is what you're communicating with students.  Practicing cultural sensitivity is so important as well as not only keeping an open dialogue between student and teacher, but between students and students as well. Cultural sensitivity includes approaching each student and their background differently and being respectful and open minded about all cultures and beliefs equally. It also means getting over the fear of learning how to talk about other cultures in a respectful and mature way, and just doing it, because the more examples of this that are shown in class, the more likely the children will be to follow. 

Strategy Adopted: This article did an excellent job of not only describing strategies, but of also listing ways of applying these strategies to your classroom. One thing in particular that stood out to me and that I plan on utilizing in my future classroom is 1-on-1 meetings with students every so often in hopes to address their ideas, concerns, issues, and how they feel about our classroom environment and classroom community.  As a student, these one on one conferences always made me feel so heard, loved, and appreciated, so I am excited to hopefully expand that to my future classrooms. I also want to adopt these communication strategies by making sure that there is a power balance in my future classrooms. I do not want my students to feel as those there is a dictatorship within the classrooms, I think that students' ideas and advocacy is one of the most important parts of building a safe classroom environment. 

School of Education. 2022. The Importance of Diversity in the Classroom - School of Education. [online] Available at: <https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/student-teaching/advice/importance-of-cultural-diversity-in-classroom/> [Accessed 5 May 2022].

Strategy Summary: Shaaron Ainsworth's The Functions of Multiple Representations really dives into the strategy of multi-media and multi-representation learning environments. Ainsworth explains, "Multi-media and multi-representational learning environments are ubiquitous and were so even before the advent of modern educational technology. A common justification for using more than one representation is that this is more likely to capture a learner's interest and, in so doing, play an important role in promoting conditions for effective learning." Ainsworth implies the importance of not only adopting multiple lesson plans and platforms, but also to use multiple representations throughout the curriculum (ex; not just learning about BIPOC authors/characters). She goes on to describe that this strategy will not only be beneficial for students to learn about other cultures and people, but also to encourage student engagement. It is beyond clear that when students are having fun learning, they end up taking away so much more information and life lessons. 

Strategy Adopted: In order to provide the idea of multiple representations into my future classrooms, I plan to first of all, include choices for students. When choices are provided, it not only allows the student to get excited about their work, but it makes them feel in control of their education which is so important. An example of this would be formatting a project in multiple forms (students can choose between a digital project, a podcast, a poster, essay, etc). In terms of providing representational curriculum, I plan on not only including BIPOC authors and character throughout the literature that we read, but also exploring marginalized communities throughout the year. For example, if we are reading a time period piece, it would be cool to look into different communities and people during that time. I also think it would be fun to really celebrate different communities all year round, but really making them feel loved during specialized history months (Black History Month, Women's History Month, Pride Month, etc). 

Ainsworth, Shaaron. “The Functions of Multiple Representations.” Computers and Education, vol. 33, no. 2, Elsevier Ltd, 1999, pp. 131–52, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0360-1315(99)00029-9.

Strategy Summary: Upon researching, I stumbled upon The Student's Right to Read by The National Council of Teachers of English. I found this article really compelling as it tackled a topic and strategy that is uncomfortable for many educators to go about, that being censorship in literature. It is clear that many works written by or about minoritized ethnic or racial groups tend to be views as "controversial" or "inappropriate," when in reality this often comes from a deeply rooted form of racism. Yet, this strategy argues that even modern works or works considered to be "classics" that fall in the literary canon can be viewed as controversial in one way or another, which is why this strategy is based on the idea of censorship and having hard conversations with students. The article explains, "We can safely make two statements about censorship: first, any text is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason; second, censorship is often arbitrary and irrational." Another strategy represented is allowing for students to have more choice within text selection and conversation, as not only will they be more engaged in this sense, but they will also be able to choose texts regardless of the content being "too political" (within limits of course). 

Strategy Adopted: I think that intersectionality in schools in really important. Not only is it great for teachers to work together to create intersected lessons, but it is a really cool experience to "connect the dots" as a student. I think that history and English specifically go hand in hand, which is why I plan on doing a lot of history work within my English classroom. This includes having raw, and hard conversations about censorship and true history, even if it is hard to hear sometimes. This could mean collaborating with history teachers at my school, or even just taking the time to educate myself on what messages I plan on relaying to my students. I also plan on giving students a lot of freedom when picking texts, this could  be done in so many ways, such as; through a list, survey, open choice, voting, etc. I also plan on having those hard conversations with my fellow colleagues, administrators, and parents about reading material and what needs to be appropriately censored and what does not. 

NCTE. 2022. The Students' Right to Read - NCTE. [online] Available at: <https://ncte.org/statement/righttoreadguideline/> [Accessed 5 May 2022].