Adolescent Literacy Summit 2015
Below are a series of audio stories from teachers who participated in the 2014 Writing Institute. In April 2015, they presented their pedagogy projects at the Adolescent Literacy Summit in Winnipeg. Their topics included adult education, community building, and indigenous education. These are the stories of practicing teachers who continue to seek authentic, socially conscious, and technically proficient methods of instruction.
"Family Literacy Night"- Katya Adamov Ferguson
Katya’s project was initially intended to be an activity for a family literacy night at her school but quickly, and rather unexpectedly, took on a life of its own as students, parents, and other teachers enthusiastically participated and did so far beyond a single evening. Sharing in the belief that writing is not just a cognitive act, but a social and loving one, she encouraged a great variety of people, cultures, ages, and professions to come together to converse, support, and express care for one another.
In an effort to spark an authentic dialogue of personal and cultural sharing, Katya organized the creation of a paper vine in the gymnasium whose leave were composed of individually submitted stories and messages from students, their parents, and the school’s staff. Listen to her audio presentation in the file to the right. |
"Writing Workshop for Indigenous Women"-Rebecca ReynoldsRebecca designed her pedagogy project in response to the continued hardships of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples in a Manitoban, educational context. Of particular interest to her was the extreme suppression and victimization of indigenous women who continue to fall victim to mainstream failures in education, socio-economic difficulties, and the risk of physical violence. In designing her project, and as a teacher of history, drama, English, and dance, she was stalwart in her belief in the power of words. As she has said, “the words we use and the stories we tell can hurt… control, assimilate, devalue, and disempower” people, but can also be used to “set us free, express individuality, valorize, empower… [and] comfort”.
By having her students adopt the literacy and tactics used to historically oppress them she hoped that they might “take back words, paint new portraits, and dance forgotten dances” as the introduced their pain, struggles, and fantastic value and artistry into the Canadian conversation. As an ally in the efforts of Aboriginal women, and especially mothers, to articulate, actualize, and affect change, Rebecca aimed first to encourage an acknowledgement of her students’ self-worth and as the value of their voices. |
"Multilingual Identity Texts"- Amanda BortonAmanda organized a project in which a central artifact, a plush toy, was circulated around the households of her classroom where it was photographed ‘participating’ in a variety of culturally-relevant activities. These photos, along with student writing in both English and first languages, has been published as a single work intended for display to other students and staff.
As she described it, the results of the project were “instantaneous” and had a perceptible “ripple effect” in, and beyond, the classroom. Amanda recounted previously unacquainted parents talking spontaneously with one another without her encouragement, the creation of new friendships between students, and, in general, “things [she] wasn’t planning for”. Though her classroom was initially split up along linguistic and national lines, she saw new friendships grow beyond these boundaries. Students who rarely talked to one another began spending free time together as well as teaching each other their home languages. And parents, who were never acquainted before the project, were planning sleepovers for their children. Without planning ahead, family members would periodically visit her classroom with traditional food to share stories and cultural knowledge with a classroom that had been carefully cultivated into a safe place for sharing. |