Historically Responsive Literacy

 This podcast episode by Muhammed and Gonzales tells us a lot about the American Education system. Muhammed makes her primary critique of the education system quite clear, though: the American Education system was created by male white supremacists bent on holding back black and brown people. The worst part is that, despite reform, the system has hardly changed. Due to this, it becomes abundantly clear that the only way to reform the system to be anti-racist is to tear the whole system down and build a new one.

Dr. Gholdy Muhammed
Further, muhammed has provided a framework to start rebuilding the system using the layers "Identity," "Skills," "Intellect," and "Criticality."

Identity: Students' identities are incredibly important to individual students, as identity is important for students to both learn about and understand themselves as well as each other. As an English teacher, incorporating identity into education can be as simple as using song lyrics to make connections or writing six word memoirs.

Skills: While this is the current focus of many standards and curriculums, it is better paired with other layers (as shown here). When brushing up on skills, students retain information better through repetition.

Intellect: With English classes, learning is more than who wrote The Great Gatsby or when T.S. Eliot died. Learning becomes figuring out what the cultural impact of a text, making text to world connections, and influences of the author.

Criticality: English teachers using texts such as Huckleberry Finn and The Stepford Wives can encourage students to have critical discussions about race, gender, and other social constructs to encourage open-mindedness. 

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