Thread by @juliaerin80

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah It's really interesting and makes a lot of points I agree with. I caution anyone though, who enters into these conversations implying or assuming that educational progressivism carries with it an anti-canon, anti-assessment, anti-establishment agenda. That's too simplistic.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah I can't speak for the masses, but the last AP Lit and Lang classes I taught had Shakespeare, Liz Acevedo, Toni Morrison, Glória Anzaldúa and James Baldwin on the syllabus. My students were 100% Black and brown--many "reading below grade level".

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah At no time did I consider "throwing out the classics" in favor of "low-level" YA texts. (All YA is NOT alike btw) At no time did I ignore the fact that the course, students, and me would all be judged by what happened on the test at the end of the year.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah The key, in my opinion, is to build a course that works for your kids EVEN, ESPECIALLY, if that means you have to dig deep, stretch and wrestle with your biases, limitations and assumptions in order to do what's best for THEM. Simply put, it's not about you.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah And when people rush to pigeonhole educational progressivism as anti-everything, I think that's dangerous, polarizing language. We have to meet kids in the middle and build bridges. Disruption, revision, reconstruction w/in this broken system is part of that.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah If all you're able to do is stick to "what data shows" (what data? taken from where? norming and centering whom?) with regard to reading and writing instruction, you are limiting yourself to thinking within the lines only. Creativity--gone. Invention and improvisation--dead.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah We have GOT to think more creatively and stop turning on eachother if we want forward movement, especially in highly unstable environments like mine where WELL over 50% of teachers used alternative licensure and may or may not hold degrees in the content areas they teach.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah If the convo is about children of color being further marginalized and excluded from "cultural capital" when folks don't insist they read from a (white author dominated) canon I have to return to the (somewhat radical) idea that we teach skills, not specific texts.

@sirovy_allison @ShanaVWhite @ValeriaBrownEdu @donalynbooks @triciaebarvia @newfrontier21 @diversebooks @mrbgilson @pernilleripp @RosaIsiah And again, just so we are clear-- Nobody is saying, "Eliminate ALL classic works from schools." Nobody is saying,"Eliminate ALL classic works from schools." Nobody is saying,"Eliminate ALL classic works from schools." Nobody is saying, "Eliminate ALL classic works from schools."