OPINION: Correcting the Literacy Canon in Urban Education
By Matthew Romano
The following piece appeared in the September 2019 edition of The Campus.
“She eats the candy, and its sweetness is good. To eat the candy is somehow to eat the eyes, eat Mary Jane. Love Mary Jane. Be Mary Jane” (Morrison 50)
In the wake of iconic African Americannovelist Toni Morrison’s death on August 5, 2019, we face the sobering realitythat the youth of the current generation is growing up with no knowledge of whoToni Morrison was. However, this is not to say that young people of color don’tgrow up facing the same or similar societal tribulations as a Pecola Breedlove,namely the self-loathing alluded to in the above quote. Of course, ToniMorrison’s fading memory is not simply a result of time’s passing but is alsodue in large part to the banning of her novels in many middle and high schoolclassrooms across the country, a hesitance by some teachers to enter intoconversations about issues wherein Morrison’s words could be invoked, and thefailure of our schools’ libraries to reflect the diversity of its’ students.The following Do’s and Don’ts will outline why I think this uprooting andupdating of the current canon of high school literary texts is especiallyimportant in urban settings as well as suggest some other steps that I andothers see as necessary in urban literacy education.
DO modernize and diversify your classroom library and literacy curriculum
It was early one Saturday morningbefore I would start teaching proportions to my 6th-grade class at BaychesterMiddle School when I noticed the English teacher, Ms. Pagan, brimming withexcitement over books she had ordered. Upon my asking about the books, she saidwith passion and vigor that the books she ordered were for her students and allwere written by and featured people of color, not one of them having a whitemain character.
Chances are that if you areteaching in an urban setting, many of your students are minorities, speakingmultiple languages and coming from cultures both diverse and complex. Some maynot even understand their culture as they haven’t yet had the opportunity toexplore it either through discussion, research, or travel. By ordering novelsand other genres of texts that are written for your students or with studentslike the ones in your classroom in mind, you are giving them an opportunity tolearn about themselves as they will be seeing themselves reflected in thestories of the people they read about for what may very well be the first time.This will promote the overall growth of the whole child while also giving theman entryway into engaging with and becoming passionate about what they arelearning.
One hurdle when rethinking thecanon of literary texts is that while it may seem obvious to use culturallyrelevant texts, it can be hard to gauge what exactly is culturally relevantwhile still being school and age-appropriate and something your kiddos willengage in, not to mention what activities, lessons, etc. to employ whenteaching these texts. On this note, Julia D’Ambrosio, a Caucasian student whotaught English this summer at P.S. 103 where she was the only white personamong all the students, teachers, and faculty, shares “I think the biggestfrustration for me is that I’ve read so many articles on representing differentcultures in the classroom and stuff and how important that is, but very fewarticles I’ve read actually have suggestions, like what to do after you readthe articles”
DO encourage creativity,self-expression, and meaningful connections to diverse texts
Filler work, busy work, frickin’packets – many teachers partake in these approaches but few students enjoythem. Examples include word searches, low-level recall questions, andpurposeless coloring activities, all of which have been proven to be non-educationalexamples of passive learning that asks for students to disengage from thematerial and disconnect from whatever text they are reading.
Instead, young students of color,in particular, flourish most when given opportunities to draw connections betweenthemselves, their lives, and the lives of other people like them that they readabout. These sorts of connections allow students to make meaning and see theimportance in what they are learning, retain more, and in turn, become moreculturally competent. Creative writing, student-led discussions, andmulti-media projects are some engaging activities in an English classroom thatcan help students to draw these connections. They also help to build a strongerclassroom community, reach a larger audience of students, and grants agency tostudents not only in the classroom but outside of the classroom as members of alarger community, change-makers in society, and future leaders.
DON’T rely on the‘classics’
First, allow me to explain what I mean by ‘classics’. I useclassics here in reference to books, some mentioned above, commonly canonizedas the ‘classics’ as well as the ‘classical’ routines of teaching English thatseem to be commonplace in many classrooms despite some of them being outdatedand out of tune with what we now know about teaching students who have multipleintelligences, learning styles, learning needs, etc. Some of these classicalroutines are the infamous ‘book reports, independent reading logs, popcornreading, whole-class lecturing, etc.
Surely, if you’ve ever been in an English classroom, you’ve seensome of these practices in use and likely have some strong feelings about them.I can still remember the countless SparkNotes searches for summaries thatbecame the basis of my book reports because if I churned out Xamount of them by the end of the year I could get a reward and forging myparents' initials for independent reading logs on those nights that I justrefused to read. As for popcorn readings, some of us loved it because it was likea free period with how little brain activity was required, some hated itbecause it was excruciating having to hear others’ read, while others triedtheir best to wrestle out of it because reading in front of everyone was anightmare.
The same is true for classrooms now, especially in urbansettings with considerable populations of ELL’s, students with disabilities orreading impediments, or visual, social, or kinesthetic learners, all of whomfind these types of practices rather inaccessible. Some alternative pedagogicalapproaches include: literature circles (which group students together ascritical readers, writers, and discussers); PBL’s (Project Based Learningexperiences which engage different learning styles and allow students toconstruct their own learning experiences); and in class discussions (sensitiveyet honest group discussions targeting the social issues present in culturallyrelevant texts). These strategies givestudents an outlet where they can discover and express themselves while learningabout issues common in urban areas in a structured and safe environment.
DON’T mistake Literacy asbeing specific to English
The percentage of students who areEnglish Language Learners in public schools across the United States is quicklyincreasing. All this is to say that there is no guarantee, especially forEnglish teachers of younger grades where ELL’s have a stronger presence, thatall of your students will speak perfect English (In fact, some may not speakmuch English at all). If you are a literacy teacher in one of these settings itis vital to remember that literacy is defined as “the quality or state of beingliterate, especially the ability to read and write”. Notice that nowhere inthat definition is the English language specifically stated – literacy does notnecessitate the ability to read and write in English.
Of course, with English being the one national language that isn’t anational language, your school will likely force-feed English and by all means,you should promote the learning of English by ELL’s in your classes. However,this should not require that they lose their L1 in your class; rather, thebest-case scenario is a move towards bi- or multilingualism with your ELL’sgaining confidence in English and comfort in using their L1. Some of thestrategies teachers can use to allow for this negotiation of languages in theclassroom include real conversations about language rights, accepting drafts ofstudent work that are written in a students’ home language, providing cognatesin students’ native languages, and creative projects allowing students toexplore code-switching between languages, among others.
It is important to note that the Do’s and Don’ts above, although all based on research or experiences in teaching in urban settings are simply suggestions, not prescription. Central to culturally relevant teaching is realizing that no child is the same, learns the same, or lives the same, and so it stands that while these strategies could work in one classroom with one group of students, they may not work, or at least not in the same way, in another. These suggestions simply provide support for literacy education being reassessed in urban and modern contexts so that our students feel empowered to enter the real world, be themselves, and create their narrative rather than conforming to one already made for them.
