Literacy Workshop: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word

On April 2-3 OCTE co-sponsored a Literacy workshop with Linda Christensen on Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word.

A twenty-year veteran Language Arts teacher from Portland, Oregon, and currently the Language Arts coordinator for Portland Public Schools, Linda Christensen writes, ”My students walk out the school door into a social emergency. They are in the center of it. I believe that writing is a basic skill that will help them both understand that emergency and work to change it.” How we embrace and respond to our students’ voices in their written work can either silence them or empower them; Linda’s work sheds light on the miracle of helping our students discover that language gives them the power to have a voice in the world.

In her fall 2003 article in Rethinking Schools, “The Politics of Correction," Linda poses the question that is at the heart of her curriculum work, “Will we use our power to help students understand that Standard English is one dialect of many, or will we use it to whittle away students’ voice and home language one error at a time?” This exciting workshop promises to encourage interactive teaching that embraces connecting our students to the world of language, literature, and society.

Resources

• To see some images from Saturday's session, click here.
• For more info about Linda Christensen’s publications, go to RethinkingSchools.org.
• Flyers for this workshop are available for downloading here. (requires Acrobat)