Teacher Inquiry Teaching Writing

Teach What You Love—Chapter 5 from When Challenge Brings Change: How Teacher Breakthroughs Transform the Classroom

Summary:

 In 2023, the National Writing Project copublished When Challenge Brings Change: How Teacher Breakthroughs Transform the Classroom. In this collection of compelling narratives, high-school and college teachers show us how they have taken on issues such as faculty and student relationships; struggles over personal identity in the classroom; the joys and complexities of working with emergent bilinguals, developing writers, and first-year college students; and the forever question of how to engage students.

“My breakthrough revealed to me how centering joy is an asset-based approach to classroom instruction, a way to celebrate and amplify the linguistic, navigational, familial, and aspirational wealth that students from historically marginalized groups possess. When I sustain a focus on centering joy, I am also implementing a trauma-informed approach to instructional design, allowing laughter and natural curiosity to heal the wounds of traditional academia’s overly assimilative process, a process that favors objectivity and competition, a process that cultivates fear.”

Also Recommended

See all
Content type
Everyday Advocacy Playbook
Teachers often feel their expertise is ignored in discussions about education policy and curriculum. Everyday Advocacy is an approach that empowers teachers to take small, day-to-day actions to influence the public narrative around schools and teaching. This Playbook provides guidance and examples to help teachers get started with this type of advocacy as part of their regular teaching work.
Read more
Content type
The Write Time with Author Rob Cameron and Educator Max Limric
By National Writing Project
This episode features Rob Cameron, a teacher, linguist, and writer who organizes the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers and founded the Constellations Mentorship program for the Octavia Project. Rob is interviewed by Max Limric, a pre-service elementary teacher who became interested in the power of children's and young adult literature, having grown up with speculative stories like Harry Potter and The NeverEnding Story.
Read more
Content type
The Write Time with Author Ellen Oh and Educator Melissa Thom
By National Writing Project
Ellen Oh is an award-winning author of numerous middle grade and young adult books including The Spirit Hunters series and Prophecy trilogy, and is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books. Melissa Thom is a teacher librarian at Bristow Middle School in Connecticut with 22 years of educational experience and former president of the Connecticut Association of School Librarians.
Read more