Full Description
What is trauma and what does it mean for the literacy curriculum? In this book, elementary teachers will learn how to approach difficult experiences through the everyday instruction and interactions in their classrooms. Readers will look inside classrooms and literacies across genres to see what can unfold when teachers are committed to compassionate, critical, and relational practice. Weaving her own challenging experiences into chapters brimming with children's writing and voices, Dutro emphasizes that issues of power and privilege matter centrally to how attention to trauma positions children. The book includes questions and prompts for discussion, reflection, and practice and describes pedagogies and strategies designed to provide opportunities for children to bring the varied experiences of life, including trauma, to their school literacies in positive, meaningful, and supported ways.Book Features:
Offers a reconceptualization of trauma as a source of connection, reciprocity, knowledge, and literacy engagement.
Identifies three key tenets that teachers can follow to ensure that children's experiences and perspectives are honored.
Shares classroom stories and literacy lessons, including many examples of children's writing.
Includes sum-up reflections and discussion prompts.
Provides up-to-date lists of resources.
Contents
Contents
Foreword Gerald Campano vii
Acknowledgments ix
1. What Does Trauma Mean for Literacy Classrooms? 1
What Is Trauma? 4
Classrooms as Sites of Testimony and Witness to Trauma 6
Contexts and Ideas We'll Explore 11
2. Pedagogies of Testimony and Critical Witness in the Literacy Classroom 15
Navigating Approaches to Trauma in Education 17
Tenets of Pedagogies of Testimony and Critical Witness 22
Enacting Testimony and Critical Witness 37
Finding Your Pedagogical Metaphor 40
3. Pedagogies of Testimony and Critical Witness in Practice 43
Integrating Testimony and Witness into Literacy Instruction 47
The Lemonade Club Unit 50
Children's Stories 52
Reflections on the Lemonade Club Unit 55
4. Testimony and Critical Witness to Trauma Across Genres 57
Genre Study and Testimony to Trauma 59
Poetry 60
Letters 67
Informational Genres 71
Narrative Genres 78
Reflections on Genre and Children's Traumas 84
5. Tracing Children's Testimonies to Trauma Across the School Year 87
Children Weaving Testimony into Literacies Over Time 89
Classrooms as Sites of Swirled Stories 95
Reflections on Tracing Testimony and Witness Across Time 99
6. Conclusion 103/li>
Living the Tenets of Testimony and Critical Witness 105
Teachers' Well-Being in the Midst of Commitment 109
Seeking Connection and Collaboration 110
Embracing Process in Centering Trauma as Powerful Pedagogy 111
A Coda—and Final Suggestion for Reflection, Discussion, and Practice 113
Afterword Megan Ollett 115
References 117
Index 123
About the Author 131
