SHU Reads the World

Literary Equity Through Windows & Mirrors By Caitlin Kane What is literary equity? Literary equity is the ability to provide literature that represents different groups of people, experiences and traditions or cultures. A concept that although seems fairly simple and easy to implement in our classrooms, is more complex and more important than it appears.  As teachers, our goal is to create life-long learners that are eager to actively participate in the world around them. Life-long learners are avid readers; from reading the news with a critical lens, to an article related to their profession, or deciding between which hotel reviews claim to have the best vacation experience. Students need to develop a love of language and literature from an early age to encourage positive reading habits, which includes learning how to pick out texts that are engaging.  Let Students Choose! Purves and Beach (1972) found that children preferred to choose books with subject matter that relat...

Stephanie Satonick  "We live in a world where any human with a device can record events and share their story wide and far (Jenkins 2006)." - R ead the world: rethinking literacy for empathy and action in a digital age      Remember when we didn't get our first phones till middle school or high school? Or when we used to get in trouble for looking at our phones underneath our desks as our teacher was trying so hard to keep us awake? Oohh Ohh or remember when we used to have to turn our phones into our teacher to count as attendance in high school because everybody was just CONSTANTLY using them??      Well now that there are countless online platforms and digital resources online and on our phones, let's use them to our advantage! Students already love being on their phones and the use of technology so why not use that to help them learn in school? Giving students an opportunity to use and share their voices will open up new pathways for their learning...

    I remember a time, not so long ago, when I could give a student a high five as they entered my classroom.  A time when the rug was a central area in the room where we would gather for lessons and converse about our learning.  When I could group student's desks together and encourage collaboration amongst peers.  The community of learners buzzing like a hive full of bees.      Now they get a squirt of hand sanitizer as they enter the room.  The rug has been rolled up and stored away and the conversations silenced.   The desks spaced as far apart as possible, because 6 feet apart is not realistic.  Collaboration and partner work is no longer "safe."  Yet, the community still buzzes.      And in between that time, our world as we know it both socially and academically, shut down.  No entering the same room, no rug, little conversations between peers in the early days.  But, the communit...

  Teacher Tok - Tik Tok for Educators: “Have you made it to teacher tok yet?” one of my teacher friends had asked me one day a few months back. “Teacher what?!” I wasn’t sure if I had just heard her wrong or just really was that out of the loop, but I soon came to find myself scrolling right upon the ‘teacher side’ of tik tok not too long after. Whether you’re an active participant or a new comer, one of the latest interactive social media apps, Tik Tok, has grown to grab the attention of the teaching community - it’s educators teaching educators!  Teachers from all over have risen to the platform to spread awareness of a variety of teacher tips and resources. Some accounts post content for the sole sake of providing material or lesson ideas for other teachers, while others cover more personalized behind the scenes sides of the job. This creates not only relatable and accessible content for teachers, but builds support among those outside of the education world as well, bringi...

By Kate Greenberg      The internet brings a wide breadth of content right to our fingertips. It also empowers anyone with access to a social media account to be a content creator. We may feel a push to create content to show off our social lives, accomplishments, and achievements. This push is likely intrinsic; we are creating content because we want to for our own personal satisfaction (Waterford.org). Students may also feel an intrinsic motivation to create content online. Often, however, the motivation to create content for the classroom is extrinsic, based solely on a requirement and a grade (Mulvahill). How do we translate the intrinsic motivation to create content online to students creating content in the literacy classroom? "Inspiring students’ intrinsic motivation to learn is a more effective strategy to get and keep students interested. And it’s more than that. Students actually learn better when motivated this way. They put forth more effort, tackle more chall...

     The time is now to adapt to our   new world.  Our ever-changing post-pandemic world has truly put a spotlight on the importance of providing strong technology resources to our students.  For the first time in a while, our classrooms were forced into fully remote environments seemingly overnight. We had to adapt to new ways of teaching, thinking, and learning to adapt to multiple different learning styles. In actuality, there is almost a surplus of resources available to students & educators alike on the Internet currently. I could write pages on pages highlighting all the different technological resources available to educators. From video based resources to collaborative team resources, the possibilities are truly endless, as the list of what is accessible continues to grow and grow and grow.   As mentioned in the book  Read the World  by Kristin Ziemke and Katie Muhtaris, they highlight the important of being strategic with th...