Dr. Chantal Francois and Dr. Jen McLaughlin Cahill, co-authors of Identity-Affirming Literacies in Schools, discuss their time at the school they call Pearl Street Collaborative, a progressive secondary school on Manhattan’s Lower East Side that prioritizes teacher inquiry and collaboration. Schedules include time for teachers to meet frequently with grade and content colleagues. Drawing on the work of Freire and Lilia Bartolomé, Drs. Francois and McLaughlin Cahill used literature to support students’ identities, including by integrating an LGBTQ+ focus into English classes.
Overview
00:00-00:52 Intros
00:52-03:36 Humanizing pedagogy
03:36-04:44 Relationships and humanizing pedagogy
04:44-07:35 Scheduling facilitating creation and maintenance of faculty relationships
07:35-10:04 Collaboration as modeling for students
10:04-10:21 Pearl Street Collaborative
10:21-13:24 Literacy as more than reading
13:24-18:53 Reading and teaching as political
18:53-23:17 Mission statement as a meaningful document
23:17-31:23 Structuring literacy instruction around independent reading and reading whole books
31:23-36:44 LGBTQ+ identify-affirming literacies
36:44-40:34 Impact on students of LGBTQ+ focus
40:34- Outro
References
Transcript
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Soundtrack by Podington Bear