That’s where my job as an ELA teacher makes sense to me. If I can help one student more clearly share their story, then we’re one step closer to a more connected community.
Kristen Henderson
In our world, a dichotomy is created between the qualitative and the quantitative. You are either a numbers person or a language person, humanities or science—one or the other and you have to make a choice. In the policy push of schools and education to always be data driven, this can make teaching decisions seem skewed toward the numbers people of the world. Percentages of students who passed, national norms, and standard deviations can fill up a lot of teachers’ time. But what do those numbers matter if they are not connected to stories and individual people? Numbers need narratives to create community.
Two years ago, when the middle school equity team was using a tool to determine our population group to focus on for math mentoring this lesson was made apparent to me. We were swamped in numbers and percentages. It was obvious we had work to do, but percentages aren’t personal. From the percentages, we found numbers of individual students. From the numbers, we found names and once we knew names we shared stories. This is when the work becomes personal. Teachers and students both are more invested when stories are shared. Students and teachers are working together to change the narrative and create a more connected community.
A few weeks ago, a former student and cheerleader invited me to be her honored educator at the Top of the Class dinner. While sitting there listening to each valedictorian’s achievements, it was apparent that these students didn’t feel forced into a box to choose one side of their brain. Most students had high achievements in both language and math. Many were part of both Spanish club and German club while also completing calculus in the summer so they could take Calculus BC their senior year. Some were students I had accelerated in ELA in middle school so they were finished with ELA requirements as a junior but still took extra English CCP and AP classes their senior year. All these students have data and numbers to impress, but it’s through knowing and learning one another’s story that they created a community with one another. These students shared their stories of resilience with one another in middle school and learned not only about their strengths but also their struggles. Through this connection they were able to foster an environment that supported their learning and their growth that isn’t possible without sharing stories.
As we are raising children, students, and adults to function in a world that seems dichotomous about all issues, it is important to teach them to find points of connection. Those points of connection are almost always created through a shared story. It’s how we make sense of the mess of the world we live in and in order to fully make sense of those stories we need to be readers, writers, thinkers, and speakers who can clearly communicate. That’s where my job as an ELA teacher makes sense to me. If I can help one student more clearly share their story, then we’re one step closer to a more connected community.
Love and Literacy 