Literacy As a Springboard for Student Empowerment

            In this article in Language Arts, Chris Hass (James Madison University) says that as a second- and third-grade teacher, he used to ask his students, What is reading? At first they said reading was figuring out unfamiliar words and learning new vocabulary, but as he continued to ask the question, their responses evolved: 

• Reading is imagining you’re the character in a book. 
• It’s trying to figure out what might happen next. 
• It’s forgetting what’s going on around you because you’re so into the story. 

“The power of returning to this question over time,” says Hass, “was that it scaffolded my students to continue thinking more deeply about their practice as well as their relationship to reading.” 

            Then he began asking a follow-up question: Why is it important that we’re growing as readers, writers, and speakers? At first, students’ responses were pedestrian: to get ready for fourth grade, do well on “those tests,” go to a good college and get a well-paying job. 

            But one day a quiet student raised her hand and suggested, “So we’ll be able to stand up for ourselves.” This comment got the class thinking about literacy at a different level. Students recalled reading Malala Yousafzai’s story, doing a project on saving sea animals, lobbying a state legislator, and writing letters to a city council member. 

            “Once they had the eyes to see how literacy and democratic practices go hand in hand,” said Hass, “they could not help but continue to share more expansive visions of literacy…” – talking out disagreements, reading a news article about unfair dress codes, exploring reports of problems around the world. Hass built on this pivotal discussion for the remainder of the school year, continuing to see literacy as a tool for students standing up for themselves and others. There were three main vehicles for the theme: 

• Keeping classroom journals – As part of morning meetings, students added to journals (made of stapled sheets of art paper) that explored a wide range of questions: Why do worms crawl on the driveway when it rains? Why do things look darker when they’re wet? Why do people want to ban books at school? Why aren’t there any female presidents? Why is there racism? “The discussions that grew from these questions,” says Hass, “created a culture of inquiry in the classroom – one that positioned each of us to think more critically about the workings of the world around us.”
• Inquiring about activism – Hass purchased a set of books with stories about different types of community advocacy – the 1909 Shirtwaist Factory strike, protecting Egypt’s treasured books, African-American freedom fighters, how Selma’s teachers changed history – and led discussions about the problems confronted in each story. Students took the books home and reported back on insights from discussions with family members. Realizing that they all had the power to create change, students generated a list of what taking action looks like in practice. 
• Acting on their convictions – Hass asked each student to choose one issue from the list that was especially important to them. Kids read a variety of texts on their chosen issue, conducted surveys and interviews, and created a culminating project. There were petitions, schoolwide signature drives, and letters sent to city officials and state legislators, school board members, food service providers, and the school’s principal. 

            “By the end of the school year,” Hass says, “my students learned there is much more to reading than simply decoding words or gaining skills to do well on a test.” Students were informed about issues in their communities and around the world, built understanding and empathy for others, became more-critical consumers of information, and took action on issues that were important to them. 

“Learning to Stand Up for Themselves: Using Literacy As a Vehicle for Change” by Chris Hass in Language Arts, September 2023 (Vol. 101, #1, pp. 65-68); Hass can be reached at hasscl@jmu.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #1009 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.