Felt disappointed in the recent NCTE conference. I've been disappointed in this conference for a while. I went to some good sessions, but no matter which session, I wished they would push further. A session on critical literacy in early childhood, for example, ended up talking about fairness. While fairness is a starting point for working young children, it doesn't go far enough and it underestimates young children's critical literacy abilities. Vivian Vasquez's work has shown us this for years.
That was another disappointing piece - I heard things we've been talking about for years. We all know that meaningful, authentic literacy practices should be taught in schools and that when we do teach this way, children and youth thrive. How long will we just talk about the way things should be instead to taking action to make it so?
Lastly, I was really disappointed in sessions that presented work by youth where the presenters were amazed at how smart youth can be. Really?! Are we still amazed at this point? Or is it amazement at the fact that urban youth are creative producers of literacy. We've known for a long time that when youth are given authentic spaces to be who they are, who they are is smart, articulate, future building literacy users. Amazement doesn't seem appropriate.
Hopefully, LRA will be better next week.
That was another disappointing piece - I heard things we've been talking about for years. We all know that meaningful, authentic literacy practices should be taught in schools and that when we do teach this way, children and youth thrive. How long will we just talk about the way things should be instead to taking action to make it so?
Lastly, I was really disappointed in sessions that presented work by youth where the presenters were amazed at how smart youth can be. Really?! Are we still amazed at this point? Or is it amazement at the fact that urban youth are creative producers of literacy. We've known for a long time that when youth are given authentic spaces to be who they are, who they are is smart, articulate, future building literacy users. Amazement doesn't seem appropriate.
Hopefully, LRA will be better next week.
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