Snippets from NCTE2016: Lessons from Authors

One of the most amazing things about an NCTE conference is the contact one has with authors.  This conference provided the opportunity to learn from some masters of Young Adult Literature and non-fiction.  Ta-Nehisi Coates stated in his interview, “I was most effective in school when I could connect it to something real.”  Several of the YA authors taught the importance of making learning real through their writing methods and the issues they addressed in fiction.  In “Equity and Social Justice: Using Informational Texts and Literature in Urban and Rural Classrooms to Help Young Readers Become Informed Advocates and Global Citizens”, Scholastic authors Deborah Hopkinson and Deborah Wiles with Professor Brian Williams at Georgia State University had us consider issues of social justice as we learned to “evaluate, process and communicate information”.  These presenters considered the danger of a single story.  Professor Williams used the story of Rosa Parks asking, “Do we know the story?”  As we pieced together the Parks story from multiple perspectives: Park’s, the bus drivers, situations in the community, and associations Parks had, we learned what we choose to leave out impacts the story.  If we leave out that Parks made an active decision not to get up out of resistance and her work with the NCAP, we don’t think of the civil rights movement of being strategic.  The idea that this was a strategic act, empowers students. 

How can this idea can be used in an AP classroom?  Students need to know the value of multiple perspectives when writing synthesis essays and considering evidence to use for argumentation.  Assign student research on different issues or occurrences with a perspective in mind.  Each student can present their story from the assigned perspective, then students can synthesize evidence from multiple perspectives for a combined story.  Students can consider how the perspective impacts the story.  If several different topics are shared in class, students have evidence to mine in the argument essay. This will hone evaluation and analysis of evidence and provide students with the understanding of how multiple perspectives interact—a valuable skill for a synthesis essay.

Deborah Wiles writes documentary novels and her current series is focused on the 1960’s (Countdown and Revolution).  While the novels are middle school level, her research process and synthesis of ideas provides valuable insights for high school students. She intertwines her story with opinionated biographies, music playlists, artifacts from the time period such as letters, newspaper clippings, etc.  using Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/debbiewiles/) to organize her research.  As Wiles states, “Everything is a Remix.”  This remix idea is a great way to teach students to synthesize information.  Her novel, Countdown deals with propaganda—an excellent way to delve into the fake news vs. real news issue we have today. 

How can this idea be used in an AP classroom?  Have students question what is happening in their world.  Next, have them consider what else is going on in the world at that time.  How do the stories intersect?  Have students research multiple genres and organize their research on Pinterest.  Next, they are ready to synthesize the argument about the “story” they selected.  

Deborah Hopkinson writes perspectives on history for upper Elementary and Middle School students. Again, her methods can inform our students.  She tackles issues such as public health activism through The Great Trouble as she considers cholera.  She allows history to inform the reader through critical consciousness.

How can this be used in the AP classroom?  One of the things I notice the most when scoring the Argument question at the reading is history miscues made by students.  Hopkinson and the other presenters argue for students to be academically competent, culturally competent and have critical consciousness. Assigning students key historical issues to research from multiple perspectives and sharing them with the class, will provide a bank of historical evidence for argument questions.  After students have assembled the bank, students can practice using this information in argument prompts.

For more information about the NCTE Annual Conference, visit this link.