Writing Reimagined responds to an urgent need to challenge prevailing norms that offer limited perspectives on what it means to write and teach writing. By providing a broad understanding of writing and foregrounding issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and intersectionality, this book empowers educators to make meaningful shifts in their instructional approaches that disrupt oppressive systems of power and elevate the voices of young writers.
Written for pre-service teachers, classroom educators, and teacher educators, the book provides a powerful synthesis of critical pedagogy and a framework for bridging critical theories and classroom practice in elementary classrooms. The book presents the central tenets of critical humanizing pedagogy and illuminates approaches to writing instruction that include:
- Creating a collaborative classroom community that honors and values students' multiple identities, grammars, and languages, ensuring this is reflected in their selection of books, curriculum materials, and teaching practices.
- Supporting students to compose texts in a wide range of forms for a wide range of social purposes, including those not typically privileged in schools.
- Positioning students as competent researchers and writers with the agency to investigate their queries and passions and negotiate writing projects and assessments.
- Providing various technologies and digital tools to enable students to compose in multiple modalities and share beyond classroom walls.
- Guiding students to cultivate critical consciousness and establish classroom communities where brave and rich conversations occur, and equity, anti-racism, and inclusion are centered.
Through the contributions of multiple equity-centered writing scholars and educators, readers are introduced to a series of essential critical concepts, including identity, community, pop culture, play, resistance, multilingualism, multimodality, and trauma. Each chapter contains powerful examples designed to inspire and equip educators to bring critical humanizing pedagogies to life in their own classrooms. Ultimately, the book empowers teachers to create learning communities where young writers act with agency to compose for justice and joy.
