Saturday mornings routinely begin with an epsom salts and essential oils bath while listening to an audiobook or podcast. Today’s soaking time took me to the Unladylike podcast recommended by my friend and colleague, Sabrina Kayed. I listened to Episode #153 – “How to Be Well-Read” with Glory Edim of wellreadblackgirl on Instagram and felt a kind of reassurance in my current pedagogical beliefs despite being a small irritant in a large old school of comfort.
Yesterday, I showed them the spoken word videos Unforgettable and Accents to a grade 10 English class (not my students, but that’s a longer story) as I tried to show them how persuasion takes many forms beyond the traditional article or opinion essay. Some paid attention and some did not. Maybe I was asking too much of them — disrupting not only the comfort of a predictable form, but also content.
I pressed on anyway, even with the chatter of boys on phones, backs turned away intentionally dismissing anything that I offered. I decided to leave space for them to find my invitation, felt this was not really about me, but about what I represent in their educational sphere. They are racialized, and my visible, professional identity could signify oppression in their education. I pressed on anyway sharing the ways merging of languages and expression can create beauty which is not grammatically correct, but which is deeply understood. I talked about translanguaging and the tyranny of prescriptive grammar. Edim asks the question, “Who gets to say what’s right grammatically or stylistically?”
In this episode, she shares her views about reading as a way to learn about one another and not just for entertainment. Her definition of being “well-read” is one who is curious and looks at words as books as a method of investigation, one who reads for more than knowledge of content looking for moments of pause and reflection. She encourages readers to have conversations, to build connections in a reading community and challenges the “cannon” asking “what is the cannon?”
I’d challenged these grade same 10s to form an argument for and against the teaching of Shakespeare just last week, and I was astounded at the number of students who believed that Shakespeare SHOULD be required reading.
Maybe I was asking too much because they would have to find their own reading life when they had been told what it is to be well-read. And, maybe, they don’t know where or how to find it.
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This is fascinating. I must check out this podcast. I heard Azar Nafisi on NPR this morning taking about her new book Reading Dangerously. She was speaking to the need to read others stories. Perhaps that could fit into this idea of being well read.
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Ouuu, thank you! I’ll check out that podcast for sure! 🙏
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As an older white woman perhaps I am in a conflicted boat of well read. I have read most of the classics as a student or as a curious reader. I have also read more recent fiction, historical fiction, and a wide range of genre including wide reading in nonfiction. While I don’t love Shakespeare, I see how it informs. Perhaps your study’s do as well.
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I’ve fairly recently started to enjoy autobiographies, but I only want them listen to them as audiobooks read by the author. I am currently listening to “Will” by Will Smith. I am learning so much! I am entertained. New books are so important. At the same time I am reading “Sarah, Plain and Tall” to my class. It is clearly a classic and I can’t imagine not sharing it with them!
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It reminds me that we need 1 foot firmly in place and another reaching back to know where we’ve been.🥰
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Thanks for taking us into your classroom. I love the deep thinking that is going on with you and how you are working to prompt thoughtfulness and discussion with your students. In my opinion, well-read is widely read. I believe the more students ( and adults) are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone, the deeper the reading and learning. I will check out that podcast.
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You really grab a lot of the same feelings I am having as an educator right now — noticing my identities and where I am coming from, attempting to keep learning and the space open to invitation, understanding students are sentient beings and will come to learning when they are ready; but when you put yourself out there in what you love, it can be taken personally (at least I can take it personally). Thank you.
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That is soooo true, Heidi! And I think you chose the right word – “love”
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Mmm… so many thoughts about this. Mostly, “yes”. I nodded my head as I read. I love this line, “a small irritant in a large old school of comfort” and I know what you mean. Sounds like I have another podcast to listen to…
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This links back beautifully to your post about conforming. They are so lucky to have you pushing/encouraging them to see other options.
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So often “well-read” becomes a reductive mindset. I’m not sure it’s even possible to be “well read enough.” Maureen listed several Russian authors in her post today, which made me think about how little I know about Russian literature. I’ve little knowledge of Ukrainian lit, yet at this moment in time, I can’t help but think we’d all be better off had we read more of this texts that a few years ago I heard lots of folks vilifying. Conversely, someone who only reads the cannon isn’t well-read, except, perhaps in the canon. There’s a whole other world of YA, KidLit, contemporary adult lit to add to the “well read” menus. I don’t think I like the definition from the podcast. I do read to acquire information, and that’s an important reason to read. It’s born out of curiosity, too. Anyway, lots to think about. Definitely exploring these ideas more.
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Maybe I didn’t do the definition justice since what you’ve suggested about curiosity and I agree! I’m so curious about Ukrainian culture and have been since one of my students last semester wrote a remarkable personal memoir about “home” in Ukraine.
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For me, it has been so important to intentionally shift my spheres in all aspects of life – music, TV, media, texts, professional development, friends, colleagues — all of it. Disrupting the canon had to start with me. Once I started it was easier to talk with others about my journey and why I believe it is the work we all need to do. Sounds like you need to disrupt what it means to be well read. Lots to think about – thank you
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I just followed wellreadblackgirl on IG thanks to you. I’m looking forward to exploring what she has to offer online.
I think that questions of who is well-read and what does it mean to be well-read are important. I’m going to be thinking about this a lot today.
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