On March 11 and April 15, executive director of Rethinking Schools, Cierra Kaler-Jones, facilitated a two-part writing-for-publication workshop series for Teaching for Black Lives study groups and other social justice educators. This workshop was offered as part of our Teaching for Black Lives campaign.
In the first session, participants were introduced to tips and tricks for writing for publication. Kaler-Jones read aloud Barbara Ransby’s “Letter from the Year 2071” and prompted educators to write:
What is a “glimpse of impossible possibility” in your teaching/organizing/study group work?
Workshop Recording
Recording of the full session, except for the breakout rooms.
Participants said:
I am thinking about the structure of the piece that I am hoping to workshop next session, but I haven’t really written anything like this before so the guidance was really helpful.
I felt like I was in a conversation about writing, not a class. The breakout session and time to write was a nice surprise.
I learned there are many different approaches to writing for Rethinking Schools. I appreciate that the session hinted that learned experience is important to share.
For the second writing workshop, Kaler-Jones started the session by playing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” She said,
Art and music tell a story. When I play that song, I think about my students. I come to education work by way of being a dance teacher and this is my go-to song to practice turns. There was one time where I tried to do a different song to practice the turns and my students looked at me and said, “Miss Cierra, this is not the turn song.” So every time I hear this song, I have to share that story and start with the joy and the love of young people.
Participants were encouraged to bring a piece of writing they’d like to share but in case they didn’t, Kaler-Jones started the session with a writing warm-up:
What teaching story would you put into our quilt of activism, community, and joy?
Kaler-Jones said, “I would add the story where my student told me, ‘this is not the turn song,’ because it is a moment of community. We have created something that we go back to, a routine or a ritual every class, and also a sense of joy.”
After 10 minutes of writing, participants reflected on their writing process, expressed challenges, offered advice, and listened to a few examples participants read.
One educator wrote about the student impact of learning about Ruby Bridges. She shared a little bit of her story:
Our students’ young activism was ignited. They came after school to help brainstorm ideas on how to lead the school in a walk around campus in honor of Ruby Bridges’ legacy. “Will we shout out as we march?” they asked each other. “It has to go along with the theme of ending bullying and racism,” another student pointed out. They laughed, joked, and chatted among themselves as they filled swag backs just a week before the event.
Kaler-Jones offered an additional prompt for educators to use if they feel stuck in their writing:
Write as if you are an important artifact. For example, people have written about being a clock that is passed down through generations and they write from the perspective of that clock and all of the things that they’ve seen, heard, and felt.
In small groups, participants shared their writing and received feedback. Kaler-Jones instructed the listeners to start with affirmations, then offerings and wonderings. She said, “I like to try to phrase feedback as questions to create openness and spaciousness for conversation rather than giving directives.”
For the remainder of the session, participants discussed their experience sharing their stories and being listened to, then Kaler-Jones gave everyone time to review their writing and make edits with the following questions:
- What do you love about your piece?
- If you were to describe what your story is about in one word or one sentence, what would it be? (clarity)
- Who is the audience for your piece?
- What is the call-to-action?
- Is there a scene where you can go deeper? Where can your audience envision being in that moment with you? Where can you engage the senses?
Participants said:
Wow, thank you for this enlightening workshop!! I am full.
I am reaffirmed with how important writing is, how important it is to share my stories/experiences, and continue to encourage the next generation to share their stories and experiences, too!
I think that everything worked — the main session work, tips, advice, silent reflection and writing time, the breakout rooms and the feedback provided there, the writing prompts Cierra shared, the community sharing and writing, etc. Thank you for planning such supportive, uplifting writing sessions.
Resources
Below are the resources participants engaged with during the sessions:
What’s in the Water? Teaching about Environmental Racism by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
Teaching Debt Pollution in Schools by Freda Anderson
Writing for Justice: Using Stories to Teach Solidarity by Linda Christensen
Letter from the Year 2071 by Barbara Ransby
Scene vs Summary slides and essays, including Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”
Rethinking Schools submission guidelines
Presenter
Cierra Kaler-Jones serves as the first executive director of Rethinking Schools. Cierra is also on the leadership team of the Zinn Education Project, which Rethinking Schools coordinates with Teaching for Change, and has hosted many Teach the Black Freedom Struggle classes. Cierra is a teacher, a dancer, a writer, and a researcher. She previously served as director of storytelling at the Communities for Just Schools Fund.