Christensen, Chapter 1

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, Linda Christensen
Chapter 1: Building Community Out of Chaos

This will be my fourth time reading the Christensen text. I get something new out of it every time. As I'm reading it again, I can still remember the first time, repeating to myself, "oh wow oh wow oh wow." I was completely transformed by the experience. In fact, this single text has had as much influence on my dissertation project as any ten other texts combined. Like Christensen, I believe in encouraging students to become activists.

I love that in this first chapter, Christensen emphasizes the aspects of teaching that are so often neglected in classrooms, but in the end can make all the difference: creating communities, building empathy, sharing life stories. If a student is going to succeed in a classroom, then she is going to have to feel comfortable in that classroom. Too often our classrooms are exclusionary and tend to replicate the societal hierarchies students experience outside of the school. No wonder some students question the value of a school system that ignores and punishes them, but rarely gets to know them as individuals.

Of course this chapter goes beyond community building. Christensen's classrooms are academic, first and foremost. She has some great methods for getting reluctant readers reading and reluctant writers writing. I am a big fan of the read around method she employs. I also love the poems she has students write. We'll be writing both the "Praise" poem and the "Where I'm From" poem in our class. These two poems allow students to find sources of pride and personal history. Equally important - sharing these poems shows students that they have more in common than they think.