Abstract
Engaging today's students in writing often requires more than formulas and prompts; it requires the use of culturally sustaining genres and modalities that speak to students' lived experiences and what they know best. This paper chronicles an urban teacher's attempt to create and use a writing prompt and a genre that would speak to and engage students who had previously experienced discouragement surrounding their academic writing. More specifically, we examine how the teacher used family trees, student-led interviews with family members, and family artifacts to engage his students in telling their own stories and, subsequently, how changes in this teacher's views of effective writing brought with it enhanced teacher-student relationships.
Recommended Citation
White, John Wesley and Sumner, Cynthia Lynn
(2021)
"Writing to Transgress: Autobiographies and Family Trees as Multimodal and Culturally Sustaining Writing Pedagogy,"
Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education: Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/vol10/iss1/7
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Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Nonfiction Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons, Secondary Education Commons