Rationale:

While working on my hot topic presentation, I began to more deeply understand

the power and impact that literature has on students. When students feel that their stories
are not being told in the books they read in school, then school becomes less welcoming
and encouraging. Students whose stories arent told start to think that they arent as
important, which can affect their academic performance. When children internalize the
fiction that their stories are not worthy of being told, this creates insecurities and even
self-hate. LGBT children and any other marginalized students are not only fighting
against themselves, wanting to fit in, but also wanting to remain true to who they are.
When students come to school they shouldnt feel like they have to choose between a
home persona and a school persona to do well. Students need to know that they can be
themselves, that they are valued, and that their stories belong in school.
One of the most important lessons I learned from my research was when school
environments allow LGBT children and families to go unacknowledged or be harassed,
they validate school cultures that teach that some people are worth less and are acceptable
targets for discrimination, harassment, and violence (Jennings & Sherwin, 2008, p. 262).
Before students can focus on learning, they must feel safe and welcome. It is our
responsibility as teachers to combat a heterosexist, racist, and/or sexist school
environment if we want all of our students to have an opportunity to experience success
in school.
In addition to including a diverse set of texts in classroom libraries, teachers
should also not be afraid to have difficult conversations with students about more
controversial topics. Both reading and discussing diverse literature with students will
assist students in finding compassion for tragedies and life experiences that the majority
of the class will be unfamiliar with. Students must be able to think about these texts
critically and try to relate them to their own life experiences. When students are asked to
see things from someone elses perspective, they have to respond to something they have
never experienced. Giving students exposure to books with diverse characters and
experiences will act as the window students need to see from these new perspectives. We
can also do this by making the impersonal personal by finding connections between the
unknown and events from our students' lives. Students have to relate or connect to begin
to understand and empathize with someone elses suffering and life experiences.
Connection to Personal Philosophy
When students see that I care about them and their learning, they will be more
likely to also care about their learning and be motivated to put effort into the work we do
together. Once I have built relationships with my students and they are engaged in
instruction, we can start focusing on critical literacy through text analysis. Students need
to be self-aware of the perspectives they bring to a text or topic because their
backgrounds will determine how they interpret a text, participate in discussion, and
approach a writing task (Dyson, 2002). Each student brings his or her personal schema to
a reading and writing task, and as teachers, we should encourage the use of this prior
knowledge rather than ignoring it. These interpretations and approaches need to be
validated in the classroom so that students use them to enhance their own learning.
Students also need to consider the authors position so they can see that no text is neutral.
I strongly believe that students are more engaged in learning when they get to read and

talk about things that are personally relevant and that they care about. I want to wake
them up and show them that their voices do matter, they do have something to say, and
they should be able to talk about their lives and be heard.
Implications for Future Practice:
Teachers will have students from a variety of backgrounds in their classrooms and
it is essential to their teaching that they can differentiate their instruction in order to
support the different needs of the students. I not only want to support these students, but I
also want to build on the strengths and resources they already possess that they can
contribute to the classroom learning environment. I will need to practice culturally
relevant teaching in order to reach all of my students and provide each student with
opportunities to be successful in my classroom.
According to Ladson-Billings (1992), the most important aspect of culturally
responsive teaching is for teachers to recognize culture as a strength and use student
culture as the basis for helping students understand themselves and others, structure
social interactions, and conceptualize knowledge (p. 314). Rather than asking students to
learn the school culture and change themselves in order to belong, the school needs to
recognize the cultures of its students and consider their backgrounds when establishing
school procedures, curriculum, and discourse. Specifically in the classroom, teachers
should incorporate critical literacy, culturally appropriate texts, the funds of knowledge
that second language learners bring into the classroom, and parent involvement. We need
to learn from parents and from students about their home cultures to better use their funds
of knowledge to enhance learning in the classroom (Kenner & Gregory, 2010).