Making the connection here first...

Textual, tech-ual and textured lineages - the importance of supporting the literacies of all youth.

It's fall. I know this because the leaves are falling and everything is wet. The dampness is everywhere and my mind craves the hibernation that comes with winter (that is, more space to actually think because I'm not as physically active).

Yesterday at the Connecticut Reading Association Conference in Cromwell, Connecticut, I walked through my recent thinking about community, communication, commitment, commingling, and competence - five Olympic rings to support a strong environment for writers. After, I attended the presentation of Shaun Mitchell of Central High School and his work with digital literacies, however, I thought  about this summer's writing institute and how teachers were influenced by Alfred Tatum's discussion of textual lineages - tracing the reading, writing, and thinking experiences that make one the individual they are. We should be infuriated that the texts we teach in school fail to support the heterogeneous youth we teach. Infuriated and Ashamed.

During Mitchell's presentation, I realized there was a connection to Tatum's conversation. The digital divide is tremendous and access to cyber tools to support literacy of all youth are severely lacking in schools that need them most.  I realized that it is not only important to trace one's history of books...it is important to trace one's access (and uses) of technological tools to communicate in the 21st century (especially how young people are positioned in a larger, more global world than school). Each individual has a lineage of the mind that is MUCH more textured than schools advocate.

I am hoping a few teachers and I can create a demonstration to present this thinking at the National Writing Project's Urban Sites Network conference in Alabama this spring. The theme is: Writers of Social Justice: How One Pen Can Change the World (April 26-27 in Birmingham, Alabama). Textual, tech-ual and textured lineages: the importance of supporting the literacies of youth with 21st century tools (including the pen).

I am thankful for Dr. Alfred Tatum and Shaun Mitchell for making me think with the changing leaves. Both are fighting against the negative media about urban education.  Dr. Tatum has written about state examinations and intelligently notes that the quest to meet AYP (annual yearly progress) has established OYP (overlooking young people).

There's much work to do.