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An Urgent Message For Our Readers
Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope…. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories…. Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”
Kofi Annan
We as a nation are currently undergoing, from the federal level, an unprecedented attack against equity in a great many forms. As the developers of an approach to writing instruction that we call Writing for Understanding, the Vermont Writing Collaborative would like to share some thoughts with you as educators about what equity in education can mean, and why it matters.
A teacher in a first grade public school classroom planned a unit on environmental sustainability. Using The Lorax as an anchor text, the teacher wanted all their students to be able to write a supported piece in response to the question “How does the Lorax feel about caring for the earth?”
They knew that many of their students could not read this text independently, so the first two reads were entirely readaloud. On the third readaloud, the teacher introduced the question, then guided students, page by page, to discuss in pairs what they were seeing /reading on that page that showed how the Lorax feels about the earth.
Using cut-out pictures, the class created a group chart of public notes (evidence). Led by the teacher, the class discussed that all this evidence showed how much the Lorax cares for the earth. Students then chose which pieces of evidence they would use for their own writing and, over the next few days, drew the evidence they had chosen and then composed or dictated a sentence to describe the picture evidence.
At the end of the instruction, all the first graders read their Lorax pieces aloud to each other - a complete piece of writing that they themselves had constructed successfully.
What do we mean by equity, and why does it matter?
Underlying this story is a value: the value of equity for all, the value that “everybody matters.” This teacher had designed a unit in which literacy - reading substantively, lots of discussing and sharing with peers, and finally writing - is for everyone.
Equity does not mean sameness. It does not mean ignoring the diversity of student experience, of student needs. Rather, it means paying profound attention to high standards - for all. It means doubling down on making sure that every student has the instruction/opportunity they need to achieve full literacy so that, ultimately, they are independently proficient.
In this Lorax unit, equity begins with using a text of substance, a text worth reading and knowing. It begins with a plan for how the text will become accessible for every student in the class. Equity means giving every student the opportunity to deeply know the text (even those who cannot yet read it independently), using multiple reads and frequent paired and full-class conversation, building deep and solid comprehension of written language and of that particular text. Equity means guided support so that all students begin to internalize what thoughtful writing can look like. And equity means inclusion - the creation of a classroom community culture of shared ideas, shared conversation, and shared recognition that everyone has value and everyone can learn.
In a very real sense, this approach to writing instruction is fundamentally democratic. In this sense, democracy is more than a form of government - it is a way of living, a worldview. When equity is the basis for literacy instruction, students are living the democratic experience of “everybody matters.” They experience what it feels like to develop agency (“I can do this”), what it feels like to problem solve (“we need to figure out this idea together”), what it feels like to respect others (“I can see that you can do this, too”).
Clearly, this is not the time to back away from equity in our classrooms - in so doing, we would be backing away from democracy itself. Please do what you can, wherever in education you find yourself, to provide what our children most need - the equity of sound, respectful, substantive instruction for all.
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