To Teach Social Justice Through Poetry [S1 E21]
In today’s episode of Brave New Teaching, we caught up with Tanesha Forman: teacher, writer, and activist inspiring teachers across social media. Our conversation was supposed to focus on social justice and using poetry to guide those discussions, but as you can imagine, we talked about so much more. Here are just a few highlights from the conversation and all of the ways you can get in touch with Tanesha about her incredible work.
Takeaways from this episode:
Authenticity is a critical goal to strive to uphold in our classrooms.
Poetry lessons in the classroom can (and should!) be organic. No need to over-plan!
Poetry lessons create a space for students to emotionally connect to content FIRST, and then provide a bridge into connecting to the academic side of the conversation.
Poetry provides an opportunities for teachers to sit in the circle and BE a learner alongside students. We can affirm that not all teachers (or adults!) know everything and that discomfort and authentic discourse is valuable.
Poets and artists are often born out of revolutionary times calling for change. This provides teachers an opportunity to explore intersectionality.
Pomes and other ideas shared by Tanesha:
2Pac Shakur’s poetry/music (check out this book! (affiliate link))
Poetry and Social Justice in the Classroom (article from Tanesha’s website)
Connect with Tanesha
Thank you so much Tanesha for taking the time to talk with us! Your insight is invaluable and we can’t wait to check in with you again soon!