Literacy Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Literacy without love is just words on a page, but educators can create real, actionable, and sustainable classroom practices rooted in love, in a time when we need it the most. O ur purpose in this commentary is to describe how school communities work together to build relationships and develop inquiry teams through loveful practices. Through this examination, possibilities for shaping literacy culture through love-ful pedagogies within and across schools are elevated. This commentary is a dialogue between the two of us to explain how loveful pedagogy is deeply connected to learners' motivation in school and, especially, learners' love of literacy. Our ideational partner, Cornelius Minor, is included in the dialogue, particularly when we describe our work with adolescents in school spaces. In the first section, Kass explains the emotive work that underscores becoming literate, beginning with developmental learning stages. She delineates how the relational trust that adolescents both crave and need begins during early childhood and is often compromised as they experience more schooling. Marcus identifies that the work of building relational trust starts with self-assessment of both youth and their educators, capitalizing on an adapted form of Chapman's (2010) love languages. Marcus interrogates the idea of imperfect love, calling on educators to present a more vulnerable version of themselves to their learners. Kass then connects the inner work to the outer, posing a framework for intraschool collegial discourse that she and her partner, Cornelius, model in schools, while also providing a critical "shapes of love" relational continuum for educators to more critically examine interactions that take place between teachers and students within a school. Kass: Developmental Consideration Becoming literate is emotional work. From the time human beings are born, they engage in multiple literacies, constructing new knowledge and powerful ideas that, together, bridge new understandings. With those new understandings, humans are constantly being challenged and provoked with new information. Imagine a baby. The sound of the door opening, she had learned, means that her grown-up has arrived home! Whoops, it's the grocery delivery person. Disappointment ensues. Anger and sadness build, the baby's fists clench, tears well up, and crying commences. There's no need to worry, though, because another grown-up, different from the one expected than the delivery person, comforts the baby, reassuring her with "Shhhh" sounds and telling her that the caregiver she expected will be home before too long. Then, the baby begins to relax, because even though she doesn't understand the caregiver's words, this person is soothing, smiling, and the baby can feel a vibe, something that she will later know to be called love. The International Literacy Association (n.d.) defines literacies as the distinct written and oral language practices evident across varying social circumstances, domains, and classes. As such, literacies are plural, with multiple manifestations, that cover various aspects of human life and social organization (e.g., school literacy, workplace literacy, science literacy).