Books Aren’t Enough to Challenge Rape Culture
A high school English teacher describes how she encouraged students to disrupt and speak out against rape culture while reading the novel Speak.
English
Writing for Justice
Christensen has students reimagine literature and their own stories to talk back to and disrupt injustice — and build solidarity.
Poetry: Reinventing the Past, Rehearsing the Future
Before I started writing this article, I asked students in my Contemporary Literature and Society class why teachers should teach poetry. The quotes used throughout the article are a result […]
The Read-Around
Raising writers By Linda Christensen The read-around is the classroom equivalent to quilt making or barn raising. It is the public space—the zócalo or town square—of my room. During our […]
Essay Unbound
Christensen argues that the tight reliance on the format of the literary analysis hinders students’ imaginations, and that they should instead write “unbound” essays of risk-taking and experimentation.
Wash Your Hands
I hadn’t ever planned to teach online, but the Saturday before our college campus closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, I decided to cancel our face-to-face class because one of the […]
Five Years After the Levees Broke – Bearing Witness Through Poetry
A poet in the schools leads students to compare three natural disasters-Hurricane Katrina, the San Diego wildfires, and the recent earthquake in Haiti-and turn their grief and anger into poetry.
The Politics of Biological Determinism
What argument against social change could be more effective than the claim that established orders exist as an accurate reflection of innate intellectual capacities?