Children are more than test scores: Eye On The Prize: Pathway to Transformational Literacy

From the opening of the

“We travel carrying our words.
We arrive at the ocean.
With our words we are able to speak
Of the sounds of thunderous waves.
We speak of how majestic it is,
Of the ocean power that gifts us songs.
We sing of our respect
And call it our relative. ~ Ofelia Zapeda

From the first book, readers are listeners, immersed in comprehension skills. The skills needed to read/listen to the print are deeply rooted in the transformational potential to find ourselves, and others, and pathways to change our world. In other words, words carried us here and will carry us until we are no more.

We not only find words to decode, but we also find ourselves, our families, our ancestors, and our journeys from there to here in those words. When Dr. Zapeda speaks of words carrying the people, she is referring to language as being something bigger than the structure of their linguistic components. For her words are bigger than the printed page. My Tohono O'odham friend Dr. Angie Listo told me recently "Our ancestors hear us through the words we use. Use words that made them proud." I see the power, the beauty, the hope, and the story of the Tohono O'odham people in Ofelia's poem above.

Before the first printed word is read, it was spoken, we heard it spoken on the loving lips of parents, grandparents, siblings, trusted elders, and in our sacred temples, mosques, and churches. To ignore the idea that words carry us, that something came before the print, is to miss the greater purpose of becoming literate. I want more than print. I want connections to my people. I find my redemption in the words my people carry. Words are my redemption songs.

Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist who learned to read, Said, "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." He viewed literacy as the path to freedom from slavery. His view of literacy lives in his mirrors, windows, and sliding doors. His biography is the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”. His words allow us to walk in his shoes. If we sell learning to read as merely correctly reading the words on a page, we risk losing the path to freedom on the journey to becoming literate. The SOR community needs more than decodable books, they need the words that carry the people, and those words are found in literature written by the people.

Quick review:
Mirrors: books we see ourselves in, decodable books can do this, not nearly as well as authentic literature, but they can do it,

Windows: books we see others in, and like the above decodable books can do this, but not as well as authentic literature.

Sliding Doors: these are books that let readers walk in the shoes of others, these are transformational. They change the way we see ourselves, others, and the world.

I have yet to see decodable books that can do this. The danger in not learning to read without understanding the role of Transformational Literacy is to produce readers who cannot see the path to freedom and liberation.

I chose the above image from "Thank You, Mr. Falker", taken from one of America's most successful and prolific Authors; Patricia Barber Polacco takes us inside her shoes as a young Dyslexic girl struggling to learn to read, and her gifted teacher who knew it is the combination of skills and the magic of transformation pathways that bring struggling readers to be as Frederick Douglas said: " Forever Free". Words are the honey people carry via spoken and written words. Readers need skills to access the written word. To make readers who love books, we must connect to readers who love language, recognize those words that carry them. Dare I say the forbidden word Balanced Literacy. Without balance, there is no pathway to freedom, no way for words to carry the people, and we lose those Sliding Door books that transform us. Readers do not go to Barnes and Noble to buy the latest decodable book. Readers, go to find those Transformative Sliding Door Books.

In Marginalized communities, children and their teachers require not only skills, but a transformative literacy purpose deeply rooted in experiences that offer pathways to freedom, justice, and redemption. To understand that words can carry us, we need to see us in the words on the printed page.

Respectfully,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
CCSU Literacy Center Director
Uniting to Save Our Schools
Badass Teacher