The Four Recoveries: Autonomy, Identity, Humanity, and Agency in ELA Classrooms

Including a downloadable framework tool for full subscribers

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

―Ray Bradbury

After sharing last week’s post on Linkedin about reading sometimes getting in the way of writing, a teacher posted an insightful comment:

“I wonder, if in some way, part of the rise in behavior problems comes from the decrease in writing in classrooms. I’m not talking about the pre-scripted formulas to write for the state exam, but instead the real opportunities to put thoughts on paper with a real pen or pencil. Writing allows us to process thoughts instead of immediately reacting.”

I think she’s on to something, and I believe it extends beyond just writing.

How is the declining opportunity for creative expression in general contributing to disengagement in schools?

This potential relationship is not an inquiry I see a lot of teachers or leaders investigating. It’s difficult to blame educators; reading mandates may suppress more creative literacy endeavors.

• The state tests and required screeners seek one right answer, not interpretation (or even comprehension at the primary level).

• Students begin to see reading through a binary lens: getting words right or not.

• Reading becomes something you do in school; identities as readers don’t leave with kids as they walk out the school doors the final time.

Not to create a too-linear timeline, but should we be surprised if students are resisting thirteen years of little engagement or agency in what they read or write?

I don’t want to admire the problem for too long here. Next are some small steps that teachers and/or leaders could take to give kids more space to be creative and imaginative, and to be seen fully as themselves and who they are becoming in the ELA classroom.

Kids are naturally independent. Our jobs are to help them recover and become their truest selves, in their full humanity, able to direct their own learning journey.

Focus on Transfer (Recovering Their Autonomy)

Evidence of student understanding is revealed when students apply (transfer) knowledge in authentic contexts.

— Jay McTighe and Carol Ann Tomlinson

Students are craving opportunities to apply what they learn to authentic contexts. They aren’t receiving this with the Science of Reading movement. Its focus on foundational skills stops at the foundation. Nothing is built upon it.

Autonomy in ELA classrooms doesn’t have to be an elaborate self-directed project. With a little forethought, an essay or a book report can become a podcast or a book review posted online for an actual audience. Students are expected to be independent. It’s the only way to know if they have truly learned.

Capture and Study Student Voice (Recovering Their Identity)

Writing for a real audience, and writing about things they know and care about, are central to students’ development of an authentic voice in their work.

— Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith

When educators are the only ones controlling the narrative of how a school year unfolds, students miss out on the opportunity to shape their own stories.

This voice shows up as creativity: unique and novel. Whether the writing or artistic expression in general is useful depends on the function of the work. If the purpose is to appreciate the process of growth and change, then the product might be secondary.

For example, I worked with a client who wanted to implement writing portfolios with her high school ELA students. They were already free writing daily in journals. We developed a plan to have students review their journal entries periodically and select one that could be developed into a more formal piece. Publishing is nice and a way to add an authentic outcome to their writing habit. But I’ll wager that it’s in the examination of their daily self-dialogues where they will begin to see themselves more objectively and then cultivate who they want to become.

Study Student Behaviors Holistically (Recovering Their Humanity)

One of the ways I believe we might understand student experience is by looking at student composition with asset-based eyes, first to recognize students as whole children and secondly to determine flexible writing goals.

— Nawal Qarooni

“The only students who have the right to be in school are the students.” This is a common refrain among the cadre of systems coaches in which I belong. It’s a reminder to our clients (and ourselves) that our work is always in service to the students first. Egos, adults, and mandates are lower on the priority list.

How do teachers and leaders live this out in their work? One way to start is de-silo data analysis. If you’re going to bring up student behaviors, let’s also look at academics. And if we are on the subject, let’s not just look at outputs. How, as a school, are you assessing inputs, such as the depth and quality of PLC time, or trends and patterns principals are noticing during instructional walks? When we stop trying to fix kids and see their actions as products of the learning environment, we start looking at the systems.

Reduce Teaching to Increase Learning (Recovering Their Agency)

As teachers, then, we try to maximize children’s feelings of agency. There are really three parts to this: the belief that the environment can be affected, the belief that one has what it takes to affect it, and the understanding that that is what literacy is about.

— Peter Johnston

I’m writing this in the middle of a conference focused on disproportionalities in schools. A consistent thread throughout the sessions is that equity is not enough. We have to show students how to use the tools at their disposal to empower themselves. This is learning agency: the ability for students to direct their own learning journey and see themselves as capable of growth and change beyond what any curriculum or assessment might capture.

This concept does share space with autonomy, but here students can now self-advocate for what they need when they need it and within the right contexts. This can happen when we stop teaching. At some point, we have to not only see them do it on their own, but also be open and ready to let them do it their way.

For instance, if in a library, can they navigate the catalog and the shelves without any hand-holding? Do they have a to-read list? Are they confident enough to put down a book they don’t like?

Of course, this last stage of agency, and really all four aren’t easily measured or don’t matter enough to policymakers to change how our systems value what is learned. So we have to make them matter by seeing and conveying the connection to a lifetime as engaged and literate individuals.

Full subscribers can download The Four Recoveries Framework below.