Advocating for the Affective: Writing Hope into School Spaces

Authors

Nicole Sieben, SUNY College at Old WestburyFollow

Author Biographies

Nicole Sieben is Assistant Professor of Secondary English Education at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury where she is also the coordinator for the graduate programs in English education. A former high school English teacher in New York, Sieben's research focuses on building "writing hope" in secondary and postsecondary education, social justice practices, and professional development in K-12 schools.

Abstract

Several scholars in the field of English education advocate for student voice and emotion to take precedence in our English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Because emotions are inextricably tied to learning processes (Smagorinsky, 2017), we know that we cannot effectively teach English language arts unless we consider the affective components of our students’ educational experiences. When students are given opportunities to access the deepest parts of themselves, they can then begin to unpack their full potentials as critical readers, writers, and thinkers in the world. This piece provides several frameworks and strategies for teaching with affective advocacy in mind in the English language arts classroom and provides a space for classroom conversations to include the difficult emotions our students may be facing as well as a place to grow hope in our communities.

Recommended Citation

Sieben, Nicole (2018) "Advocating for the Affective: Writing Hope into School Spaces," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 33: Iss. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2177

Publication Date

5-2018