Refining equity consciousness and capacity is an essential practice for educators aimed at creating learning environments that are humanizing, liberating and joyful for all students.

In the following story, Literacy Collaborative trainer, Wendy Reed, offers tips on how to nurture this practice by getting to know the learners in your classroom in ways that build upon their assets and honor their identities.

To see, hear, know (and love) our Learners

By Wendy Reed, Literacy Collaborative trainer

Wendy Reed is trainer with Literacy Collaborative where she has trained literacy coaches and led educators in professional learning experiences for over 12 years.

As a former classroom teacher, literacy coach, and Reading Recovery teacher, Wendy has almost 30 years of experience in education and is passionate about improving the professional expertise of teachers, coaches, administrators, and leadership teams to transform schools into equitable places of learning that promote literate, joyful learners.

In addition to her scholarly works, Wendy is also an author and illustrator of over 30 books for children and grown-ups.

Young children may not often articulate it, but I believe that learners of all ages have a desire to be seen, heard, and even known – which sounds a bit like love, doesn’t it? When we come to know the learners in our classrooms, we have the opportunity to build upon their assets and to honor their identities.

How they position themselves and how they desire to be known, along with the ways others position them, cultivate identity narratives that they can choose to take up or resist. And when I see, hear, and know my students — and they have opportunities to better know and position themselves according to the ways they desire to be seen, heard, and known — the culture within the walls of our classroom becomes more affirming.

Gholdy Muhammad wisely stated, "Our goal is not just to help students become better test takers or academic achievers, but also for them to gain the confidence to use learning as a personal and sociopolitical tool to thrive in this world and to help them know themselves."

In my opinion, "passing the test" without thriving as a human is akin to gaining the world but losing the soul. We want the humans in our classrooms to feel they matter and have what they need to be successful. Reading, writing, listening, and talking are powerful tools we can easily tap into in service of cultivating positive identity narratives students may draw upon as learners.

In her book The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom, Felicia Rose Chavez shares some important questions and their implications that acknowledge writers as experts in their own right and build confidence and vulnerability in writers and across the community.

I’ve added some of my own questions as well. These questions might be asked within various contexts, including impromptu conversations, one-on-one conferences, as writing prompts, or when appropriate during read-alouds:

Questions directly from the work of Felicia Rose Chavez:

Question:	Implications / Message the Question Sends
What is your name?	You have the right to claim space.
Where do you come from?	You are endowed with a storytelling legacy.
Who are your artistic mentors?	Your knowledge is legitimate.
What do you fear?	You are in a safe space.
What do you want?	You are free to risk failure.
Why are you good at writing?	You are, and have always been, a writer.

Questions I have added:

Question:	Implications / Message the Question Sends
What are you good at?	Your assets are valued.
What are you interested in?	Your interests are important.
What do you think?	Your ideas are legitimate.
What/Who do you like to read?	You are a reader and your interests matter.
What do you like to write about?	You are a writer and your choices matter.
What do you wonder?	You have important questions.
What can I do to help you be and do your best?	Your needs and success are important to me.

By asking questions like these, we affirm our learners. And by truly listening and responding to what we learn about them, we hold space for their ideas, interests, assets, and ways of being to be leveraged and legitimized, and they may enact their literacies in liberatory ways. This is one way we may come to see, hear, and know our learners.