Conceptually Speaking Trevor Aleo

What if I told you there’s a magical place where young people spend hours upon hours discussing, sharing, creating, and theorizing about their favorite books? What if I told you that place was TikTok? Or, more specifically, a corner of TikTok known as BookTok. Well, that’s what this week’s episode is all about. My guest this week is Dr. Sarah Jerasa, Assistant Professor of Literacy at Clemson University in the Department of Education and Human Development. In addition to being a friend of the show and fellow member of the Writing and Literacies Special Interest Group, Sarah is currently researching the impact of BookTok on reading, writing, and creating content about literature. Far from being a random trending topic or flash-in-the-pan hashtag, the discourse on BookTok has already proven to have a major impact on the publishing industry and features millions of book lovers connecting over their most loved and loathed books. Considering the popularity and influence digital spaces have on literacy practices, Sarah believes (and I agree) it’s high time English teachers begin to consider how we can expand “what counts” as literacy in academic spaces. Even if you have no idea what a "For You Page" is or is generally anti-social media, this episode still has some worthwhile food for thought about the relationship between academic literacies, youth literacies, and the future of English Language Arts.

https://www.sarahjerasa.com/
https://twitter.com/saraheconroy
BookTok 101: TikTok, Digital Literacies, and Out-of-School Reading Practices
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This week I’m lucky enough to be in dialogue with two educators and authors whose work I’ve admired for quite some time. Rebekah O’Dell is a classroom teacher and author of Writing with Mentors and Beyond Literary Analysis and Matthew Johnson a high school English teacher and author of Flash Feedback. In addition to being dynamic teachers and insightful authors, they also design powerful professional learning experiences for fellow educators. In fact, this summer they, alongside friend of the show Angela Stockman, launched a new venture called Camp Rewrite: A digital campfire where English teachers across the country can gather to view PD videos from Rebekah, Matt, Angela, and a slew of other fantastic voices in the ELA world. It’s a fantastic example of how professional learning can be more authentic, non-hierarchical, and participatory. However, our conversation will go beyond this one event! More broadly, this is a dialogue asking big questions about the future of post-COVID pedagogy, professional learning, and even the discipline of English. Enjoy!

Links:
camprewrite.substack.com
Rebekah's Twitter
Rebekah's Site
Matthew's Website
Matthew's Twitter

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There’s no shortage of authors, consultants, and coaches discussing the importance of culture when it comes to learning, especially literacy learning. However, I can’t think of any that brings the same level of depth, nuance, and accessibility to that work as this week's guest. Nawal Qarooni is a literacy coach, writer, specialist in family literacy, and author of the forthcoming book Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Exalting Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care. Nawal’s work invites readers to think expansively about how we define students, families, and literacies. As you’ll soon hear, she doesn’t talk about culture like it’s a buzzword or checklist, but rather like a journalist or ethnographic researcher.
As our schools continue to service increasingly diverse peoples with a range of identities, languages, and literacy practices Nawal’s work becomes all the more vital. Moreover, it’s arriving at a time where many of the ideas and approaches related to Equity work in education are either being politicized out of existence or turned into anodyne products and programs to be purchased and consumed instead of embodied and enacted. Rest assured, Nawal’s work is the real deal. Enjoy!

https://twitter.com/NQCLiteracy
NQC Literacy
Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Exalting Home Experiences and Classroom Practices



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This week on Conceptually Speaking, I had the pleasure of chatting with fellow teacher and friend of the show, Garreth Heidt. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of crossing paths with Garret on Twitter, he teaches sophomore English as well as an innovation and social entrepreneurship class called NOVA lab at Perkiomen Valley High School. I met him in the days of teacher Twitter yore before COVID, culture wars, and Elon Musk took the shine off the place. As you’ll be able to tell by our dialogue, Garreth is the sort of veteran teacher who has been blazing trails folks are only now discovering. Our wide-ranging dialogue, which bounces from post-modernism to ChatGPT to The Good Life perfectly encapsulates the depth and breadth of his knowledge as well as his heartfelt commitment to more meaningful education. This episode feels like the exact sort of existential, reflective conversation teachers need to have (or listen to!) after the last few years of mayhem. I hope you enjoy.

Garreth's Personal Blog
The NOVA Lab Blog
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Lately, it feels like the world is both literally and figuratively on fire. As a mere English teacher researcher and content creator, there are times when feel kind of powerless in the throes of political upheaval, culture wars, and social unrest. I’ve always believed English class is a place where students can cultivate the wisdom and discernment needed to create a more just, liberatory future, but I always wish I could do more. Luckily, last summer I stumbled upon the work of Dr. Mark Bracher, an English professor at Kent State University and the author of Literature, Social Wisdom, and Global Justice: Developing Systems Thinking Through Literary Study. Dr. Bracher’s research leverages the latest scholarship from cognitive and neuroscience to develop a systems thinking approach to literary studies that fosters four key cognitive functions: causal analysis, prospection, social cognition, and metacognition. Through the cultivation of these practices, Bracher believes (and I agree) students can cultivate skills and habits of mind that allow them to not only recognize the social injustices within our social, political, and ecological systems but intervene with wisdom, discernment, and empathy. Many of you who know me personally, know I read a lot of books about education. I’m nerdy like that. So trust me when I say, this is one of the most compelling books on English teaching I’ve encountered in a very long time.

Dr. Bracher's website
Dr. Bracher's published works
American Dream(ing) Project Overview (10th-grade unit I co-designed based on Bracher's work)
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How often do you find yourself wanting to hit pause in your curriculum? To slow down and notice more deeply? Read more closely? Maybe even engage in some playful fun? Like most teachers, there are times when I find myself sprinting through the next novel or text set, slipping back into the grips of covering material instead of exploring it. Luckily, my guest today is Brett Vogelsinger, a 9th-grade English Teacher in Doylestown PA author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems To Elevate Student Writing in All Genres, and a contributing author to Moving Writers. As his book title would suggest, poetry pauses are his specialty, and there are few other teachers I know who are as good at integrating poetry into his curriculum in meaningful, intentional, and powerful ways. Our conversation is a deep dive into the pedagogy of teaching poetry Brett has plenty to share about the powerful ways poetic forms can lead to playful and powerful learning. After hanging out with Brett at NCTE this year, I knew he’d be a great podcast guest. As you’ll soon learn, he didn’t disappoint. Enjoy!

https://brettvogelsinger.com/
https://30gopoems.blogspot.com/
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