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Reading, Writing, and Rising Up   September 1, 2001

Gutsy, eyes-open teaching for the real world   April 3, 2001

Christensen does. She never, ever backs away from demanding that her students pursue a high quality curriculum in reading, writing, and language arts. But she demonstrates that this need not be divorced from making school meaningful for students, that school can indeed help a young person find his or her voice, make the kind of choices we are supposed to be making in a democracy, and "read" the world for what it is.


A Great Book to Energize Your Learning and Teaching   February 11, 2001
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A Great Book to Energize Your Learning and Teaching By Alex Gordin

"The common element in each of the reading and writing strategies I've presented is students working together in a community to make meaning and to make change." This is the theme and mission in Linda Christensen's collection of reading and writing strategies in her new book, Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word. Linda Christensen is a celebrated teacher in the classroom who has integrated reading and writing strategies with the power of student voice and relevancy at Jefferson High School for 24 years. In her text published by Rethinking Schools, Linda presents a series of curricular lesson plans she has used in her language arts classroom that promote classroom community, student narrative and voice, and most importantly connect students to the world around them. In a unit that I have used with my students, "Essay With an Attitude" Linda asks students to think of a time or instance when something really got under their skin. She then goes through the writing process where students compose a very thorough persuasive paper with attention to writing models that include examples of introductions, documentation, and conclusions. Linda writes, " I've never found a 5 step Betty Crocker boxed essay recipe. Because students don't learn all the same way or enter my class with the same background knowledge or confidence, I need to teach essay writing rather than assign it." This unit along with others on childhood narratives, poetry, immigration, politics of language, college essays, and portfolios have many examples of student and professional writing to illuminate her insightful and thought-provoking strategies. To show the power of the essay with an attitude, her former student, Khalilah Joseph, writes about how black women were categorized by the shade of their skin color. "As a dark-skinned girl I was ridiculed...I was called names like `tarbaby' or `blackie.' Erika Miller begins her political piece with "Am I Fat? Look at my thighs." She goes on to write in a powerful manner that has voice, evidence, and most importantly passion about how weight and appearance have been political challenges and obstacles in women's lives. As a teacher, Portland Writing Project Director, and Portland Public Schools Language Arts Coordinator Linda has assembled her top hits of effectual literacy strategies that jump off the page at you and get past the passive "get busy" notions of worksheets, vocabulary lists, and book reports. Ideas like interior monologues, praise poems, text renderings, and read arounds empower student voices and allow them to reflect on their learning styles and why they are in the classroom. Linda states in the introduction, "Most chapters developed out of "aha" moments from a class; a conversation with colleagues, students or parents, a stirring talk; anger; or out of the pain of walking away at the end of the year how I could do it better in the fall." As the New Year begins, rise up and bring Linda's expertise and text into your learning environment.