Critical Incident Writing in Eighth Grade Thoughts, Processes, and Student Samples Stephen Scott

Brainstorming Early Stages Conflicts, Uncertainty, &Difference Questions: What does Jefferson City value? How do you know? What does Lewis and Clark Middle School value? How do you know? How has Jefferson City changed? Do adults take youth seriously? Why or why not? What are some different interactions (situations) between youth and adults? How are youth portrayed in media? How does this compare to your own perception?

Brainstorming Early Stages Private and public worlds dominated by adults perspectives and norms Questions: What does Jefferson City value? How do you know? What does Lewis and Clark Middle School value? How do you know? How has Jefferson City changed? Do adults take youth seriously? Why or why not? What are some different interactions (situations) between youth and adults? How are youth portrayed in media? How does this compare to your own perception?

Texts We Read Fiction: Walter Dean Myers’ Monster Chris Crutcher’s Angry Management (2nd novella) Ntozake Shange’s The Desert from Fires in the Mirror Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Nonfiction: Carnegie Mellon University’s Critical Incidents From Newsela: Black teenager says he was arrested just for buying an expensive belt NYC teacher tricks 5th graders Christian alternative to Boy Scouts bans gays The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore Richard Wright’s The Street

Connecting to Curriculum First Draft Components Connecting to Curriculum Who was involved? Who did what? Whose Point of View? Who said what? Where did this happen? W8.3a – Point of View W8.3a – Sequencing W8.3b – Relevant Dialogue W8.3d – People Descriptions W8.3d – Setting Descriptions

Youth Say… A student describing a principal correcting features of African American Vernacular English

A student’s mother… Jerry, a man my mother works with, has treated her differently since he found out she was gay. “He’s on his best behavior around the boss,” my mother claims. “Jerry, can you take a package really quick off the truck?” she said politely. “Hold on, I’m doing something,” he responded harshly. “Alright,” she said back. Fifteen minutes had passed and my mother noticed this kind of behavior had been going on for about a month or so.

On Student Council Calling the shots

Calling the shots continued On Student Council Calling the shots continued

You’ve got a compelling critical incident when... it dramatizes a typical moment or situation there's a high "So What" factor it's clearly important and something we should talk about, understand better, and figure out how to change it gives people who don't typically talk together a reason to talk together it features a situation that has no easy resolution, no easy answer it features several people who don't necessarily agree: they have different perspectives on what happened and why it matters it gets specific and freeze-frames a moment for readers (we hear their words, see who is doing what, care about the people and about what happens next) it doesn't villainize or glorify any one of the participants  all of the people who would need to come together to talk about this see something they care about in the critical incident the situation ends but there is clear unresolved conflict What is the work that you’re hoping this critical incident does? And with whom? What decisions are you making to try to make sure it does that work with these people?

Connecting to Curriculum, continued Second Draft Components Connecting to Curriculum, continued So what? Now what? Putting the pieces together Resonating Conclusion Conventions W8.3b – Reflective Narration W8.3c – Transitions W8.3e – Effective Conclusions L8.2 – Standard English Conventions

Next Steps User Testing Themes Further action When we talk about x, we also need to talk about y, z… Creating texts to move toward community dialogue

Hard Work! The work of a critical incident “The good kids” Differentiation “My son/daughter is a good kid; they haven’t encountered these [relating to conflict, uncertainty, and difference] types of things in their lives.”

One piece at a time Mini-lessons Modeling User-testing Feedback (lots!)

Why Critical Incident? Writing and reading for real people and real purposes

English Language Arts New and scary Student accountability Public life So much potential Youth as cultural workers Youth as active participants in public life Transforming public life