Roberto Germán [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Our Classroom. In this space we talk about education, which is inclusive of but not limited to what happens in schools. Education is taking place whenever and wherever we are willing to learn. I am your host, Roberto Germán, and our classroom is officially in session. Welcome back to Our Classroom. Today's episode is grounded in a question that sits at the heart of literacy instruction and student engagement. What keeps some students from fully engaging with reading and writing? Because, if we're honest, it's not that students can't read or write. It's often that they don't yet see themselves in the process or in the text.
Roberto Germán [00:00:51]:
Today we're going to talk about how emotion and identity are not distractions from literacy. They are the door way into it. When students are disengaged from reading and writing, the issue is rarely skill alone. It's often about relevance. It's about safety. It's about whether students feel seen. At a student that I worked with last year, Jose Reyes from Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School, who said when he talked about his feelings or when I talked about my feelings, it made him feel more confident to talk about his. And that one sentence tells us everything.
Roberto Germán [00:01:32]:
Students don't disengage from literacy. They disengage from environments where their inner life doesn't belong. So how do emotion and identity open doors for reluctant or multilingual writers? They do it by saying, your story matters, your language matters, your feelings matter, your lived experience belongs, and academic spaces. When we start with emotion, students don't have to prove their intelligence before they're allowed to be human. They begin as human beings and grow into stronger readers and writers from there. This is the heartbeat of the work that I do through the Blue Ink Literacy Time initiatives inspired by my book Blue Ink Tears and the work that we do at multicultural classroom. Books in education are often treated as static tools. Textbooks, reference books, curriculum guides.
Roberto Germán [00:02:30]:
And yes, those matter. They are foundational for academic growth. But books are also mirrors. They are windows. They are permission slips. When students see their language, their communities, their fears, their joy inside a book, literacy stops being an assignment and starts becoming a relationship. So here are a few instructional strategies I share with educators that place identity and emotion at the center of literacy. First, consider student identity mapping.
Roberto Germán [00:03:13]:
Second, lean into bilingual drafts that become translated versions. Third, do some emotion first, free writes. Give them the license to explore, and then follow that up with poetry as mentor text. Obviously, I'm biased towards the genre of poetry because my first book is a collection of poetry and I'm a poet. These aren't add ons. These are access points. They give students a way into reading and writing that doesn't begin with correctness. It begins with connection.
Roberto Germán [00:03:57]:
And so I want to offer you a quick writing invitation you could use tomorrow. Ask your students. Write about a moment when language, culture or emotion helped you survive, connect or feel seen. That's it. No rubric, no grammar check yet. Just truth on the page. Because once the page holds, truth skills can be taught. But truth has to come first.
Roberto Germán [00:04:31]:
When educators do this work across classrooms, we start to see patterns. Students write longer, they write with more ownership. They begin to see themselves as writers, not just students completing tasks. That's what passion looks like in practice. It's not loud, it's rooted. So I want you to process that a bit. Consider that, bring that into your spaces. And if you you feel affirmed with what's been shared and what you already believe or stretched, maybe this is stretching how you think about literacy.
Roberto Germán [00:05:19]:
Here's how you can continue to work with us. Get a copy of Blue Ink Tears. You could do that on our website, multiculturalclassroom.com or on Amazon. Schedule an author visit or a workshop. Reach out at [email protected] and join our community of educators. My classroom goal, we're doing some wonderful work there. Teaching the truth, leading with courage, and just building this community that gets it. A community of educators committed to equity, truth and impact.
Roberto Germán [00:05:51]:
And so we welcome you into that space. And right now, there's an opportunity for you to step in as a founding member. Just go to multiculturalclassroom.com/founding-member. So let's push our learners in regards to reading with purpose and writing with passion, helping them understand that it isn't just a literacy philosophy, it's a justice practice. Right. And we have to have a clear understanding of that first. And when we do, it says to students, students don't have to erase themselves to be considered scholars. They get to bring their whole selves to the page.
Roberto Germán [00:06:43]:
So keeping it brief today, appreciate y' all tuning in. Until next time. Keep leading, keep loving, keep learning. Peace. As always, your engagement in our classroom is greatly appreciated. Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, and write a review. Finally, for resources to help you understand the intersection of race, bias, education and society, go to multiculturalclassroom.com Peace and love from your host, Roberto Herman.
