In this week's episode of "Lighting Literacy," I delve into the concept of reframing the term "chronic absenteeism," inspired by a class assignment from a Leadership, Policy, and Advocacy course. I initially struggled to find a term in educational policy I wanted to change, but eventually realized that "chronic absenteeism" was the one.

References:

U.S. Department of Education. (2019). Chronic absenteeism in the nation’s schools: A hidden educational crisis. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html

U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Every student succeeds act (ESSA). https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn

Book challenges are occurring more and more. Why are these books on trial? What can be done to help give them a more fair trial?

References

American Bar Association. (2011). 11 must-dos from a voir dire master. https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2019/march-2019/11-tips-for-effectively-conducting-voir-dire/

Cesari, L. (2022). Straddling parallel tracks: Diversifying novels in the ELA curriculum while facing book challenges about diverse texts. Knowledge Quest, 50(5), 24–28.

Charbonneau, D.H., Hawamdeh, S., Oltmann, S.M., Winberry, J., Yeon, J., Zalot, A. (2023). Challenging book challenges: Understanding the background, examining “astroturfing” as a current political strategy, and finding ways forward. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 60 (1), 755-757. 

Honore, S. (2023). A challenge worth facing. English Journal, 112(5), 29-34. 

Knox, E. (2014). Society, institutions, and common sense: Themes in the discourse of book challengers in 21st century United States. Library & Information Science Research, 36, 171–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2014.06.003

Spilka, J. (2022). 377 Book challenges tracked by ALA in 2019–and the problem is growing: Book banning and its adverse effects on students. Knowledge Quest, 50(5), 31-33.

My beliefs about literacy instruction directly impact how I perceive teaching and literacy research. Today, I lay out the foundation of my beliefs.

What is Lighting Literacy? Why are we here? 

Recording