True story: I had a student, a young black girl, who loved reading and writing. She was a talented writer who loved writing fan fiction and fantasy. I exposed her to diverse texts. She flourished. 1/3 #DisruptTexts

Then she got a white teacher in high school who pushed the “classics” and a specific style of writing. Guess who stopped writing? I cried when she told me because she didn’t believe in herself or her writing anymore because of that teacher. 1/3 #DisruptTexts

That is why we need to get away from the “classics” and move to a more inclusive reading curriculum. Real damage is being done to our students and it often takes years for them to recover, if they recover at all. #DisruptTexts

I often think about the young boy who was a “reluctant reader” until I gave him permission to read a horror novel. He was “reluctant” because he hated what he was forced to read. His world opened that day and he became a reader. #DisruptTexts

That should be the goal for all of us ELA teachers. We should be building life long readers, not killing their joy of the written word. #DisruptTexts