Educators are activists at heart. We teach because we believe in the power of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking to change the world. We teach because we want our students to have complete access to the tools they need to navigate challenges, build a life, and inspire hope in others. This year’s Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English focused on how we answer that call as educators: Teaching with Heart, Hope, and Humanity. Connecting with teachers, leaders, and friends in Boston was refreshing.

“I love teachers who take an interest in the people that sometimes others are ignoring. I love teachers who help people to get to believe things they haven’t seen. I love teachers who don’t accept the limitations that are placed on some kinds of children.” – Bryan Stevenson

During his keynote address, attorney Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, pushed educators to remember our influential role in the lives of our students, their families, and our communities. He reminded us of the liberatory power of literacy as he shared the story of his great-grandfather, who “risked his life to learn to read because he had a hope of freedom.” Mr. Stevenson knows the liberatory power of literacy and how our identity as educators is critical in our classrooms and our world.

Over the past few days, the IBD team was inspired and deeply moved by the stories of authors, educators, researchers, and students at #NCTE24. Here are four key takeaways.

1. Question everything

The team from the Right Question Institute championed questioning as an essential self-advocacy skill. They shared an easy-to-implement strategy for teaching students how to produce and improve their questions and reflect on their learning and ways of learning. 

The four essential rules from their Question Formation Technique (QFT) may appear deceptively simple, but don’t underestimate their potential:

1. Ask as many questions as you can
2. Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss
3. Write down every question exactly as stated
4. Change any statements into questions

Teaching with heart means having the heart to ask better questions. This single strategy can introduce divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and metacognition to a generation of students who need to question everything.

2. Illustrate identity

We heard from several award-winning authors and illustrators about the opportunities graphic novels provide for exploring identity with students. Teacher and author Tim Smyth argued that comics are literacy sharing: “As a reluctant reader, graphic novels were the medium that taught me to love reading, and I know there are many reluctant readers out there who can relate.” We know simply learning to read does not mean you have learned to love reading, so consider how incorporating multiple genres, including comics, graphic novels, and picture books, can support you in spreading your love of reading.

Caldecott Medal-winning and New York Times–bestselling author and illustrator Dan Santat recalled his experience with identity, saying it was not until reading American Born Chinese that he realized “I’m not the only person who feels this way.” George Jreije, fellow panelist and author of the acclaimed Shad Hadid series, took the conversation further when he said, “Graphic novels force us to confront the character and their identity as they are. You can’t look away, and that’s a good thing.” As you provide opportunities for students of all identities to see themselves and others in text, remember to look to graphic novels as a source of mirrors, windows, sliding glass, and even barn doors. 

Check out Madaya Mom, a free comic from ABC News and Marvel that illustrates one mother's unimaginable struggle for survival during the Syrian war.

3. Position poetry

Let’s not forget about the power of poetry. In her panel describing how to use poetry to inspire explorations of identity and place, writer and professor emeritus danielle legros georges said, “Poetry and teaching are places of great inquiry for me.” We share her belief and know that just as complexity is for everyone, poetry is, too. Poetry provides an accessible and creative medium for universal questions of humanity. 

“[P]oetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.” – Audre Lorde

One resource we love is the Library of Congress’s Poetry 180 project, a curated collection of poems with audio intended to infuse a poetry habit into your classroom by reading, listening to, and writing poetry daily with your students.

4. Write to the heart

Finally, many sessions focused on the need for high-quality writing experiences to document our shared humanity. Countless teachers, researchers, and writers celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the National Writing Project by advocating for more attention to writing for both students and teachers. 

“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” – Maya Angelou

Dominique Heard and Katie McGuire of the Boston Writing Project provided a brief protocol for Inquiry Towards Justice that can be used with your colleagues or adapted for use with students in your classroom:

1. Move through these writing prompts and consider your lived experience to reflect.
   1. What are you experiencing?
   2. What do you want to be different?
   3. What do you need to learn?
   4. What would it mean if your practice changed?
2. Choose 2-3 representative words or phrases from your writing and share them.
   1. Can we organize our words into themes?
   2. Are there any patterns or trends across our thinking?
3. Synthesize and assess together:
   1. What do we see in our reflection?
   2. How can this group of educators use their voice to enact healing change?
   3. What more questions does this reflection spur for us?

Find a local site of the National Writing Project to see how you, your colleagues, and your students can get involved “because writing still matters.”

Going beyond

As educators, our ultimate goal is to empower students to think critically and act compassionately. Actor, comedian, and author Kate McKinnon argued it all comes down to our ability to remain hopeful. She said, “We must be mindful of being kind to one another and especially being kind to our young people who are dealing with a lot more than we dealt with.” While there are many competing demands on teachers today, a simple strategy to keep front of mind in our work is the enduring power of kindness.

“When we teach our students, the larger, more far-reaching purpose is for our scholars to learn to use the lessons from the classroom to transform their own lives and the lives of others.” – Tonya B. Perry, NCTE President-Elect

The #NCTE24 theme reminded us of our lasting impact in shaping scholars, leaders, and change-makers. Let’s continue cultivating classrooms where literacy is a beacon of hope and a bridge to action. We invite you to share your strategies with our teaching community in the comments as you question everything, illustrate identity, position poetry, and write to the heart: 

How are you teaching with heart, hope, and humanity this year?

The Inquiry By Design team at NCTE 2024!