The Teacher As Screenwriter: Unlocking Meaningful Dialogue
“Your mission bells were wrought by ancient men. The roots were formed by twisted roots. Your roots were twisted then. ”
Unfortunately, the roots are still twisted. I am currently reading Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and it is a real education. It is over 500 pages long, but I strongly recommend reading it. It is well worth the time and I wish I learned all this in school. I want to be armed with the truth when speaking to anyone about equity and our broken systems.
Disclaimer: I have been teaching since 1991, but I am relatively new to this work with respect to facilitating difficult discussions about race and social justice. What I share here is more my vision of what I need to do better. No more silence does not mean I, as the teacher, should do all the talking. In a past post, I wrote about teacher talk vs. student talk; students should be doing most of the talking and meaning making.
What does this social justice work have to do with the teacher as screenwriter? Screenwriters must strike a balance between dialogue and action. For their story to make sense, there needs to be some exposition, but not too much. Show don’t tell is huge in screenwriting as well as other storytelling arts. Teachers must work on this vital balance in all aspects of their job with students, parents, and colleagues. Screenwriters may have some strategies, rules, or secrets that educators could use to better facilitate discussions about any topic, but especially conversations about race and social justice.
“The first key to unlocking the mysteries of writing great dialogue is lack of dialogue. ”
I will learn to better model active listening and facilitate student discussion about any topic, but especially the hard conversations about race and equity. No more silence means examining my own biases. Are my biases causing me to leave out important teaching content? No more silence means addressing bias when I hear it. No more silence means working harder to curate accurate content (including historical) and placing it in my students’ hands to question and critique it. No more silence means student discourse about the uncomfortable topics to grow empathy and understanding.
I want my students to actively listen when they are having strong emotions and are disagreeing with what they are hearing. I need to model empathy and active listening, as well as provide guidance when my students practice questioning and “calling people in.” In Being the Change, Sara K. Ahmed shares this process and makes it doable and less intimidating. She creates charts with students before, during, and after these discussions and helps students make this work their own. Some of the best charts were created with the students in the moments of conflict.
“If someone is angry, more often than not they don’t outright say, “I’m angry and this is why…” No. They sulk. They look away. They shake their head. They retreat. They rage out. If someone is sad, they don’t say, “I’m sad and this is why…” No. They sulk. They stare down to the ground, silent. They have tears in their eyes. They weep. They sob. They run away.”
More can be communicated about emotions through a person’s body language than with words. Making students aware that they can notice when someone is uncomfortable and invite them to talk about it is a shift in classroom structures.
Doing this work is messy. I am lucky this coming year to have a co-teacher for the first time in my career. Together, we will discuss our vision for the structures and supports in our classroom. I am excited to not be doing this work alone like I have for the past 29 years. How better my teaching will be as a result of this collaboration. I want our classroom to be a safe place. I want students to have the tools to have a voice, especially when they are uncomfortable or in disagreement with someone. No more silence.
“Listening requires us to consider and utilize perspective, evidence, and language, connecting the new to the known, and we evolve as a result.”
Am I really listening and reacting authentically? Students can tell if I have really heard them or not. Screenwriter Ken Miyamoto emphasizes that there is no script in real life. This reminds me that we don’t have to have all the answers and there is no lesson plan that will replace being in the moment when doing this work. Students are more than capable of expressing the “great one-liner, fragment, or phrase hiding amidst the noise — that diamond in the rough that encapsulates the moment at the core.” Miyamoto, 2017
In Being the Change, Chapter 2: Listening with Love is directly related to the key in screenwriting that says the best dialogue is lack of dialogue. Ahmed talks about how active, empathetic listening facilitates real communication, learning and understanding. I will continue to share this resource as an important tool for this work.
As you watch this montage from The Shawshank Redemption you may want to ask yourself the following questions: Is there any empathetic, active listening in this montage? Is Red being interrupted or suppressed from talking? How does Red’s body language and facial expressions change throughout the montage? What real questions are being asked by the board or by Red? Why does Red change his response to the rehabilitation question?
Red is fed up. Plain and simple. He doesn’t expect to get released, so he is able to communicate how he really feels in his own, unrehearsed way. He is no longer just saying what he thinks these people want to hear. How can we create an environment where students can speak up and be themselves before they get fed up.
“We want to normalize the idea that there can be disagreement and agreement in any conversation. Remove the assumption that there are winners and losers in difficult discussions. We can mentor kids to value having conversations for the rest of their lives with people who have different ideas and opinions as a result of their experiences and identity.”
No more silence means we have high expectations for ourselves and our students. It means that we do the hard work to understand our own identity and biases. It means that we should model for students how to actively listen and have empathy, as well as disrupt the nonsense. No more silence means empowering ourselves and our students to lead and change the systems that are causing inequity. It includes reading and talking about the truth about our world and the founding of this country.
“The second and final key to unlocking the secret of writing great dialogue is to understand that there is no secret. There is no one final answer. And the moment you the screenwriter realizes that will be the moment that you’ll feel a heavy weight lifted from your shoulders.”
There is no one PD, book, program, lesson, or rubric that is the secret. Doing this work well includes many pieces in which I have only scratched the surface in this post. I have shared some resources below but found little for elementary students. Social comprehension and programs such as Open Circle in the elementary grades make sense developmentally, but it must go beyond being “kind and inclusive.” Being the Change is where I see this work going in elementary and beyond. Cornelius Minor’s book, We Got This, is the big picture of educational reform that lays out for teachers how to revolutionize classroom structures and make learning accessible to all. Learn Like a Pirate, by Paul Solarz, is a great resource for ideas about giving students voice and choice. The concept of a student-led classroom is another paradigm shift in classroom structures.
The secret lies within our students, so having high expectations for all students is a start. We must learn about each of our students and find their strengths, interests, and how they deal with struggle. I am not sure about the “heavy weight lifted from your shoulders” part of the above quote. I feel the heavy weight more than ever. This metaphorical heavy weight needs to persist for quite some time in order to change 29 years of teaching a certain way and being ignorant and silent for way too long. If you are new to this work, join me in this self-reflection and take on that “heavy weight.” If you are way ahead of me in your knowledge and practice in this area, please share content, anecdotes, and processes with the rest of us that will help us with this revolution.
No more silence because the roots are still twisted.
Books:
Being the Change: Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension by Sara K. Ahmed https://www.amazon.com/Being-Change-Lessons-Strategies-Comprehension/dp/0325099707/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=being+the+change&qid=1591457843&sr=8-1
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History National/dp/1568585985
We Got This by Cornelius Minor https://www.amazon.com/We-Got-This-Equity-Students/dp/032509814X
Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Like-Pirate-Students-Collaborate/dp/098821766X
Articles:
How Should I Talk About Race in my Mostly White Classroom https://www.adl.org/education/resources/tools-and-strategies/how-should-i-talk-about-race-in-my-mostly-white-classroom
The Single Secret of Writing Great Dialogue by Ken Miyamoto https://screencraft.org/2017/09/24/single-secret-of-writing-great-dialogue/
Other Resources:
Anti-Bias Lessons from ADL (mostly middle school/high school resource): https://www.adl.org/education-and-resources/resources-for-educators-parents-families/lessons
Talking about Race and Privilege for Middle School and High School Students: https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/diversity/social-justice/social-justice-lesson-plans/talking-about-race-and-privilege-lesson-plan-for-middle-and-high-school-students
Children’s Literature recommendations from ADL: https://www.adl.org/education-and-resources/resources-for-educators-parents-families/childrens-literature