Ph. D Zenkov - Through Students Eyes: Writing and Photography for Success in School

From Kristien: To Audra, for being the rock and friend and partner and love that I have longed to find, who enables this good work and this good life to an extent I have never before known. To my mom and dad, for being the first and best teachers in my life, for helping me to appreciate learningnot just schoolin ways that I still count daily as a gift.

From Jim: To my wife, Karen, who never flinched at years dedicated to TSE, I am the luckiest guy on the planet. I love you! To my children, Tony and Cara, I hope this book serves as a reminder that hard work and passion in a lifes work can make a difference, no matter how small. To my mom, thank you for always believing in me, in spite of my barely graduating from high school. To my coauthor, Kristien, this project and book would not happen without your laserlike focus on social justice, youth, and school. I am humbled by your work ethic, and delighted to call you my friend. And, finally, to all of the Cleveland youth who I have served in the past two decades: I have learned more from you than I have taught you, and you helped me realize a fundamental truth my mother first taught me: life may not take you where you want to be, but it takes you where you need to be.

From us both: To series editor Kay Adams, who pushed, prodded, cut, clarified, questioned, and deleted a lot: we thank you. And to those dear teacher colleagues, especially Piet, Hannah, and Marriam, and all the activists/artists who have engaged with us and the Through Students Eyes project youth as we have explored these adolescents perspectives on school. To all of the students who we have had the amazing good fortune to know and work with as a part of the Through Students Eyes project over the past dozen yearsfirst in Cleveland and Euclid, Ohio, and since in northern Virginia, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Iraq, and India. We believe more with each interaction with you that you are the best informants for what schools and our teaching should look like, and that the only real future of education is one that makes listening to you an integral part of this thing we call school.

This project is groundbreaking and important: The authors used Youth Participatory Action Research, inviting youth to use photo-voice structures to share their perspectives and challenge traditional notions of youth identities. From a stance of humility and invitation, Zenkov and Harmons representations allow us to see their families, schools, and communities in new ways. This is a delightful and informative text that you will not easily forget. Deborah Appleman, Professor of Educational Studies, Carleton College; co-author, UnCommon Core and Kathleen Hinchman, Professor of Reading and Language Arts, Syracuse University; co-editor, Best practices in adolescent literacy

This book will provoke needed conversations among whole school faculties and their administrators about what school really means to young people in urban schools. For teachers of writing, it offers a pathway for students who may not seem to take to composition easily or automatically. There is something so powerfully practical about this approach, that I can already imagine teachers shouting Of course! Lets do it! The book also offers deeply compassionate and ethical insights into what truly matters to human beings. Randy Bomer, Charles H. Spence Sr. Centennial Professor of Education; Director, Heart of Texas Writing Project, University of Texas-Austin; author, Building Adolescent Literacy in Todays English Classroom

It is impossible to read the narratives and look at the accompanying photos of these youth on the margins and not feel the power of teaching through students eyes. Zenkov and Harmon advocate a curriculum that invites youth to give form and voice to the big important issues in their lives that often go unaddressed in most language arts classrooms. With an equal balance of scholarship, sensitivity, and candor, these authors exhort teachers in this timely resource to create supportive contexts where students can name and deconstruct the barriers to academic achievement, and then envision possible selves and futures. William Brozo, Professor, George Mason University; author, Content and Disciplinary Literacy for Todays Adolescents (in press)

Zenkov and Harmon deliver a seriously considered call for rebalancing the perceived values of both the science and the art of creating a truly effective teaching and learning environment. They deliver a compelling invitation for all writing teachers, particularly those who work with struggling writers, to revisit the extent to which their practice incorporates an adequate focus upon the whole student. [They] make a strong case for a unique paradigm shifting approach to engaging struggling writing students that begins with a respect for the myriad of beyond the classroom variables that have influenced the students perceptions of their abilities to describe the world as they have come to see it. Jerome Burg, Founder, GLT Global ED; author, BookMapping: Lit Trips and Beyond

The instructional approaches advocated in this book are deceptively simple: ask good questions, make images, talk and write about those questions and images. These practices, however, have the potential for radically re-centering young peoples relationships with writing, schooling, and adults. Its not just what Jim and Kristien do but rather how they do it, revealed in story after story as a beautiful combination of humility and humanity. All kids should find what these authors call shelter in the classrooms of such caring and reflective practitioners. Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence, Syracuse University

Through Students Eyes enacts as well as features a relationship-oriented approach and a deep trust in youth to show us what we so often fail to discern about their experiences of school. Through the photovoice structures Zenkov and Harmon provide, students who are typically disenfranchised capture their experiences and insights and, through their representations, both affirm themselves and educate readers. Vivid in students words and images, this text invites educators to pay attention as youth show us how we need to learn to see anew. Alison Cook-Sather, Director of the Teaching and Learning Institute, Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges; author, Learning from the Students Perspective: A Sourcebook for Effective Teaching

This amazing project offers both the educator and the student a wonderful opportunity. Teachers are able to view the authentic lives of their students and in turn connect more deeply. Students are given an opportunity to share a voice they may not even know that they have. Real writing. Real voices. Real gains. A must-read for every English teacher.... One of the most powerful writing projects I have encountered in my twenty-five years of teaching. Kelly Croy, English Teacher (Oak Harbor, Ohio) and Apple Distinguished Educator; author, Along Came a Leader: A Guide to Personal and Professional Leadership

Through Students Eyes challenged me, as a reporter, to deepen the way I heard youth in my community. I still borrow the techniques today. The methods honed by Zenkov and Harmon allow students to examine their identities and surroundings with unparalleled perspective. It opens the door for youth (and the caring adults in their lives) not only to discuss and consider the possible, but to understand the realities that support or hinder them in reaching their goals. Rachel Dissell, reporter, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Action research at its most stellar and impactful. In this book, youth lead the way, drawing on multiple literacies to share their knowledge about what they know educators can and must do to recognize, revise, create, and nurture classrooms, schools, and systems of education worthy of their investment. Students words and images speak forcefully here. Lets hope all of us are listening.