How do we make space for the stories that children bring with them into classrooms—especially the difficult stories?

Dr. Elizabeth Dutro, our guest today, likens those difficult stories to newly hatched baby chicks—the kind that we cup and cradle in our hands. Each of us carries these difficult stories with us into the classroom. As teachers, we often imagine that our students—the youngest ones especially—are like baby chicks, fragile creatures whose vulnerability must be protected. But Dr. Dutro’s book, The Vulnerable Heart of Literacy,reminds us that children can and do hold space for their own and their peers’ difficult stories, and that their experiences not only matter in school, but that they are essential to school writing. How can teachers honour and invite the innate vulnerability that children bring with them into classrooms? Today Dr. Dutro shares how the literacy classroom is brought to life when we make room for children’s stories to hatch and take flight.

Teaching Writers Speak is a podcast developed by members of the Toronto Writing Project. The Toronto Writing Project is made up of teachers and researchers who view writing as a vehicle for change in our institutions and in the world at large.

Daniela Bascuñan, Velta Douglas, Will Edwards, Celeste Kirsh, Rob Simon, and Ty Walkland, all help to bring this podcast to life. Our theme music is composed by Doug Freisen.

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