Submitted by: Jane Belton

We began the English Department meeting by examining several Black@LREI posts for recurring themes, then used this work to frame our reflection on individual classroom practices. In particular, we responded to the following prompts:

• What are the practices in your classroom that might contribute to issues identified in the Black@LREI posts?
• What practices might perpetuate racial inequities / elements of White Supremacy Culture and harmful power dynamics?
•  What practices do you want to question, trouble, or stay curious about? 

Some areas we discussed:

• Discussion practices
• Group work – how to make individual work more visible
• Writing Practices 
• Teaching multiple writing conventions for different purposes
• Intersection of race, class, and learning support needs
• Feedback/assessment/grading and policies around late work
• Teacher language/lexicon 

At the next meeting, we will share some of the classroom practices we feel disrupt harmful power dynamics and racial inequalities.