WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.330 --> 00:00:11.050 So what I'd specifically tell a fellow teacher 2 00:00:11.050 --> 00:00:14.230 or a colleague about "Every Body Looking" is that 3 00:00:14.230 --> 00:00:18.820 it is a very accessible text for a range of students, 4 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:22.990 those who are resistant to reading, 5 00:00:22.990 --> 00:00:26.410 resistant to keeping their attention on something 6 00:00:26.410 --> 00:00:28.920 that may be longer, 7 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.490 students who are struggling with an array of issues, 8 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:35.350 from body dysmorphia, 9 00:00:35.350 --> 00:00:37.580 body image issues, 10 00:00:37.580 --> 00:00:40.383 family problems, addiction, 11 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:47.260 identity issues, sexuality, 12 00:00:47.260 --> 00:00:52.250 gender expression, bullying, even. 13 00:00:52.250 --> 00:00:55.110 And beyond the fact that it's accessible 14 00:00:55.110 --> 00:00:56.750 for all of these different topics, 15 00:00:56.750 --> 00:01:00.680 it's just really great for a guided discussion, 16 00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:02.580 prompted free writes, 17 00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:05.800 and just open dialogue within your classroom 18 00:01:05.800 --> 00:01:08.370 for students who take a little bit longer 19 00:01:08.370 --> 00:01:11.750 to buy into the lesson. 20 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:14.640 There's just a array of things that come up in this story, 21 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:19.030 as it being about a young person who's about to leave home 22 00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:21.900 and has been indoctrinated a certain way 23 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:24.840 and has been also taught things through trauma 24 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:27.640 that there are other ways of being 25 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:29.570 once we distance ourselves from the things 26 00:01:29.570 --> 00:01:30.963 that caused us trauma. 27 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.430 I would really recommend it to other teachers 28 00:01:35.430 --> 00:01:39.000 because it does a lot of the work for you. 29 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.690 It does a lot of the work for you in its word choice, 30 00:01:41.690 --> 00:01:43.970 and it's brevity, and the different devices 31 00:01:43.970 --> 00:01:48.643 that are used to tell a very complex story very simply. 32 00:01:53.210 --> 00:01:57.850 So my experience in the classroom did something very, 33 00:01:57.850 --> 00:02:02.850 very wonderful for me in writing "Every Body Looking" 34 00:02:03.020 --> 00:02:06.910 in that it really taught me a lot 35 00:02:06.910 --> 00:02:10.570 about how not to waste young people's time 36 00:02:10.570 --> 00:02:13.790 with busy work and busy words. 37 00:02:13.790 --> 00:02:18.790 And so I learned very early on as an educator 38 00:02:20.610 --> 00:02:25.610 how to say exactly what I mean, to be clear, to be specific, 39 00:02:26.210 --> 00:02:29.830 and I carried that over into my storytelling 40 00:02:30.970 --> 00:02:35.340 in the emotions that I wanted to evoke 41 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:40.340 as well as in my ability to name the experiences 42 00:02:40.970 --> 00:02:45.330 of my main character and for her to be very clear 43 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:48.583 in her voice and her convictions. 44 00:02:49.875 --> 00:02:53.810 I also really learned a lot 45 00:02:53.810 --> 00:02:56.450 about safety in my time as an educator 46 00:02:56.450 --> 00:03:01.450 and how important it is to really become safer space 47 00:03:01.510 --> 00:03:03.290 for a young person. 48 00:03:03.290 --> 00:03:07.150 And that carried over 49 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:09.210 into writing the book 50 00:03:09.210 --> 00:03:12.093 because I really had to be thoughtful. 51 00:03:13.850 --> 00:03:16.210 I had to be really thoughtful and very mindful 52 00:03:16.210 --> 00:03:18.000 about how I told this story 53 00:03:19.470 --> 00:03:22.660 that houses a lot of trauma 54 00:03:22.660 --> 00:03:26.400 and a lot of triggers for the reader. 55 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:29.640 And so I think, yeah, 56 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:34.230 I think largely what the classroom taught me, 57 00:03:34.230 --> 00:03:37.050 as I wrote the book and as I revised the book, 58 00:03:37.050 --> 00:03:41.490 was how to use the time and the space on the page wisely 59 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:43.023 and how to do it with care. 60 00:03:47.260 --> 00:03:51.170 So of the 10 years that I spent in the classroom, 61 00:03:51.170 --> 00:03:55.000 mainly as a creative writing facilitator and instructor 62 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:56.613 with high school students, 63 00:03:57.470 --> 00:03:59.930 two of the biggest challenges I had 64 00:03:59.930 --> 00:04:03.920 with my students was buy-in, 65 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:05.170 just getting them interested 66 00:04:05.170 --> 00:04:09.270 in a topic or a discussion that I wanted to have 67 00:04:09.270 --> 00:04:13.430 as well as them feeling 68 00:04:13.430 --> 00:04:17.460 like their stories were important enough to tell. 69 00:04:17.460 --> 00:04:19.720 And so I think I would specifically 70 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.780 use "Every Body Looking" to teach personal narrative 71 00:04:22.780 --> 00:04:25.070 and how powerful and important it is 72 00:04:25.070 --> 00:04:29.160 to tell your own specific story from your point of view. 73 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:32.210 And so I think two specific ways 74 00:04:32.210 --> 00:04:35.180 that I would engage this text in my classroom is 75 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:37.470 through prompted free writes 76 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:41.150 where I'm guiding them using a piece of the text, 77 00:04:41.150 --> 00:04:44.640 and then using it to, later on, have a guided discussion 78 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:47.200 around an experience 79 00:04:47.200 --> 00:04:49.670 or a topic 80 00:04:49.670 --> 00:04:51.940 that I might want to delve into 81 00:04:52.930 --> 00:04:57.780 or just kind of like centering in on the literary devices 82 00:04:57.780 --> 00:04:59.210 that the text uses. 83 00:04:59.210 --> 00:05:01.260 Something really great about "Every Body Looking" 84 00:05:01.260 --> 00:05:03.900 is that there are less words on the page, 85 00:05:03.900 --> 00:05:06.480 but there are a lot of devices that are at play 86 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:07.520 at the same time, 87 00:05:07.520 --> 00:05:10.570 so I think it's really easy to just pull a page 88 00:05:10.570 --> 00:05:12.810 or pull a section from this story 89 00:05:12.810 --> 00:05:15.600 and to just run with it. 90 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.330 I think it's also, on the personal narrative side, 91 00:05:19.330 --> 00:05:21.140 it's also a great testament 92 00:05:21.140 --> 00:05:25.620 to these simple yet nuanced experiences 93 00:05:25.620 --> 00:05:28.940 that young people have that they don't think are a big deal. 94 00:05:28.940 --> 00:05:31.310 There are a lot of moments like that in this story, 95 00:05:31.310 --> 00:05:35.590 and I personally would use this as an educator 96 00:05:35.590 --> 00:05:39.880 to kind of center in on these minute moments, 97 00:05:39.880 --> 00:05:41.540 whether it be memory, 98 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:46.540 whether it be something that's happening in real time, 99 00:05:47.165 --> 00:05:49.700 there's just lots of opportunities 100 00:05:49.700 --> 00:05:53.510 to illustrate how important a lot 101 00:05:53.510 --> 00:05:56.663 of these small moments are in a young person's life. 102 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:03.800 There are three novels 103 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:06.370 that I think work really well in conversation 104 00:06:06.370 --> 00:06:08.650 with "Every Body Looking." 105 00:06:08.650 --> 00:06:10.930 The first would be "The Stars 106 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:14.810 and the Blackness Between Them" by Junauda Petrus. 107 00:06:14.810 --> 00:06:18.840 I think it's a really beautiful novel 108 00:06:18.840 --> 00:06:21.420 that illustrates 109 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:24.260 a young person experiencing queer love 110 00:06:24.260 --> 00:06:25.480 for the first time 111 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:31.850 and not shying away 112 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:36.150 from this desire that you're experiencing, 113 00:06:36.150 --> 00:06:39.250 maybe possibly having to hide it 114 00:06:39.250 --> 00:06:43.690 because you come from a family that doesn't understand it, 115 00:06:43.690 --> 00:06:45.800 doesn't accept it, 116 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:49.720 you haven't seen a model of, you know, 117 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.220 love presented in a way that looks 118 00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:55.280 like something that you're feeling in your body. 119 00:06:55.280 --> 00:06:57.490 So I think it's just a really beautiful novel 120 00:06:57.490 --> 00:07:01.410 that also illustrates 121 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:05.760 the differences between having a supportive family 122 00:07:05.760 --> 00:07:07.910 and a family that's not so supportive 123 00:07:07.910 --> 00:07:11.320 because of cultural differences. 124 00:07:11.320 --> 00:07:16.320 Secondly, I think "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" 125 00:07:16.890 --> 00:07:18.920 would pair well with "Every Body Looking" 126 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:23.920 because it's just a really, really honest telling 127 00:07:24.280 --> 00:07:27.210 of what it might feel like to be 128 00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:30.150 an immigrant's child 129 00:07:30.150 --> 00:07:32.800 and this narrative 130 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.290 that they have sacrificed so much for you 131 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:40.600 and have done so much for you 132 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:45.380 that you have this incredible pressure to be perfect 133 00:07:45.380 --> 00:07:50.270 or to be something that you aren't necessarily, 134 00:07:50.270 --> 00:07:54.715 and the pressure 135 00:07:54.715 --> 00:07:57.530 of measuring up to the standards 136 00:07:57.530 --> 00:07:59.940 that your family have set for you, 137 00:07:59.940 --> 00:08:03.930 and what it's like to figure out who you really are, 138 00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:07.300 what you really like, what you want out of life. 139 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:12.300 And lastly, I think "Long Way Down" by Jason Reynolds 140 00:08:12.810 --> 00:08:14.060 would pair really well with this. 141 00:08:14.060 --> 00:08:16.244 It's another novel in verse 142 00:08:16.244 --> 00:08:21.244 that really does a great job 143 00:08:21.440 --> 00:08:26.440 of centering in on anger and the emotions 144 00:08:27.200 --> 00:08:30.417 that a young person experiences when they're wronged 145 00:08:30.417 --> 00:08:33.720 or have experienced some type of trauma 146 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:38.700 and how the many ways that they would like to respond, 147 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:40.880 the thoughts that they experience, 148 00:08:40.880 --> 00:08:43.680 and how quickly all of that can happen, 149 00:08:43.680 --> 00:08:46.670 and the many influences and things 150 00:08:46.670 --> 00:08:51.120 that might cause a young person to either retaliate 151 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:51.970 or 152 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:59.480 really allow those traumatizing feelings 153 00:09:00.810 --> 00:09:02.700 to become embodied. 154 00:09:02.700 --> 00:09:06.110 And, yeah, I just think it would, 155 00:09:06.110 --> 00:09:07.780 it works really well together 156 00:09:07.780 --> 00:09:10.820 because the, naturally, the format's very similar 157 00:09:10.820 --> 00:09:13.510 but also if you can, 158 00:09:13.510 --> 00:09:15.570 you can very clearly hear the voice 159 00:09:15.570 --> 00:09:18.153 of a young person in crisis.