Project LIT with Jarred Amato
Our guest for episode 18 is Jarred Amato the founder of Project LIT a literacy initiativef that he started with a group of students. What started as a classroom project learning about "book deserts" has now become a literacy community of over 40 chapters all across the country. Jarred discusses how project based learning, social emotional learning and culturally sustaining pedagogies intersect within this project.
Episode Notes
Main points of our discussion:
Book deserts
How Project LIT went from an assignment to a literacy community
How to think about teaching within a literacy-rich environment
Links
Project LIT information at Book Source Banter https://www.booksourcebanter.com/2018/06/25/what-is-project-lit-community/
Project LIT Collections https://www.booksource.com/Departments/Booksource/Special-and-Regional/Project-LIT-Book-Club.aspx
Project LIT on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/projectlitcommunity
Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way Down https://www.jasonwritesbooks.com/
Dashka Slater author of The 57 Bus https://www.dashkaslater.com/
Trevor Noah author of Born a Crime https://www.trevornoah.com/
Transcript
Scott Lee 0:01
On The Thoughtful Teacher podcast this fall, we will feature a series of conversations with teachers who have implemented their own literacy programs within schools. This episode is the first in the series. Our guest today is Jarred Amato. Jarred is a veteran English teacher in the Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee, and is the founder of Project LIT. That's project capital L, capital I capital T. Project LIT is a teacher and student developed literacy initiative that combines project based learning and social emotional learning. Utilizing culturally sustaining pedagogy is encouraging literacy achievement for all students. Please note, we discussed this unique literacy initiative in February 20, before the widespread school shutdowns caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. Welcome to the thoughtful teacher podcast JarRed Amato. I'm curious as we start out, can you explain what a book desert is?
Jarred Amato 1:11
Yeah, thanks, Scott, a book desert at a very simple level is an area with limited access to books. There's an article that I read back in 2016, about book deserts and the importance of growing up with books around you in your home, in your community, and especially in your school. And so we're talking about book desert, you're talking about classrooms, schools, communities, neighborhoods, where books, and in particular good books, books that students are excited to read, are hard, or impossible to find.
Scott Lee 1:43
Yeah, cuz I had never heard the term but had an idea of what it must mean, when I first heard it.
Jarred Amato 1:49
Actually, we start our school year. So this is now my 11th year in the classroom. And so my first unit in the fall is about access. And so I asked students the same question you asked me, What is the book desert, and you get a lot of looks. And so then we spent time researching and reading about book deserts. And then we move into identity, students identity as readers and as writers of the importance of access and identity in really shaping who we are. Yes, it's a really, a lot of people, myself included, have not seen the term really imprint
Scott Lee 2:24
until recently. Interesting. You mentioned classrooms and schools, I used to teach history and I find it hard to believe that a classroom could be a book desert, but I guess it could be
Jarred Amato 2:36
yeah man. We're talking schools, a lot of schools without libraries. Without full time librarians I teach in Nashville, the Middle School in East Nashville, I used to work, I was there back there for a PD day last last year. Turns out the library was was not being used. Wow, this beautiful library on the second floor, the school, literally students could not go upstairs to use the library. And then we're talking here in Nashville about our literacy crisis. And you have libraries, beautiful books, that were that were literally off limits to students.
Scott Lee 3:11
I walk through schools all the time, one of the things that does sometimes worry me is when I get the feeling that things are there, just to be seen and to look good, but not being used, even when you have materials, or even when materials are available. That doesn't necessarily mean students can have access to it.
Jarred Amato 3:30
No, you're absolutely right. And I feel like at a very simple level, when we're talking about literacy in particular, to have a football team, you need the right equipment, right? in basketball, you need the equipment in the band, you need to have the instruments at a very simple level, something that should be happening in every school, right? There should be enough books for students to read and find themselves in and discover the world and escape, and do all these beautiful things. With books. And without books. It's almost impossible to become a reader to enjoy reading, to see yourself as a reader. And so we talked about curriculum and assessment and data, but really a mood. Yes, we want to we want to focus on those things. But at a very simple level. Let's do the easy stuff first, right? Let's flood our schools and our classrooms, especially our English classrooms, with great books, and then go from there. I don't know, I think there are a lot of problems that are really hard to solve. Access to me is the easiest and one that we could solve tomorrow. If you really want to
Scott Lee 4:28
do if you can tell us a little bit more about what project LIT itself is, I guess access was kind of the first thing you realize that the problem was, is that right?
Jarred Amato 4:38
There are four words that that kind of shaped my identity as an English teacher, right? choice, time, access and community. For the past 11 years I've grown and reflected and refined and value right giving students time to read every single day in a safe welcoming, encouraging positive, warm environment where students feel safe, where they feel valued, where they feel seen where they feel comfortable. I had a group of students back in 2016. They were sophomores that may put high school, I taught many of those students the year before as freshmen. And when we got back in the fall, we read about book deserts and the importance of access, I posed the question, as part of our first unit based learning was still supported by our district at that time. And so the essential question was around, how do we increase access and eliminate book deserts here in our community, in Nashville, and at that moment, Project LIT community was born. And it was a student led effort to flood our community with books. And then more importantly, I think really just empowering our students to become the reading role models, and change agents in our own community, through bookclubs, through service through just a variety of ways, really just one step at a time without solving that that big problem of book desert, but really also just at a simple level, like how do we make reading fun? How do we make it celebrated? How do we make it exciting, and really just kind of doing that work step by step.
Scott Lee 6:12
Usually, when folks like us start talking about how to improve reading, or how to get kids interested in reading, usually, we go and we try and find a publisher with a program to buy. This is so different from that approach. I don't think as educators, oftentimes we feel empowered enough to do.
Jarred Amato 6:35
It really is a grassroots educator and student driven movement, right? Where there is no program, there's no computer app, there's, there's no prescription, right, it really is about empowering young people, empowering educators, to create the authentic reading environment and reading community that we all we all crave that we all need we all deserve. And so it's been really fun to kind of just to build something that, like you said, is really organic. And there's, there's no publisher behind it, there's no money behind it. And that's, it's been really funny, like you asked, right, I think the the formula that I found is, if we focus on increasing access to the great books, and to improving students reading attitudes, we'll see the better, we'll see the outcomes, we'll see the outcomes, whether we're measuring it through ACT score down the line, or a MAP test, or really like how students feel about reading how they see themselves. And anyway, we'll get into all that. But at a simple level, access and attitudes leads to the outcomes over time, you'd have patience, I feel like people are, are so like the they're looking for quick gains and immediate growth in reading, which just is not possible. That doesn't happen.
Scott Lee 7:47
Right, the idea of a self motivated reader, you know, getting students involved and understanding that and how powerful it is. For everything that we do. Do you have a student or a group of students who you could tell a story about how this has affected them and what you've seen? Just a student, that could be an example,
Jarred Amato 8:14
I could I could probably give you I'm looking at my board in my classroom right now. There's, there are 30 students that I could talk about individually, who founded this, who are the founders of logical community will talk about me, I'm the teacher that has been lucky enough to, to work alongside these students for now, three plus years. But our founders have led this work. They've dedicated hundreds, if not thousands of hours to, to this work to like reading to younger students, to leading book clubs, to organizing conferences, to interacting with authors to writing poetry, and speaking publicly and running our social media. And so that founding group graduated high school in May. And now, there are 13 students from our founding group who received full ride scholarships to Belmont University. And many now just just texted me last month, Dean's List first semester, doing doing great work and college students, student athletes, students who are now playing football in college, who were dedicating Saturdays to serve in our community and painting libraries and reading to little kids and delivering books I could go on. And so there are dozens of students here in Nashville who started this work they've done is they've inspired now we're talking thousands of students who are project leaders in classrooms and schools across the country. And so that founding group what we did, without realizing that time, we created what we call a model chapter, a project chapter, which is just we describe a group of students who are passionate about this work. We encourage other schools to join our community and join our movement and start chapters of their own. Talking about you know, success stories. There are so many today that gives me hope. that inspire me that inspire each other that are incredible. So yeah, there are, there's a few that I could I could share, specifically Raj Raya, and Lauren and David, and Kia, there are there a lot, but it's, it's really been, I used to coach sports I used to coach football and basketball. And this is this is my new team. It's a it's a reading team. And I feel like we celebrate and champion our athletes a lot. But we don't always do that for our readers. And, and that's what we've tried to do is build this team that supports and uplift one another.
Scott Lee 10:30
Did I hear you write that out of this group of 30 students that you started with 13 of them got college scholarships,
Jarred Amato 10:38
full full scholarships, and a bunch are cool across the state and other places, but 13 are Belmont scholars. And so it's been, it's been incredible. You think about what it takes to get to college, right? You see the ACT's there. All the research that connects the volume of reading and writing the students do is a huge predictor of college readiness. So these students read and wrote a ton in high school. But then you're also talking about resumes, right? The amount of community service, and for them, they didn't consider it service. But it was so they could speak to the work that they did to help our community. And to give back. We hosted book clubs every month. So they were used to interviewing and talking to adults and sharing their success and their excitement and interviewing Well, they were able to write about their their experience, the power of literature and the power of reading and the power of community. So anyway, all those things added up. And I felt like yeah, we we work together to support each other on that journey throughout high school.
Scott Lee 11:33
And that's so interesting, too, because I think it was an Education Week. Sometime in the last couple of weeks, authors of the commentary, were talking about the lack of opportunity to practice social emotional skills and learning, personally don't really like the term soft skills, I think it sends the wrong message about how important these non academic skills are, even though we know that it's a huge part of student success. And what you're describing is exactly the kind of thing that this commentary was saying is lacking in schools.
Jarred Amato 12:15
No. And so we actually have received a couple of grants for social emotional learning, right? Like the idea that in an English classroom, you can absolutely absolutely hit every piece of CASEL, the CASEL wheel, through your instruction through your regular day in and day out, classroom routine. And it's a beautiful thing to to be an English teacher, to help students read and write and make sense of themselves. And this crazy world we live in. And it all adds up right? When you create this safe, welcoming place where you can read and write a ton and process and reflect and talk, guess what happened? super excited to be there. So attendance goes up. There's no behavior issues. There's a sense of belonging and community. there's so few schools have enough opportunity for kids, you know, kids to mentor other kids. And that's nice. Yes, especially that So for us, right? We did it two ways. One, we opened up our classroom to the community. So we're talking adults would come in. And so our students would sit at tables, and eat breakfast and talk about books with adults as equals not the traditional Ameen, like they know everything, and lecture and our students are bored out of their minds. It was as equals, in fact, the adults would often sit back and we would tell them to listen and learn from our students. And so that was really powerful. And then our high schoolers would go down, and we would mentor middle school students, and we would read to elementary students. And so then we're also empowering our high schoolers to be the role models and the experts, right. And so you're kind of getting that beautiful thing where they're interacting with, with people of all ages, in a really meaningful and authentic way. Building competence, building self esteem, building, like you said, those soft skills, which we know are essential skills, all that is also creating this, this positive peer pressure to read more and to write more into to continue to develop their own literacy identity.
Scott Lee 14:12
Mm hmm. You mentioned culturally relevant education, culturally relevant literature. Do you ever get pushback that Oh, you're not teaching the classics? Better yet? What How do you define culturally relevant education and literature first, and then we'll come back to that question.
Jarred Amato 14:33
I think what happens so often that I've been a little annoyed by kind of like the the national dialogue right, I think they kind of create this either or tension and friction that I think they pit it's like we're pitting books against each other and creating this like false debate. When the reality is this right? Too many of our young people stop reading right they stop reading, seek entertainment and connection and belonging through social media through video games, through all sorts of things. But at a certain point, students stop reading. And so I think we need to acknowledge that what we're doing in a lot of classrooms and a lot of schools is not working for a lot of our students, right groups of students that that care about their grades and will do whatever the teacher tells them to do, because they said, so. But a lot of our students are smarter than that push back from they're saying, "Wait a minute, why do I have to do this? Why do I have to read this when I can Spark Note, or when it doesn't matter for what I recognize in my setting in my school, was that the way we were doing things?" And honestly, it's not even the classics, and a lot of times a lot of places, it's now a strict diet of close reading. So it's giving students a ton of what they call complex texts. Yes, just one after another. With text dependent questions, there's kind of no relevance, oftentimes, at best, it's like, somewhat decent. And what it requires is like a lot of energy on the teacher to either make it engaging or make students read it. And it like, it requires a lot of work. And there's a lot of rhetoric around like, Oh, it's an equity thing that students all need to be reading grade level stuff, but a lot of it, I think, is, is about money, where, you know, where are we getting these materials from? Who is demanding it, it's a lot about compliance. And anyway, I'm getting down, I could ramble about this for. But I my set, my point is, life is really short, my dad passed away unexpectedly over the summer, I'm a big believer in helping students develop a love of reading. And that comes out times through choice, and just creating an environment where we're always reading and discussing stuff that matters. So there's, there's so many great books, and poems, and nonfiction, and podcasts that are really complex, but also relevant and engaging, and really important to read and discuss. And so that's kind of like we're able to build this classroom where we're reading and writing a lot of different things.
Scott Lee 17:04
Yeah, I've been out of the day to day in the in the classroom for several years now. And one of the problems that we encountered when I got started was there was not enough close reading. And that was not encouraged enough, but at the same time, it doesn't do any good if the kids aren't motivated to do it.
Jarred Amato 17:24
Yeah, and I see this a lot. I say, a text is not rigorous if no one reads it. Spend this time in it, the teacher is forcing students to follow along as they read it aloud. Or they're, you know, they're highlighting, but they know, they don't know what they're highlighting close reading is not important. We're doing a ton of close reading in here. But when you look at how we design and how I design, my classroom, it's student centered is student led. There's actors, tons of books, right now, there's I wish you could see it students are they took all the books, so students have read anywhere from five to 10 to 50 books this year, on their own cleaning independently are fresh out of high school freshmen, what they're doing is they're taking all the books, and they're drawing literally drawing lines and making connections between them. So you can literally on this page, see their brains churning and making connections about race and class and gender and identity and love and hope and the future and the past. And they're there, you could literally see their brains moving and thinking in this really, really deep and complex way. And they're discovering on their own. And then we're sharing with each other recommendations. And we're, we're having book clubs, where I'm having conversations, and we're writing and we're and so you're just like building this, this beautiful community. And I know that, you know, when we're talking about systems, I know, it's harder, right? Like, it's scarier for districts to to move in that direction, because it's, it's giving up control means that it may be Messier may mean that teachers are doing different things at different times. But like, our each, each of my classes is different. There are different students in that room. And so all I think is I think we should help teachers, myself included, develop and build out a really robust toolbox, different texts and strategies and ideas. And then depending on the students you have in that room, you can pull out different things from that toolbox, different times. And so
Scott Lee 19:19
unfortunately, our oftentimes our system doesn't matter whether it whether it's a state curriculum, or if state is completely uncommon core, the assumption is that every student should be able to do this, this, this and this, learn at the same speed, be able to to show mastery at the same speed and in exactly the same way. And of course, anybody who's taught for any amount of time knows that that's just that can't be most parents that have taught their kids stuff know that that doesn't make any sense if they think about It?
Jarred Amato 20:00
No, it's is that is exactly right, I got, I've been I've been boxing as my workout for for about a year.
Scott Lee 20:07
Mm hmm.
Jarred Amato 20:07
So I title boxing I'll go in there three days a week or four days a week, right. And so there's a lot I could say about it at a very simple level, the gym, they're not expected for all of their clients to leave with the same whatever body mass index or the same mile time and the same measurements, right, we're all we all come in at different points, their goal is to create an environment that allows me to grow and to become stronger and faster and healthier, and to create the conditions for everybody to grow at their own pace and in their own way, and build the relationships and develop a workout routine, and create a structure that allows us all to flourish in that space. They're not measuring each of us the same way. Right. And so it's somehow we in this education space, I feel like a lot of educators and schools, there's a lot of noise, and we end up feeling paralyzed and pressured to take shortcuts or to advocate for for things that we know are not good. And we say we're doing it because they tell us to or because of the data. But when you really step back, like what is the common sense tell us like is this? Is this helpful? are we creating places that are full of joy? Is school a happy place to be for teachers, and for students? And if it's not take a step back? And ask, can we do things better? Can we do things differently. And so with the work that we're doing, like with Project lists and different things, I never want to tell people what to do or how to do it. But really, just to show them, here's what we're doing. Hopefully, this helps you take a step back and reflect on your own practice as an English teacher, or the policies that your school is implementing to like to either create or not create the literacy culture that the students deserve. And so that's kind of as at a simple level as a human being, what is my purpose here in this classroom? To kind of switch gears a little bit like, what percentage of our students will become English majors? Do you know,
Scott Lee 22:04
probably not many. And I actually had a conversation with another guest on this podcast. And he was talking about STEM careers, and that he had to be mindful that you know, less than 5% of the students that he has, in a perfect world would end up actually going into STEM careers, just the way that it is same thing, I'm sure with English or whatever content area, but what is the number?
Jarred Amato 22:29
I don't know, that's what I'm saying. I think it's shrinking by the year. And so it's my point with that is there are there's a small percentage of students in our school that may be ready to go after Shakespeare really, really hard right? To really read all the classes. But if we're being honest, most of us Spark Note or BS our way through so that we can sit out, you know, answer questions on Jeopardy or sit at a cocktail party in academia. But none of us have read all those books. If there was one book or a set of books that guaranteed you would become a proficient reader, of course, we would read them, right. But we know that's not how reading works. And so my thoughts are, let's step back again, and how do we increase the chances that students will continue to read at home and on the weekends and next year, and next decade, and also just ensure that they have the ability to read and write well, and that's where feedback comes in. And that's where we're able to actually teach writing craft and we're looking at what's expected in college in terms of research and citations, and just be able to read and write proficiently and quickly and fluently. You can get to that outcome without reading, you know, pick, pick a book, right? What is a Scott letter or to kill a mock whatever, like any of those books, and I know, again, teachers get upset because those books may have meant a lot to them. And there's a sense of pride. But really, my I think my point is like I don't think anything is essential. I think it's really working with students to design a sequence and structure that that makes sense to everybody in that room.
Scott Lee 23:58
I see what you're saying. And I think that probably is true. Who has read all of them?
Jarred Amato 24:03
Yeah. And I would say they, Jason Reynolds, a incredible young adult author says all the time, like, once students identify as, as readers, they're like, yeah, I am a reader. And they have the competence to finish books on their own. You can then throw anything at them, right happens is we get students who we call reluctant readers. And really, it's because they've had just year after year of poor to mediocre reading experiences in school. And they've stopped reading. And so then when we throw something at them, that they're not excited about or interested in initially, they shut down
Scott Lee 24:36
and if they've had poor experiences when you throw that at them, even if they might be otherwise interested in it. If it's too hard, it's too hard. It is
Jarred Amato 24:47
and so, it's really about again, meeting students where they are and coming to it and again, there's there's some creative ways like I've seen teachers do great things with classic texts or with new texts, part of the excitement thing as we move into a new decade will be one, redefining what a classic is. And then also, there are so many great books that are being written now to be read now. And I think there's just a lag in education, right? Based on publishing, and getting permission and getting a textbook, right. And there's this lag. And so what happens is books around 10 to 20 years before they they're added to the curriculum, by then it's too late. And there's this untapped potential in schools to make space for protects whether there again, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, making room for new and exciting tax making, roof them now, especially when students have the potential and the opportunity to engage with those authors in real time, the power of social media and technology for students to Skype with authors to, to reach out to meet them at festivals and conferences, and there's this thing that like, it didn't exist, even 20 years ago, right, and and with others who have passed away, right, you can, you can interact with Shakespeare, of course, there's value and power in examining older texts. But my point is, there's this really cool opportunity to interact with, with authors in a way that didn't exist before.
Scott Lee 26:08
Sure. One other quick question, before we go, what is one book that you would suggest that more teachers should read,
Jarred Amato 26:17
read on their own or with students?
Scott Lee 26:19
read on their own.
Jarred Amato 26:20
Hmm, that's a different question. Well, I'll say it could be the books will be the same. So there, let's go with three I'm looking at my classroom right now. One, we talked a lot about, you know, one of the problems with the way we do English is that we drag one book out for an entire nine week period. By that point, even the best book is just destroyed. Right? Right. And we're beating it to death. And there's the traditional paper at the end. And it that traditional model doesn't work for a lot of our kids. So Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. Okay, you did or listen to the audiobook is narrated by Jason himself, in 90 minutes. powerful, powerful story of a young man deciding whether or not to to get revenge, his brother has just been murdered. And you don't know if he's, if he's dreaming. If he's seeing people from his past, there's like shades of Christmas Carol, but like set in, in an anyway, long way down by Jason Reynolds, The 57 Bus by Dashka. Slater is nonfiction that reads like fiction. It's super compelling. It is set in Oakland, California on The 57 Bus. And it explores the intersection of race, class, gender, justice, education, there's a ton to unpack and discuss and think about, especially for our educators. It's one that we'll read with our students here shortly, the semester. One more when you talk about educate, Educated [by Tara Westover], it reminded me of Trevor Noah, his memoir, Born A Crime. And again, he narrates that himself. It's stories from his childhood in South Africa. And it touches on a whole bunch of amazing family and apartheid, using humor to overcome trauma, tragedy, inspire students to write stories of their own. It's great to listen to the group of students. It's great to listen to in the car, and to listen to each chapter on its own and kind of come back in and you you hear Trevor Noah sharing these really personal and heartfelt at times heartbreaking at times hilarious stories. Yeah, they're, it's really, really good. And so those would be three that I would recommend.
Scott Lee 28:30
Thank you very much for joining us, Jarred.
Jarred Amato 28:32
Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it.
Scott Lee 28:35
This has been episode number 18. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is hosted and produced by R. Scott Lee who retains copyright. We encourage diverse opinions. However, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of producer, partners or underwriters. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Transcripts are available following podcast publication at our website, thoughtfulteacherpodcast.com. Sponsorship opportunities or other inquiries may be made on the contact page at our website, thoughtfulteacherpodcast.com. Please follow the thoughtful teacher podcast on Twitter @drrscottlee.
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