Green is the Color of Hope: Developing Student Agency through Emulation
Title: Green is the Color of Hope: Developing Student Agency through Emulation
Presenter: Bridgette Gallagher
Date: Thursday, November 14, 2024
Time: 6:00-7:30 pm
Location: Online
Through writing, we are growing humanity. We do this by giving students opportunities to be vulnerable, opportunities to find their way, opportunities to accept themselves and others. When they write with hope, their humanity emerges.
Hope comes from the fresh voices we put in front of them. When students are able to hone in on the technique of a writer that they either admire or detest, they are able to truly connect with their own abilities and goals as a writer. It’s often through these exercises that the student learns their voice, their angle, their signature style that helps to set themselves apart from other adolescents.
True hope comes from a text that tells us, “You can do this, too.” Students are accustomed to being on autopilot when it comes to tapping into creativity. But, when we ask them to treat a new piece of writing in a particular way, their heart seeps out.
Poet Pablo Neruda wrote everything in green ink. When asked why he said that it was his personal color of hope. This hope emerges for a student when they see that a piece they thought just an imitation—- is theirs. It shows their voice, their perspective, their diction, their tone, their humanity. And with that hope, they are propelled forward into loving their true writer selves: unique, dynamic, and strong.