Listen to the silence. That instruction may sound as if it comes from a Zen master, but it also happens to be the advice Katherine Schultz gave to NWP leaders when she addressed the NWP Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, March 25–26. Schultz, who directs the Philadelphia Writing Project and is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, posited that understanding the role of silence for the individual and the class as a whole is a complex process that requires new ways of conceptualizing listening.

6. Theorizing silence Every utterance has its biography and cuts its own figure, and, if we are careful enough to describe its points of contact with ongoing events, we can learn a great deal about the powers of talk that constructs, maintains, and resists the order of those events. (McDermott)

7. Teaching as fundamentally based on listening Listening: A framework for teaching across difference (Schultz, 2003)

16. Mattie Davis: Classroom talk, classroom silences

17. The Room 110 Pledge The Room 110 Pledge I am a beautiful child. I come to school to learn. I come to school to help myself. I come to school to help my family. I come to school to help my community. I must respect myself. I must respect my classmates. I must respect my teachers. I believe that I am a brilliant child. I come from great people. I come from great ancestors. Imhotep, Nefertiti, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey Dr. King, Malcolm X, Fanny Lou Hammer, my parents I come from great people.

19. Jerome: Authors’ chair

22. Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

23. Buildings speak project Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

24. Buildings speak project Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

25. Buildings speak project Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation Multimodal stories

29. “ If there is hope there is life” No one can take away from me My name, For it is mine. Bengali am I. I am the river that flows Through my land. I am the mountain Royal and wonderful Rising up out of the confusion and end I greet the morning sun That shines down on my rich valleys And dries my empty waste .

30. I am the red poppy and yellow saying That grow upon my bleeding hills. I am the battle cry of freedom That repeats through my hallways And every grain of my being. Therefore, I am. No one can take my name Away from me, Not tanks or guns or bombs Meant to abuse me and kill me. My country lives in me. I am the cry of liberty No matter what they take from me, They can’t take away my name Or my dignity. Bengali am I

38. Further Reading