Humanizing the Teaching of Writing for Elementary Grades
Humanizing the Teaching of Writing for Elementary Grades
Wednesday, September 23 | 7:00 p.m. ET
REGISTER HERE
This event is free for NCTE members. Not a member? Join today!
Registration will close 90 minutes prior to the event start time.
Join the NCTE constituent group Literacies and Languages for All (LLA) for a discussion with LLA member Grace Kang, coauthor of Writing Reimagined: Bridging Critical Theories and Pedagogical Practices in Elementary Classrooms (2026), which offers a powerful vision for rethinking writing instruction.
Grounded in humanizing pedagogy, critical literacy, and culturally sustaining pedagogy, Kang’s book introduces Critical Humanizing Writing Pedagogy—a framework that bridges theory and classroom practice to support elementary literacy that is meaningful, relational, and transformative. We invite elementary education teacher educators, graduate teaching assistants, and elementary classroom teachers who teach writing to join in meaningful and critical discussion around this framework and to share ways to enact critical and humanizing writing instruction.
Members will:
- Develop a foundational understanding of Critical Humanizing Writing Pedagogy as a framework that positions writing as a relational, identity-centered, and justice-oriented practice.
- Examine the possibilities of this framework for reimagining writing instruction, including how it expands notions of who counts as a writer, what counts as writing, and what becomes possible in elementary classrooms.
- Share and reflect on ways to enact more humanizing writing instruction in elementary classrooms.
Certificates of attendance are available upon request.
Please contact profdev@ncte.org with questions.
FEATURED GUEST
Grace Kang is a professor of literacy at Illinois State University. She teaches literacy methods courses and mentors preservice teachers in a PDS in the Chicago suburbs—where she attended elementary school—and in a school-university partnership in Champaign, where she resides and serves on the school board. Her research explores Critical Humanizing Writing Pedagogy and social justice–oriented teacher education, specifically in writing. Her research has been published in Written Communication, JOLLE, Language Arts, and The Reading Teacher. She enjoys traveling with her husband and four children and considers herself a true foodie (and even writes for a local food blog).
FACILITATOR
Lenny Sánchez, LLA President and professor and program chair of Language and Literacy Education in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.