Authoring Pandemic Personal Narratives: Middle-Grade Students' Representations of Life During the 2020–2021 School Year

• In Event: Youth Voices and Positionality in the Arts

Abstract

This study drew from interpretive and poetic inquiry methods to examine eighth-grade students’ multimodal representations of life during the 2020-2021 school years. The English teacher in this study invited students to read pandemic texts that included photo essays, art, comics, and poetry. Students then authored their stories, sharing through images and words their perspectives on pandemic life. Composite found poems constructed by the researcher explored thematic strands that spanned multiple students’ perspectives on 2020-21, while solo-voiced found poems illuminated students’ unique experiences and identity work. Poem pages featured students’ visual work. This work demonstrated the significance of youth voices and insights, while highlighting the need for space to be made for the personal and the political in classrooms and curricula.

Author

• Stephanie F. Reid, University of Montana - Missoula