Uncovered Classroom

Hi! My name is Sydney Cunningham and I am a high school student at Skyline High School. Being a part of our Skyline Writing Center, I have become inspired to help improve my school and my community, and I have learned ways to be involved. I have always been passionate about fighting for racial equality inside and outside of the classroom, and I have decided to act on my passion to help aid in the battle against the racist systems within schools. I created Uncovered Classroom as a way for ELA teachers to learn how to make their classrooms more culturally relevant and to give them the resources to do so. I have observed that in our classrooms and our curriculum, students of color are often underrepresented and silenced. We are not accurately reflected in a lot of the work and examples we see in English classrooms. As a result of this underrepresentation, not only do students of color feel like they are not good enough to become great writers, it also perpetuates emotions of loneliness and inferiority. If all the examples of “great writers” we see in English classrooms are straight white men, it inaccurately infers that the only great writers and authors that exist are straight white men, which is simply not true. The goal of Uncovered Classroom is to give teachers easy access to amazing pieces of writing that they can show in their classrooms as examples to their students. This will create an environment where students can see themselves reflected in great pieces of literature, as well as allowing other students a chance to experience voices from different cultures.