“How am I Supposed to Watch a Little Piece of Paper?” Literacy and Learning Under Duress.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the troubling fact that many students struggle to pay attention to literacy learning while they are in situations of extreme duress. This duress did not begin with pandemic, nor will it end with it. Neither is duress distributed at random; those negatively affected by the nation’s prejudices, as a general rule, are under more duress than those who reap the benefits of these systems. To achieve an equitable curriculum, we must teach with the attentional needs of those under duress in mind. This article explores how writing instructors can develop curricula that work with these needs. It looks at research on learning under duress as well as student work that was written in crisis, building upon the strengths of those under duress (who often, for example, write with a sense of urgency and keen awareness of their immediate surroundings) instead of trying to “cure” what we may perceive as weaknesses. A curriculum that speaks to the strengths of students with these experiences will be vital both during the pandemic and beyond it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]