ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the design and structure of a critical, project-based clinical experience as part of an elementary writing methods course. The authors share illustrations from the Affective Archive, a semester-long project embedded in the course. The Affective Archive speaks to the critical-affective goals of the authors’ particular model of methods preparation for school- and university-based teacher educators, preservice teachers, and children. Drawing on field notes, student work, interviews, and video of interactions from one semester, this chapter describes students’ responses to the authors’ attempts to weave the threads of affective, justice-centered pedagogies and cultivation of teaching practices through the project. They discuss three themes that emerged from analysis: Leading with Vulnerability, Relentless Positive Positioning of Students, and Engaging with Power and Privilege. The chapter concludes with key lessons learned from incorporating this multimodal project, rooted in critical and affect theories, into a school-immersed literacy methods course.
