Buffalo Grove English Teacher Wins Spot at Yale's Summer Seminar, "Slave Narratives in American Literature"

     Ami Relf, English teacher at Buffalo Grove High School, was chosen among educator applicants throughout the nation to study "Slave Narratives in American Literature" at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., this summer, through the Gilder Lehrman Institute. The 25 selected K-12 teacher fellows will participate in the June 22-28 seminar, presented by Yale professor and noted author, Dr. David Blight, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the U.S. Civil War and its legacy.

     The seminar will examine in depth both antebellum and postbellum narratives through biographies, fiction, and autobiographies, the largest of the genre. Pre-emancipation narratives mostly focused on the oppression and abomination of slavery, whereas post-emancipation works were more often stories of triumph amidst adversity and hope for the future. The seminar will use the slave narratives to comprehend the lived experience of slaves themselves in the transition from bondage to freedom.

     "My goal is to add African American literature, specifically slave narratives, into my classroom," said Relf.  "I want to make my students thinkers and learners outside of Buffalo Grove's community, which will prepare them for a multicultural society. Creating culturally responsive pedagogy has been at the cornerstone of my efforts to advance an education that is multicultural. Culturally responsive English instruction creates an environment in which students are set up to succeed as they develop literacy skills by utilizing their backgrounds and experiences as strengths, rather than deficits, to make learning relevant and meaningful."

     Relf has also been selected for other prestigious summer seminars throughout the past few years, including her five-week trip in 2013 to South Africa through Rhodes University and University of Arkansas-Monticello to participate in "South Africa History and Culture."  Stateside, she has been chosen to attend "African American History and Politics: History Makers" in Chicago, July-Aug. 2012; "Jim Crow and the Fight for American Citizenship" at Yale, June 2012; and "Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and Her Eatonville Roots" at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., July 2011.