Getting To Know City Kids

Challenging the prevailing misconception that poor city kids are "troubled", "passive", and "dumb", this revealing study will stimulate alternative approaches to looking at children's capacities to learn, urging teachers to build on and extend the complexity of children's play as it relates to the intellectual work of the classroom.

Although rarely explored in academic literature, most inhabitants and visitors interact with an urban landscape on a day-to-day basis is on the street level. Storefronts, first floor apartments, and sidewalks are the most immediate and common experience of a city. These "plinths" are the ground floors that negotiate between inside and outside, the public and private spheres. The City at Eye Level qualitatively evaluates plinths by exploring specific examples from all over the world. Over twenty-five experts investigate the design, land use, and road and foot traffic in rigorously researched essays, case studies, and interviews. These pieces are supplemented by over two hundred beautiful color images and engage not only with issues in design, but also the concerns of urban communities. The editors have put together a comprehensive guide for anyone concerned with improving or building plinths, including planners, building owners, property and shop managers, designers, and architects.

From Simon & Schuster, City Kids is Sue Haven and Valerie Monroe's advice for raising kids in urban areas—from Cincinnati to Seattle—and having fun doing it. City Kids is Sue Haven and Valerie Monroe's advice from kids and parents living in the inner city gleaned from their experiences on living and raising kids in the city.

Urban teens of color are often portrayed as welfare mothers, drop outs, drug addicts, and both victims and perpetrators of the many kinds of violence which can characterize life in urban areas. Although urban youth often live in contexts which include poverty, unemployment, and discrimination, they also live with the everydayness of school, friends, sex, television, music, and other elements of teenage lives. Inner City Kids explores how a group of African American, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, and Haitian adolescents make meaning of and respond to living in an inner-city community. The book focuses on areas of particular concern to the youth, such as violence, educational opportunities, and a decaying and demoralizing urban environment characterized by trash, pollution, and abandoned houses. McIntyre's work with these teens draws upon participatory action research, which seeks to codevelop programs with study participants rather than for them.

“City Kids, City Teachers has the potential to create genuine change in the learning, teaching, and administration of urban public schools.” —Library Journal In more than twenty-five provocative selections, an all-star cast of educators and writers explores the surprising realities of city classrooms from kindergarten through high school. Contributors including Gloria Ladson-Billings, Lisa Delpit, June Jordan, Lewis H. Lapham, Audre Lorde, and Deborah Meier move from the poetic to the practical, celebrating the value of city kids and their teachers. Useful both as a guide and a call to action for anyone who teaches or has taught in the city, it is essential reading for those contemplating teaching in an urban setting and for every parent with children in a city school today. “Hopeful, helpful discussions of culturally relevant teaching . . . moving illustrations of what urban teaching is all about.” —Publishers Weekly “A refreshing and eclectic collection.” —Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “With its upbeat mix of ready-to-share city kids’ memoirs and classroom strategies, this book is an inspiring resource for veteran teachers, parents, community members, and students.” —Educational Leadership “You’ll feel sad, angry, hopeful, agitated, and inspired.” —NEA Today

Of the approximately 50 million public school students in the United States, more than half are in urban schools. A contemporary companion to City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, this new and timely collection has been compiled by four of the country’s most prominent urban educators. Contributors including Sandra Cisneros, Jonathan Kozol, Sapphire, and Patricia J. Williams provide some of the best writing on life in city schools and neighborhoods. Young people and practicing teachers, poets and scholars, social critics and journalists offer unique takes on topics ranging from culturally relevant teaching and scripted curricula to the criminalization of youth, gentrification, and the inequities of school funding. In the words of Sonia Nieto, City Kids, City Schools “challenge[s] the conventional wisdom of what it means to teach in urban schools.”

Hes a herb at school. He has all the things wrong with him that he could possibly have including being black, poor and skinny as a twig. His parents, one German and one Brazilian, make a very odd pair. They obviously arent his. Hes no one special. Just a 12-year-old kid in Queens, trying to overcome the worst with wry humor and the little he has. This is his lullaby. This book contains twenty of the best short stories by Frantzline Tingue. Whether it is about a girl who can fl y in "To Fly," or about a boy and his grandma in "Grandma's big bear hug." All the stories are written for the en-tertainment for readers of all ages.

Perform this script about two country kids who visit the city.