Teaching African American Learners To Read

Despite many education reform efforts, African American children remain the most miseducated students in the United States. To help you mend this critical problem, this collection of original, adapted, and previously published articles provides examples of research-based practices and programs that successfully teach African American students to read. Thoughtful commentary on historic and current issues, discussion of research-based best practices, and examples of culturally appropriate instruction help you examine the role of education, identify best practices, consider the significance of culture in the teaching-learning process, and investigate some difficult issues of assessment.

The racial achievement gap in literacy is one of the most difficult issues in education today, and nowhere does it manifest itself more perniciously than in the case of black adolescent males. Approaching the problem from the inside, author Alfred Tatum brings together his various experiences as a black male student, middle school teacher working with struggling black male readers, reading specialist in an urban elementary school, and staff developer in classrooms across the nation. His book, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap' addresses the adolescent shift black males face and the societal experiences unique to them that can hinder academic progress. With an authentic and honest voice, Tatum bridges the connections among theory, instruction, and professional development to create a roadmap for better literacy achievement. He presents practical suggestions for providing reading strategy instruction and assessment that is explicit, meaningful, and culturally responsive, as well as guidelines for selecting and discussing nonfiction and fiction texts with black males. The author' s first-hand insights provide middle school and high school teachers, reading specialists, and administrators with new perspectives to help schools move collectively toward the essential goal of literacy achievement for all.

"A welcome book! Terry Meier refreshingly covers the linguistic features of Black Communications as well as its rhetorical/discourse patterns. Her vast experience in preparing teachers to teach reading and writing is reflected on virtually every page. This is a thoroughly researched, theoretically informed, and practically useful book. to paraphrase something the author wrote some years ago: 'You don't have to read it if you want to become a teacher; but you do if you want to become a great teacher, especially in inner city areas.'" John R. Rickford, Stanford University I can't imagine a better book on teaching Black children to read. At first, the order of chapters may seem surprising: pragmatic and rhetorical aspects of "Black Communication" before the more widely discussed differences in pronunciation and syntax; reading comprehension before the usually emphasized decoding. The result is that at the end, you understand all the above in new ways. Moreover, Meier's writing is so clear and so full of vivid examples that you get a terrific course in African American literature for primary children along the way. Courtney Cazden, Harvard Graduate School of Education "Black Communications and Learning to Read is relevant, thorough, well written, substantive, scholarly, and welcome - I could not put it down. with the field focusing more and more on issues of English learning among immigrant populations, the ongoing need to prepare teachers for dialectically diverse classrooms must not be overshadowed. This book will fill a huge void with respect to resources available for the preparation and continued growth of teachers." Sharon Nelson-Barber, WestEd This book is about effective literacy instruction for students in grades K-4 who use the language variety that many linguists call African American English, but which, as explained in the Introduction, the author calls Black Communications (BC). Throughout, considerable attention is given to discussing the integral and complex interconnections among African American language, culture, and history, drawing significantly on examples from African American historical and literary sources. Although it is theoretical in its description of the BC system and its discussion of research on language socialization in African American communities, the major focus of this book is pedagogy. Many concrete examples of successful classroom practices are included so that teachers can readily visualize and use the strategies and principles presented. Part I, 'What is Black Communications?" presents an overview of the BC system, providing a basic introduction to the major components of the language - phonology, grammar, lexicon, and pragmatics, and illustrating how these components work in synchrony to create a coherent whole. Part II, "Language Socialization in the African American Discourse Community," examines existing research on African American children's language socialization. Part III, "Using African American Children's Literature to Teach Essential Comprehension Strategies," draws connections between strategy instruction and the linguistic and rhetorical abilities discussed in Part II. Each chapter ends with suggestions for using African American literature to help children develop their speaking and writing abilities. Part IV, "Children Using Language," moves from a focus on teaching comprehension strategies to helping BC speakers learn to decode text. This volume is directed to researchers, faculty, and graduate students in the fields of language and literacy education and linguistics, and is well-suited as a text for graduate-level courses in these areas.

Focused on preparing educators to teach African American students, this straightforward and teacher-friendly text features a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, research-based case studies of model teachers, and tested culturally relevant practical strategies and actionable steps teachers can adopt. Its premise is that teachers who understand Black culture as an asset rather than a liability and utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to work can and do have specific positive impacts on the educational experiences of African American children.

This straightforward and reader-friendly text provides strategies for P-12 educators who are interested in ensuring the cultural and academic excellence of African American students. It presents a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant teaching, and research-based cases of teachers who excel at teaching Black children. Examples from multi-ethnic teachers across P-12 grades and content areas (e.g., ELA, science, mathematics, social studies, arts) are presented so that others can extrapolate in their respective educational settings. This book explains Black culture, anti-Black racism, African Diaspora Literacy, African American Language, and pro-Black and actionable steps that educators can adopt and implement. Examples of culturally relevant family and community involvement are provided. As with the previous edition, readers will appreciate a multitude of resources. After reading this book, educators will view educating African American students as exhilarating and rewarding and Black students will flourish.

This much-needed book will help schools and, by extension, society to better understand and identify the promise, potential, and possibilities of Black boys. Drawing from their wealth of experience in early childhood education, the authors present an asset- and strengths-based view of educating Black boys. This positive approach enables practitioners and school leaders to recognize, understand, and cultivate the diversity of social skills of Black boys in the early grades (pre-K–3rd grade). Each chapter begins with a vignette to illustrate what is lost when Black boys are prevented from participating freely in boyhood, having to instead attend to adult and peer interactions and attitudes that view them as “bad boys” and “troublemakers.” This accessible book provides teachers with classroom strategies to help young Black boys achieve their highest potential, along with other resources for supporting their social-emotional development, such as a reading list of authentic multicultural children’s books with Black boys as protagonists. “The Brilliance of Black Boys claims new ground to advance knowledge and practice that can change the narrative about Black boys and their early schooling.” —From the Foreword by James Earl Davis, Temple University “Wright’s uncommon insight into the world of Black boys unveils a new narrative and gives educators a formula for turning opportunity into advantage.” —Carol Brunson Day, past president, NAEYC “The Brilliance of Black Boys provides counter-stories, theories, paradigms, and resources to skillfully illustrate the strengths of Black boys. Readers will not be disappointed.” —Donna Y. Ford, Vanderbilt University

This book will help educators rethink their expectations of and practices for developing the literacy skills of Black boys in the elementary school classroom. Tatum shows educators how to bring students’ literacy development into greater focus by creating an early intellectual infrastructure of advanced literacy, knowledge, and personal development. He provides a strong conceptual frame, with associated instructional and curricular practices, designed to move Black boys from across the economic spectrum toward advanced literacy that aligns with the Black intellectual tradition. Readers will learn how to use texts from a broad range of potential professions, across academic disciplines, to nurture social and scientific consciousness. The text includes guidance for selecting texts, reading supports, prompts for analysis, and examples of student work. Teaching Black Boys in the Elementary Grades counters the current obsession with basic and proficient reading and argues for adopting an exponential growth model of literacy development. Book Features: A multidimensional model that supports reading and writing development.Student writing artifacts that can be used as a model for teachers.Sample lessons with texts for use across the academic disciplines.A strong conceptual and curricular frame to support educators in their text selection.

Provides information for teachers and schools on literacy instruction for African American adolescent males.