Teaching Black Boys in the Elementary Grades: Advanced Disciplinary Reading and Writing to Secure Their Futures

by Alfred W. Tatum

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807779972
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	12/03/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Alfred W. Tatum is provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Metropolitan State University of Denver and former dean (2013–2020) of the College of Education and professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he served as director of the UIC Reading Clinic for 14 years. He is known for his research, writing, and professional development in support of African American boys.

Table of Contents

Foreword Josh Parker vii

Acknowledgments ix

1 An Advanced Literacy and Knowledge Perspective 1

Early Wounded Years 4

High Text Volume 4

The Black Intellectual Tradition 6

Seven Pathways to Advanced Literacy and Intellectual Development for Black Boys 9

Black Male Erasure Is Given Birth in the Elementary Grades 10

Reading, Race, and Advanced Disciplinary Reading and Writing 13

Refusal to Authorize Texts and Topics for Black Boys 16

2 Iconography of Darkness 18

Black Boys and Knowledge of Self 19

The Poverty Penalty 20

The Need for a Threefold Embrace 21

Rewarded and Suffocating Darkness 21

Suffering Neophytes 22

Darkness: The Progenitor to Suffering 23

Partial Faulting: Never Rise From the Bottom 24

School-Related Darkness 25

Stolen Legacy and Literacy 27

Excusatory Powers of Darkness 28

Home-Related Darkness 28

In Search of the Light 30

3 A Multidimensional Reading Model 33

Interrogating Literacy Authorization 35

A Research-Based Multidimensional Literacy Model 36

Meaningful Exchanges With Texts 38

Guidelines for Text Selection 41

The Anatomy of the MDRM Lessons 44

MDRM and the Black Intellectual Tradition 51

Measuring Impact 57

Black Boys Deserve All Kinds of Texts 59

Literacy Sins of This Nation 63

4 Social and Scientific Literacy Authorizations 68

Building Relationships With the Disciplines 68

The MDRM Model Lesson 72

Focus on the Universe, Society, and the Body 77

Interdisciplinary Probing: Black Boys and Consciousness 82

Sample Texts and Lessons From the Interdisciplinary Probing 89

Fourth-Grade Boys' Writing Artifacts 99

Exalting Advanced Reading Through Literacy Authorizations 103

Sample Literacy Improvement Plan 104

5 Black Boys and Writing: The True intellectual Exercise 109

Textual Literacy Frames 111

Sample Textual Literacy Frame 112

Writing Across Multiple Texts 113

Responsive Writing Instruction 116

Neither Innocent Nor Kind 125

The Souls of Black Boys 128

6 Toward an Early Intellectual Infrastructure 129

Interdisciplinary Movement and Black Boys 132

Disciplinary Disconnect 136

Elementary-Aged Black Boys and Texts 138

Nurturing a Culture of Intellectual Collaboration 143

Harsh Schedule of Reading and Writing 144

Researching the Literacy Development of Black Boys in the Elementary Grades 147

Afterword Cornelius Minor 153

References 155

Index 160

About the Author 166

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“We do not have a 'boy' crisis in education; we have instead unresponsive schooling that continues to fail to meet the urgent academic needs of particular boys. In this important book, Alfred Tatum has once again raised our consciousness about who these students are and has provided us practical insights needed, as he stresses, to refuse to allow Black boys to be underserved.”
—William G. Brozo, emeritus professor of literacy​, George Mason University

“Here is what we have always known: We cannot lead full lives if we are not literate. . . . The movement toward greater freedom must start in the classroom. Dr. Tatum has given us such a powerful book to catalyze that work.”
—From the Afterword by Cornelius Minor, author and educator

“Dr. Alfred Tatum has hit another home run. In Teaching Black Boys in the Elementary Grades, he shares his heart while making the world of Black boys transparent. The interplay between the words of his scholarly discussions and the lyrics of his poetry shows exceptional intellectual prowess. This is a must-read.”
—Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon, professor of literacy, Oakland University; president, Literacy Research Association

“Dr. Tatum once again takes us on a journey. A journey through mediocrity and into a space where advanced literacy instruction for African American males is where we start our conversations around equity.”
—From the Foreword by Josh Parker, instructional coach, educational blogger, and 2012 Maryland Teacher of the Year

“In this book, Tatum shows us why he is the leading expert in the research of the literacy of African American boys. The literate lives that African American boys lead are complex, and the examination of those lives is just as complex. Tatum's analysis of the lives of African American boys leads his readers through the historical and contemporary research perspectives, the social and political realms, and the connection of Black boys' lives to instructional practices in schools. He accompanies us on this analytic journey and emphasizes the importance of inspiring Black boys in the early grades to access all texts available to them.”
—Aaron M. Johnson, author; partner and equity leadership coach, The Equity Collaborative