AlfredTatumPowerpoint

African American Adolescent Males and Text: Enablement and Engagement : 

African American Adolescent Males and Text: Enablement and Engagement Middle Grades Matter Conference Philadelphia, PA May 26, 2006 Dr. Alfred W. Tatum Northern Illinois University atatum@niu.edu

Young African American Boys and Schools: 

Young African American Boys and Schools What is “schooling” doing for young African American boys? How are teachers conceptualizing literacy instruction for young African American boys? How are young African American boys being taught to read and write?

African American Male Student(Retained 3 times): 

Let me say something. School changed a lot from when you were in school. I [know] you can tell even though you are a professor…. Teachers used to care about how good you can read… Teachers don’t even do that any more. They just say that’s wrong and put it up there right. They don’t even worry about it, and they go on to the next one. You [have to] take your time…. Teachers now days, do this on the board; they explain it one time - no repeating. [They] don’t know whether the student caught it or not. They don’t ask us if we need them to go over it one more time? African American Male Student (Retained 3 times)

Slide4: 

I [am not] doubting teachers don’t care, they care. If they didn’t care they wouldn’t be there, but it’s just that they are doing what they [want to] do. They’re doing what they think they need to teach; they [are not] doing what the students need. Tatum: They aren’t really paying attention? S Right, they [are not] reading us. It’s hard but all you have to do is just sit down and talk to [us] and ask [us] what’s the problem.

Teacher’s Roles: 

Teacher’s Roles Making text accessible (Enablement) Showing students different ways how to hold their thinking (Engagement)

Enablement: 

Enablement

Slide7: 

Neformalna drama je relativno novi termin. Kojim se opisuje niz “na pozoritisu zasnovanih” aktivnosti posebno vrijednih u obrazovanju mlade djece. Vazno je znati o cemu govorimo kada se pozivamo na neformalu drama, jer, kao sto je poznati kanadski teoreticar dramskog obrazovanja Richard Courtney istakao, termini koje upotrebljavaju edukatori u razlietim zemljama i razlietim nastavnim nivoima razlikuju se i cesto su izvor zabune za ucitelje.

Slide8: 

Neformalna drama je relativno novi termin. Kojim se opisuje niz “na pozoritisu zasnovanih” aktivnosti posebno vrijednih u obrazovanju mlade djece. Vazno je znati o cemu govorimo kada se pozivamo na neformalu drama, jer, kao sto je poznati kanadski teoreticar dramskog obrazovanja Richard Courtney istakao, termini koje upotrebljavaju edukatori u razlietim zemljama i razlietim nastavnim nivoima razlikuju se i cesto su izvor zabune za ucitelje. Neggeo teuie ejar? Neformala drama i ________________? Gageut Richard Courtney?

Slide9: 

Neformalna drama je relativno novi termin. Neformala drama i ________________? Kojim se opisuje niz “na pozoritisu zasnovanih” aktivnosti posebno vrijednih u obrazovanju mlade djece. Vazno je znati o cemu govorimo kada se pozivamo na neformalu drama, jer, kao sto je poznati kanadski teoreticar dramskog obrazovanja Richard Courtney istakao, termini koje upotrebljavaju edukatori u razlietim zemljama i razlietim nastavnim nivoima razlikuju se i cesto su izvor zabune za ucitelje. Gageut Richard Courtney?

A,E,I,O,U count to 1 count to 2: 

A,E,I,O,U count to 1 count to 2 Split consonant between vowels bal / lad Move one consonant between vowels to the next syllable te / na / cious Split neighboring vowels jo / vi / al Do not separate blends or word groupings that need each other ous, qu, bl, cl, dr,

Sample Semantic Map: 

Sample Semantic Map What is it? What is it not? Examples Non-Examples education Key Term education is…

Sample Anticipation Guide: 

Sample Anticipation Guide Directions: Indicate if you agree or disagree with the following statements. Be prepared to provide an explanation for your responses. More phonics instruction in the elementary grades will reduce reading problems in high schools. Agree b. Disagree Teens read 5 or fewer pages per day in school and for homework. a. Agree b. Disagree 4. Members of today’s generation feel basically hopeless about the future. a. Agree b. Disagree

Slide13: 

Examining Geometry on its Own Terms About ten years ago a fundamental riddle in my life was partly answered. I had been wondering why so many cultures, religious symbols, corporate logos, and kindergarten classrooms were full of the regular polygons, especially the 60-degree triangle, the square, the pentagon, the hexagon and the octagon. And though I did not include it in my musings at the time: the clock, or dodecagon. In classrooms, one finds them in the forms of blocks, pattern puzzles, the subject of countless coloring and cut-out exercises, and in the string constructs of geo-boards. These basic geometric shapes turn up everywhere. Language does not seem to matter. Culture does not seem to matter. They turn up on all continents, in many cultures, and occur with every civilization that has ever risen and passed away. (Why does the author believe that basic geometric shapes show up everywhere)? ___________________________________________________(think and search) When geometry is explored on its own terms, an extraordinary intellectual journey awaits. It begins with two points and is guided by a few self-evident rules and carried out by a cheap set of tools: a compass for making circles and arcs and a ruler for drawing lines. (What tools are needed to explore geometry?) _______________________________________________________________ (right there)

Slide14: 

Monitoring Comprehension About 75 million people ______________ of the bubonic plague during the 14th ____________________. Half of the population of Italy fell victim to the ______________________. The plague caused high _______________, swollen glands, dark splotches on the __________________, and spitting of blood. Most _________________ who go the disease ___________________ within a few days. The disease was ________________ from the fleas and rats. Lack of sanitation and poor _________________ knowledge account for the continuous plague epidemics throughout the 14th century. So many people died so ___________ that it was difficult to bury them in the _________________ way. The dead were ____________ without the usual prayers and ceremony. Dozen of people _______________ be buried in a single big grave.

Engagement: 

Engagement

Slide16: 

A pendulum swings both ways for African American males. On one side are hopes and dreams, where the potential leads to promise. On the other side is defeat, where hopes unfulfilled become a record of human tragedy…Teachers must discuss texts with African American male students in responsive ways in order to help them land on the side of the pendulum that swings toward promise and possibility. From Chapter 8: Tatum, A. W. (2005). Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Dichotomy: 

Dichotomy Enabling Historical Orientation Right of Man Ideology Uplift Dis-abling Present Orientation Skill/Strategy focus Leveling of text

Dichotomy betweenEnabling and Disabling Text: 

Dichotomy between Enabling and Disabling Text Enabling Text – moves one toward some cognitive action Moves one beyond a cognitive activity to a social, cultural, political, spiritual, personal and economical activity. Activity is defined as being, thinking, or doing. Disabling text – moves you further away from an action that has human, political, social, cultural, spiritual, personal and economic benefits. Disabling texts may not have any personal benefits – does not pay attention to the local contexts and the desire to define one’s self.

Slide19: 

Tatum: Have you ever read anything that really affected you life? J: Nope. Tatum: Is there any book that just stands out that you remember? J: To say the truth, I ain’t read a book. Tatum: Do the teachers assign books at school? J: NO

Emerging Codes: 

Emerging Codes Stress Engagement – SE Perceived Social Supports – PSS Maladaptive Solutions – MAS Adaptive Solutions - AS Emerging Identities - EI Self-Organizing Processes/Self-Righting Tendencies – SOP/ SRT

Stress Engagement: 

Stress Engagement The majority of the world don’t think we are worthy enough to take control and handle what we need to do We don’t have education on our side

Perceived Social Support in Schools: 

Perceived Social Support in Schools T: You mentioned that teachers do not know how to handle black males. Talk about that. J: Cause they just think we are worthless. They think we are just going to give up. They won’t constantly help us to get on track…They just give us stuff we already know basically. J: Teachers are quick to send you out for a quick descent to the principal’s office to get suspended or something when all they have to do is to talk to us.

Maladaptive SolutionsExternal and Internal: 

Maladaptive Solutions External and Internal I: My dad really hurt me because he told me if I don’t get bad grades he would stay out. He went back. I got mad and I just started failing school. I felt I needed to show him… I know I can do the work, I just chose not to for some reason.

Yo’ Little Brother Text’s Content: 

Yo’ Little Brother Text’s Content Tatum: How did the text affect you? This book helped me out a lot. I read this book and it really made me think because I did some of the same things that same day and it made me think a little bit…It helped me out with a lot of problems I had. I wish I had this book earlier so I can know more things about my life.

Handbook for BoysText # 3: 

Handbook for Boys Text # 3 Tatum: Did you complete Handbook for boys? J: I finished this one. Tatum: I know you did not finish the last two texts. Why did you complete this one? J: I made time instead of waiting on time. Well, we have been talking about my life. It’s like I have been moving away from success because I am not trying to find the time to do what I need to do to succeed, but I need to work hard to make my life better. (SOP) Tatum: That’s pretty powerful.

Slide27: 

I felt a whole different change when I read the first book. It’s like when I started reading I thought I was just going to go through it and see what that chapter’s about then go to the next chapter to like glance at it a little bit, but I just kept going away because it was like I was in the story myself. Because I was understanding what he was talking about, it was like I was reading and visualizing what was happening, and put my feet in his shoes, and that’s how I kept with the book. I mean I kept reading and reading and reading.

Self-Organizing Processes: 

Self-Organizing Processes Tatum: Do you feel differently as a result of the texts you have been reading? J: I’m starting to think. Before I started reading, I didn’t think period. So what I am saying now is I’m starting to think about things. Before I started reading I didn’t really care. I just did what I do. Tatum: Do you really feel yourself changing or are you coming up with the right things to say? J: I am thinking positive instead of negative…I used to stay in trouble everyday, now you can’t even pay me to get into trouble.

Self-Organizing Processes: 

Self-Organizing Processes Tatum: Do you think it is because of reading? J: I don’t know what it is to tell the truth, but it has to be reading….Before I started reading, I stayed in trouble. Normally, I don’t help my momma clean up, I am cleaning up for her. The books did not tell me [anything] about cleaning up and learn how your parents are stressing out. But like I said, I am starting to think so now I see stress in them. I don’t know what it is but I am changing a little bit.

Slide30: 

Corelle’s favorite part of English II had been a played we read by August Wilson, The Piano Lesson…In one long monologue, Boy Willie talks about the turning point in his life, the terrifying moment when he confronted the world’s opinion of his uselessness: “Many is the time I looked at my daddy and seen him staring off at his hands. I got a little older and I knew what he was thinking. He sitting there saying, “I got these big ol’ hands but what I’m gonna do with ‘em?...All I got is these hands. Unless I go out and kill somebody and take what he got…it’s a mighty long row to hoe for me to get something of my own. So what I’m gonna do with these big ol’ hands?” It is the growing perception of their own uselessness – together with apparent lawlessness of the world around them – that hurtles boys like Corelle…toward extinction. P. 115

Slide31: 

The Test of a Man   The test of a man is the fight that he makes; The grit that he daily shows, The way that he stands upon his feet, and takes life's numerous bumps and blows. A coward can smile when there's naught to fear, And noting his progress bars. But it takes a man to stand and cheer while the other fellow stars. It isn't the victory after all, But the fight that a Brother makes. A man, when driven against the wall still stands erect and takes the blows of fate with his head held high, bleeding, bruised and pale, Is the man who will win and fate defied, For he isn't afraid to fail.

Slide32: 

Invictus William Ernest Henley; 1849-1903 Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find me, unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

IfRudyard Kipling: 

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;… If you can meet with triumph and disaster … And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tool:… And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: …."If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,… If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son! If Rudyard Kipling

Slide34: 

Our Deepest Fear... is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Marianne Williamson -

Suffering from In-activist literacy development: 

Suffering from In-activist literacy development Currently, literacy for action is something imagined or postponed for some time in the future. For many of these young men the future never materializes because they are unable, unwilling, or lack the understanding of the need to navigate through schooling where their masculinity and identity are repeatedly assaulted.

Recurring Function of Literacy : 

Recurring Function of Literacy The right to define one’s self without embarrassment, apology, or external constraint

Rebuilding Textual Lineage: 

Rebuilding Textual Lineage Anthology African American Literature – Holt Rinehart Winston Books Handbook for Boys - Myers Our America - Jones & Newman Reallionaire - Gray 47 - Mosley The Writing Life - Dillard The Rose that Grew from the Concrete - Shakur The Pact – Davis, Jenkins, & Hunt Yo’ Little Brother - Davis Convicted in the Womb - Upchurch The Greatest – Myers Letters to a Young Brother – Hill In the Deep Heart’s Core – Johnston Beasts of No Nation - Iweala Essays My Dungeon Shook – Baldwin David Walker’s Appeal Poems Invictus – William Ernest Henley Test of a Man - unknown If – Kipling Attitudes - Swindell Does the World Care If I Exist – Tatum We Wear the Mask – Dunbar Booker T. and W.E.B – Randall The Creation – James Weldon Johnson America – McKay If We Must Die – McKay I Too - Hughes Incident – Cullen We Real Cool – Brooks SOS - Baraka Excerpts Preface of Invisible Man – Ellison Up From Slavery – Washington Black Boy – Wright Shame of a Nation – Kozol The World is Flat – Freidman All Alone in the World – Bernstein Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The Autobiography of Malcolm X Quitting America – Man-Boy The Call of the Wild - London Movies Lean on Me Finding Forrester Dead Poet’s Society Something the Lord Made Tuskegee Airmen Crimson Tide Glory Remember the Titans The Medgar Evers Story Short stories The Masque of Red Death – Poe The Man Who Was Almost A Man – Wright The Kind of Light That Shines in Texas – Reginald McKnight Dead Men’s Path - Achebe Plays The Piano Lesson Documents and Speeches Declaration of Independence I Have A Dream Willie Lynch Letter (may not be authentic) Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision The Atlanta Compromise Speech

Slide38: 

…When a human being becomes suddenly conscious of the tremendous powers lying latent within him, when from the puzzled contemplation of a half-known self, he rises to the powerful assertion of a self, conscious of its might, then there is loosed upon the world possibilities of good…that make men pause. W. E. B. DuBois The Education of Black People