Literary Engagement and Black Youth

       For the reading this week I decided to focus on the article I found most interesting. Books Like Clothes: Engaging Young Black Men with Reading by David Kirkland is a case study on how the literacy practices of young black men is not just a matter of "likes to read" vs "doesn't like to read, but is profoundly wrapped up in the ideologies and the identities of our students that are constructed within and outside of the classroom. The article presents two different units studied in the same classroom one about Beowulf and one about The Iliad. Both considered classic texts in our society and very prevalent in high school english classrooms. The student, Derrick, and his teacher Mr. Kegler are the subject of these observations. When Mr. Kegler teaches Beowulf he does it in the very formulaic manner that most people are used to in classrooms:(1) read a section, (2) answer questions, (3) unit test. Derrick, a young African American student does not do well in this unit. He is disinterested and he quickly gives up on reading the book; he says, " I can read that stuff, but it ain't me... They want me to act like somebody I'm not." Contrasting this to the unit that they did for The Iliad were Mr. Kegler has students engage in the text in a totally different way. Having them discuss it and synthesize it into and text that they find engaging (comic books) suddenly the same student that you might have thought didn't care is connecting to and engaging in a text that he might not otherwise cared to even read. So what's the difference?

It is important to understand how students see themselves in relation to texts in the classroom in order to fully understand their literacy practice. I have known many students that love to read but when it comes to an assigned reading in a classroom they completely check out. In fact I was one of those students. I spent a lot of time in in middle and high school walking around with my nose in a book, but if you saw me during my Honors British Literature unit on Wuthering Heights you might have wondered how I was ever allowed into an Honors English class in the first place. I suffered through many unengaging assignments on books that I found uninteresting through my years as an English student. I also found every opportunity to read something that I could enjoy for example for my American Literature class we had to choose an American Author to research from a list of authors that my teacher gave us. Naturally the list was mostly white authors so I chose someone that was not on the list, Maya Angelou. 

What is most important is not that the characters in the book look like your students--although that is one of many things that should be attended to--but that whatever text you choose is presented in a way that aligns with how students see themselves as readers. Kirkland writes, "Traditional approaches to ELA instruction have long enforced master narratives, where canonical texts act as toolsets for reifying the status quo." The solution is to not only introduce texts that are not typically considered part of the literary canon (a canon constructed around hegemonic ideologies), but to also decanonize texts that are often presented as essential texts in the classroom. Teach so that students are able to reach beyond just reading to understanding text in a way that is entwined their own lives. As evidenced in this article students' refusal to read a text or their lack of connection to that text does not come from a place of laziness or defiecit, but it is a failure on the part of the curriculum to cater to who they are as readers. Kirkland analogizes "books as clothes" and in this case the clothes don't fit their style. For Black (male) students, there is a complicated identity that is influenced by their own interest and the competing images of how they see themselves and what is expected of them in a classroom setting.

The video is showing how we can challenge classroom norms about what is a valuable text and what can be learned from it. This teacher is centering a different narrative and a different kind of artist/writer (Kendrick Lamar) that connects with his students and how they identify themselves as literate individuals.

So what do you think about how this teacher uses Kendrick Lamar to teach English? What are the students learning? How are they going beyond or adding to what they could learn from a "classic" text like Shakespeare for example?

I also wanted to share this clip of Marc Lamont Hill where he talks about using Hip Hop in the classroom that goes beyond just using lyrics as text.

How do you see yourself using this information in the classroom?

How would you apply this beyond to teaching in a way that goes beyond using hip hop because my students like hip hop music? For example, using hip hop habits of mind to talk about Charles Dickens or Emily Bronte

Sidenote: One critique that I had of the reading is that is focused on Black males as though there is a crisis that exists in the make population and Black girls do not face similar issues. Black girls are often not the focus of these kinds of studies because they are seen as being "better off" when that is not the case. Even if Black girls are statistically doing "better" in school they are typically still far behind their white counterparts.

Blog Post: Week 11/8

The readings for this week were really interesting for me!

The reading that I primarily focused on was David E. Kirkland's "Books Like Clothes: Engaging Young Black Men With Reading." I really liked this reading because I think that it is something that is very relevant in schools today. The different types of literacy that are chosen to be used in schools today weather it be digital, or through text may be very disengaging for students because there is no personal connection to the content of the text. The reading was explaining how people were stereotyping Derrick. They were saying that he was lazy to do the work and that he didn't like school. This is something that I see going on in schools today because a lot of students who don't do the "work" are considered lazy. I think that it is very easy to blame the students, but the content that is being taught in classrooms today teaches to the test. This causes there to be a huge disconnect between the students and the context. I think as teachers, we need to find ways to make the material more engaging for our students to keep the interested, active, and motivate then to want to learn. I think that teachers label their students when they aren't producing the expected results and resort to deficit ideologies, but there is a much deeper problem.

As the reading shows at the end once all the data is analyzed, Derrick enjoyed to read things that he was able to connect to and that kept his interest. Although, there is a lot to be covered in relation to teaching to the test, I think that as a future educator it is crucial to make modifications to lessons in order to accommodate every student. As I was reading Dean Tatums article as well, he focuses a lot on the issues that young adolescent males face in schools in relation to the community, environment, social class, gender etc. He explains how he has worked to close the achievement gap for African American Males. It was very interesting when he was explaining how some males feel embarressed when they are at the front of the class reading and they aren't able to pronounce all of the words. As a future educator it is important to create good relationships, safe spaces, and to be the biggest advocate to your students in order to help them with the tools that they need in order to succeed. A big part of this is to create lessons that keep your students engaged, and active.

My questions to you are:

What did you find most interesting as you were reading?
How would you approach this issue as a future educator in terms of working towards closing this achievement gap?

In this week reading, it talked about how African American males felt about academics texts their teachers handed out. One of the readings pointed out most of them refused to read a text, not because they are not able to comprehend it. Most of these students refused to read what their teachers assigned, because it was not relevant to their life. Besides from not being relevant to their lives, they also felt that the teachers were trying to change them through the readings. From my fieldwork, I do noticed some of my students being very disengaged in school. I have this one particular student, who would ask me, "Is it time to go home yet?" when school just started. When I asked her what she thought about school, she told me that it was boring. This was not a shocker for me because I have been there and felt the same way. Things that are being taught in school can be so disengaging since most of it aren't even relevant in the students' lives. This is especially the case for those schools that are mainly focused on teaching for the test.

So my questions for you are:
 Have any of you see this in your field work? Do you see some of your students being disengaged in a lesson because they don't see the relevance of that lesson? Does your teacher do anything to engage the students or do they ignore those kids? What are their view about those students?

If you are the teacher, how would you address this problem? How will you engage ALL of your students in the lesson?

Thanks for reading!
Van