Teaching Black Boys in the Elementary Grades

Book excerpt: 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.