Education Commons^™

Narrowing The Achievement Gap: Culturally Responsive Teaching For African American Students, Haylee Batzer

Culminating Experience Projects

It is no surprise to educators that classrooms are filled with children of all different backgrounds. Most teacher preparation programs try their best to prepare educators to teach students of diversity and support inclusion in the classroom. However, educators are still finding themselves lacking the skills needed to incorporate culturally responsive teaching (CRT) into their classrooms. Students of all backgrounds need inclusive practices to be successful. It is important to all students that they feel supported and seen in the classroom, without these practices schools start to see a decline in graduation rates and an increase in dropout rates. Many …

Toward A Theory Of An Integrated Theoretical Approach Of Literacy For Black Boys, Aaron M. Johnson

Michigan Reading Journal

In the education landscape the literacy of Black boys is viewed from deficit framing. Often, educators, politicians, and laypeople point to scores on standardized assessments such as the MSTEP, NAEP, ACT, SAT, and NWEA, these tests only tell a part of the story. The part of the story that those assessments do tell is the abject failure of schools’ ability to engage Black boys in school-based literacy and catapult them into proficient and advanced proficient reading levels. The part of the story that those assessments do not tell is the literate lives that Black boys lead. Furthermore, schools do a …

Teaching With The Genius In Mind: Enacting Literacy As A Civil Right, Katie Glupker, Pam Gower, Angela Knight

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Because literacy is a civil right, educators are responsible for designing and implementing literacy education that is designed with the excellence of all students in mind. In order to learn about ways to ensure that literary practices are equitable for all students, the authors joined an educators’ book club to read Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad. Muhammad describes the Black literary societies of the past and challenges educators of today to enhance classrooms by upholding equity and excellence through a five-layered framework: Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy.

We studied Muhammad’s …

Free To Read: Growing Elementary Students' Literacy In The Summer, Allison M. Nieboer

Michigan Reading Journal

This article describes the implementation of “Free to Read”, a summer reading program with three key components: free student-selected books, Little Free Libraries and one-minute parent videos. The author explains how these three components come together to form a summer reading program that provides access and choice to a community of readers. Recommendations on creating such a program are shared at the end of the article.

“We Can Do This At Our School!” Place-Based Education, Literacy, & Learning, Erica R. Hamilton, Janet Staal, Jessica Vander Ark

Michigan Reading Journal

This article highlights the power of using place-based education (PBE) in a K-8 school to support and extend students' literacy and learning. Through PBE, teachers learn to use their local places such as playgrounds, neighborhoods, parks, streams, forests, and urban centers as contexts to make connections and facilitate learning. Moreover, as seen in the examples provided throughout this article, PBE empowers teachers and students to study and read the world, integrate knowledge across disciplines, write for authentic purposes and audiences, create and share narratives connected to local places, and engage in and share research. As a result, students’ excitement for …

Pizza, Pages, And Family Engagement: A Simple Approach To Family Literacy Night, Jennie Baumann

Michigan Reading Journal

Family engagement in schools is a worthy but difficult pursuit. Between scheduling challenges, family needs, and other systemic factors, how can educators encourage family participation? This article details a simple practice using pizza, existing curriculum, and local resources as a way of working smarter to create a culture of family engagement around literacy.

Scholastic Liberation: Schools' Impact On African American Academic Achievement, Aaron M. Johnson

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article addresses some of the factors that contribute to low achievement observed in African American students. It is common that either schools or school districts are unable to fix the problem or they are unaware about how the beliefs and attitudes about African American students can contribute to their low performance in school. Furthermore, this article encourages school institutions to examine themselves and change school environments to align to the identities of African American students. African American students must be liberated from negative assumptions about them and to do that, individuals and the institution of school as a whole, …