Bad Water = Death

Bad water kill more children than wars. This is a fact that UNICEF wants to bring to the attention of the mainstream with thoughtful print adds and memorable commercials

Solidarités International: Water talks from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.

Black & Blue Print

The Black Male Handbook is a collection of essays for Black males on surviving, living, and winning. Kevin Powell taps into the social and political climate rising in the Black community, particularly as it relates to Black males. This is a must-have book, not only for Black male readers, but the women who befriend, parent, partner, and love them.

The Black Male Handbook answers a collective hunger for new direction, fresh solutions to old problems, and a different kind of conversation -- man-to-man and with Black male voices, all of the hiphop generation. The book tackles issues related to political, practical, cultural, and spiritual matters, and ending violence against women and girls.

The book also features an appendix filled with useful readings, advice, and resources. The Black Male Handbook is a blueprint for those aspiring to thrive against the odds in America today.

Click here for more

Chop Shop

Alejandro, a tough and ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York. In this chaotic world of adults, young Alejandro struggles to make a better life for himself and his 16-year-old sister, Isamar.

We R the Ship

An amazing book from an amazing artist with a true affinity for Negro League Baseball click here for the website

New Gateway to Dreams

Obama's influence on African American youth cannot be overstated

NYTimes.com - A Bronx School Revives

NYTimes.com A Hasidic Jew becomes the principal of a Latino-populated school with a history of violence. The results are dramatic

A City of God & Men

In CITY OF MEN, producer Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardner) returns to the Brazilian favelas of his Academy Award-nominated film, CITY OF GOD. Growing up in a culture dictated by violence and run by street gangs, teenagers Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) have become close as brothers. With their eighteenth birthdays fast approaching, Laranjinha sets out to find the father he never met, while Acerola struggles to raise his own young son. But when they suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of a gang war, the lifelong friends are forced to confront a shocking secret from their shared past.

City of Men starts this Friday, check it out

City of Men

City of Men is often cited as a 'spin-off' of the film City of God ; City of Men is a less violent and more light-hearted affair. However, the two do share some common aspects: the directors, some of the actors, and the setting of the Brazilian favela (slum) with its background of gangsters and poverty.

The programme tells the stories of Luis Claudío and Wallace, better known by their nicknames Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha), respectively, who are two best friends who live in a notorious Rio slum, in a community of drug-dealers, hustlers, and teenagers struggling to fulfill their dreams. (Wikapedia)

Jerry Crafts Home Schoolin!

Mama's Boyz: Home Schoolin' is here!!!!!

Creator Jerry Craft has published a new Mama's Boyz book called Mama's boyz: Home Schoolin'. And it's even bigger and better than the first one (Mama's Boyz: As American As Sweet Potato Pie!).

It's 112 pages of comic strips and stories, plus a section that shows how Jerry draws his characters and create strips. There's also a story with author Eric Jerome Dickey as a cartoon character, AND a 9-page story drawn in comic BOOK form, not as comic STRIPS. Speaking of Eric Dickey, Jerry just went to his signing at Hue Man Books in NYC where not only did he sign copies of HIS new book, but he also signed his section in Jerry's new book. How cool is that?

And here how you can get it:

Filmore a cartoon that never got its due

Walt Disney Television Animation Series Captured Essence of Great 1970s Cop Shows

Schoolyard justice had a hip, new defender in Safety Patrol Officer Cornelius Fillmore, the title character of "Disney's Fillmore!"

"Disney's Fillmore!" captures the essence of the great 1970s cop shows in the guise of a smart, quick-witted seventh-grader out to stop crime in its school-age tracks. Baseball card counterfeiters and cheat sheet cartels had best beware - Fillmore is on the case, patrolling X Middle School with adept partner Ingrid Third.

"Disney's Fillmore!" is designated as children's educational and informational programming.

Scott M. Gimple is the creator and executive producer of "Disney's Fillmore!" His recent work can be seen within the writing of the award-winning "Disney's Pepper Ann" animated series and several popular "Disney's One Saturday Morning" interstitial segments. Prior to joining Walt Disney Television Animation, Gimple was an editor and writer at Matt Groening's comic book/publishing company, Bongo Comics Group, where he wrote "The Simpsons' Guide to Springfield" and served as contributing editor on "The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family" and editor on "The Simpsons Forever: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ... Continued."

"Fillmore is a former juvenile delinquent who has turned his life around," Gimple explains, "and he's making up for his shady past by helping others."

"The Simpsons" veteran Christian Roman is director on "Disney's Fillmore!" After earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Boston University, Roman interned at Olive Jar Animation before landing on "The Simpsons." From 1994-1999, Roman advanced through the ranks from character layout to storyboarding to storyboard supervisor on "The Simpsons." Roman also served as writer-director on two seasons of "The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat."

Schoolyard justice has a hip, new defender in Safety Patrol Officer Cornelius Fillmore (voice talent of 14-year-old Orlando Brown)

As the title character, 14-year-old Orlando Brown ("Proud Family," "Max Keeble's Big Move") ' leads the cast of "Fillmore!" Delving deep into the psyche of Fillmore, Brown brings a cool, controlled sensibility to the former delinquent-turned-good guy.

"Fillmore is like a miniature version of Shaft with no fear," Brown says. "Cartoons are filled with superheroes with superpowers, but Fillmore gives kids someone they can relate to. He's a kid with good morals and a strong sense of right and wrong. Most kids get that concept, and I think he'll provide a good role model in that way."

Voiceover veteran Tara Strong ("Rugrats," "The Powerpuff Girls") fills the role of Fillmore's extremely capable partner in crime-stopping, Ingrid Third.

"Ingrid is very cool, very dark and really hip," Strong says of her animated alter ego. "She's sort of like Winona Ryder's character in Beetlejuice meets the hall monitor."

The core voice cast rounds out with Horatio Sanz ("Saturday Night Live") as Junior Commissioner Vallejo, head of X Middle School's Safety Patrol; Wendie Malick ("Just Shoot Me") as Principal Folsom; Jeff Probst ("Survivor") as Vice Principal Raycliff; Lauren Tom ("Grace Under Fire") as safety patrol officer Karen Tehama; Kyle Sullivan ("Malcolm in the Middle") as officer Danny O'Farrell; and Danny Tamberelli ("The Adventures of Pete & Pete") as officer Joseph Anza.

Like Scully and Mulder, the Fillmore-Third duo sets forth to solve school-based mysteries. The series has several focuses, most notably today's kids' need to make a difference, and the kids-view intensity each situation posed during those heated middle school years.

"These are good kids, wanting to change and help their world be a better place," Gimple says. "The way I think of it, this show is not about middle school - this show is middle school. When you're that age, you're living more passionately, more emotionally. Things are a bigger deal - you don't shrug stuff off.

"When a comic book was stolen, it was like a car was stolen. A break-up in seventh grade could be as earth-shaking as a divorce. News that somebody had challenged somebody else to a fight ran around the school with the anticipation of a (Mike) Tyson fight. So this show isn't about kids making big deals about little things - it's about how intense things really felt when we were in Middle School. I think kids will truly relate to it from that perspective."

Growing up in a household filled with American pop culture - and countless hours sitting in front of the small screen - helped shape Gimple's passion for cartoons and cop shows. From "Starsky and Hutch" and "Adam 12" to "21 Jump Street" and "Miami Vice," the cop show influence is evident within Gimple's psyche. The ultimate result is "Disney's Fillmore!"

"Cop shows are a great genre," Gimple explains. "You have a 'hotshot cop with an attitude' that is willing to break the rules to bring down the bad guy, and the incredibly gruff, heavy-set, no-nonsense chief that the mayor is always coming down on. With the same drama and no nonsense attitude, we've brought these characters and situations into a middle school environment. So in this case, it's a topnotch safety patrol officer, his superior and the principal. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it never talks down to kids."

Safety Patrollers Cornelius Fillmore and Ingrid Third on the run to stop crime in its school-age tracks,

Most safety patrol officers are often stereotypically depicted as uptight, rule-rigid nerds, but Fillmore and Ingrid bring to mind characters like Shaft and the "Lethal Weapon" series' Riggs and Murtaugh. The safety patrol at X Middle School is not typical, either - rather than monitoring the hallways and helping at crosswalks, these patrollers are busting up stolen scooter chop shops and unmasking the saboteur behind a massive model train wreck. Fillmore and Ingrid's cases lean toward the odd and twisty.

"One of the fun parts of the series is making the crimes themselves kid society friendly," Gimple admits. "Cop shows can be pretty over-the-top. But that's exactly what it felt like back in seventh grade. These middle school kids are desperate to be popular, desperate to pass that test, desperate to get the new video game system. They're not bad kids, they just haven't learned the right way to go about it."

On the other hand, Fillmore has learned from his past - the hard way. Now he's making up for his mistakes.

"Fillmore's motto is basically, 'I do what I do because I was going in the wrong direction and somebody turned it around for me. Now I turn people around. If they don't want to, I stop them in their tracks,'" Gimple says. "He's not a goodie-two-shoes. He's tough. But in the end, he's all about doing the right thing, helping out his fellow student in need."

Gimple is pleased that Fillmore adds to the growing diversity in animated television.

"The cop shows I watched growing up were incredibly diverse — it's an essential part of the genre," Gimple says. "We won't shy away from his culture, because that shows the whole person. I'm very proud to present a strong, positive black character. Fillmore has a strong point of view, a distinct sense of right and wrong, and a great sense of humor."

Safety Patrollers Cornelius Fillmore and Ingrid Third take a hot dog break from stopping crime at X Middle School in the hip, new series “Disney’s Fillmore!” premiering Saturday, September 14 on the ABC Television Network.

Gimple found the FCC requirements for social/educational content and life lessons meshed well with his law-enforcement theme.

"A cop show is a perfect fit for the FCC requirements because every episode needs somebody doing something bad - you need a crime to be committed," Gimple says. "In general, we see people learn from their mistakes and deal with the consequences. It's more 'Miami Vice' than 'Doug'."

And, of course, humor permeates the series in an unconventional manner.

"I think the show has a pretty unique sense of humor," Gimple says. "It comes out in the bizarre chases and the odd characters Fillmore and Ingrid come across, and the situations they land in. We know kids are extremely smart, and we don't tell them when and where to laugh. It's a different sensibility."

Showing a perfect cop show lineage, Gary Dourdan ("CSI") and Holly Robinson Peete ("21 Jump Street") portray Fillmore's parents. Other well known performers lending their voices to the series including Frankie Muniz ("Malcolm in the Middle"), Kyle Sullivan ("Malcolm in the Middle"), Caroline Rhea ("Caroline Rhea Show" and "Sabrina"), Steven Weber (Broadway's "The Producers" and "Wings"), John Rhys-Davies ("Lord of the Rings"), Mary Hart ("Entertainment Tonight"), Holland Taylor ("Spy Kids 2," and "The Practice"), Kurtwood Smith ("That '70s Show"), Patrick Bristow ("Ellen" and "Austin Powers"), Adam Wylie (Broadway's "Into the Woods") and Raven Simone ("That's So Raven" and "The Cosby Show").

Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, "Disney's Fillmore!" premieres September 14, 2002 as part of ABC Kids" on the ABC Television Network. Scott M. Gimple is the series' creator and executive producer; Christian Roman is director. Walt Disney Television Animation is an industry leader in the creation of network, cable, and syndicated television series and specials, video premieres and theatrical releases.

http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID10014040.asp

For more information visit the offiicial website

--Posted September 13, 2002
Source: Walt Disney TV Animation Release

Only Racist believe Racism is Dead

During the past two years a saga has been unfolding in the small town of Jena, La., that harkens back to an era that the United States would like to think has long gone by. An era marked, in this small community, by violent and grotesque hate crimes and inequality, a time when Black Louisianans were taught to stay in their place or pay the consequences. Sadly it seems that time has passed by unnoticed in this rural southern town, which still clings to the “old” southern way of life. Blacks and Whites do not socialize, and racism is regarded casually as a natural part of life.

The story that proceeds is one that seems out of place in an era when we have a Black democratic contender for the Oval Office. It is a sobering reminder that old ways run deep, and hate and fear do not fade away easily, especially in the Deep South. Unfair trials, intimidation and notions of White Supremacy still deeply affect people of color living in this sleepy Louisiana town, which has recently been rocked by international news coverage.
Click here for article

Invisible Children

A touching documentary about the lives of the children in South Africa

Now that's Teaching!

Events to get more boys to read include car show and radio-controlled races

Click here for more



Whats Wesley Snipes up to
I came acrosss this image for Wesley's new movie, its pretty cool


















A gunman knows too well the ways of vengeance. Fast and furious, he has killed every man who crossed him. But his gift with a gun comes with a curse. All those who die by his hand will return. Enter the world of GALLOWWALKER, where vengeance lives forever.

Alfred Tatum Revisitied

NIU literacy professor works to close reading achievement gap for African-American adolescent males

DeKalb — As a young teen in the Chicago Public Schools, growing up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood a few yards from a federal housing project, Alfred Tatum became one of the fortunate ones.

He was blessed with empowering teachers who understood his surroundings. They cared about his life and not only his test scores. They encouraged him to read Dick Gregory's “Nigger” and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”

Such passion for teaching – “Harvard dreams for kids living in hellish conditions,” Tatum says – made a difference: Tatum is now an NIU professor of literacy education with a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction.

Yet his good fortune “is part of the problem,” Tatum says. “Children should not be fortunate to have quality teachers. We're not playing the lottery with lives.”

Tatum's book, “Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap,” released in May by Portland, Maine-based Stenhouse Publishers, is earning great attention among U.S. educators and netting several speaking engagements for the busy author.

Meanwhile, the mounting weight of the federal No Child Left Behind law and its focus on test scores is fueling Tatum's insistence that a successful school experience involves more than good grades.

“My phones have been lighting up since this book came out,” says Tatum, who also is an NIU alum. “Teachers want to know how to address these issues, but they feel handicapped by limited experience … or they feel powerless because they attribute it to factors they cannot control, such as parental involvement or poverty. They shift the responsibility.”

Tatum already has spoken to school teachers and administrators in Michigan , New York , New Jersey and Ohio .

In his home state, he has visited his alma mater Chicago Public Schools, where he began his career teaching eighth-grade for five years on the city's South Side. He also accepted an invitation to speak from the suburban Oswego school district, where “the other students” are succeeding.

He also has written a two-part article for Middle Level News, published by the California League of Middle Schools.

“It's a point of urgency. We cannot continue to stay the course we have been on for African-American adolescent males,” he said. “We need to rally people around the complexity of addressing the literacy needs, not only of African-American adolescent males, but of all students in the face of national legislation.”

Tatum's concerns are many.

No clear strategy has emerged for addressing the needs of African-American adolescent males, including the lack of a clear definition for the role of reading in their education.

Policy makers and educators focus more on instructional strategies and ignore other issues that affect learning, such as poverty or the cultural disconnect of the classroom.

Such a lapse makes for an “anatomically incomplete” body of teaching, he says, missing the head (the theoretical) and the legs (the professional development).

Many African-American adolescent males also experience an “out-of-school literacy overload and an in-school literacy under-load,” he says. They live amidst race- and class-based “turmoil” before and after school while their teachers fail to provide the texts that could “serve as road maps” to better life outcomes.

As a result, Tatum posits, the disengagement of these young minds and their disproportionate (and often inappropriate) referrals to special education services lead to their 50-percent high school dropout rate in some of the nation's largest urban school districts.

Their resistance to reading anything – whether to satisfy academic, culture, social or emotional needs – rises as they are assigned texts “that inadvertently contribute to their diminished status in schools and society.”

Rather, Tatum says, teachers should encourage interest in school through reading assignments that reflect their own situation and provide them hope to rise above their circumstances. “Young African-American men need to be reading more text,” he says, “not less.”

Teachers of African-American adolescent males need “the 4 Cs,” he says: compassion, competence, commitment and cultural responsiveness.

He urges these considerations in the selection and discussion of texts with African-American adolescent males:

• Establish a broader definition of literacy instruction that guides the selection of text. It must focus on skill and strategy knowledge, content knowledge and identity development. “It is imperative that these young men have the requisite skills to read text independently. It is also imperative that they become ‘smarter' as a result of their reading,” he says. “It is essential that literacy instruction helps these young men form an identity that allows them to resist some of the negative community forces that are part of their day-to-day realities.”
• Identify a core of “must-read” texts for African-American adolescent males. These include James Baldwin's “The Fire Next Time” and Ralph Ellison's “Invisible Man.”
• Discuss texts in culturally responsive ways. “Students benefit when they can extend the ideas contained in texts into their own lives,” he says.
• Identify texts that balance the out-of-school literacy overload. “Most of the texts they should be exposed to are co-opted by schools' focus to improve reading scores,” he says. “Black males are not exposed to text that leads to academic, cultural, economic and social uplift.”
• Examine your disposition toward using texts with African-American adolescent males. Many teachers back down when they encounter resistance from their students to read beyond the required material, Tatum says. “However, no research currently shows that having students read less advances their academic and other literacy needs.”

In Tatum's case, reading the works of Dick Gregory, Richard Wright, Booker T. Washington and others “released me from a stigmatic trapping of poverty. My teachers connected text to my life,” he says. “It's really something I didn't forget.”

Play

My how time flys (in honor of Google buying YouTube)

What is Keon Reading?

Provide a Creative Enviornment
I came across this clip on You Tube although it' simply a clip of a African American youth reading for 30 seconds it poses many questions

1. What is he reading?
2. What is the subject matter? (no pictures)
3. Who wrote it?
4. Why is it so captivating to him? (check out the noise level, the other activities, and the fact that he is being videotaped)

5. what has his parents done to raise a young man with this type of focus ?
6. Could the teacher share what she has done to stimulate her students in this manner?
7.What school, district, state is this, that obviously got something right?
Fascinating

Play

Puki the Swarm

Flash first-person shooter. Sure, they look cute, but the first time one of the little blighters comes at you with fangs bared you'll lose all inhibitions of blowing their heads off.

Schools, not Boys, are the Problem

William A. Draves President of the Learning Resources Network (LERN), an international education association with 4,000 members in 16 countries. makes a compelling argument that boys are being punished by educational systems inability to address new technology and the real world of work. He can be found at http://www.lern.org.

Teen crime is down to a 30 year record low. Teen pregnancy is down. School violence is at an all time low. Teen drunken driving is down. Teen employment is up. Teen driving fatalities are down. Television viewing is down. Reading is up. Yet everyone knows boys are behaving poorly.

The primary battleground is in the nation’s schools. Boys win hands-down on demerits and detention. Worse, boys are now subject to more verbal punishment than ever before. "Today the girls all were well behaved, and will get suckers," a middle school teacher announced in class recently. "The boys will get the broken suckers." "Everyone knows boys don’t behave," she reported at another time, reflecting a widely held view among educators and adults in general.

Our schools are failing to help boys learn, and blaming the boys.

The reason there is a war on against boys is that boys are into the Internet and technology. The Internet terrifies most teachers, and some boys know more about the Internet than do many educators. Boys also exhibit those accompanying attributes which go with a future dominated by the Internet, like taking risks, being entrepreneurial, and being individualistic.

On the other hand, what is bad behavior for boys in school is good behavior for young men in the workplace. The very same behaviors for which they are punished in school, boys are rewarded for when they enter the workforce. This is because taking risks, being entrepreneurial, being individualistic are all behaviors that lead to success in the workforce today.

Today’s schools, in contrast, were meant to prepare youth for the factory and the office, where conformity, teamwork and ‘being normal’ are valued. So today’s schools are bent on conformity, discipline, and other behavior totally unrelated to learning and academic achievement. The Wisconsin Public Schools, arguably one of the best in the nation, currently has a statewide advertising campaign where it proudly boasts of its ban on hats in school.(10) Wearing a hat, they claim, deters learning. By contrast, young men are often allowed to wear hats in the work setting, particularly in technology companies. A recent New Yorker cartoon, for example, has a young worker with a T-shirt and a baseball cap turned backwards telling an older worker dressed in a suit that he will need to change his dress code in order to remain at the company.

Schools and teachers fear technology, do not have a sufficient understanding of the Internet, and do not employ the web in their teaching. A recent National Center for Education Statistics report on what teachers feel most trained for is discipline (80% report feel adequately prepared). At the bottom of the list is the employment of technology, where only about 20% of teachers feel adequately prepared.

Indeed, teachers and schools are usually far behind their own male students in terms of technology.

And the situation is further complicated by the fact that schools and teachers often refuse to learn from their technically skilled students, thus furthering the rift and suggesting to boys that school is no longer relevant for their present and future.

Both boys and girls perceive teachers as favoring girls over boys, according to The Metropolitan Life Survey of The American Teacher, 1997 (11).

- Both girls (57%) and boys (64%) say the teacher pays more attention to girls.
-Girls who raise their hands see themselves as getting called on "often," by greater margins (72% vs. 66%), than boys.
- More boys than girls (31% vs. 19%) feel that it is "mostly true" that teachers do not listen to what they have to say.
- Boys demand more attention in class than girls, according to the majority (61%) of teachers.
- And teachers (47%) say that girls asked for more help after class.
Chart of Teachers' feelings of preparedness
A study by the National Center for Education Statistics shows that teachers themselves report being most prepared for discipline, and least prepared for using technology in the classroom

When given a computer, however, so-called bad boys immediately turn into good behavior role models. On a recent school day, a LERN staff member observed boys in the computer lab so well behaved that there was no teacher in the room, nor one needed.

Boys are leading the technology revolution, the new economy, the Internet Age, and the workforce of the 21st century. But before they get there, they are being roundly punished.

Until our educational system is redesigned for the needs of the 21st century, the war against boys will continue. to read the whole article click here

Serious About Success

As I've pointed out the boy literacy crisis is a concern in most industrialized societies (as Sir Ken Robinson pointed out, because all of their methods are practically identical.

Australia has taken on the literacy issues of boys head on with the Success for Boys Professional Learning Programme

In 2005 James Cook University and Curriculum Corporation were engaged to design the Success for Boys Professional Learning Programme and supervise its implementation and quality in a wide range of schools across Australia on behalf of DEST.

The programme development team are led by Professor

Nola Alloway, whose internationally recognised credentials and expertise are in boys’ education, especially in literacy. Professor Alloway’s previous work includes the highly regarded publication Boys, Literacy and Schooling:

Expanding the

Repertoires of Practice

(available at www.dest.gov.au/boyseducation).

The Success for Boys Professional Learning Programme draws together a range of national and international research into boys’ education, including the Australian Government’s successful Boys’ Education Lighthouse Schools programme, and the large scale British Raising Boys’ Achievement initiative.

The programme can be tailored to local school contexts and will give schools a strong foundation for achieving successful outcomes for their boys. It consists of five modules which focus on key intervention areas highlighted by teachers and researchers as significant for boys:

· A Core Module that provides teachers with a theoretical framework for working with boys, and an action learning plan that underpins four additional modules;

· Boys and Literacy: a module that aims to promote effective literacy teaching and assessment for boys;

· Mentoring for Success: a module that focuses on giving boys opportunities to benefit from positive mentoring relationships and access to positive male role models from within and beyond the school;

· Boys and ICTs: a module that focuses on using information and communication technology (ICT) to improve boys’ engagement and learning outcomes;

· Indigenous Boys’ Transitions: a module that focuses on the important area of Indigenous boys’ transitions from primary to secondary school; and

· A Leaders’ Guide that provides assistance in how to deliver the programme within a school.

Men of Letters

Most people associate Hill Harper with Hollywood, But he is just as comfortable in a school auditorium, rousing groups of students with his unique style of real-life wisdom. Having addressed thousands of high-school and middle- school students over the years. Inspired by the countless letters and e-mails he has received from teens, Interspersed throughout are e-mail inquiries from young men and Harper's responses and those of other celebrities, including Nas, Venus Williams, and Barack Obama. He devotes separate chapters to school and work, sex, and life aspirations, tackling such issues as single parenthood, sexually transmitted diseases, the allure of materialism, and the power of words and faith. Harper offers his personal story: Hill Harper set out to write a series of letters to young people that would catch the attention of even the most reluctant readers. The result is a motivational but approachable book full of encouragement on a wide array of hot topics, particularly among young African-American and Hispanic men. From the challenges of getting a good education and making it through college to the media’s destructive emphasis on material wealth, Letters to a Young Brother delivers eye-opening answers.

Check out his site

Review
This isn't the most enthralling or cogent book on the subject of black male identity and destiny, but brother Harper really won me over with his heartfelt personal truths and some pretty decent writing.

I would encourage all young brothers and "mothers" of young brothers to pick up a copy of this book right away. It'll be a cool summer read, too.


Letters to Young Black Men
by Daniel, III Whyte (Paperback - Aug 1, 2005)
Whyte is a minister and his book was actually written from numerous historically black colleges, such as Tuskegee, Morehouse and North Carolina A&T, from the very heart of a black Baptist minister, who has himself faced all of the perils and problems young black men face today, comes forth this book, written just for the young black man in you life, whether you are a Mother, Father, grandmother or Sunday School teacher. "Letters to Young Black Men" is overflowing with "advice and encouragement for a difficult journey."

His book can be found here

Review
"This book is an inspirational work for the reader. It explores the three aspects of life that causes conflicts and problems in the life of young men. The spiritual, mental, and emotional aspects of life that for so long has gone unaddressed are delved into in detail. Although the book talks about young black men, this is a lesson for all young men."

Tips for parents:

Tips for parents:
Getting boys to read

"If you are going to get boys to read, you must recognize the things that make boys different," says librarian and educator Michael Sullivan. Sullivan, author of the book "Connecting Boys with Books: What Librarians Can Do" recently presented a workshop through the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex (WSWHE) BOCES on how to encourage boys to read.

The seminar was attended by several Guilderland Central School District librarians, who shared some of Sullivan's findings:

Did you know?

• On average, boys read 1.5 years behind girls

• A recent study out of Great Britain showed that girls read 15.6 hours per week versus boys, who typically read only about 2.3 hours per week

• 60% of A's in the classroom go to girls; 70% of D's and F's go to boys

• 80% of high school dropouts are male

Sullivan offered all educators, including parents, a challenge: reach out to boys on their turf; that is, find out what makes them tick and connect them with books that appeal to their interests.

Practical strategies

Sullivan also offered some additional strategies:

• Finding and promoting male readers as role models

• Use active learning - adding physical stimulation to reading time (boys' brains learn better with music, movement, etc.)

• Using the power of challenging (and competitive) activities

• Reaching out with stories that resonate with boys at each particular age

• Talking about books in ways that make boys listen

• Read to boys; tell stories

LEADERSHIP LITERACY

LEADERSHIP LITERACY

by Alfred W. Tatum author of
Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap

Too often, reading and writing instruction for African American students does not feed their hearts of minds. Explicit instruction that incorporates cognitive, emotional, affective, and social development strategies can provide students with skills and strategies that nourish them.

Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State, responded to questions about the crisis in Kosovo on a nationally syndicated news program. When he was asked to assess the then 30-day bombing campaign that NATO was engaged in, he responded that NATO's failure to use the Powell Doctrine-clearly outline objectives, initiate action, and complete the mission effectively and efficiently-- would result in a drawn-out military operation with no definitive way of securing victory. Powell asserted that NATO's failure to use his doctrine would make the U.S military operations futile, and the attacked had the power to determine when, or if, to succumb to military pressure.

The Powell Doctrine can help educators overcome the barriers that many African American adolescent students in the United States encounter. The approach that was used by NATO in Kosovo is analogous to the way reading is taught to many of these students, particularly the ones who struggle with reading. Many district-mandated reading programs and approaches are being offered as quick-fix solutions. And because of the growing popularity of high-stakes testing and standards, many teachers adopt a test-driven approach to increase the achievement of struggling readers. This is problematic for two reasons. First, lower reading achievement is associated with practices that accompany test-driven instruction. Second, the gap between a comprehensive approach to teaching literacy and the current widespread practices used to teach adolescents with poor reading skills is widening because of the increasing emphasis on meeting standards. Darling-Hammond and Falk (1997) pointed out that standards could create higher rates of failure for those who are already least well served by the education system. After spending more than eight years as a classroom teacher and five years teaching grade 8 African American adolescents living in an economically depressed area, I have concluded that increasing students' reading and writing abilities calls for much broader dictates than test-- driven educational practices that are intended to meet minimum standards.

A cadre of authors representing the International Reading Association issued a position statement on adolescent literacy development two years ago. The statement emphasized the importance of providing access to a wide variety of reading materials, building skills and desire to read complex materials, using assessments that test strengths and needs, modeling and giving explicit instruction, involving reading specialists to assist teachers, developing an understanding of the complexities of individual adolescent readers, and getting the United States to support adolescent literacy.

Helping African American adolescents from impoverished communities become better, more involved readers may call for different dictates because of the historical mistreatment this group has experienced in the United States. These students are more likely to attend low-achieving schools that have limited resources and have a greater chance of being taught by teachers who hold low expectations for their students' success.

Effective educators adopt a multidimensional approach that moves beyond "remediating" struggling readers. Theoretical and professional development strands that compliment instructional practices are essential because theoretical and pedagogical dimensions for teaching are often ignored. Also, the professional development that most teachers of adolescent students receive is usually limited in focus, with most emphasis given to the instructional aspects of teaching. The following nine strands increase the literacy achievement of African American adolescents (see figure 1).

Theoretical Strands

Curriculum Orientation

Many political, economic, and cultural structures outside of school are unequal, and teaching practices in the day-to-day life of classrooms and schools can preserve-if not generate-these inequalities. Certain students receive a social efficiency model of teaching that allows teachers to get through the day, while others receive a curriculum of possibilities. African American adolescents living in poorer communities disproportionately receive the former. In attempts to meet minimum standards, many African American students receive an indoctrination of basic skills that does not encourage them to acheive their maximum competency level.

Effective teachers and administrators challenge and reverse such curricula. Understanding how curriculum orientations render certain groups powerless and redirecting these orientations are major challenges for those who want to combat the underperformance of poor, African American adolescents who struggle with reading. Teachers and administrators who are not aware of these orientations and how they have been constructed over the years (see Watkins, 1993, 2001) can become inadvertent accomplices in the failure of African American students.

Literacy Instruction

Literacy instruction should include a combination of teaching techniques to empower African American students and it should be a vehicle to examine how cultural definitions of race and class are constituted historically and socially. Schools are part of a wider dominant culture that marginalizes the experiences of many African American students, preventing these students from drawing upon these experiences to gain control of their lives.

Teachers who create opportunities for repeated, meaningful application of academic skills, provide opportunities for students to imagine themselves in new roles, and help students divorce academic success from "acting White" teach African American students how to perceive the world and understand the limits and possibilities that make up the larger society. A curriculum that treats reality as something to be questioned and analyzed, offers opportunities for students to develop strategies and hope for overcoming academic and societal barriers, and allows them to experience social structures as impermanent and changeable will help teach African American students the reading skills to be functional and critical within the school environment. Culturally Relevant Approach During the past decade, a closer look at the teaching strategies that are effective with African American students has revealed a clear and distinctive educational philosophy and pedagogy. Effective teachers of African Americans are concerned individuals who command respect, show respect to pupils, and are caring but require that students meet high academic and behavioral standards. Such teachers are concerned not only with their students' cognitive development but also with their affective, social, and emotional development. Moreover, they use a culturally relevant approach to teaching literacy.

A culturally relevant approach includes talking to African American students in terms they understand about the personal value, collective power, and political consequences of choosing academic achievement. Activities based on African American community norms are incorporated into the classroom, cooperation is emphasized over competition, and learning is structured as a social activity. Ladson-Billings (1995) offered other requisites for a culturally relevant approach to literacy teaching that is specifically committed to collective empowerment:

Students must experience academic success, develop and maintain cultural competence, and develop a critical consciousness to challenge the status quo

Teachers attend to students' academic needs, not merely make them feel good

The students' culture is a vehicle for learning

Teachers help students develop a broader sociopolitical consciousness that allows them to critique the cultural norms, values, mores, and institutions that produce and maintain social inequities.

African American Literature Teachers of struggling adolescent readers often use skills and drills as a way to bring students up from the bottom, rather than introduce students to the benefits of reading literature. Using quality, authentic African American literature as part of literacy teaching is a key component of a culturally relevant pedagogy. This literature is a vital form of cultural expression and offers validation of African American experiences and history.

Because literature can be used in complex and meaningful ways to shape and reshape identities, placing African American literature at the center of the curriculum is beneficial to African American adolescents. When taught effectively, literature helps struggling readers negotiate meaning and think critically about the texts they encounter, whether in or out of school. African American literature can help students understand history, substantiate their existence, and critically examine the present, as well as anticipate the political, social, and cultural changes that may affect students' lives.

Instructional Strands

A Comprehensive Framework for Literacy Instruction

A comprehensive framework of literacy instruction includes word study instruction, fluency instruction, reading, comprehension instruction, and writing. Such a framework is more timely than ever now that there is a nationwide thrust to adopt high-stakes testing. Many students' poor reading skills are exacerbated by an inadequate amount of instruction or a lack of quality instruction. Although skill-based instruction is necessary, it is not sufficient for meeting the complexities of African American adolescents' needs. Along with African American literature, they need explicit strategies that increase their awareness of their own performance as they read fiction and nonfiction. Struggling readers who receive explicit strategy instruction make superior gains over students who do not. Benefits of explicit strategy instruction and some practical approaches are described in Figure 2.

Mediating Literature

Jeffrey Wilhelm (1995) reminds us that most of reading for struggling, reluctant adolescent readers focuses on cracking codes instead of creating meaning. He goes on to state that the role of the reader as an active meaning maker-one who connects personally with what is read, who spends pleasurable and stirring time with stories, and who might judge or resist the text and its author-is essentially precluded from the act of reading. The way literature is mediated has a profound effect on adolescents' engagement with literature. Mahiri (1998) illustrates this point in Shooting for Excellence: African American and Youth Culture in New Century Schools when describing examples from two classrooms.

Example 1:

The assigned reading was The Color Purple. Ms. Jackson began each class session with a 15-minute, in-class writing assignment on the previous day's reading homework, centered on questions designed to reveal the students' grasp of the key issues and themes in the book. The questions directed students to such issues as the patriarchy, the varieties of love, and the roles that writing and education played in the book. The writing assignment was designed to be a springboard for discussion.

Example 2:

The assigned reading was To Kill a Mockingbird. Ms. Jackson began each class by asking whether students had done their homework. The same three students were the only ones who ever actually did their homework. But the routine was consistent. She would praise the ones who did the work and remind the class that these would be the students moving up to the higher track. Everyone else wold get zeros. Unfortunately, attempting to do the homework did not help those students fare much better.

In the first example, the way the the teacher taught helped her students become engaged in the text. Although they complained that some discussions were flat, they expressed a desire to explore issues in longer essays or have small group discussions. The students in the second example said that they were not only unmotivated but also unchallenged. Getting students to become actively engaged and equipping them with metacognitive tools are two vital features of literature instruction. Far too many classes are like the second example, and students' perceptions of themselves as less able readers are often reinforced when they are given literacy tasks that are less involved or less challenging than those assigned to their peers.

Assessments

Effective teachers evaluate students' abilities fully and accurately and gather information that can help them develop strategies that meet individual needs. Adolescents who struggle with literacy figure out ways to avoid reading orally, manage to produce mediocre results on reading assessments, use a keen ear for details to comprehend texts from classroom discussions, and develop ways to answer comprehension questions correctly without understanding texts. A reading assessment plan for adolescents must assess cognitive dimensions (i.e., comprehension, word knowledge) and affective dimensions (i.e., types of materials students value, attitudes toward reading). To ensure that students get the help they need, teachers must know the specific strategies students possess. This is vital to responsive teaching, and even more so when dealing with students who struggle with reading.

Effective teachers come to know individual students by watching them, listening to them, and interacting with them in meaningful literacy activities. These teachers are able to evaluate how classroom practices accommodate individual differences. Teachers who listen to the voices of their students are able to construct classrooms responsive to the needs of the students they teach. Assessments should be ongoing, involve both formal and informal techniques, extend across several areas of reading, and include adolescents in the assessment process.

Professional Development Strands

Professional Communities

Many professional development workshops for middle level and high school educators attempt to cover too much in too little time and are unable to "do more than tinker at the margins of teaching" (Wineberg & Grossman, 1998). This kind of staff development is usually an effort to keep teachers up-to-date and has little follow-up. Effective professional development is sustained, ongoing, and designed to provide teachers with support and corrective feedback.

Effective schools have a professional atmosphere that encourages teachers to develop subject-matter communities that support teachers' growth and strengthen teaching. Professional communities within schools don't encourage teachers to wait to be talked at by subject-matter experts or instructional specialists from outside. Some practical guidelines for building a professional community include encouraging teachers to conduct sessions about their teaching, gathering and distributing professional literature, allowing time for peer observations and feedback, making professional journals available to the faculty, and attending professional conferences to share information. Effective teachers appreciate their colleagues as fellow learners, create a sense of shared intellectual community, and expand their knowledge base.

Teacher Inquiry

The recent emergence of teacher as researcher opens up a realm of possibilities for classroom teachers. Principals are in the position to encourage teachers to initiate, implement, and evaluate their activities. These teachers provide a perspective that can relieve some of the tension that exists between classroom teachers and outside researchers.

Teacher inquiry is a powerful way to understand how teachers and their students construct and reconstruct curriculum, identify discrepancies between their theories and practice, and evaluate what's going on in their classroom. The classroom is a laboratory that allows teachers to make reflective decisions and plans on the basis of knowledge that they can adapt to their teaching situations, their students, and their classroom experiences . Conducting inquiries of teaching, writing, and presenting can empower teachers.

Final Thoughts

A gentleman at a local bookstore explained nesting grounds as the nourishment you find when you are surrounded by nutrients that feed the mind. Educators must give poor African American students who struggle with reading the nourishment that feeds the mind and provide them with the sustenance to enter a different world from the one in which they were born.

Until recently, functional and cognitive ways of knowing have predominated adolescent literacy development. But curriculum orientations that address affective and cultural dimensions and support the development of literacy are also important. Effective principals strengthen the professional development activities to support teachers whose students struggle with reading. The Powell Doctrine can help educators outline a plan, act, and evaluate the outcomes to create nesting grounds inside classrooms where too many poor, African American adolescent students are denied quality, authentic reading and writing instruction.

References

Darling-Hammond, L., & Falk, B. (1997). Using standards and assessments to support student learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 79, 190-199.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research journa 32 (3), 465-491.

Mahiri, J. (1998). Shooting for excellence: African American and youth culture in new century schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

Watkins, W (1993). African American curriculum orientations: A preliminary inquiry. Harvard Educational Review, 63 (3), 321-337.

Watkins, W (2001). The white architects of African American education. Ideology and power in America, 1865-1954. New York: Teachers College Press.

Wilhelm, J. D. (1995). You gotta BE the book: Teaching engaged and reflective reading with adolescents. New York: Teachers College Press.

Wineburg, S., & Grossman, P (1998). Creating a community of learners among high school teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, 79 (5), 350-353.

Alfred W. Tatum (atatum1@uic.edu) is a visiting program associate and doctoral student at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He also is a literacy coordinator at Henson Elementary School in Chicago, IL.

Copyright National Association of Secondary School Principals Oct 2001
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