Researchers Building: Advancing the Literate Identities of Black Students Across Multiple Sites and Spaces

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

We are four Black emerging researchers who collaborated for 20-months on an elementary literacy project across three urban school sites. We each contributed to the development and implementation of an exponential-growth literacy model, designed for Black elementary boys to read and write at advanced levels. Our personal experiences and pedagogical shifts while teaching the boys (n=124), guided our pursuit to expand upon the model in new settings and contexts. We were each inspired to focus on specific aspects of the model based on our own developing literate identities, and what we saw happening in our individual classrooms. Findings offer a vision to advance the literacy practices of teachers and students in urban school spaces.

Sub Unit

• Division C - Learning and Instruction / Division C - Section 1a: Literacy

Chair

• Alfred W. Tatum, Metropolitan State University of Denver

Papers

• What About Black Female Athletes? Honoring Their Lived Experiences Through Literacy Development - Tamara Moten, University of Georgia

• Using Black Women's Literature to Heal and Cultivate Black Males' Emotional Identities - Durrell Jamerson, The University of Texas at Austin

• Engaging the Disciplines: Supporting Multiple Forms of Literacy Engagement With Elementary Black Boys - Shawndra Allen, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Black Boys and Dialogic Literacy Experiences: The Nuances to Communal Learning Experiences and Spaces - Mellissa Gyimah-Concepcion, Elgin Community College

Discussant

• Angela Fortune, Rand Technology