Alfred Tatum

Teaching Writing to African-American Boys in Turmoil

The Struggling Writer

Dr. Alfred Tatum

• Dr. Alfred W. Tatum, Ph.D. - Educator, Poet, Activist

Autobigraphy• Dr. Alfred W. Tatum is an associate professor at the University of Illinois at

Chicago.

• He hosts an annual African American Adolescent Male Summer Literacy Institute.

• Alfred authored the award-winning book, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap (2005).

• He has authored more than 25 publications on the topics of adolescent literacy, teacher professional development in urban middle schools and high schools, and the literacy development of African American adolescent males.

• Dr. Tatum began his career as an eighth-grade teacher in Chicago

Radical Love

African-American boys need Radical Love

Need to destroy whatever limits their success

Source Magazine Jan/Feb 2010Chicago’s Turf War

The Solution Many African American adolescent males living in the United

States are unable to identify texts they find meaningful and significant to their lives. This is one of the greatest tragedies of American public education.

We need to reawaken the minds of these young men in

order to move them toward self-determination. Building their textual lineages, that is their relationship to

texts that help them become resilient amid vulnerable-producing conditions, is central to this goal.

The Problem

• The framework for educating is not wide enough

“We are killing our children softly by becoming complicit in doing things that miss the mark.”

Gangs and Violence

• Top cops vow aggressive pursuit in fighting back against gangs

• Gang solutions are few and far between

• Funds deployed in war on gangs

• Vineland combats gangs at school level

7 dead, 18 wounded in 12-hour rash of shootings

Chicago schools, police work together to fight school crimesIn the seven months since Fenger High School honors-student Derrion Albert was beaten to death after school, police and school officials have refocused efforts to keep a closer watch on violence at and around city schools and to share information

The Solution

We need to widen the framework to include human development in addition to reading & writing.

To restore kids confidence in education we need to counter the mindset of “I’m going to keep it gutter”.

Writing Can Restore Confidence

Need meaningful texts to build textual lineages which leads to 3 R’s:

• Recovery• Reconciliation • Resilience.

• Writing can nurture resilience when they are allowed to write about how they feel and what they see.

What is an Enabling text?

• A text that moves a student to be, to do or to think differently.

• African-American males do not have meaningful texts they can relate to.

• See list of suggested texts

Textual Forces

To capture the interest of the writer/reader the text needs address:

• Economic issues• Social issues • Community issues• Personal challenges

Framework for Mediating Texts

1. Start the text - start in the middle

2. Introduce the text - introduce the author and main idea

3. Frame the text with an essential question-why

4. Make connections to the text- your life vs. author’s life

Four Literacy Platforms

1. Define self (recovery)2. Engage others (reconciliation)3. Build capacity (reconciliation & resilience)4. Build resilience

Blog Information

• Visit my blogs at www.aaamsli.blogspot.com and www.aaamsli2.blogspot.com

Encourage young brothers to read the writings of other young brother authors and submit their writings.

We need to encourage the next generation of African American male writers

African-American boys CAN write!