U School Hosts African American Read-In for Local Youth
Reading While Black
A Read-In at the U School is designed to boot-beginning reading in a population of non-readers
Feb. 19, 2016
At the U Schoolhouse, one of the city'south two-year-old small loftier schools of selection, humanities teacher Sam Reed sees everyday what the hereafter might expect like for his mostly black, mostly poor students in Philadelphia, where only 65 percent of public school students graduate high school and more than half of the developed population is low-literate. Many of Reed's ninth and 10th graders showtime high schoolhouse reading well below their grade level. Some never pick upward a paper book, or choose to read anything not assigned. For some, reading is such a struggle that pleasure never comes into it.
That's why Reed organized today's African American Read-In at the U School, turning the North Philly loftier school into a mini-literary festival for one day. Part of a national movement led by the National Network of Teachers of English, the Read-In was created 27 years agone to encourage reading among African American students during Black History Month, particularly by celebrating the works of black writers. Over a million readers nationwide are expected to participate this year, and then study back on their results. In Philadelphia, the U Schoolhouse, whose pupil population is 80 pct black, is the but schoolhouse officially participating.
For Reed, the event is a piece of a larger puzzle he faces in his work. "The graduation rate hither is going upward," Reed says. "But so they graduate to what? They tin't persist in college, tin't persist in a job, because we oasis't prepared them for that." Reading, Reed notes, is a fundamental to their success. Which means first, getting them to read.
The U School, a loftier school built around design thinking that allows students to learn at their own pace, partnered with the Academy of Pennsylvania to build a Lit Lab for reading, writing and literacy. Reed says the school populated its lending library with books past and near African Americans, on subjects that would interest his students, like black folk tales, graphic novels, and hip-hop—including a book hip-hopper Meek Manufactory wrote based on one of his songs. The promise, Reed says, is that their enjoyment of these books will ready them for textbooks and more academic reading.
"Picking upward a Meek Mill novel is a gateway to reading a classical novel," Reed says. "We're reading the Odyssey now, and using Meek Mill'south odyssey as a reference. Finding those connections for these kids is really rich."
For today'due south Read-In, Reed sent his students this week to the Lab's lending library, to choice out 1 book. At various points in their mean solar day, the students volition be asked to drop everything and read for 15 minutes. ("The kids are actually excited about the books they've picked, and started reading them Thursday," Reed notes. "I didn't stop them!")
Effectually 50 kids as well signed up for 1 of four workshops with local African American authors: Maya Anderson, a local loftier schooler who published her own book; Penn Professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, co-author of Reading African American Experiences in the Obama Era; Timothy Welbeck, a lawyer and rap creative person who teachers Hip-Hop and Black Culture at Temple; and Lamont Dixon, aka Napalm da Bomb, a spoken word creative person. Throughout the day, students volition travel to other classes in the school to read poems and stories they've written themselves.
"Once you lot hook kids up with this stuff they're interested in, all the residuum of the academic stuff becomes meaningful and worthwhile," Reed says. "Just the fact that they are excited about reading is remarkable. Spurring on their reading in this style is going to be awesome."
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/u-school-philadelphia-african-american-read-in/
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