Rationale
The current curriculum does not keep the students whom I teach in mind. It’s as if the curriculum is saying that the only way to teach about Blacks lives are through works that represent oppression. Current curriculum units provide instances such as the Civil Rights Movement that is a reminder of the struggles Blacks endured, in essence, making Blacks think the only way their culture lives, has lived, or is worth living is through struggle. What about the success despite the struggle? In other words, why do my students have to think that the only way they have “made it,” is through a fight, through a struggle, and this is the only way that they can survive? The mentality then becomes “Let me put up my guard for the battle,” and literature that doesn’t speak to their current experiences becomes the battlefield.
My current curriculum includes novel studies in which students study one novel and take a closer look at the themes throughout; however, at the intermediate level, which are 3rd to 5th grades, author studies are not built in. The current curriculum provides literature in various units that focus on other cultures and even tie in with the Black culture, but not nearly to the degree that I believe is necessary for students to feel comfortable enough to grapple with literature on a deeper level. Why literature? Why does literature matter? Literature has to become so meaningful that these students who are deprived of their voices in literature can now see that once the battle is won, they can use what they have learned to face any other challenge depicted in literature.
Unfortunately, as a product of the inner city, attending public schools in Pittsburgh, I noticed that some of my peers in the inner city were plagued with feeling like they needed to play “catch up,” not only to their Caucasian counterparts, but to any other student who may have been outperforming them. I believe this feeling of incompetency starts with literacy and the inability to read critically. With this author study students will be able to engage in higher-order thinking in regard to author’s craft. I am focusing on author’s craft because I believe that students will be able to become better readers and writers when they are aware of the intentions of an author and learn to keep an eye on reading with craft in mind.
I am focusing on the work of a local author, Sharon Flake, primarily because she is an African American author, and because she has grown up in the inner city, she is a reflection of the culture that I teach. Moreover, the issues that surface in her novels are based on the lives of inner-city youth. I believe it is critical that students see themselves in the literature they read. Despite what may be going on at home or in the world, Black students may be able to finally celebrate who they are without making accommodations for those who cannot relate to their experiences. When students see the covers of the novels of Sharon Flake, they will see a face that looks similar to their own. Students will no longer feel detached from literature because they don’t visualize themselves in the text. Now they can see an achievement that is amazingly crucial. From this work my hope is to launch more author studies that hone in on craft.
Why is Teaching Author’s Craft Important to Inner-City Youth?
I want to give my students an opportunity to become comprehensive readers, and I believe that process starts with reading for craft. I believe that students can relate to the style of an author whose genre is realistic fiction that focuses on inner city youth. When students use craft to foster deeper meaning, I believe that they may be able to progress as comprehensive readers. My current curriculum puts more emphasis on students’ understanding and using habits of effective readers such as: summarizing, inferencing, drawing conclusions, and synthesizing, to name a few. These strategies are used when students analyze literary elements like plot, theme, and characterization. With this method, students do not pay particular attention to the intricacies that craft entails. The curriculum that I teach merely scratches the surface of the depth that is outlined in the Common Core State Standards in relation to the requirements surrounding Craft and Structure. The curriculum broadcasts a lightweight approach to craft and structure, focusing on figurative language and on some structural pieces such as description and word choice. In other words, the curriculum permits teaching and learning of author’s craft in spurts throughout various units and not as nearly as extensively as is necessary for students to master reading at the level required by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Moreover, I would like students to read like writers. This is a reversal of a way of thinking in regards to literacy development, but writing is the highest form of literacy development. When students think like writers, they are putting a magnifying glass on the deliberate intentions of a writer by questioning how and why the writer chose to position the words the way that he or she did. Students can then mimic those crafty methods, which will prove that they have discovered the intent behind the authors’ words. It is critical for students in the inner-city to perform at this level. I believe this because they are so far behind other students, and focusing on metacognitive strategies is not enough to propel students of the inner-city through to college. I believe it is important to start at this level of 4th grade because, as I mentioned, I want to prevent them from having to “catch up,” especially when it’s too late.
In order for students to master the skills the standards outline, it is essential that they are given adequate time and resources to allow for that mastery to occur. In my experience, students shut down when reading for two reasons: the text has no real connection to them or they cannot decode the words at the level presented. I want students to surpass their flaws and connect with text on a deeper level than what is on the page.
Background of Sharon Flake from an Unpublished Interview
I had the privilege of conducting an interview with Sharon Flake on July 12, 2016. The insight I learned from Ms. Flake will be helpful in preparing for a unit on teaching author’s craft to inner-city youth.
Sharon Flake grew up in the inner city of the northern region of Philadelphia, PA. In an interview, when asked what inspired her to become a writer, Sharon Flake stated, “Have you heard of the saying, many are called but only a few are chosen? My grandfather wrote poetry. I also think I’ve been genetically encoded. I write about the inner city because I was born in the inner city. My father loved North Philadelphia; he is 90 years old. He’s always talked about it as if it were a shiny castle on a hill. And so, it makes me want to cry. I grew up on a really small street where my neighbors still know who I am, they know my name. They loved being Black. I hope people walk away saying, she loved those people, and she loved those kids, they walk away saying that’s where her heart is.”1 It is crucial to include work from such a passionate author concerned with the future of inner-city youth. Sharon went on to explain that the genre of literature she writes falls in the category of realistic fiction. She added that what she writes is “simplistically complex,” simple in nature, with layers that add to text complexity. She proclaimed that her protagonists primarily speak African American English, and that the language is textured. She said that she plays around with writing more than people think she does; she tries to take people and language out of boxes. Importantly, Sharon writes in a way that she believes children feel. Her goal is to capture the words, the essence, and the intent behind the words.
Flake continued to oppose notions that discredit the African American Language. Sharon stated, “Sometimes when teachers walk in and see literature, they see it’s not Dickens, therefore it’s not there. They say, ‘Oh, I love The Skin I’m In, but we correct the English.’ And I think, oh well, I bet you don’t correct the English of To Kill a Mockingbird because somehow you think standard dialect makes sense, and inner city dialect, or urban dialect, or African American dialect doesn’t make sense, and sometimes people use the work to fix the children.”
I was very touched by what Ms. Flake shared. She helped me understand her intentions as an author and what not to do with the work she has published. I will use the discussion we shared to present the work within the author study as a piece of literature and not try to change or fix the students. Many times, my students come in speaking a vernacular that I think does not sound educated. I fall into that same trap of trying to “fix” the language of my students by changing the language. It’s as if I only focus on correcting them so much that I may have missed an important message they were attempting to express. Sharon Flake is challenging me to let literature stand alone as a tool for expression, however that may be. This interview has taught me that just because language is different doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. I also believe that when students see someone in a book talking as they do, they may be able to relate to the character on a deeper level than they would when reading traditional novels that may use standard vernacular.
Students need a variety of literature in front of them. I once had someone tell me that any kind of reading is good reading, as long as you read. I think this is what Sharon Flake means by letting literature be a work in itself. She is speaking of acceptance, which I believe inner-city youth do not feel about themselves. Sharon even added in the interview that she enjoys the movements of the youth today; she believes that the youth are finding their voices right now, dealing with self-esteem like her characters, and that this is empowerment. Sharon added, “In the book The Skin I’m In, the teacher says what does your face say to the world? If you look at this movement, if you look at what’s going on, these kids are saying my face according to you says that I am a threat.” What a powerful statement. When students see Black faces on the cover of a book, perhaps it makes them feel that they are not threatening. It makes them feel accepted because they actually “made it” into a book, something that is deemed so permanent and everlasting. Although, once I was not pictured, I am now; my story, from my view, is being told, embraced, and celebrated. Students then think, “By golly, if learning author’s craft is what you want, I sure will stand at attention”—this is the mentality that I want my students to gain, and I believe this can be done with an author study of an writer who speaks of characters who, although they are fictional, may be exactly where they are—mentally, socially, and physically.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Culturally relevant pedagogy or teaching is a phrase that has created buzz over the past years, and it sheds light on bringing diversity in the classroom, and making students of all cultures feel accepted and appreciated. In Darius D. Prier’s Culturally Relevant Teaching: Hip Hop Pedagogy in Urban Schools, he exclaims that “under conditions in America urban schooling increasingly has been restructured as a technical-rational process of producing learning outcomes under highly disciplined and alienating conditions, with a basic skills curriculum and a test-preparation pedagogy that do not acknowledge or engage urban students’ everyday lived experience, respect their culture and language, or involve them in struggles to construct empowering and self-affirming identities and to resist oppression.”2 This is the primary reason why it is so critical to do an author study like this one on the work of Sharon Flake. Sharon dispels the notion, mentioned above, that urban students lived experiences should not be represented. Sharon Flake speaks from the voice of the inner-city youth, and channels their lived experiences through her unique characterization in her novels, particularly in the three novels in this unit. Moreover, Prier proclaims the “No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB) does not make visible the structural obstacles that children of color and their families face, such as health disparities, labor market discrimination and the like, processes that a class analysis alone cannot unmask. This is vintage whiteness.”3 Once again, Flake helps to wipe out this bias. It is critical that students of the inner-city see themselves in the work they read about. One would argue that Flake writes about Blacks in the inner city, but not about all other cultures. In the interview with Sharon Flake, she shared the fact that she has travelled throughout the world and that people of many cultures have been touched by the work that she has brought forth. I believe that it is refreshing to see a minority culture expressed in literature. As a Black woman, when I see a text reflecting my culture I feel as though “I made it!” I want to make sure that there is a non-stereotypical way in which I and my students are “represented,” and Sharon Flake does this.
The Value of Author Studies
There has been research behind the value of author studies within the elementary classroom. Particularly, the article “10 Reasons to do an Author Study” states ten reasons supporting author studies4. Some of those reasons are listed below, along with my rationale for why this reason applies to teaching students in the inner city about a local author.
Reading Skills
More students of the inner-city need to focus their eyes on text and need to be taught how to develop skills in reading. An author study can be beneficial in achieving this goal.
Critical Thinking
Students can be taught how to analyze text at deeper levels than when just examining literary elements in conjunction with metacognitive skills.
Writing
The article expresses the idea that the author becomes a “writing mentor.” Students of the inner city sometimes need a model before they feel confident in moving forward to do work on their own. Moreover, as the article suggests, it helps students build confidence in their own writing.5
Love for Reading
The article claims also that kids often bond with “their” author, a process that makes reading a personal, fulfilling experience6
Exposure to Reading Genres
An author study can be a stepping stone granting students the opportunity to inquire into different styles of writing by other authors and discover the various types of crafts of writing.
Informational Reading
An author study can lead students to find out information about an author. When you teach works by a local author, perhaps the author can provide a school visit to interact with students who have read his or her books. This also helps for inner-city students who thrive on making connections with the literature they read.
Transition to Current Curriculum
An author study can be short or long, depending on the skills needed for students to acquire. Students of the inner-city and in an elementary school particularly need repetition, and the idea of studying one author over time (short or long) can help with students becoming comprehensive readers.
In Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It, Kelly Gallagher and Richard Allington, they emphasize that the “first step in broadening our students’ reading windows comes when we recognize the three factors that serve as major contributors to readicide.”7 I have come to understand readicide as the genocide of reading. Two of the factors that I find the most critical are the focus on test preparation, which essentially removes the study of novels and additional challenging works in reading and the fact that there is not enough reading done in school. This is why I appreciate the steps that the authors outline to stop readicide from continually happening. The authors continue to emphasize that much damage can be done when students’ brains are not stretched by longer, challenging works. They suggest keeping in mind the work of Maryanne Wolf, who cautions that “adolescents go through major brain development stages and when they aren’t stretched in these periods of their life, their cognitive window may run the risk of shutting down.”8 The authors recommend various ways to deal with this issue, and the one that resonates with me primarily is to take a stand: “be the lead person on your campus and in your district in making sure that curricular decision makers understand what is at stake—that a short, choppy curriculum can damage our students’ ability to think long after they leave the K-12 school system.”9 With this unit, I am taking a stand and giving students an opportunity to get more reading done in school and not just focus on test preparation. Importantly, to achieve all of this I am using novels that students will read throughout the author study.
Moreover, in Readcide, the authors consider an opposing view, that the over teaching of books prevents students from engaging in the reading flow. In the book Making Mind reading flow refers to a mind lost in a state of reading and tuning out all reality for the sake of being engrossed in the literature.10 There is a notion that too much focus on deeper analysis can be detrimental and taint students’ experiences when reading. I can understand this viewpoint, and I agree that reading analysis can be overkill. At the elementary level I believe that students need to be shown how to analyze literature through engaging texts so that the reading flow is not interrupted; it is then ignited. I believe that through an author study of writer who writes in ways that relate to their lives, they will be able to experience reading flow where it may have been disrupted or corrupted due to their inability to comprehend the words on the page.
The Value of Local Author Studies
Conducting an author study is essential for students to become familiarized with a style of writing, in order to perfect their own. Additionally, when students are aware that the author they are studying resides in the city they are from, it takes meaning to a different level. I believe students will become more intrigued and curious about someone who is from their area. Students may be inclined to read more, just to find out if their city or something that reminds them of home is represented through the author’s expression. An opportunity may arise for students to meet a local author as well, an event that will be entirely enriching. Students can ask questions and get actual feedback from the author. Moreover, this opportunity can add value in students’ lives by helping them meet success in their own backyard.
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