Category: Life

In summary, there are many things a teachers can do to make their classroom a place where children from all cultural and class backgrounds can succeed in learning to read. Chapter 4 has outlined many methods that can be used with specific cultural groups, which can be used by teachers to create equity in the classroom. In order to have fair treatment, it does not work to treat all children the same. Teachers must be aware of the culture of their students, and be aware of teaching methods that work for those specific cultures, in order to create an equitable environment in which all children can learn.

REFERENCES

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Beeman, M., and Carlisle, J. (2000). The effects of language of instruction on the reading and writing achievement of first grade Hispanic children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 331-353.

Charity, A., Scarborough, H., and Griffin, D. (2004). Familiarity with school English in African American children and its relation to early reading achievement. Child Development, 75, 1340-1356

Chiappe, P., Siegel, L., and Wade-Woolley, L. (2002). Linguistic diversity and the development of reading skills: A longitudinal study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6, 369-400.

Craig, H., Connor, M., and Washington, J. (2003). Early positive predictors of later reading comprehension for African American students: A preliminary investigation. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 34, 31-43.

De la Colina, M., Parker, R., Hasbrouck, and Lara-Alecio, R. (2001). Intensive intervention in reading fluency for at-risk beginning Spanish readers. Bilingual Research Journal, 25,503-538.

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York; New Press.

Denton, C., Anthony, J., Parker, R., and Hasbrouk, J. (2004). Effects of two tutoring programs on the English reading development of Spanish-English bilingual students. The Elementary School Journal, 104, 289-305.

Durkin, D. (1984). Poor black children who are successful readers: An investigation. Urban Education, 19, 53-76.

Elhoweris, H., Mutua, K., Alsheikh, N., and Holloway, P. (2005). Effect of children’s ethnicity on teachers’ referral and recommendation decisions in gifted and talented programs. Remedial and Special Education, 26, 25-31.

Fry, M. and Johnson, C. (1973). Oral language production and reading achievement among selected students. Journal of American Indian Education, 13, 22-27.

Gilliam, B., Gerla, J., and Wright, G. (2004). Providing minority parents with relevant literacy activities for their children. Reading Improvement, 41, 226-234.

Grice, M., and Vaughn, C. (1992). Third graders respond to literature for and about Afro- Americans. The Urban Review, 24, 149-164.

Gunn, B., Smolkowski, K., Biglan, A., Black, C., and Blair, J. (2005). Fostering the development of reading skill through supplemental instruction: Results for Hispanic and non-Hispanic students. Journal of Special Education, 39, 66-85.

Harris, V. (2002). Multicultural Literature. In B. Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in Amercia: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.1, pp. 368-373). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Hiebert, E. and Adler, M. (2002). Critique of the national reading panel report. In B. Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in Amercia: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.1, pp. 118-120). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Hosp, J, and Reschly, D. (2004). Disproportionate representation of minority students in special education: Academic, demographic and economic predictors. Exceptional Children, 70, 185-199.

Klug, B., and Whitfield, P. (2003). Widening the circle: Culturally relevant pedagogy for American Indian children. New York. Routledge Falmer.

Kondo-Brown, K. (2002) Heritage-Language Development. In B. Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in Amercia: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.1, pp. 219-222). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Lane, K., Menzies, H., Munton, S., Von Duering, R., and English, G. (2005). The effects of a supplemental early literacy program fro a student at risk: A case study.

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LeMoine, N. (2002). Ebonics. In B. Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in America: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.1, pp. 167-168). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Love, A., and Kruger, A. (2005). Teachers beliefs and student achievement in urban schools serving African American students. Journal of Educational Research, 99, 87-98.

McBride-Chang, C., and Ho, C. (2005). Predictors of beginning reading in Chinese and English: A 2-year longitudinal study of Chinese kindergarteners. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 117-144.

Mohr, K. (2003). Children’s choices: A comparison of book preferences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic first-graders. Reading Psychology, 24, 163-176.

Monaghan, E., Hartman, D., and Monaghan, C. (2002). History of Reading Instruction. In Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in Amercia: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.1, pp. 224-230). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Morrow, L, Holt, T., and Sass, A. (2002). Phonics instruction. In B. Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in Amercia: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.2, pp. 428-431). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Murray, B., Stahl, S., and Ivey, M. (1993). Developing phonological awareness through alphabet books. Paper Presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, Charleston, SC.

Payne, R. (1996). A framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX. Aha! Process.

Pollard-Durodola, S., Cedillo, G., and Denton, C. (2004). Linguistic units and instructional strategies that facilitate word recognition for Latino kindergareners learning to read in Spanish. Bilingual Research Journal, 28, 319-354.

Reyhner, J. (1986). Native Americans in basal reading textbooks: Are there enough? Journal of American Indian Education, 26, 14-22.

Riccio, C., Amado, A., Jiminez, S., Hasbrouk, J., Imhoff, B., and Denton, C. (2001). Cross-linguistic transfer of phonological processing: Development of a measure of phonological processing in Spanish. Bilinglual Research Journal, 25, 583-603.

Rickford, A. (2001). The effect of cultural congruence and higher order questioning on the reading enjoyment and comprehension of ethnic minority students. Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk, 6, 357-387.

Ruan, J. (2003). Toward a culture-sensitive pedagogy: Emergent literacy learning in Chinese-English bilinguals in America. Language Culture and Curriculum, 16, 39-47.

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Spring, J. (2005). The American school 1642-2004. New York. McGraw-Hill

Stage, S., Sheppard, J., Davidson, M., and Browning, M. (2001). Prediction of first- graders’ growth in oral reading fluency using kindergarten letter fluency. Journal of School Psychology, 39, 225-237.

Steffensen, M., Goetz, E., and Cheng, X. (1999). The images and emotions of bilingual Chinese readers: A dual coding analysis. Reading Psychology, 20, 301-324.

Tatum, B. (1997). “Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?”: And other conversations about race. New York. Basic Books.

Taylor, G. (1997). Multicultural literature preferences of low ability African American and Hispanic American fifth graders. Reading Improvement, 34, 37-48.

Trousdale, A., and Everett, J. (1994). Me and bad Harry: Three African-American children’s response to fiction. Children’s Literature in Education, 25, 1-15.

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. New York. State University of New York Press.

Willis, A. (2002). Diversity. In B. Guzzetti (Ed.) Literacy in Amercia: An encyclopedia of history, theory and practice (Vol.1, pp. 150-153). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC- CLIO.

Wilson-Jones, L. (2003). Factors that promote and inhibit the acacemic achievement of rural elementary African American males ina a mississippi school: A Qualitative study. Paper Presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Edcuational Research Association, Biloxi, MS.

Wiencek, B., Cipielewski, J., Vazzano, J., and Sturken, M. (1998). Portraits of the literacy practices in two kindergarten classrooms: What’s going on. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Reading Conference, Austin, TX.

Wikipedia. (2006, July 15). Indian boarding school. Retrieved August 13, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Boarding_School

Effective Methods for Teaching Asian Pacific American Students

As a teacher, it is also important to remember that Asian students are not always the best students, even though many teachers describe them as model students (Ruan, 2003, Tatum 1997). It is important for teachers to not assume they do not need help just because they do not ask for it (Ruan, 2003). This could be due to a cultural difference, not because they feel competent or are successful at the task. Recognizing the disadvantage that is done to students when their needs are not attended to is an important lesson for a good teacher to remember. Teachers should always make sure all students get the help they need even if they can’t ask for it because of cultural differences.

Since different languages have different methods of decoding and different structures, or orthographies (McBride-Chang and Ho, 2005, Pollard-Durodola et al., 2004), it is important to consider a student’s prior abilities in decoding in their native language, if they come into our classrooms with prior abilities in reading in their native language. In Chinese and other Asian languages(McBride-Chang and Ho, 2005), just as in Spanish (Pollard-Durodola et al., 2004), it is important for effective teachers to find ways to expand upon the student’s existing abilities. Having a focus on nurturing and transferring skills from a native language will help students learn the new language more quickly and successfully. Early reading skills in the native language are more predictive of later accomplishment in English than early performance in English is (McBride-Chang and Ho, 2005).

Students coming from homes that speak Chinese (Cantonese) and possibly other languages that use characters may not be able to decode using individual phonemes (McBride-Chang and Ho, 2005). Understanding that if students have learned to read in Chinese, they will be using a syllabic base rather than a phonemic one will allow teachers to understand thought processes of these children. It is important to be aware of these needs and proficiencies that might be discounted without this knowledge of the orthography of a student’s native language.

Effective Methods for Teaching Native American Students

One area where there was not an abundance of literature was studies on the early reading acquisition of Native American students. Most articles were dated or involved older students. It is important to have more research on the needs of these students available, and it is also important to have more tribe specific information. Studies that were reviewed usually dealt with one specific tribe, and so were possibly not generalizable to the more than 280 other tribes in the United States, which according to Willis (2002) “….differ in terms of their language, traditions, economics, and social interactions” (p. 152).

Some information that was useful in the research reviewed was the finding that Reyhner (1986) reported, showing that it is important to supplement the basal readers with trade books that represent Native American student’s culture, especially tribe specific books if possible.

Effective Methods for Teaching African American Students

It has been shown that family involvement can make a major impact on reading achievement for African American students and others (Gilliam, et al., 2004, Wilson- Jones, 2003). Making classrooms welcoming to parents, finding ways to involve them in their child’s education, providing trainings that help them help their children, if they feel they are not capable, are all ways that parents can become more involved in schooling.

Being available during non school hours for working parents and being willing to call or visit parents at home can also be ways to help parents become more engaged in their children’s school lives.

Another thing that is important to keep in mind when working with African American youth is the idea that it is important for teachers to remember that differences in pronunciation are not always miscues, they are simply the differences in pronunciation between dialects (Charity et al., 2004). According to LeMoine (2002), a teacher’s disapproving attitude about an African American student’s use of African American English can negatively affect how they perform in school. Charity et al. (2004) agree, showing that an overemphasis on pronunciation may take away from a student’s attention to meaning. The important thing is that the student making meaning of the text. Since the underlying grammatical structures of African American English are different than Standard English, teachers need to understand how the dialect works and not count the children’s use of the dialect as a mistake in English, but rather a use of their native dialect. Overcorrecting the use of native dialects or languages when the student is making meaning is counterproductive. Students will be more likely to participate in instruction when their linguistic abilities are respected and taken advantage of. It has been shown that the use of realistic minority dialect in literature helps students enjoy stories, stay engaged, and feel represented in the texts (Rickford, 2001).

The Effect of Teachers Attitudes and Expectations on Students Learning

It is important for teachers to remember that being color blind is almost as bad for students as overt racism (Love and Kruger, 2005). By not seeing the unique needs and abilities culture contributes to a child, you are not seeing the whole child. Ignoring these abilities and needs discounts them and leaves students without consideration in teaching methods. Of course assuming that all students of a certain ethnicity fit a certain stereotype is wrong, but it is important to recognize when it does influence student’s needs and respect that. Teachers must find ways to use a student’s culture to their advantage in schooling.

Culturally Responsive Literature and its’ Effect on Students

In De la Colina et al’s (2001) study, it was found that low engagement students did not have any statistically relevant improvement over a 12 week improvement, and some performed worse as time went on. Finding ways to get all students highly engaged should be an important goal for teachers. It has also been shown that highly engaged students make greater gains in reading, and read more often. Finding ways to engage all students in reading is an important way for teacher’s to make education equitable for minority students. By using methods that keep students excited about reading, teachers can motivate them to want to do it, and their skills will have greater chance of developing with extensive practice.

It has been shown that students comprehend more and are more engaged when they are reading about something they have background knowledge, and when their culture is represented in the story (Steffensen et al., 1999, Rickford, 2001). It is important for students not only to be represented in the texts, but it helps with comprehension when the background knowledge required is something they are familiar with. Trousdale and Everett (1994) showed that even when third grade students had characters that looked like them in stories, they didn’t necessarily have the background information to comprehend and so didn’t enjoy the texts.

Steffensen et al. (1999) also showed that students who took longer amounts of time to read in English comprehended the same amount as students who took half the time to read in their native language. It is possible that giving ESL students more time to read stories will help with comprehension, and this may make reading more fun and motivate the students to read more, and may be just as successful at comprehending when reading if given enough time.  The reader can see that ESL students in a classroom culture that perhaps puts too much emphasis on fluency may struggle to understand what they read. If what we want is for comprehension and personal connection to the literature to occur, then perhaps it is more important for students to take their time and think about what they are reading, and how it connects to their lives, than for students to read quickly and accurately.

In the Steffensen (1999) study, it was interesting that one of the women who read in English said that this was the easiest thing she had ever had to read in English. This statement points to the fact that English books that cover all students prior experiences are important to have in classrooms where knowledge of English is the goal. When students are able to read about familiar subjects, schema takes hold and it is easier to predict and comprehend a story.

Mohr (2003) showed that Hispanic students in first grade chose mostly nonfiction when given a choice of books. Almost all 1^st grade students chose animal books, not human books, even when books with characters of their own race and culture were available. This can be translated into practice by providing interesting and reading level appropriate nonfiction texts to children for reading choices just as much as fictional books. Students can be very motivated to read non fiction that is well presented, as much as or more so than the traditional storybooks. This study tells us another important lesson, just because you have a minority student, they many not be drawn to multicultural literature.

It is also important to remember that this study was done with first graders. According to Tatum (1997), a students need to develop their racial identity by racial grouping does not happen until 6^th grade or older. Although students are obviously aware of race before then, and may enjoy seeing characters that are like them, they may not be as concerned with the subject of race in first grade as teachers may assume they are.

Taylor (1997) showed that not all students have the background to appreciate culturally conscious stories. There is a difference between having the multicultural literature available for students to read and in pushing it on students when they are not interested, because an important part of reading is the motivation to do so, prompted by high interest in the subject matter. Grice and Vaughn’s (1992) study is important because it showed engaging children in literature that is enjoyable and relates to their personal experience is important in motivating them to want to read.

24 April in the calendar of ecological dates is marked as the world day of protection of laboratory animals that was established by the International Association against painful experiments on animals in 1979 and supported by the UN. If you are interested in the topic, go through our argumentative essay on animal testing.

Should animals be used for scientific or commercial testing?

I must say that the animals were used in experiments since ancient times, but the work was sporadic. The concept of “laboratory animal” has developed in the late 19th century in connection with rapid development of experimental biology and medicine, and in the second half of the 20th century method of scientific experimentation on animals was formed as an independent direction. Before entering the pharmacy counter, drugs are many animal testing and its gifts to humans in the next 15-20 years.

Pros for animal testing

The most common test that determines the ability of a substance to irritate mucous membranes. It is this: rabbits are fixed in the machines, then they on the cornea to apply a substance (e.g., everyone’s favorite “Fairy”), and then there are changes in the cornea until its death which can only come in a week or two. And rabbits here not the collective image of the laboratory animal; they are used because they have not allocated the tears, and, consequently, the applied substance is not washed off. At the same time, the money might be spent on an animal testing ads campaign for a healthy lifestyle.

In other animals (namely, rats) reduced ability to vomit, so take them for testing General toxicity of the substances entering their animals into the stomach through a tube.

For almost 20 years the cosmetics can be checked for security, and anybody not racking up. Alternative testing methods are divided into two groups: laboratory testing without using living organisms (in vitro) and computer modeling.

Speaking of research, “75% of experiments on animals today could successfully be replaced by cell cultures,” – a virologist, member of the Committee on bioethics at the Academy of Sciences.

However, all cosmetics entering the market, are tested by CPS. These inspections are also used by animals. If the EU companies pay for their products, we pre-market departmental control. Animal testing holds the office and take money for it. It is also worth noting that in Europe prohibited the testing of cosmetic products on animals.

Full list of companies that test on animals, you can see in this blog.

Also not nervous, not pregnant and not lactating, I recommend to watch a movie about the cruelty and futility of animal experiments – “Experimental Paradigm”.

On animals experience not only medicines, but also cosmetics, construction and packaging materials, cleaning products and other products. Animals breathe from the substance, whose concentration is so great that most of the animals died of poisoning. Industrial test Driza for cosmetics (mascara, lipstick, etc.) is performed as follows. Animals that are fully conscious, causing the eye of the test substance and waiting until the damage of the cornea. The rabbit’s head firmly fixed with a special collar, and the animal can’t even paw to the eyes, which erodes the applied drug. Often the test ends with the cornea becomes cloudy, the eye dies.

Quotes about animal testing

Man with all his ingenuity could reduce their need to use animals without bringing harm to their health and well-being. To solve the problem of animal testing by the adoption of the Federal law “About the cruel treatment of animals”, financing professionals, developing alternatives to animal testing and implementation of the new discipline of bioethics (science about respect for all living things) in universities as a compulsory subject.

I want to believe that “the time will come when the world will look at modern vivisection in the name of science, how he looks now to burning people at the stake in the name of religion”.

The research reviewed in Chapter Three has revealed several practices that may encourage culturally relevant teaching. In considering the past and present experiences of minority students in school, it is important to find the most effective practices to teach all people’s children. The following are practices that research has shown to be effective when working with a diverse student base.

The Effect of Tracking and Stereotyping by Teachers

Studies have shown that teachers refer minority students to gifted and talented programs less (Elhoweris et al, 2005), and to special education programs more (Hosp & Reschly, 2004), than white students. Since minority status, unfortunately, often correlates with low socioeconomic status, these figures may be due to differences in class. Low SES students are also overrepresented in special education classes for the mentally retarded (Hosp & Reschly, 2004).

The study by Elhoweris et al. (2005), which showed race had an effect on teachers recommendation of students into gifted and talented programs shows that teachers’ expectations of a student will affect what they see. If teachers hold stereotyped impressions of their students, they will continue to think their minority students are less able than white students, even if they perform in approximately similar ways.

If indeed African American students have lower achievement scores as Hosp and Reschly (2004) found, it would seem that more would be referred to special education programs. To this I would suggest future study into what is it about our system that gives minority and low SES students less of a chance to succeed.

That race is such a strong predictor in Hosp and Reschly’s (2004) study for the referral of students to classes for the emotionally disturbed, a branch of special education that deals mostly with behavior, is telling of the difficulties that teachers (a majority of whom are white) may have in connecting with minority students. Just because a student comes from a different cultural background than their teacher does not mean the teacher should assume they need special education. The teacher may need some “special education” to learn culturally relevant practices and help all his or her students succeed.

The researchers (Hosp & Reschly, 2004) suggest the development of early interventions that might help reduce the higher representation of minorities in special education classes. Professional development for teachers working with a multicultural student base is not addressed as a cause by the authors. They report that yes, race and income have a strong affect on placement, but they do not address why they do.

Teaching teachers to see the student rather than the race or cultural characteristics often attached to race may help with this

Teachers who want to give all their students a chance at a fair education need to keep studies like these (Elhoweris et al, 2005, Hosp & Reschly, 2004), in mind. When struggling with a student from a different culture, a teacher must analyze the source of the conflict or misunderstanding, and attempt to find culturally relevant ways to teach the student. Teachers can find methods that keep students with diverse abilities in the mainstream classroom, and stop relegating students to special education programs because of cultural misunderstandings. All students have unique abilities and needs, and being aware of these can help teachers accurately diagnose students who need special education, and students who just need a different type of help in their regular classrooms

The Effect of Class and Socioeconomic Status on Teaching and Learning Craig et al.’s study (2003) concluded that with proper intervention, social class should not make a major difference in a student’s success in school, and Stage et al. (2001) concluded that low SES students with difficulty in letter naming should receive early intervention to strengthen letter naming fluency in order to ensure they do not fall behind peers in first grade and beyond. Given these findings, schools must provide early testing and intervention for students who show signs of struggling with literacy early on in education, by offering testing for pre-kindergarten students and offering preschool slots to students who show a need for extra help. These recommendations require state, district, and school wide efforts. Teachers must also provide early intervention in the primary classroom, so students get the help they need early on and do not slip behind their peers in reading development.

Since Wiencek et al.(1998) found that when teachers use the developmentally appropriate view of early reading development, wherein children learn to read when they are ready, seems to work for the middle and upper class students and disadvantage poor students. From this finding the reader can assume that teachers must take it upon themselves to make sure all students, especially low income students, have time to explore books and concepts about print, as well as work with phonemic awareness and phoneme grapheme correspondence. Children should also have small group or one on one teacher interaction, and an opportunity to receive teacher scaffolding.

Effective Methods for Teaching Hispanic Students

Riccio et al. (2001) also called for early intervention of reading difficulties for Spanish speaking ESL students. They found that for students who don’t speak English at home, it is difficult to identify reading problems early on, because of the language barrier. With the high rates of illiteracy and drop out in the Hispanic community, it is vital to identify problems with phonemic awareness early. With tests such as the CTE that identify abilities in the native language, schools can identify reading difficulties early on. It is important to have this early intervention in place instead of waiting to diagnose these problems once the student learns English, after they are already significantly behind their classmates.

It has been shown (Carlisle and Beeman, 2000) that students who speak Spanish upon entering school were shown to learn to read more quickly in Spanish and in English when they were taught in Spanish, while children who were taught in English did not start reading as quickly in either language. Perhaps a reader needs to be familiar with the language before comprehension strategies can be applied, decoding words that do not make sense will not nurture comprehension. It is important for ESL students to receive some instruction in reading strategies in their native language when possible, so these can develop as early as possible and then be transferred to the student’s second language.

The application of Carlisle and Beeman’s (2000) study is that learning to read in one’s native language will not only benefit the student’s literacy in his/her first language, but also help him/her read much better in English. This shows teachers that students will make gains in English reading whether or not they read only in English, and that students are able to maintain their literacy capabilities in their native language if they are encouraged to practice, and read, in their native language.

Research shows (Denton, et al., 2004) that students who do not speak English and who learn to read in a school culture where decoding and phonics are of key importance may learn to decode words that they cannot understand. Spanish ESL students who were tutored improve only in context free reading. It is important to focus on the difference between fluency and comprehension. Fluency can be helpful for students who are learning to read words they already know the meaning of, but being able to pronounce words with an English pronunciation does not help students who do not know the meaning of the word to begin with. Allowing students to spend some time reading in their native language will help students’ comprehension, as has been shown by Steffensen, et al. (1999). When ESL students are pushed to have increased fluency, their comprehension may suffer because they need more time to think about the content and translate mentally (Denton, et al., 2004).

According to the research (Chiappe et al., 2002), teachers must remember that until ESL students learn English, they are interpreting everything in terms of their native language, which can cause confusion. In most languages, the syntax is different than in English. Students cannot use this as a cueing system for reading. It is important for teachers to make sure students are able to make meaning out of reading, instead of just pronouncing words that have no meaning to the student. A focus on meaning helps students improve more than an emphasis on decoding unfamiliar words.

Pollard-Durodola, et al. (2004) studied the strategies that are used to teach phonemic awareness and early word reading in Spanish. This is important for a teacher to know, even in an English instruction classroom, because students may be coming into classrooms already having learned to read in Spanish. Teachers should be familiar with strategies, similar and different, to better understand their new students unique abilities and schema. This study really showed the difficulty students may have in transitioning their reading abilities from a language with shallow, consistent orthography like Spanish to one with many different rules like English. Knowing that Spanish often treats a syllable as the unit of sound rather than a phoneme can help a teacher work with students who may not comprehend the idea of breaking words down into the smaller units.

Having knowledge of these differences can help teachers assist students who may need to grasp not only a new language, but a new set of rules for reading it.

A study by Grice and Vaughn (1992), sought to explore the effect of using multicultural literature on African American and Caucasian children. Thirteen children in a southern city were asked to respond to twenty-four books representing African American experiences and culture. Nine respondents were black (5 boys and 4 girls) and 4 were white (3 boys and 1 girl). All were third graders and had been identified as slow learners, reading two years below grade level.

In the study (Grice & Vaughn, 1992), the teacher read the entire class each book, and then interviewed three children who were randomly selected about each of the twenty four books. I do not think this is thorough transferable, because if only 3 children are interviewed randomly, there is no assurance that there will be enough representation of African American boys versus girls, and the same with Caucasian students. Interviewing more students on each book, and trying to represent all male/female and ethnic groups could make the study more convincing.

The questions asked (Grice & Vaughn, 1992) were over the content of the book, whether or not the story or characters could be real, whether or not the student could place themselves in the story, and whether or not they liked the book and why. The stories read ranged from African heritage and biography to community, friends, and family themes, and poetic verse. After the individual interviews, the teacher led a class discussion about the books. The students shared their feelings about the book and ranked it.

The study (Grice & Vaughn, 1992) found that family, community, and friend themed books were the easiest for children to follow. One hundred percent of black females and 83% of black males identified with the community and friendship books. Sixty seven percent of white boys also identified with these stories.

The children took the question referring to whether or not the story could be real very literally. If it had not happened to them, they could not believe it. They found middle class and books about interracial families, even autobiographical ones, to be unbelievable, because “nobody in my family is white” (Grice & Vaughn, 1992, p.159). Because the students were not biracial and did not know any multiracial families, they could not relate to the themes. Also, many students did not find the African heritage books believable. One African American boy said “If I was in Africa and the slavers tried to kidnap me, I would want to leave Africa” (Grice & Vaughn, 1992, p.159).

The terminology used by Grice and Vaughn is interesting. I wonder what they mean by saying that 67 % of white boys found a story believable, when really only saying 2 children out of 3 thought so. This is the same thing, but 67% makes the research sound more extensive than interviewing only 3 children on each book if a reader is not reading very closely. The study could also have been more complete if it included a book about a white protagonist who had a low SES, to see if the students identified with this book as much or more than the African American stories in which the children identified with the main character because of social conditions and not race.

The findings of this study (Grice & Vaughn, 1992), are confirmed in Taylor’s (1997) study, and so seem more convincing. The information was not recorded by tape recorder, and no information was given as to how the interviews were recorded (Grice & Vaughn, 1992).

Taylor (1997) conducted a study continuing Grice and Vaughn’s 1992 research. Taylor’s study researched the literature preferences of African American and Hispanic American fifth graders, two years older than Grice and Vaughn’s study. In Taylor’s study, 24 students were asked to respond to literature. 14 of the students were African American and 10 were Hispanic. No information was given as to the gender makeup of the sample, other than that it did include both boys and girls. The school the study was conducted in was an inner city elementary school in the Southwest. It does not give the state, but the students received a score of 70 on the Texas learning index by taking the Texas assessment of Academic Skills, implying that it took place in Texas. This qualified the students to receive assistance from a Title I teacher. All the students in the study were low income and received free lunch from the school.

In Taylor’s (1997) study, students read 24 picture books. There were 24 students and 24 books. Each student read each book. The report does not say how they were read (alone or in groups) or over what period of time. The books included a majority of melting pot and culturally conscious books. Melting Pot fiction consists of stories wherein African Americans or other minorities are included in plots with Caucasians.

They are not usually main characters and the only differences between African Americans and European Americans addressed here is skin color. No other social issues are addressed. Culturally Conscious stories do address historical, social, and cultural aspects of African American life. They might use African American English and include plot details dealing with extended family. Other books read included Hispanic American fiction, mainstream children’s literature, and African and African and African American folklore.

After each child read all 24 books, they completed a questionnaire which asked their opinions on the books they read (Taylor, 1997). The rated each book from 1 to 5, but the questionnaire asked not only their opinion of the book, but also whether they could picture themselves in the story (identify with the characters). The children then wrote a paragraph about their favorite and least favorite books to give reasons for their opinions. The children’s favorite books as a whole class were The Talking Eggs (a fairy tale) by Robert San Souci, Grandma’s Joy (a culturally conscious story) by Eloise Greenfield, and The Snowy Day (a melting pot story)by Ezra Jack Keats, a very popular children’s author and one of the first to include African American characters in mainstream children’s literature.

The Talking Eggs was popular because of its humor and fantasy (Taylor, 1997). The researcher felt that the popularity of Grandma’s Joy served to confirm Grice and Vaughn’s (1992) conclusion that all children could identify with family themed books, no matter what the race of the reader or the character was.  The Snowy Day was a favorite for its interesting pictures and ability to put oneself in the place of the main character (Taylor, 1997). Even though the top three included culturally conscious fiction and melting pot books, the least popular 5 books were also made up of these types. The children seemed to dislike books that dealt with unpleasant topics, such as Daddy, by Jeannette Caines, which was about a girl whose parents are divorced who gets to spend the day with her father.

When the students were split by ethnicity, the favorite books differed somewhat (Taylor, 1997). Looking at only African Americans, Jambo Means Hello by Muriel Feelings, Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold, and She Come Bringing Me That Little Baby Girl by Eloise Greenfield were favorites, all three culturally conscious fiction. These students had two years of maturity on the subjects in Grice and Vaughn’s study, and were more able to appreciate books involving African Origins.

Hispanic American student’s favorite books included Where the Wild Things Are (mainstream children’s literature) by Maurice Sendak, Grandma’s Joy , and Snowy Day. Hispanics seemed to enjoy mainstream books and books that dealt with family issues most (Taylor, 1997). Abuela (Hispanic American literature) by Arthur Dorros ranked 9^th with Hispanic subjects, even though it was the only book with Hispanic characters and plot. The third favorite book for African American students was the least favorite for Hispanic American students. She Come Bringing Me That Little Baby Girl came in last at 24 for Hispanic American subjects.

The researcher (Taylor, 1997) concludes that not all students have the background knowledge to appreciate culturally conscious stories. Membership in an ethnic group does not mean that students know the history and culture of that ethnic group. Teachers may need to pre-assess knowledge and teach some background information before reading some culturally conscious books.

The research by Taylor (1997) is believable, results of the children’s rankings are included, as is a copy of the assessment they used. What would make the study more convincing would be the inclusion of over what period of time the books were read. This could affect how the students ranked the books. If the students read the books all at one sitting, they may have tired of reading halfway through and not enjoyed the later books. If they read a few books each day, by the end of the period they may not have kept fresh in their mind exactly how much they liked the first ones. Children, and adults, can move from one favorite to another very quickly depending on how recently they were exposed to the material. Information as to how these issues were addressed would lend more credibility and transferability to the research.

The study (Taylor, 1997) is consistent with the findings of Grice and Vaughn (1992) in that it found that students often can relate to universal family relationships no matter the race of the character. It (Taylor, 1997) moved beyond this research and showed that with maturity and more background information, students are more able to process information about culturally conscious books, including information about African origins.

To summarize, Mohr (2003) found that first grade students preferred nonfiction books to books with characters who represented their race, and Grice and Vaughn (1992) found that third graders didn’t enjoy stories they couldn’t relate to in their immediate lives, even if their race was represented by the characters in the book. Trousdale and Everett (1994) found that 7 year old children used their life experiences to interpret texts, and Taylor (1997) showed that some students just don’t have the background information to appreciate culturally conscious stories, and preassessment and teaching background knowledge may be necessary for some culturally conscious books, even if the students are part of the culture represented in the book. Rickford (2001) found that culturally relevant literature positively impacted the reading enjoyment for 6^th and 7^th grade students.

Summary

There is a wealth of research on ways to help different cultural groups find success in reading. Some suggest community and school wide programs in order to help all children succeed, while others give teachers specific strategies that could be implemented in the classroom.

Craig et al. (2003) showed that state funded preschools for low income students could help overcome the achievement gap, while Gilliam et al. (2004) showed that parental involvement in classes to help their children in reading caused more families to read together. Wilson-Jones (2003) showed that students achieved more when their families were involved in their schooling. All of these suggestions are something that must be supported by communities, school districts, and individual schools in order to effect change for students.

Wiencek et al. (1998) showed the reader that many of the so called developmentally appropriate views of reading in some kindergartens disadvantage low income students. Denton, et al. (2004) and Chappe et al. (2002) both showed that students’ fluency in a second language could be improved using explicit phonics instruction, but neither of these programs benefited comprehension. Ruan (2003) reminded readers that Chinese students may not be assertive about getting their needs met. Chang and Ho (2005) showed readers that characters use syllables as the smallest unit of sound, so expecting students who speak Chinese as a first language to segment words into phonemes may be asking more than for a student who uses English as a first language. Grice and Vaughn (1992) and Mohr (2003) showed that students, when given a choice, didn’t necessarily prefer culturally relevant literature, and Taylor (1997) showed that sometimes students don’t have the resources to understand this literature, even if the characters represented are part of their racial group.

A study by Rickford (2001) showed that culturally relevant literature does make a positive impact on the enjoyment of reading and comprehension of what is read for at risk students in the 6^th and 7^th grades. She worked with a group of poor readers who were able to come up with insightful thoughts on literature when they were provided with culturally relevant fiction along with high order questions.

Rickford (2001) theorized that when children saw representations of themselves in the literature they were reading, it motivated them more than other texts. She states “ethnic folk tales and contemporary narratives have the advantage of increasing cultural congruence and motivation for multicultural students, through their inclusion of themes, situations, perspectives, language, and illustrations with which they can relate” (Rickford, 2001, p. 383).

The study (Rickford, 2001) was conducted over a two year period, from 1994 to 1996, in a split grade six/seven class in a school that served from kindergarten through 8^th grade. There were 25 students included in the study, a majority of whom were African American. There were also Hispanic and Pacific Islander students, who included Tongans, Samoans, and Fijians. A majority of the students scored below the 50^th percentile on the state test, the California Test of Basic Skills. Almost one third of the class was around only the 10^th percentile. The school was located in a low income urban area in northern California, and was surrounded by the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay area.

Six stories were chosen as a focus for the study (Rickford, 2001), three African American folktales and three modern stories about African Americans. All stories featured African American characters and had at least one full page illustration that was well drawn and showed ethnic minorities. After students read each book, they answered 11 questions. Two were about their enjoyment of the text, three quizzed the child with multiple choice about the surface features of the text but did not go for deeper understanding. These were recall only, and did not ask the students to interpret. The last six questions were higher order questions that asked the students to apply their knowledge of their own lives, and interpret the story and characters.

The multiple choice questions were scored on a scale, there was a most right answer, a somewhat possible answer, a barely possible answer, and an impossible answer, which scored from three to zero, respectively (Rickford, 2001). Then senior students at the university were trained to use rubrics to score the higher order questions, which were in short answer format. The inter-rater reliability was between 100% and 75%, depending on the question. It was lowest (80 and 75) for the two questions that asked students to put themselves in the situation and to write a new ending. For questions that asked them to make a moral judgment, identify a favorite character, and write about character feelings, the inter-rater reliability factor ranged between 84 and 100%.

Children identified with the folktales deeper relationships, and were able to identify with the personal circumstances that caused difficulty in the lives of characters in a completely different context (Rickford, 2001). This went far beyond the surface structures children are most often asked to identify on multiple choice exams. They also identified strongly with characters in a modern setting, and most of the time empathized with the underdog or whoever was being mistreated in the story.

Students seemed to especially enjoy the dialogue of characters that used African American English (Rickford, 2001). Even students who were not African American enjoyed this, but it was noted that many of them also spoke with features of AAE, especially Pacific Islanders. The students felt this feature made the stories more believable. A student “commented ‘I like the dialect because it was my kind of talk. I enjoy reading dialect stories and also I think it help [sic] the story’ ” (Rickford, 2001, p. 371). The researcher notes the research from this field that shows teachers who accept the use of dialects and also teach the Standard English a child will need to know for life skills will reach children better than one who attempts to eradicate native dialects. This also applies to the students’ engagement when their ethnicities are represented in illustrations. One student commented about the illustrations “I like the way they… are made and everything. AND THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE [student’s emphasis]” (Rickford, 2001, p. 372).

Students scored higher on the higher cognitive demand questions than the low order questions (Rickford, 2001). Even though they were allowed to use the books to refer to, students scored a mean of 60% on the recall, multiple choice questions, and were more successful with 79% and 75% means on the critical evaluation and creative reading questions, respectively. The researcher attributed these differences to the fact that students could not use their real life experiences to interpret the answers; it was more literal and had to be found exactly in the text, not interpreted. On the higher order questions students were able to “stake a claim, and provide a well reasoned warrant in support of it” (Rickford, 2001, p. 379). She believed the reason was because students could apply things that happened to them in their lives to their answers here.

Rickford (2001) concluded that not only were culturally relevant texts important to student’s engagement with the text, but also that comprehension questions not only be based on surface details, but underlying themes and student reactions are important to engaging students in thinking about reading.

A critique of this study would emphasize its lack of a comparison. Since all the stories used were culturally relevant we have no way to see if the students would not have gotten the same scores with mainstream, not culturally relevant literature. The methodology seemed to only confirm what the researcher already thought. If other types of literature had been added, then we would have some proof here. But without that, the findings of this study lack credibility.

Trousdale and Everett (1994) also conducted a study to see how minority students reacted to literature.  They wanted to see if students from minority cultures comprehended the messages in mainstream literature, or if there was a cultural barrier that impeded meaning.

The researchers (Trousdale & Everett, 1994) included one elementary school teacher who taught at a school with a majority of African American students and who also wrote children’s books. The second researcher was a teacher from a local university. Both were Caucasian and spoke Standard English.

Their subjects (Trousdale & Everett, 1994) included 3 seven year old African American girls, none of whom were in the researcher’s classes. All students lived in a mostly African American community in a low income housing area. All children spoke the African American English dialect.   Two children came from single parent homes, one of whom lived with extended family (grandmother), and one of the children lived with both parents. Although many people in the area are unemployed, often because they were illiterate, the subjects chosen were all from families who were employed. All three children said they went to the library often, and that they liked reading. The first child admired her teacher, and wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. Another wanted to be a writer, especially plays, which she wrote and performed with children in the neighborhood. The last child was shy, but enjoyed reading as well.

Author number one wrote three different stories, all around the same theme of birthdays (Trousdale & Everett, 1994). It was decided to have her write them so it would be easier to analyze whether the students comprehended the author’s message, since the author was right there and not a third person! All books were humorous, and had main characters around the children’s age. One was “Mom Don’t You Like It?”, a story that included a lot of repetition, and two more stories, one based on Alexander and the Terrible, horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and was called “The Worst Birthday in the History of the World”, where many bad things happen, but which of course has a happy ending. The last was based on The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash, and was called “The Iguana Got Loose at the Birthday Party”, where a series of funny events follows one after the other. There was no information given as to whether illustrations accompanied the stories.

Each student was read each story separately in the living room of one of the researchers (Trousdale & Everett, 1994). The stories were read one week apart, and afterwards the child was asked to retell the story and asked questions about it. For the most part, students understood the plot very well. Only one child grasped the overlying message, which the authors speculate might show she is closer to the formal operations stage than other students her age. Most grasped a message such as the importance of obeying your parents, whereas the theme the author intended was “situations and people are not always what they appear to be. Through patient waiting, reasons for actions become evident” ( Trousdale & Everett, 1994, p. 6). The authors concluded that it was unreasonable to expect all children in first grade to comprehend abstract messages.

All the children identified with the main character, but only one of the children was on his “side”, thought he or she was the most important character and was right when there were conflicts with adults (Trousdale & Everett, 1994). Although the other two children identified with the main character, they thought the adults were the most important characters, and cited many flaws in the child such as selfishness, bad, or naughty. They justified the parents’ actions, even though they thought maybe they too were a lot like the child character.

When students were asked to retell the story, deletions or additions were almost all based on their life experience, and not from misunderstanding the story (Trousdale & Everett, 1994). For example, one student was not familiar with what Crackerjacks were, but was familiar with the Cracker Barrel store. Instead of saying the children got prizes from a Crackerjack box in the story, she said they went to the Cracker Barrel store and got prizes out of the machines there when she retold it. Not only did she replace Crackerjack with Cracker Barrel, but she also changed the surrounding details so it would make sense. In another instance, students added characters to the story to make them match their own family circumstances, for example saying one of the characters had two bothersome sisters (like herself), or saying a cousin and uncle had come to the birthday party (the student had close extended family relationships, especially with her cousin and uncle). This shows that students are always going to interpret a story with their own experiences.

Subjects also analyzed the stories based on their own cultural lenses (Trousdale & Everett, 1994). The student who wanted to become a teacher evaluated each books usefulness for that purpose, and the student who wanted to write plays discussed each book in terms of how it could be used in that sense.

These children used their lives and goals as a reference for their understanding and enjoyment of the texts (Trousdale & Everett, 1994). The conclusion of the authors is that it may be important to include literature that includes an emphasis on extended family when working with children of the African American community. Also it seems important to encourage students to use their own life experience to understand and interpret stories, as this may bring about a better understanding of the writing.

In critiquing this study, the reader must focus on its credibility and transferability. How the children were selected was not shared, and the children that were chosen did not represent a cross section of the community they lived in, rather in a location with high illiteracy and unemployment, children were chosen whose families were employed and who encouraged literacy activities. The findings then could not be transferred to the rest of the community. It is not a good representation of the students she would be working with, and so I would need justification as to why this sample was chosen. If they were not students of the researcher, how did she find them? If she found them, say, at the library, then this would not be a bias free sample. Perhaps the goal here was to create a sample where culture would be the only factor, and not reading ability, but then that needs to be stated. And since the problem in the community was the illiteracy, working with the comprehension of students who do not have the family support may be more important to research than how to help the students who already do have the family support.

Mohr (2003) investigated the different choices Hispanic and non-Hispanic children made in selecting a book to keep to identify if multicultural literature was preferred by non-white students. Since it has been shown that reading motivation is tied to the student’s ability to choose their own books, this type of inquiry is important to show teachers what type of books they need to have available for their students in the multicultural classroom. For all students to succeed in reading, they need to be motivated and want to read. This type of study shows us how we can provide texts that will encourage that to happen.  To wit, the study states “if teachers expose students to a variety of books and can direct students to books that interest them, students will spend more time reading independently” (Mohr, 2003, p. 163).

There is an assumption that students most likely would respond to books that have characters of their own race, since girls mainly like to read books about other girls, and boys about boys (Mohr, 2003). But not a lot of research has been put into this field, and this study (along with others to follow) seeks to discover the literature preferences of minority student groups. Mohr was looking to find the preference of first grade Hispanic students, gender differences between and within Hispanic and non Hispanic groups, and what genres they would select.

Books were used to represent both genders, a variety of genre including fantastic and realistic fiction, biography, informational nonfiction, and poetry, as well as Caucasian, Asian, African American, and Hispanic characters, the English and Spanish languages, and themes of family, school, nature, history, and fantasy (Mohr, 2003). The total number of books was nine. The book selection criteria and final choices were approved by a children’s literature expert, a bookstore owner, and librarian. All were recently published with interesting illustrations.

The subjects (Mohr, 2003) were from a semi rural district in the Southeast. Ten first grade classrooms participated, totaling 190 students. Thirty percent were Hispanic, their number was 56. Half of these students (28 total) were limited in their English language abilities. Instructions for these students were provided in Spanish if needed. In the whole group and the Spanish group, 55 % were boys and 45% girls.

The study (Mohr, 2003) was conducted at the end of the school year so the students had nearly two full years of school experiences behind them to become familiar with books. No information was provided about their background experiences with literacy, and the types of books or literacy choices they had in their classrooms, an important omission by the researcher.

The researcher (Mohr, 2003) set up a table outside the classroom to show the books and have students select one. The students were able to choose a book that was then ordered and sent to them, so it was an authentic choice they were making. Students came out one at a time to pick a book, and if they agreed to (65% did), the students were interviewed on their choice. The questions asked were “Why did you pick this book to keep? Why is this one (book) your favorite one in this group (of books)?” (Mohr, 2003, p. 168). The interview questions were done while the next child was picking out their book.

Two of the classrooms were chosen to have all the books read to them (Mohr, 2003). 41 of the students (no information on their race makeup was given) had three stories read to them by the researcher for three mornings in a row. These children then selected a book in the same manner as the rest of the classes.

Results (Mohr, 2003) show that almost all of the children (84%) chose non fiction. The favorite was Animals Nobody Loves, by Seymour Simon, and was chosen by 46% of the children in the study. Two more nonfiction books, a poetry book There’s a Zoo in Room 22, by Judy Sierra, and a comedic nonfiction book What Moms Can’t Do, by Douglas Wood, were chosen by 34% of the students together. Less than 10 students chose the rest of the books, which included a biography of Abraham Lincoln and five multicultural fiction stories. The students who were read to chose non fiction to an even greater extent, 90% of this group chose nonfiction. This shows that Animals Nobody Loves was not chosen only for the interesting title, but for the content since students who had read all the books still chose it.

There were more boys that chose nonfiction than girls, but the majority of girls still chose nonfiction (Mohr, 2003). Ninety six percent of boys chose nonfiction, and 69% of the girls. It was near the same for the Hispanic group, where 97% of the boys chose nonfiction and 76% of Hispanic girls chose it, while only 62% of non-Hispanic girls did. This shows the possibility that Hispanic girls may be more likely to enjoy nonfiction than non-Hispanic girls. The order of preference for girls and boys both listed the three aforementioned nonfiction books as their favorites, but in opposite order. Boys enjoyed Animals Nobody Loves most, then What Moms Can’t Do, and finally There’s a Zoo in Room 22. Girls chose There’s a Zoo in Room 22 first, What Moms Can’t Do next, and Animals Nobody Loves third.

During interviews, students most often cited humor and the fact that they liked animals as the reason for their choice (Mohr, 2003). Although there has been an emphasis in the early grades on fiction, this study showed that non fiction is where major interest lies for a majority of young children. Many stated that they wanted to learn something from the book, and one stated that “you get to see the information… and you need this information” (Mohr, 2003, p. 172).

No Hispanic boys chose books with Hispanic characters, and only 3 Hispanic girls chose these books (Mohr, 2003). This seems to disprove the theory that students prefer to read about characters like themselves. Almost all the children chose animal books and not books with human characters at all. Perhaps if a study were conducted where there was not the choice of animal books, it might more clearly investigate this question.

An important critique of this study is the fact that these nine books may not be enough to cover all the different attributes that were selected. There might be too many descriptors to have clear lines between what students chose if one book was chosen to represent so many of the characteristics. I think though, for the children to choose there might have needed to be a more limited selection so it did not get too confusing or drawn out. I think if this was the case the researchers needed to limit the attributes they were analyzing in the books to much fewer than 18 different descriptors. Also, in the results the researchers reports that for one of the books that was chosen by the students as a favorite, “the combination of elements makes it difficult to determine why students preferred this book” (Mohr, 2003, p. 174). A reader may ask, why was a book chosen that did not have clear characteristics that could be analyzed? This only further emphasizes either the need for more books or less criteria.

The research (Mohr, 2003) here seems credible, but again I would like to see better defined books being used. Perhaps provide nonfiction books about Hispanic figures or issues related to that culture. Another way to make strides toward credibility could be limiting the selection to only fiction or only non fiction. The scope of the questions asked was too broad for the amount of books used. The fact that nearly half the students chose the same book makes it clear that students do enjoy non fiction, but it is unclear as to whether they preferred the book about animals or because it was in fact non fiction. The only fiction books used were about humans, possibly having animals as a main character in a fiction tale would have changed the results. Also, the only nonfiction with human characters was a biography of Abraham Lincoln, who did not represent the Hispanic culture. It is an interesting idea, but needs to be expanded upon with future research.

The Effect of Teachers Attitudes and Expectations on Students Learning Love and Kruger (2005) conducted two studies on the cultural relevance of assimilationist views in working with African American students. The first study investigated the correlation of professional educator’s attitudes to their own demographic identifiers.

Professional educators in six different schools were selected for the sample (Love & Kruger, 2005). Five of the schools were located in the same southeastern city, and another lay in a different southeastern city. Four of the schools in the first city were participating in a program in partnership with a major university to evaluate their own instructional strategies. The fifth school from that city was in a program to infuse the arts into the curriculum. The sixth school that was located in another city was chosen because it had a long term commitment to outstanding inner-city education. All the schools had some level of low income students, and four of them had 95 % of students who received free and reduced lunch.

Two hundred and forty four teachers, para educators, specialists, and administrators from the six schools were chosen to participate in the study (Love & Kruger, 2005). The range of experience was from zero to thirty seven years. The participants consisted of 48% African American, 42% Caucasian, 3% Hispanic, Indian, Asian, or Biracial, and 7% of the respondents chose not to answer the question. The median age of the teachers was 38, but they ranged in age from 22 to 64. The mean level of experience was 12 years. Eighty five percent of the educators surveyed were women.

The participants read 48 statements and rated them from strongly disagree (0), to strongly agree (4) (Love & Kruger, 2005). The statements are arranged in six categories, knowledge, race and culture, social relations, the profession of teaching, teaching methods, and students’ individual needs and strengths. Twenty five of the statements aligned culturally relevant beliefs, the rest reflected assimilationist views. Culturally relevant views included a belief in students’ abilities, emphasis on cooperative learning, and the importance of the impact of race on a student’s experience. Assimilationist views do not take individual or cultural differences into account in teaching methods or goals.

The knowledge portion of the survey showed that teachers mostly strongly agreed with two culturally relevant and one assimilationist statement (Love & Kruger, 2005).

Teachers agreed that reciprocal teaching and critical thinking were essential, but they also strongly agreed (77.9% agreed or strongly agreed) that a teachers job is to “disseminate knowledge to [his or her] students” (Love & Kruger, 2005, p. 90). Teachers disagreed on a statement about expectations of children’s prior knowledge, with teachers of younger students expecting students to come to school with less knowledge of what was to be taught than the teachers of older students were.

Teachers agreed that a student’s ethnicity and or culture are important factors in their learning, but they also agreed with two assimilationist statements that promoted colorblindness, that is they agreed that when they saw a child, they saw just that, a child, and not that child’s race (Love & Kruger, 2005).

Teachers were split, some agreed and some disagreed, about the strength of their relationships with their students (Love & Kruger, 2005). Teachers that had attended historically black colleges and universities seemed to be more positive about their relationships with students.  I wonder if the researchers considered that teachers who went to historically black colleges and universities may indeed be black themselves, and so this could be part of the reason they identified with African American students more strongly. It did not provide a racial profile of the teachers who answered this question, an omission on the part of the researchers.  They provided racial demographic information of the teachers when they discussed their participants, but neglected to use that information when discussing their results.

For 3/4 of the statements about the cooperative responsibility for each child’s achievement, teachers did not come to any kind of consensus, with large numbers both agreeing and disagreeing (Love & Kruger, 2005). When it came to parental involvement, teachers were split mostly on the grounds of the schools they were teaching in. All schools agreed with “parents ought to be self motivated to help their child learn and be actively involved in the classroom” ( Love & Kruger, 2005, p.91). Schools that had strong parent involvement disagreed with the statement “I hardly ever see or hear form the parents of the children in my classroom” ( p.91). Two of the other schools had teachers who disagreed with each other about these statements. The schools were located in a lower income neighborhood than the first two, and saw less of the parents because many were working more than one job. The schools were also instituting programs to increase parental involvement, so these factors could explain the disagreement among teachers. The last two schools agreed with the statement. They seemed to see less of the families, because though they were low income like the second set of schools, their residents were more transient and they did not have the programs to increase parent involvement.

Teachers agreed with four culturally relevant statements about the profession of teaching (Love & Kruger, 2005). These statements showed that the teachers saw the relevance of working in urban schools, and their desire to do so. Most teachers disagreed with each other on an assimilationist statement stating that inner city children needed a good education so they could leave the inner city for a better life.

In considering statements about teaching methods, teachers agreed with culturally relevant statements that allowed students to share their own knowledge with the teacher and showed the flexibility of letting a lesson go where it needed to go, and not confining it to a concrete plan (Love & Kruger, 2005). Teachers did disagree on two of the five assimilationist statements, which endorsed repetition and drill, and acknowledged the inevitability that some students will fail no matter what the teacher does.

Teachers endorsed culturally relevant statements about a student’s individual strengths and needs, agreeing that all students’ needs should be incorporated into lesson planning and that all students have some skill and can find success.  They rejected the idea that all “children basically learn in the same way” (Love & Kruger, 2005, p.92). The researchers concluded that though teachers recognized the importance of race and ethnicity to a students identity and life, the so called color blind statements seemed “more socially acceptable, or that to ignore racial and other differences in the classroom may seem more equitable” (Love & Kruger, p.95). The researchers stated that not recognizing the difference diminishes the importance of this factor in children’s lives. The study does not present research to support this conclusion, but cites other authors who have stressed the importance.

The second study by Love and Kruger (2005) looked at the correlation of the teachers responses to the test scores of their students. Two of the schools from the original study were used to pull teachers as subjects for this study. Both schools were working to effect change and become more culturally responsive. Both were very low income, and most of the students were African American. Fifty teachers were chosen. Their responses from the first study were used, and these were compared with test scores of their students on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, (ITBS). The grades taught by the teachers ranged from kindergarten through fifth grade. Seventy percent were African American, 28% were Caucasian, and two percent were Indian (Native American or native or descendent of India was not indicated). The age of the teachers produced a median of 36 and 38, and again the range was quite broad, from teachers as young as 22 to as old as 55. The least experienced teacher had taught only one year previously, while at least one had been teaching as long as 30 years. The median for experience was nine years.

The test scores of 1,432 students were analyzed (Love & Kruger, 2005). The scores of each classroom were grouped together and averaged so each classroom had one score to analyze. Test scores were converted to Z scores so there would be compatible numbers for the correlation.

The study (Love & Kruger, 2005) showed that nine of the statements on the survey had significant correlations with the test scores of the students. Agreement with the statement “It is my job to disseminate knowledge to my students” ( Love & Kruger, 2005, p.90) was shown to correlate positively with students higher test scores in Language Arts (+.37) and reading(+.30). That this assimilationist statement correlated positively with achievement was surprising. Culturally relevant statements regarding the importance of success for a whole class, not just the individual student also showed a positive correlation (+.35) when it came to higher reading scores. These three questions had had a lot of disagreement, and teachers who agreed with them had students with higher test scores than those who did not agree. Teachers who saw teaching as a way to give back to the community also had students with higher test scores (+.41). The assimilationist statement “with enough repetition, drill, and practice, students will attain a passing grade” was also shown to have a positive effect on reading achievement (+.36).

The statements that showed teachers believed they could not reach all students and that they rarely had parents visiting their room were both negatively correlated with students test scores, (-.31 and -.41 in reading, respectively) (Love & Kruger, 2005). The less a teacher agreed with these statements, the lower the students’ test scores were. The researchers suggest that making a classroom as welcoming to parents as possible could be a way to reverse this pattern. Indeed, some situations may keep parents away for other reasons, but they suggest being as gracious and flexible with parents as possible may create an environment they feel comfortable entering.

The study (Love & Kruger, 2005) showed no correlation between race, culture, or ethnicity and students test scores, either high or low. The endorsement of the assimilationist statements that reflect traditional teaching methods were hypothesized by the researchers to connect to an experienced teacher’s use of flexible teaching strategies, as well as other culturally relevant practices.

In critiquing Love and Kruger’s (2005) study, the reader find things the researchers themselves recognize. The fact that the schools were going through organized efforts to become more culturally relevant may have caused some reporting problems. Teachers who know what they think the right answer is may not report their actual hidden beliefs, and may not even be conscious of them themselves. Some of the questions are obviously easily labeled as socially acceptable or not. The survey was not long enough to have differently worded statements that may catch some of these hidden assimilationist beliefs. An observation of a few of these classrooms as an extension could elucidate whether or not these policies are actually being used in the classrooms.

Another critique could be the fact that standardized tests are sometimes not the best way to see student’s real success (Love & Kruger, 2005). Other measures of achievement could be used to cross check these results as well. The researchers recommend further research into the connections between teacher attitudes and student achievement.

In summary, Love and Kruger showed that when teachers believed they could not reach all students, or reported that they rarely had parents visit the room, students reading scores suffered. When teachers viewed teaching as a way to give back to the community, students grades improved, just as they did when teachers believed that repetition would help students achieve passing grades.

Wilson-Jones (2003) investigated African American males’ attitudes and feelings on finding success in school. The study summarized that the research in this area has shown that often African American students, especially males, withdraw from engagement in their education because of wanting to reject mainstream culture. Also, “negative stereotypes associated with race cause students of color to under achieve academically and to disassociate with academics, because of fear of predicted failure” (Wilson-Jones, 2003, p. 2). Research has also shown that conversely, African American students with high levels of parent involvement, not necessarily parent education, performed better in school.

Subjects for the study came from a rural school where one fourth of the students are African American. One troubling statistic given was that half of the students who attended this school did not graduate from high school. Most of the families were low income, and there were high unemployment rates for families in the area. 16 African American males in the school qualified for and agreed to participate in the study. They ranged from grades three to six, and in age from eight to 13 years old. Seven of the students included in the study had repeated a grade level.

Students were interviewed six times, one on one with a researcher. Each time the interviews lasted half an hour. The interviews were tape recorded and analyzed later for common patterns. Their scores on the Mississippi Curriculum Test Scores and current grades were compared to their answers to find correlations.

It was found that students felt strongly about the influence their families had on their reading success. Students mentioned adults reading to them as small children, and expressed that they felt these events prepared them for learning to read and success in school. Students also felt it was important to have family to help with homework, to check it for correctness and also to help them understand what it was about. The students reported feeling more confident and competent in class on a day after they had received such help at home. Students also felt that having their parents come to school and be involved in their education in that way helped them to be successful. One student reported “It makes me feel proud, like I know someone is here to help me and explain it [school work]. It makes me feel funny inside. I am proud and excited that they are here” (Wilson-Jones, 2003, p. 11).

Subjects also seemed ready and willing to talk when there was someone (the researcher) willing to listen to their problems. Some students expressed concern about the threat of violence at home or school, while one felt safer at school because it was a smoke free, quieter environment where he could concentrate. Students also spoke of difficulties staying focused when teachers talked, and not understanding the directions on assignments causing them problems in school. Students reported they thought they could do better in school if they studied harder and listened more. Also, they reported that they thought that students who do well listen more to the teachers.

In looking at the connections between the students reported attitudes surrounding literacy and their test scores and classroom grades, it was found that students who said they had been read to before learning to read themselves had higher grades. Also receiving higher grades were students who received help from their parents on homework. Conversely, students who did not get help from their families did not do as well on the test or in class. Even students whose parents came to school when they were falling behind or in trouble did better than students whose parents did not involve themselves in their child’s schooling at all. Of the 9 children who had not repeated a grade, their parents more often were involved in their education than students who did repeat a grade.

The researchers recommend promoting pre-literacy activities in the community, designing programs for the schools that promote parental involvement, organizing programs for students to talk about their problems with peers, teaching study skills to students and parents, and programs that encourage reading

In critiquing this study, I would say that it would be interesting to see how much the scores correlated with the attitudes of the children. Since this information is not given, it is hard to know how much to trust the conclusion. When there is evidence in the article that a reader can see, it is much more believable, and can be confirmed by others who are analyzing the information. The fact that it is left out makes one wonder how strong it really was. We can see that the findings did agree with studies conducted in the past, so it is dependable in that way, but a reader can’t scrutinize information that is not presented.

Durkin (1984) studied African Americans with low SES who were good readers to find what factors contributed to their success. The 23 subjects included in the study were chosen by their performance on the fifth grade standardized test. They were spread across 13 different schools. Twelve of the subjects were female, and 11 were male. The students that scored half a year above grade level were included in the study. The students also all qualified for free lunch. They lived in a large Midwestern city.

The methodology of the study (Durkin, 1984) included finding what classes these successful students had been in, and then interviewing the teachers. Unfortunately it turned out that most of the students had transferred from other schools, and had transferred so many times that there were no patterns of teachers that provided more success than others. Only three of the subjects were students in the same school the entire time. Students transferred schools an average of nearly three times each.

Family structures of the participants included 7 students who lived with two parents, either biological or step parents (Durkin, 1984). Sixteen families had one parent, and only one of those was a single father. Of these 16 families, 9 of them also had grandparents living with them.

According to Durkin (1984), after students were identified, interviewers talked with the principals and asked them about the students in question, what factors might have contributed to their success, and what the school did to help that specific student succeed. Most principals knew little of the students in question unless they or a sibling had been in trouble. Even the three students who attended the same school from kindergarten through fifth grade were mostly unknown to the principal. They also were unable to articulate what the school had done to help with reading, chalking the success up to the student being bright.

Since no patterns were found for teachers more successful students had in common, the researcher (Durkin, 1984) was unable to interview the past teachers. She did interview the subject’s sixth grade teachers to see if they could shed some light.

Teachers knew little about the students’ families. They tended to suggest that these students in specific achieved more because they were intelligent, liked to read, and worked hard.  This information was not coming from the teachers who had actually taught the students to read, though, so it seems to not cover the aspect of the study the researchers had hoped for. Perhaps selecting a few of the highest readers in the study and going to their teachers as a case study might have shed more light, and actually gotten some results to analyze. The researcher had no way to get the information that he or she was searching for since patterns in the teachers the students had were not found. This causes major credibility issues.

The top 15 students were interviewed about reading, and were told that they were being interviewed so “their answers might provide information about how to help other students who did not read as well as they did” (Durkin, 1984). Almost all students said they had their own books at home and checked out books from the library often. Also, the students enjoyed reading. Parent expectations played a role for 14 of the 15 students in that their parents expected them to go to college.

Parents of these top 15 students were also interviewed (Durkin, 1984). The parents reported in 12 of the 15 cases that the students could read before they started kindergarten. Parents also said they read with their children often, and from an early age. Also, several had older siblings or cousins who played school with them and modeled and taught reading to them before they started school.

The finding that so many of the students had been reading before they came to school surprised the researcher (Durkin, 1984), and early childhood programs for reading were a recommendation of the research.  Durkin also noted the possibility that the students early achievement caused teachers to view them as students who were going to succeed, and so their expectations for these students were higher. This could have become a self fulfilling prophecy and helped these students to achieve while students the teachers did not expect to do well would not. The article concludes that information from all interviewed suggested that students love of reading and frequent reading is what caused them to be a good reader.

The critique of this study (Durkin, 1984) is the failure to collect the data it set out to find, that is classroom techniques that promote the success of readers. There could have been modifications made to the study to find this data, but this did not happen. I do not think that the results are credible or convincing. Durkin reported what the teachers, students, parents and principals said, but did not correlate this with the grades of the students or give proof that this was valid information, other than the fact that most interviewees said the same thing. This does add some dependability to the information, but there is still not enough proof that “reading often” and “working hard” caused the students to be successful in reading.

In summary, Wilson-Jones (2003) found that students attributed their success in school to the influences of their family, both in reading with them and in getting help with their homework. Durkin (1984) found that students who were successful in reading reported an enjoyment of reading and visited the library often.  Charity, et al (2004) found that students were successful at comprehension even when they couldn’t reproduce the story in School English, but rather used African American English.

Murray, Stahl, and Ivey (1993) explored whether using alphabet books had an impact on the phonological awareness of a group of students in a high minority, low income pre-k classroom. Phonological awareness is defined as the ability to understand that there are different sounds in spoken words, and the ability to manipulate these sounds.

The researchers (Murray et al., 1993) cite a conclusion from an earlier study conducted by two of their members which links a child’s knowledge of the alphabet with their phonological awareness. In that study, children who could recognize a majority of letter forms also had basic understanding of phonological awareness, and could identify onset and rime. This study (Murray et al., 1993) searched to find if using alphabet books could help students with familiarity of the alphabet and increase their phonological awareness.

Forty two children participated, and most were four years old, with only a few had turned five years old (Murray et al., 1993). Most of the students (86%) were African American, and all the students were low income. Genders were split with the majority of boys (63%) and only 37% girls. The preschools were located in a small city in the Southeastern region of the United States. The children came from three separate classrooms that were located in three different public elementary schools. Two students who were already reading were dropped from the study, as they already had phonological awareness covered. Another two were dropped because they refused to respond to tasks.

Children were pre-tested using Concepts About Print, in which students knowledge of print conventions are discovered through an assessor reading the story to the child and asking them questions. Next, an alphabet recognition exam was given where children attempted to identify capital and lowercase letters. The last assessment was the Test of Onset-Rime Awareness (Murray et al., 1993).

All three classes were focused on exploration at centers, but took time each day to share a story, read by the teacher (Murray et al., 1993). Each class randomly received a different type of books to read with their classes. One group had regular picture books, one had traditional alphabet books, and the other had alphabet only books. Each group was provided with four different books in their assigned genre, and the teachers or their aides were asked to read one of the books each day for three weeks. Most classes spent about ten minutes a day with the book. No instructions were given to the teachers as to how the books should be read.

The control condition (Murray et al., 1993) read regular picture books, which included Have You Seen my Cat? by Eric Carle, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, The Gunniwolf by W. Harper, and Caps for Sale by E. Slobodkina. The traditional alphabet book group read books with the letters of the alphabet and words that started with these sounds provided. Their choices include From Apple to Zipper by Nora Cohen, Dr.

Seuss’s ABC by, of course, Dr. Seuss, Alphabears: an ABC Book by K. Hauge , and The Z was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg. Alphabet only books consisted of books which had the letters of the alphabet, but did not have words with the sounds the letters made, only the letters themselves. Their books included The Gunnywolf by A Delaney, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back! by Dr. Seuss, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin and J. Archambault, and an adaptation of The Z was Zapped dubbed The Z was Struck by Lightning in which children provided their own captions.

One of the researchers (Murray et al., 1993) observed in each classroom once a week. Field notes were taken during the readings. All classrooms had the children sitting on the floor around the teacher’s chair. In all classes, the students listened and participated.

The study (Murray et al., 1993) found that most of the children scored very low in both the pre and post test in of Concepts About Print, students overall had an only 0.91 point gain, a score of 3.64 to 4.55 in all groups. The group that gained the most was the storybook group, which gained 1.4 points. While alphabet gained .93 and alphabet only lagged behind at a .31 gain. An ANOVA showed significant gains in Concepts About Print across the treatment groups of f= 6.14 (p<05).

Letter recognition showed an improvement in all groups (Murray et al., 1993), with a score of f=5.98 (p<.5). All groups learned approximately the same number of new letters, which is surprising since one of the groups had books that did not emphasize the letters of the alphabet, but could be due to factors outside the scope of the study.

Phonological awareness improved in some of the study groups as well, with an f value of 14.2 (p<.1) (Murray et al., 1993). The group/time interaction was significant for this measure, with an f of 3.78 (p<05). This showed the subjects differed in the improvement of their phonological awareness between groups. The alphabet only group made no improvement between their pre and post tests. The conventional alphabet book gained 1.86 points, and the storybook group gained 1.27 points. The researchers conclude that that these similarities may be due to the fact that the teacher in the traditional alphabet condition did not emphasize the sounds of the letters, rather she read these books like any other book and emphasized the meaning of words, not the fact that the word started with a certain phoneme, for example the m sound in mouse. The teacher in the regular story book class was a former student of one of the authors, and knew the importance of phonological awareness. The improvements of her class might not even have been a result of the storybooks, but other activities held in the class.

The fact that one of the teachers was a former student of one of the researchers (Murray et al., 1993) could pose some objectivity problems. The personal relationship between researcher and, in some way, the subject, could be a problem. The teacher was not being tested here, but the teachers were not given instruction on how to read the books or conduct their class, and it seems the researcher had a major impact here. Also, information on the relationships or lack thereof between researchers and the other teachers was not given.

Variables in teaching style, as in the normal storybook classroom, could also have caused the changes attributed to the story reading by the researchers (Murray et al., 1993), causing some issues in reliability. Because there were three different teachers, the reader can’t know what to attribute the changes to, the variable the researchers put in place or the multitude of other variables that existed between the three classrooms. The study could be repeated, with possibly very different results if different teachers were used. If there was a chance to conduct this research in classrooms that had the same curriculum, or even a morning and afternoon session with the same teacher, it might be more valid.