Improving the
Literacy of
Adolescent Males:
Toward a More
Anatomically
Complete Model
Alfred W. Tatum, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Illinois-Chicago
Adolescent Literacy Crisis
“Momentarily Popular Descriptor”
The confluence of social class, community
membership, language, race, ethnicity, and gender
and their interplay with schools and the shaping of
schools by educators and policymakers have
contributed to a crisis in literacy education that is
difficult to unravel. Although the formation of this
crisis occurs in the primary grades, the magnitude of
the crisis becomes more pronounced during
adolescence. (Tatum, in progress)
Literacy Backdrop
 7,000 students drop
out of high school
each day
 8 million struggling
readers in grades 412
 7 out of 10 students
entering 9th grade can
be considered
reading below grade
level
 5 out of 10 college
students need to take
remedial courses
 Multiple issues
contribute to students’
reading failures
 Students have a wide
range or literacy
needs
Source: Reading Next – a publication by the
Alliance for Excellent Education
Alarming Data
 1 in 23 White 17 year olds can read and gain
information from specialized text.
 1 in 50 Latino 17 year olds can read and gain
information from specialized text.
 1 in 100 African American 17 year olds can
read and gain information from specialized
text.
Critical Statistic
1
What am I going to do with the rest
of my life?
1. Many educators are failing to increase male
adolescents’ engagement with texts, and
subsequently, their overall reading
achievement scores.
2. Specific texts and text characteristics that
engage adolescent males are strikingly
absent from the curriculum (Tatum, 2006).
3. Educators find it difficult to use texts to
counter in-school and out-of-school contextrelated issues that heighten the vulnerability
level of adolescent males. (Tatum, in press)
Self-Efficacy
“Triple-Threat”
Just give up
Get tired of trying
Become
despondent and
pessimistic about
their ability to
succeed
S,P,E
S,P, E
S,P,E
We need to dig a hole large
enough for ten million of these
young men, advertise free
government Link cards to attract
these young men and some of
their parents to the hole, and
put a lid on the hole before
setting it on fire.
Personal Conversation
If I did not have a mentor outside of school
I would probably find myself dropping out.
It’s scary not knowing how to read. I don’t
want to be in school…. I am tired of being
made fun of.
This has been one of the most challenging years
that I have experienced while teaching at the
middle school level. I am seeing more children of
color at lower reading levels and no home
support….I continue to make reading a priority
everyday by giving "my children" opportunities to
experience what I call "successful literacy." I have
a group of males (12-13 years old) that are not
motivated to do much of anything. Right now
we are reading "We Beat the Street" and
"Handbook for Boys" in small groups. I hope this
experience allows them to see a light to make
connections in their own lives.
I must say that I am disappointed in the lack of
parent involvement or concern that these children
have. When I call home to contact parents about
positive days and struggling days, I get
comments such as, "it's just a matter of time
before he fails again" or "At this point I give
up, he's your problem." As I spend nights
rethinking new strategies and engaging life long
lessons that deal with content, I take on each day
as a new opportunity. I go into my class with the
hope that this might be the one day where I make
a difference for one child.
POVERTY
Music
SOCIETY
I
The Imbalance
 Out of School Literacy
Overload
 In-School Literacy
Under-load
Students often lack sufficient texts inschool to help critique, understand and
compete with the texts they are
exposed to on the outside of school.
13
RIP
BIZZY
What are we going to
offer this student?
B
WE LUV U
a) A fluency strategy
b) Leveled text
What does this
student need?
c) Remedial reading
class
A healthy psyche
(now)
d) Research-based
strategy
A) A roadmap
(now)
e) Test prep (then)
B) Something to
compete with
what’s
happening on
the outside
(now)
f) Something more
C) Text (now)
Voices of Adolescents
• They do not explain clearly; we
never know what is going on in
class.
• They know the answers and
expect us to know them.
• They think we are being
disruptive when we are trying
to get them to slow down.
• Most teachers do not listen to
us which makes us think they
do not care.
• I think they should make sure
that we “get” it.
• We need teachers who can
“read” us.
• Do they have to go over
everything by a certain time?
• All my grades are bad and
nobody can help me!
“We have many students surrendering
their life chances before they get to
know their life choices.”
Alfred W. Tatum, 2005
Establishing a model of literacy to
support teachers in structuring their
students’ day-to-day activities in a way
that maximizes their engagement with
meaningful, responsive texts.
Major Barriers Stand in the Way of Addressing
the Literacy Needs of African American
Adolescent Males
 No clear strategy has emerged on how to attain this goal
 Educators disagree on how to provide effective literacy
instruction for struggling readers
 Educators and policymakers have focused on skill and
strategy instruction while ignoring curriculum
orientations, forms of pedagogy, and other factors found
to be effective in increasing the reading achievement of
students of color
We lack a clear definition of literacy
instruction for adolescents in the United
States that will translate into successful
classroom practice. Without this clear
definition, overwhelming and
embarrassing inconsistency in literacy
instruction occurs and can be expected
to continue across schools. (Tatum, inpress)
Dangerous Misconception about the Older
Struggling Reader
 They should accept any form of instruction
although, in many cases, they have legitimate
reasons to resist instructional practices that will
leave them underprepared in society.
– Go to sleep
– Ignore the instruction
– Shrug shoulders when asked to respond
– Display dead eyes
20
Reverse Trajectory
Poor
quality
instruction
Literacy instruction is more than
“just” teaching students to read.
It’s about shaping a trajectory that
leads to positive life outcomes.
Ending up here
Give permission for wider and
broader aims of literacy
development in an era of
accountability, even encourage it.
It is not about AYP, it is about YP.
The pressure to meet adequate
yearly progress (AYP) potentially
contributes to overlooking young
people (OYP).
Guiding Question
What do we need to do to advance the literacy
development of adolescent males?
Necessary Minimum
Vital Signs
Reading
Readers &
Educators
Reading
Instruction
Educators
Providing the
working tools
Improving the
human
condition
Rescuing the
significance of
teaching
Interacting with
students, not
scorecards of
achievement
(What)
Word knowledge
Fluency
Strategy knowledge
Writing
Language
(Why)
(How)
(who)
Home Life
Quality Instructional
Support
Competence
Culture (A, E,G)
Text
Commitment
Environment
Context
Caring
Language
Assessment
Culpability
Reading
Economics
Achievement Relationship
Gap
Gap
Technology
Rigor Gap
Responsiveness
24
Gap
In Search of a “More” Anatomically
Complete Model
Rescuing and
Refining
Just one
critical piece
Why
Usually Well-Defined
Usually Research-Based
Usually Skill/Strategy Focused
What?
How?
In Search of a “More” Anatomically
Complete Model
The Role of
Literacy
Instruction
Rescuing and
Refining
Why
Usually Well-Defined
Usually Research-Based
Usually Skill/Strategy Focused
Just one
critical piece
Teacher
Preparation
What?
How?
&
Teacher
Professional
Development
&
Effective
Leadership
26
Policy
“More” Complete Framework
The role of literacy
instruction
Curriculum orientations
Theoretical Strands
Approach to Literacy Teaching
Use Comprehensive Framework for
Literacy Teaching
Mediate Text
Professional Development
Instructional Strands
Preparation Strands
Strengthen Assessment
Profile
Professional Preparation
Theoretical Strands and Literacy
Trajectories
Role of literacy instruction
Curriculum orientations
Theoretical Strands
Approach to Literacy Teaching
Helping students respond to essential
questions?
Corelle’s favorite part of English II had been a
played we read by August Wilson, The Piano
Lesson…In one long monologue, Boy Willie
talks about the turning point in his life, the
terrifying moment when he confronted the
world’s opinion of his uselessness:
“Many is the time I looked at my daddy and
seen him staring off at his hands. I got a
little older and I knew what he was thinking.
He sitting there saying, “I got these big ol’
hands but what I’m gonna do with ‘em?...All
I got is these hands. Unless I go out and kill
somebody and take what he got…it’s a
mighty long row to hoe for me to get
something of my own. So what I’m gonna do
with these big ol’ hands?”
What is the essential question?
It is the growing perception of their own
uselessness – together with apparent
lawlessness of the world around them – that
hurtles boys like Corelle…toward extinction. P.
115
Many adolescents are
leaving American public
schools with their
questions unanswered.
Curriculum Orientations
 Engage students with authentic text and in
authentic discussions where they can
analyze their realities and discuss strategies
for overcoming academic and societal
barriers.
 Address students’ cognitive and affective
domains taking into account students’
cultural characteristics.
 Connect the cultural, the social, and the
personal to the educational.
31
Curriculum Orientations Cont.
 Acknowledge that skill development, increasing
test scores and nurturing students’ identity are
fundamentally compatible.
 Resolve the either-or dilemma of focusing on
skill development or developing intelligence.
32
Mr. Tillman told us take out a sheet of notebook paper. He then had us look at
the margin.
He asked, “What do you see to the left of the margin?”
“A little space with three holes,” someone said.
“That’s right. There is very little room to roam and three holes that
you can sink in.” Sink hole number one is lack of knowledge. Sink hole
number two is lack of confidence. Sink hole number three is lack of will. He
told us if we lack the knowledge, the confidence, and the will we will almost
always occupy a small place trying to avoid sink holes.
Mr. T then told us to look at the right of the margin. He asked, “What
do you see?”
One student said, “Nothing.”
Another student said, “Empty space.”
I said, “I see a whole bunch of lines.”
He held up his sheet of loose leaf notebook paper and asked us to peer
deeply, look closely, and stare beyond the obvious. “What do you see”? What
do you see?” “What do you see?”
“To the right, is you,” He said. This is where you
write your story. This is where you move beyond the
color line. This is where you decide how you want
the world to be. This is where you meet up with
people from all walks of life. This is where you sing
your song and dance your dance. To the left of the
margin is where you surrender your existence. To
the right of the margin is your opportunity to reshape
your existence.
“How do we get from the left side to the right side,”
asked Alex.
“Decide that you want to be there first. Then, think
about why you want to be there. Next, prepare
yourself. Then, be fearless. Do not believe the
doubters. Most importantly, do not doubt yourself.”
Example of a disempowering text
orientation
For word study instruction, the teacher called
out the words Agatha, Demarco, Adeline,
Emilia, and pumpernickel. The students
repeated the words. Then the students took
turns reading aloud. He then had the students
respond aloud to the assessment questions
at the end of the text.
Where is the essential question?
They provided wrong answers for a majority
of the questions. The students were reading
from a text that held little to no significance in
the way that it was discussed. They were not
provided with any explicit strategy instruction.
The students were not becoming better
readers or learning new information. This is
borderline criminal.
Examining the Trajectory
Full
participation in
society
“When reading and some form of racebased, class-based or language-based
disadvantage collide, you have students
learning to read amidst turmoil. This racebased, class-based, or language-based
turmoil cannot be ignored or used as a
limitation.”
High quality literacy
instruction for
adolescents with some
form of disadvantage
attending public
schools
Instructional Strands
Comprehensive Framework for Literacy
Teaching
Text
Instructional Strands
Just one
critical piece
Assessment
Proposed Solutions to Enable and Engage
Adolescents
 Develop expert procedures for teaching reading.
 Systematize reading instruction and hold
students accountable in a way that guides
instruction.
 Focus on academic excellence and identity
development.
 Question under-treatment and disharmony.
FLUKY FLAN
“Capturing the Reader, Not the Responses”
Fluky Flan was fubbing and fobbing. He
slipped on a blute and broke his sark. He
was rushed to the sneed in a hod that ran
every red light. Fluky Flan can no longer
fub and fob because of his binny.




Who is the paragraph about?
What was Fluky doing?
What did Fluky break?
Why does Fluky no longer fub or fob?
Nurturing Fluency and Building Schema
(Integrating Powerful text with powerful instruction)
…When a human being becomes suddenly
con s c i o u s of the t r e m e n d o us
powers lying latent within him, when from
the puzzled contemplation of a half-known self,
he rises to the powerful assertion of a self,
conscious of its might, then there is loosed
upon the world possibilities of good…that
make men pause.
W. E. B. Du Bois
The Education of Black People (p. 24)
Teacher’s Roles
Making text accessible
Showing students different ways how to
hold their thinking
Enablement
 Word Level
– Decoding
– Vocabulary
 Text Level
–
–
–
–
–
–
Concept
Fluency
Comprehension Monitoring
Questions and Questioning
Text Structure
Background knowledge
A,E,I,O,U count to 1 count to 2
 Split consonant between vowels
– bal / lad
 Move one consonant between vowels to the next
syllable
– te / na / cious
 Split neighboring vowels
– jo / vi / al
 Do not separate blends or word groupings that
need each other
– ous, qu, bl, cl, dr,
Contributing factors
What does it
mean to exist?
Existence
What happens when
one’s existence is
denied?
Using the Text to Teach the Text
Monitoring Comprehension and Building Schema
About 75 million people died of the bubonic plague during the 14th
century. Half of the population of Italy fell victim to the
______________________. The plague caused high
_______________, swollen glands, dark splotches on the
__________________, and spitting of blood. Most
_________________ who got the disease ___________________
within a few days. The disease was ________________ from the
fleas and rats. Lack of sanitation and poor _________________
account for the continuous plague epidemics throughout the 14th
century. So many people died so ___________ that it was difficult
to bury them in the _________________ way. The dead were
____________ without the usual prayers and ceremony. Dozen of
people _______________ buried in a single big grave.
Contributing factors
What does it
mean to exist?
Existence
What happens when
one’s existence is
denied?
Text
A pendulum swings both ways
for [struggling adolescent readers].
On one side are hopes and dreams,
where the potential leads to
promise. On the other side is defeat,
where hopes unfulfilled become a
record of human tragedy…Teachers
must discuss texts with…students in
responsive ways in order to help
them land on the side of the
pendulum that swings toward
promise and possibility.
From Chapter 8: Tatum, A. W. (2005). Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent
Males. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Severing of Text
“Resign yourself to your color the way I got used to my stump;
we’re both victims.” … Nevertheless with all my strength I refuse to
accept that amputation. I feel in myself a soul as immense as the
world, truly a soul as deep as the deepest of rivers, my chest has
the power to expand without limit.
Frantz Fanon
Black Skin White Masks
Every brother on the rooftop could quote, Brother Fanon.
Who are the brother and sister authors today for our nation’s
struggling readers?
William Van DeBurg
Dichotomy between
Enabling and Disabling Text
 Enabling Text –moves
one to be, do, and
think differently.
 Disabling text –
reinforces students’
perceptions of being
struggling readers
and incapable of
handling challenging,
meaningful texts.
Textual Lineage
Shakespeare
Macbeth
Harper Lee
Malcolm X
(The Autobiography)
Richard Wright
(Black Boy)
(Native Son)
Of Mice and Men
Booker T. Washington
(Up From Slavery)
William Henley
(Invictus)
Mark Twain
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
Frederick Douglass
(Narrative)
Mythology
John Steinbeck
Dick Gregory
(Nigger)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Edith Hamilton
Claude McKay
(America)
Gordon Parks
(Learning Tree)
When I ask [teenagers] from low
performing and high performing schools to
construct their textual lineages, that is,
provide a representation of texts that have
contributed to who they are and texts that
give them direction for the future, they
have little to nothing to contribute. These
students have entered middle school and
high school classrooms in a public
education system in the U.S. and are
unable to identify texts they find significant
in their lives.
The Severing of Text Lineages
One of the Great Tragedies of American Education
Many adolescents suffer from
text deficiency, most of the texts
they should be exposed to is coopted by the functional detour to
improve reading scores. Instead
of focusing on reading scores,
schools should be trying to score
with reading.
I have no book that
change my life
58
Rebuilding Textual Lineages
“Five Backdrops”
•
•
•
•
•
Personal Backdrops
Social / Cultural / Gender Backdrops
Economic Backdrops
Community Backdrops
National / International Backdrops
– Improving the Human Condition
– Developing Healthy Psyche that translate into
observable behaviors
– Providing Roadmaps
– Granting modern-day awareness of the world
Textual forces
National backdrop
Personal backdrop
Community backdrop
Economic backdrop
S/C/G backdrops
60
Major Aggressors Against Reading
Texts that Matter
No Clear Definition of Literacy Instruction
Existing “Honored” Curricula
Adequate Yearly Progress
Education publishers are handicapped
because the texts must be anchored in the
vital signs of reading and connected to state
standards. The guiding mandates for
selecting texts are stifling.
62
Students
Questions that matter
High quality instruction and quality texts
63
Within
Core group
of
strategies
Consistency
Organization
Across
Assessment
profile
C.O.R.E.
Support
Structures
Ongoing
Evaluation
Reflection
Human/Material
resources
Multiple
Urgent List
1. Define the role of literacy instruction for adolescent boys
and strengthen concept of reading
2. Provide explicit skill and strategy instruction
3. Turn up the volume on text to rebuild textual lineages
4. Establish instructional continuity
5. Establish a consistent assessment approach
6. Avoid in-school underload
7. Take multiple close-ups
8. Push out less and pull in more
9. Get “with” students as opposed to getting “on” students
10.Re-educate ourselves with powerful text
Powerful texts, in tandem with
powerful reading instruction, can
have a significant influence on the
lives of adolescents despite some
of the psychic infections they
encounter in communities of
turmoil (Tatum, 2007).
66
As we debate the role of literacy instruction, more
specifically reading, we must ask who is willing to
move from theoretical courage to practical courage.
We know what we are doing is failing large segments
of American children. The data are clear. Our
students’ textual lineages are being severed as we
focus on reading scores and defend this focus by
rallying cry slogans. Who is willing to battle to save
the soul of American education, not just for the 21st
century, but beyond? Who is willing to fight for our
children’s rights to be? When we answer these
questions and consider the vital signs I have offered
we will be able to engage our students with texts
because the students will be the focus of our efforts.
It’s not just
about students’
literacies; it’s
about their
lives.
Tatum, 2005
68