Urban Students

The purpose of this article was to inform teachers of a way literacy was improved in an urban environment. In2Books was a program used in the Dominican Republic to improve literacy instruction among low performing students living in an urban environment. Achievement gaps are most prominent in African-American and Latino students that live in an urban environment. The blame for this is put on lack of funding, poverty, student/teacher mobility, home to school disconnect, and lack of teacher prep. Currently working in an urban school with all African-American students, I would definitely say all of these issues exist and may factor in more than others, but they’re not necessarily to blame.

The I2B program linked students with adult pen pals to discuss 5 books that were read multiple times. Teachers had to change their regular classroom practice to engage in this routine. The adults would write higher order thinking questions, and the students would respond with answers form the text. Rookie and veteran classrooms that implemented the I2B program scored higher on reading assessments and standardized tests than classrooms that didn’t. Students enjoyed reading the books because they were diverse, on a range of levels, involved children solving problems, and the tone was up lifting. The books were a variety of genres , but it was important the issues discussed in the books were prevalent to the students. Students were also motivated to read and write because someone other than their teacher was reading what they wrote for conversational purposes not to grade it. I2B helped to build community in and out of the classroom as well as improve literacy especially in schools where the program was implemented for multiple years.

Currently, my students and I read many different genres throughout the school year with the Ready Gen curriculum. I appreciate all the exposure they get through this. If we aren’t reading a chapter book many times we’ll do multiple readings of the same book with different purposes. I think it would be cool for my students to be pen pals with another third grade class. I could link with a friend of mine from the first school I taught at. Most of the students are Latino there so this would expose my students to another culture. I remember having pen pals when I was in school. It was always exciting to open a letter that was written just for me. I was also thinking of doing a whole class pen pal digital project with my sister-in-law in Maryland. She teaches kindergarten, but it would still be insightful to write back and forth because I know her students aren’t exposed much to urban life and vice versa with my students being exposed to their lifestyles. Maybe we could even Facetime at the end of the year!