Systemic barriers often prevent young Black boys from full development of their potential, including in the area of literacy. This systematic literature review seeks to better understand the landscape of literacy development of Black boys in kindergarten, first, and second grades by answering the question: What does previous literature indicate…

Despite decades of sociolinguistic research, African American Language (AAL) remains stigmatized throughout the United States education system. There have been proposals to counteract this through curricula and/or ideological interventions targeted at teachers that seek to validate AAL while maintaining Dominant American English (DAE) as an…

Africa is the cradle of civilization, yet its rich history and culture is undertaught--especially in elementary P-5 classrooms. In this article, we share Adinkra symbols from West Africa which can be used for interdisciplinary instruction and classroom management. We offer Adinkra symbols as an organizing theme for teaching in the spirit of not…

In classroom spaces on a daily basis, students are encouraged to express who they are as learners and demonstrate their own understanding of their learning. Students' ability to contribute to their own learning is an essential characteristic of an engaging classroom space and supports high academic achievement. The authors' work highlights one…

Researchers consistently find a correlation between low literacy levels and high school dropout rates, expulsion, reading achievement, and failing grades for African American males. Low literacy achievement in African American males may result from multiple factors, including dialectic linguistic differences and/or phonological awareness…

The purpose of this case study was to explore first and second grade teachers' knowledge and perceptions of African American Language (AAL) and its speakers, as well as implementation of instructional practices for supporting African American students whose first language is AAL, a form of Ebonics, in acquiring proficiency in SAE and accessing the…