The Urban Reading Project-Mission to Make Reading Cool
My students need 2 of the Full Bluford Series boxed sets and the Urban Underground Set 1 & 2 series to connect them into reading material that portrays a life they know, and in some instances live.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
"Ms. S, do you have another one of these books?" A question I'm often asked by my reluctant urban male readers who have discovered importance of reading through the Bluford Series. The series is relevant because it speaks to a life they live or at least know about. Reading and relating is key!
The students in my school are typical middle school students in many ways, however, the student population contains a significant amount of students that are economically disadvantaged minority students.
Reading challenges are prevalent because the common refrain is, "I don't like to read", or in some instances, the parents are saying, "Oh he doesn't like to read." The key to reading is in making reading relevant to their lives. Helping my students, especially my reluctant readers understand that relevant reading is just reading you can relate to, has been a great starting point. Introducing the Bluford series has been a great reading starter.
My Project
The very act of picking up a book and reading says something powerful about the value one places on the written word and reading. Through the use of the Bluford series, my reluctant male readers will be able eliminate the "I don't like to read" or "reading isn't cool" mantras and spend that time discussing each book. Eventually this may lead to book talks and group discussions but my wish is that it will move each young man to seek books of other genres. This will broaden their reading horizons and turn them into lifelong readers.
When my urban male students tell me they don't read and I hand them one of my three tattered copies of a Bluford book I become hopeful.
When they come back and ask for the second and third book, having read the others, I am encouraged. When they ask for more books and I have to tell them I have none, I am dismayed but not disheartened for I know that they are hooked. For me, the Bluford series allows me to continue encouraging these male readers and being able to offer them text that is real.
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