African American Children and Families Conference

Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend the African American Children and Families Conference that took place on UNI's campus. I was unable to attend the entire conference due to scheduling conflicts, but I was still able to learn a lot more about education, particularly about learning literacy among African American students. One presentation that I really connected with was presented by Dr. Tiffany Flowers who is an author and has worked in school districts in many different areas. She talked a lot about different strategies we as educators can implement into our classrooms to promote literacy because there are many statistics that show African Americans students have been scoring lower than their counterparts in the areas of reading and writing. She first addressed the myths the encompass literacy such as the recommended 15-20 minutes of reading per day and the 100 book challenge. She urged that we should not place caps on our students, but rather teach our students should be done for fun with no reward or criteria to meet. She moved on to address the problem educators face with creating assignments that keep students engaged and interested. We urged us to have our students edit their assignments and have others check their work before they turn in their final projects. Educators should be questioning every step of their students' writing process and guide them in the right direction rather than harshly grading their first attempt. She also focused on the importance of literary partnerships with parents and the community within a school district. Without support, students are much more likely to fall behind. She also suggested texts to offer to our students who are struggling in and out of class, which was very helpful!

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