Michelle Grace-Williams

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Poetry as an Exploration into Children’s Lives and Cultures

by Michelle Grace-Williams & Julia López-Robertson, with Genitha Jackson, Tirisha Robinson, Janese Utley, University of South Carolina

America
I, too, sing America/I am the darker brother/They send me to eat in the kitchen/When company comes/But I laugh, /And eat well /And grow strong/Tomorrow…/They’ll see how beautiful I am/And be ashamed—I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes

The poem above, I Too, Am America, is an example of a culturally relevant poem that could be used by teachers as a vehicle to engage [all] students in discussions about social injustices and issues that may be relevant to them and their lives. Culturally relevant poetry may also be used as a critique to systems of oppression that are present in our society-in this case, specifically race and language. Continue reading →

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Selecting Culturally Relevant Texts for Children in the African Diaspora

by Michelle Grace-Williams and Julia López-Robertson , University of South Carolina

Culturally relevant teaching refers to the use of “ cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2010, p.31). A culturally relevant approach to teaching includes careful book selection to avoid stereotypes that might distort the historical experiences of African Americans [we specify African American because of our blog content but recognize that all books must be carefully analyzed for misinterpretation and misinformation]. Continue reading →

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Using A Children’s Novel to Explore and Honor Black Children’s History

by Michelle Grace Williams and Julia López-Robertson, University of South Carolina

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
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The most educators can do is to create structures that would enable submerged voices to emerge. It is not a gift. Voice is a human right. It is a democratic right. (Macedo, 2006.p. 4)

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In our first blog last week, we explained that the goal for all of our blogs is to discuss texts that could be used in the classroom to validate the experiences of Black children; children of the African Diaspora, children of African ancestry located in America, Continue reading →

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Children’s Literature and Poetry Depicting Children in the African Diaspora

by Michelle Grace-Williams and Julia López-Robertson, University of South Carolina

One essential strategy for eliciting meaningful engagement with children’s literature featuring Blacks is simply to share the literature (Harris, 1997, p. 49).

Over the next few weeks we aim to critically discuss texts that could be used in the classroom to validate the experiences of children of the African Diaspora; Black children of African ancestry located in the United States of America, the Americas and other parts of the world.

African Diaspora Continue reading →