Urban Literature
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Elementary
Middle School
High School
Research
The use of multicultural children's literature is one of the most powerful ways for schools to honor students' culture and foster cross-cultural understanding. Teachers can also use multicultural literature depicting children's worlds as a means to bridge home and school cultures.The works of Spears-Bunton (1992) and Willis and Johnson (2000) emphasize the use of multicultural literature to improve student self-esteem, involvement and engagement, and academic performance in literacy. In both of these studies, the level of involvement and engagement of African-American students increased when culturally relevant literature and instruction were used in high school English classrooms. In addition, the dynamics of the class shifted as African-American students, once reticent to respond, became vocal leaders of discussion.
Perma-Bound is aware of the challenges that urban literature can pose in the classroom or the library, with strong language and adult situations that may not be appropriate. The majority of titles on our list (links above) can be considered appropriate for use in a school setting. Content can become a bit more serious as reading levels increase, especially those written for the high school level. With that in mind, we created a list of questions that will allow you to review titles before you bring them into your classroom or library.
- Who is the author and where is he from or where did he grow up?
- Is the book written about the author's personal experiences or based solely upon research?
- Is the book an accurate reflection of urban life?
- Does the book have positive male and/or female protagonists?
- Does the book contain foul language, and is that acceptable in our school?
- Does the book contain mature concepts, such as drug use and sexual encounters? How detailed are they described and is this acceptable in our school?
- What is our school's policy on appropriate books?