I Can Fly ─ Teaching Narratives and Reading Comprehension to African American and Other Ethnic Minority Students

In tune with Paolo Freire's philosophy linking literacy with disassembling class barriers, Rickford (education, San Jose State U., CA) seeks to reverse the dismal statistics on US schools' failure in teaching minority students to read. From her case study featuring African American folktales and contemporary Black narratives, she presents a structural analysis of the texts and tips for the teaching of culturally congruent texts in multi-ethnic inner city, middle school classrooms that challenge students to achieve higher-order skills. Appends the study's stories and comprehension questions, and the Teacher Interview Protocol. Paper edition (ISBN -1280-6), $32.50. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Angela Marshall Rickford is Assistant Professor in the College of Education at San Jose State University.