Tapping Potential

Intended for teachers of black students at all levels, this book presents teaching approaches and methods that are known to be appropriate for blacks and that are based on both research and practice in the areas of language, reading, writing, and literature. Among the topics discussed in the 43 essays are the following: (1) language and the teaching/learning process; (2) learning to talk, learning to read; (3) black English and the classroom teacher; (4) teacher attitudes and language teaching; (5) deciphering dialect; (6) early childhood development and reading instruction; (7) using a black learning style; (8) closing the generation gap and turning students on to reading; (9) instructional strategies; (10) reading materials; (11) the writing of black poetry; (12) teaching teachers to teach black dialect writers; (13) the composing process of black students; (14) the student/teacher writing conference; (15) using the laboratory approach to enhance writing skills; (16) structuring the college composition class around the black basic writer; (17) using the oral history approach to teach freshman writing; (18) using folk literature in teaching composition; (19) teaching writing to gifted black students; (20) giving writing students feedback; (21) the literature of black America; (22) origins of a black literary tradition; (23) exploring multiethnic literature for children through a hierarchy of questioning skills; (24) the black teenager in award-winning young adult novels; (25) putting Africa into the curriculum through African literature; and (26) integrating vocabulary study into literature courses for entering college students. (HTH)