Independent Reading

By Author: emaly su
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As part of the classroom structure, students experienced daily teacher read-alouds/think-alouds in which we shared our thinking and understanding about a text.

For the unit on racial profiling, we read a number of texts, including newspaper articles and books. For example, during the reading of the Wikipedia entry on racial profiling early in the unit we paused after reading the section about motor vehicle searches and racial profiling and said, I think it's interesting here, what the author does. I noticed the opening sentence and how it makes me want to read more.

I want to know more about the application of racial profiling, as the author says. But then I notice that the author used some signal words to help me organize my thinking about the text. The author says "One explanation" and then shares the information but then says "An alternative ...
... explanation" and then presents the other side. I like the way the author framed this and presented both sides of the issue.

I'm going to add that structure to my notes because I might want to use it in my own writing. For now, I know it's helping me remember that there are at least two sides of this issue. I'll read on and see what the author says next.

In addition to the daily teacher read-aloud/think-aloud, students read books of their own choosing from a list of books organized around the topic. For example, Doumas chose to read Race: A History Beyond Black and White by Marc Aronson. As the only student in the class reading this book, he was able to add historical information about racism and prejudice to the conversations. For example, during a class conversation about slavery, Doumas referenced his book and said, "This guy says that until probably the United States, slavery had nothing to do with race.

It was more about power and forcing people who lost to work for free." Of course, this generated a great deal of conversation and debate as well as an instant need to access the Internet and find more information. Part of every class session involved students discovering questions and then searching for answers on their own. Our students, like those described by Leu (2008) and Leu et al. (2008), did not have sophisticated Internet search strategies. We had to teach them how to use the Internet in more sophisticated ways.

Also, as part of this unit, another student in the class, Jessica, read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. During one class conversation about racial profiling and self-esteem, Jessica shared her character Junior with the class. She said, "Discrimination isn't just from people who are different from you. Junior, in my book, has it from both sides.

At the white school, they're mean to him. But the Indians back on are just as terrible. So, I don't think it's just white—black or black-Mexican or Mexican-Asian; profiling and discrimination go all kind of ways, even against people of the same skin color."

Mario added, "So true. We can be called sellouts, schoolboys, or whitey-lover by our own neighbors. But I think that it's worse when somebody with power uses that power to make your life worse." The conversation continued and students debated the issue, drawing on the texts they were reading and the texts we read in class. Importantly, each student could enter the conversation, presenting evidence from a text, because they were all reading books they chose to read and were able to read.