Building a Student's Textual Lineage

Posted on Mar 08 2010 at 3:32 PM

 

By Melissa Mullineaux
 
“1…2…3…everyone shout out the title of your independent reading book”, is a daily exchange between my students and I. What are you reading? How is it going? Who is your favorite character? What are some flaws that you have discovered? What is the author’s purpose for writing this book? What do you think will happen next? Many of my growing readers are able to answer these questions with great depth and accuracy. I have witnessed their ebbs and flows with reading since August; however, the flows are developing into waves! Our discussion has recently evolved into building a “Textual Lineage.”
 
The phrase, “Textual Lineage” was introduced to me during a recent day of professional development by Dr. Alfred Tatum, author of Reading for Their Life: (Re) Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males. Tatum refers to a textual lineage as being "a list of texts that students will always remember as the important ones."[i] Tatum discussed various strategies on how to best support young African American males' reading skills. Tatum has worked closely with young African American males for many years and presented many examples of young men becoming invested in reading and writing as a result of reading meaningful texts in the classroom. By way of example, Tatum's textual lineage includes The Autobiography of Malcom X, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and Up from Slavery, which he says gave him "direction for the future."   
 
Reading for empowerment was also an important point Tatum discussed. The topic of empowerment is one that I have discussed many times with my male students. As a teacher, one of the best moments to share with students is when the "light bulb" goes on and they transition from being controlled by the text to becoming empowered by the text! In order to move to becoming empowered, a lineage of texts is necessary. The question then becomes, how does one entice the reluctant reader to build a textual lineage?   Tatum suggested introducing texts that have content that students can relate to as well as understand due to their background knowledge. Additionally, Tatum explained the importance of making the text accessible to students by providing some "scaffolding" in the beginning until they become emerging readers.
 
In my own class, I used a number of poems on Tatum’s blog that were written by the young men he has worked with in the past. My students responded with great engagement and a higher number of questions compared to passages from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) book that we use to prepare our students for standardized tests. Reviewing passages similar to those that will be on the English Language Arts test in April is essential to my students' success; however, it is also important to present passages that will produce greater engagement from my students. Creating a balance between the different types of texts is necessary in order to prepare my students for any text they may be given.
 
One of my goals for my students is to be able to discuss a number of books that are a part of their textual lineage. For my students to identify, relate to, and understand a greater number of events and issues by way of the books they read. To become empowered readers who are able to take control of any text that is placed before them. Because the relationship between an individual and the books they have read is critically important, we have decided to individually document the lineage of our texts on paper in my classroom. We are in the beginning steps of building upon our textual lineage as a community of readers. I can only imagine the length of my students' textual lineages in five to ten years if they continue their current reading practices!

[i] “The last word: an interview with Alfred P. Tatum,” Journal of Advanced Academics, 22 September 2007. Accessible online: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7569455/The-last-word-an-interview.html.

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