Greater Expectations: Teaching Academic Literacy to Underrepresented Students

by Robin Turner

While the population of Hispanic/Latino and African American students in the United States continues to grow, the rate at which they attend college remains alarmingly small. These students, who are often defined as educationally underrepresented, are a bellwether of a shortcoming in our nation' s educational system that has serious implications for the future. In Greater Teaching Academic Literacy to Underrepresented Students, author and teacher Robin Turner offers pragmatic, proven methods for better preparing underrepresented students for higher education. Forming the book' s foundations are the ideas of família and cariño, or family and caring. Familia asserts the importance of establishing a sense of community and tapping into student culture – ethnicity, music, sports, neighborhood and so on in the language arts classroom Cariño contends that underrepresented students possess attributes that are overlooked and are viewed with a deficit-model paradigmBuilding on this foundation, Greater Expectations shows how to effectively teach different modes of academic discourseliterary analysis, autobiographical/biographical, persuasive research, and community-based writing. Offering a combination of personal narrative, how-to lesson plans, and student samples, Turner challenges readers to approach their underrepresented students with greater expectations and be equipped with specific lesson plans to enable their classes to meet them. The books is grounded in, and inspired by, Turner's experience as a leader in the Puente Project, a college preparation program started in California high schools over twenty years ago. Since 1981, Puente has proven highly effective in producing positive change by improving academic performance, standardized test scores, and college admission rates for underrepresented students.

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - it helped me think about ways to help the students in my classes and gave me a better insight into the Puente Program. Since I'd read the Kelly Gallagher book, Write Like This, some of the assignments offered were similar, but Robin either had his own twist on the reading and writing challenge, or he offered more documentation and scaffolding for the activities.

My only criticism - I'd love to see an updated edition of this book, which newer census information, references to MySpace changed to Facebook or Tumblr or Instagram, and similar bits.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas about teaching academic writing--and some interesting experiences working with under-represented students. Overall, I really liked the hopefulness and the idea of keeping high expectations for all students. This book talks about helping traditionally unsuccessful students achieve.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever need a reminder of the kind of expectations you should have for your students, or if you ever need to be reminded of how much students can learn through discussion and with each other, read this. So good!