Lois Letchford: Literature, Black Lives Matter , and Richard Wright.

14 Jul 2020 · 3 min

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3:15

In this short monologue, literacy educator Lois Letchford explains her approach to teaching reading to an disengaged 8‑year‑old African American boy who was repeating second grade. She emphasizes that before any phonics instruction, the child must be emotionally engaged with literature that reflects his identity. Letchford selects Richard Wright’s autobiographical story “The Library Card” and adapts it by simplifying the language, pairing each sentence with a picture, and highlighting Wright’s love of words and the racial barriers he faced. This culturally relevant, visual‑text hybrid sparks the child’s curiosity; he returns the next day excitedly discussing Wright’s family and expressing a desire to locate Wright’s granddaughter. Letchford uses this anecdote to illustrate how narrative engagement can catalyze a love of reading and set the stage for formal literacy instruction. The clip ends with a call to like and subscribe.

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Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, the Literacy Problem Solver, and I'm here to talk about teaching African American boys literacy. Students come to me at all ages, and my goal is to have them engaged in literature so that they see themselves. And my little boy was 8, repeating second grade, and how do you engage a child? Who is disengaged. I do it by showing them that they too are in literature. And the book I chose was Richard Wright and the Library Card. And as you can see, the text is far too complicated for a child who is non-reading. So what did I do is that I chose to rewrite the words, and I simply put it in beside the picture and said, Richard Wright loved words. And then I said he loved the stories his mother told. Richard became a very good reader, but Richard could not go to the library. Libraries were only for white people. And you can adapt the text to what level you want to meet the needs of your child. So we talk about the pictures, but we read what we need to read. Richard found a friend in Mr. Falk, a white man. Can I use your library card? Richard asked Mr. Falk. Yes, said Mr. Falk. Richard went to the library. He read. Many, many books. Richard started to write. Richard became an author of many books. And that's my simple story of Richard Wright and the library card for an 8-year-old boy. What happened next was amazing. Because he went home and the next day he came back to me and he said, my mummy knew of Richard Wright and my granddaddy knew about Richard Wright too. The fact that the child left my classroom thinking and talking about the stories we had written was so important to starting him on the road to reading. Not only that, but he came back and he talked about Richard Wright and his story. A lot of talking happens around the reading. And he wrote, we are going to try and find Richard Wright's granddaughter. And for a child who has been disengaged, the first thing we have to have is engagement. Before we start with letters and sounds, We have to have engagement. Thank you. Lois Letchford. Hit like, hit subscribe, and enjoy my clip. Thank you. Good.