Reading representations of themselves: Urban youth use culture and African American textual features to develop literary understandings

This article describes a qualitative research study that explored how a middle school case-study class read and responded to "culturally conscious" African American children's books (Sims, 1982, p. 49). First, I relied on literary analyses conducted mainly by Sims (1982) and Harris (1995) to identify African American textual features contained in three African American children's books. Second, using several theories from reader response criticism, I inductively examined how the study participants read and responded to the textual features identified. Data included 18 audiotaped literature discussions, observational field notes, and 270 written artifacts. The study provides two core findings: (1) recurring cultural themes, African American linguistic patterns, and ethnic group practices are identifiable African American textual features; and (2) participants actively use cultural knowledge, experiences, and African American textual features to develop literary understandings. These findings suggest that culturally influenced textual features have the potential to become important pedagogical tools for literacy instruction.