"Man-Up" Institute Guide: Motivating Attitudes That Nurture an Understanding of Your Potential

By Dr. Marva T. Dixon

The Man-Up (Motivating Attitudes that Nurture an Understanding of your Potential Institute Guide) consists of a curriculum guide focusing on strategies and activities to enhance life skills, college and career readiness, utilizing best practices that are responsive to the needs of diverse adolescent males.

Each module includes research-based best practices about the topics addressed in the module and includes a suggestive PowerPoint presentation that can be utilized for implementation of the module content. The guide also includes an educator-and-parent section with resources to extend knowledge and skills participants learn beyond the institute module session.

Each module delivery format is based upon an adaptive 5E model of teaching and learning (engage, explore, explain, extend, evaluate). The guide also includes a section with sample letters, forms, and templates that can be used to customize the program for your school or organization.

The institute consists of six specific modules, an introductory session, and a final launching for success session. Students will engage in reflective writing utilizing the Man-Up reflective journal (Purchased Separately) throughout the institute.

The intent of the guide is to serve as life skills, career and college readiness, as well as a prevention-intervention program that supports the continuation of safe and drug-free schools in secondary campuses and career and college readiness preparedness focusing on, but not limited to, the following:

Increasing academic student performance
Increasing student attendance
Reducing student dropout rates
Understanding the impact of their culture within the school and community environment
Reducing school violence such as bullying, date violence, and gang violence
Building relational capacity between teacher and student and home and school
Improving self-advocacy, self-determination, and self-motivation
Increasing leadership and civic engagement

The Man-Up Institute Guide is also aligned to the goals of National Initiative: My Brothers Keeper.
The Book covers the following:
Background Information
Introductory Session: Juntos for Umoja: The Commitment: Coming Together for Unity
Module 1: The Whole Me
Module 2: Aiming for Success
Module 3: The Healthy MeMind-Body-Soul
Module 4: Personal Safety Tools
Module 5: Leadership, Self-Management Responsibility, and Financial Literacy
Module 6: The Model Man: Social, Emotional, and Civic Skills
The Launch: Launch to SuccessThe CelebrationA Family Event

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490756844

Dr. Marva T. Dixon

Dr. Marva T. Dixon currently serves as the CEO, for Dixon & Associates Consulting Services LLC. She is also a retired professional educator, and has served as an elementary and middle school teacher, elementary principal, Director of General Curriculum Services for Department of Special Education, Director of Innovation, Executive Director of Innovation and Support, university adjunct professor, and an advisor to state legislators in the area of educational priorities for public schools. Dr. Dixon received a doctorate degree from the University of North Texas in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Leadership. She received her B.A. and M. Ed. and other credentials from North Carolina Central University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Texas Woman’s University and the University of Texas at Arlington. She has specializations and certifications in special education, counseling, elementary, intermediate mathematics and ELA, mid-management and superintendent certifications. Dr. Dixon has engaged in comprehensive research projects in all aspects of school administrative operations, multicultural/diversity and cultural responsiveness, STEM initiatives, parent and family engagement, stress management, special education, college readiness, dropout recovery initiatives, African American male initiates, mentoring, academic coaching and scientifically research-based best practices. Dr. Dixon has a proven record of highly effective and innovative administrative and instructional leadership. She is a published author. Her most recent publications include The Power of the 5 Ps: What Every Educator Needs to Know and a chapter entitled, “A Parent’s Formula for Your Child’s Success: Success=Engagement in the International Best Seller, Amazing Grade – 101 Best Ways to Improve Your Grades Faster. Dr. Dixon has served on numerous national, state and regional commissions and tasks forces. She currently serves as an educational consultant, motivational and keynote speaker with numerous honors and awards. Dr. Dixon was inducted in the 2015 African-America Archives and History Program Hall of Fame Museum. Dr. Dixon has one son and four awesome grandchildren.

Book preview

MAN-UP Institute Guide

Motivating Attitudes that Nurture an Understanding of your Potential

Dr. Marva T. Dixon

And 9 Contributing Authors/Experts

Cover Design by Marty Cha

Fresco illustration by Joel Ray Pellerin

© Copyright 2015 Dr. Marva T. Dixon.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Cover Design by Marty Cha.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5683-7 (sc)

         978-1-4907-5684-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015904924

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Trafford rev. 07/07/2015

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Contents

Introduction and Background for MAN-UP Institute

Introductory Session: Juntos for Umoja

Module 1 The Whole Me

The Whole Me PowerPoint

Module 2 Aiming High

Aiming for Success - College and Career Readiness

Aiming for Success - College and Career Readiness PowerPoint

Habits of Successful High School and College Students

Habits of Successful High School and College Students. PowerPoint

Module 3 The Healthy Me: Mind-Body-Soul

The Healthy Me: Mind, Body & Soul PowerPoint.

Module 4 Personal Safety Tools

Violence, Criminal Justice, School to Prison Pipeline, Bullying, Gangs and More

Violence, Criminal Justice, School to Prison Pipeline, Bullying, Gangs PowerPoint

Pros and Cons of Informational Technology: Learning to Be Safe in the Digital World

Pros and Cons of Informational Technology PowerPoint

Where is Justice for Minority Males PoowerPoint

Module 5 Leadership, Self-MANAGEMENT, Responsible Decision Making & Financial Literacy

Leadership: The Leader in You

Leadership: The Leader in You Power Point

Self-Management and Responsible Decision Making.

Self-Management and Responsible Decision Making PowerPoint

Financial Literacy 101

Financial Literacy – Grasping the Basics

Module 6 The Model Man: Social, Emotional & CIVIC ENGAGEMENT Skills

Importance of Civic Engagement: Students Call to Action

Importance of Civic Engagement: Students Call to Action PowerPoint

Civic Engagement – You Can Make A Difference

Civic Engagement – You Can Make A Difference PowerPoint

Being your Personal Best: Performance+Effort+Attitude+Dress=Success

Being your Personal Best – In Performance-Effort-Attitude and Dress PowerPoint

The Launch Celebration: A Family Event

Educators and Parents Resources

Parent Resources and Tools

Letters – Forms – Templates

Introduction and Background for MAN-UP Institute

In November 2009, I was asked by my superintendent to come up with a way to help a high school student who was a runaway African American male student. The student lived with his grandmother, who was a devoted volunteer for the district. After she shared with the superintendent the problems she was having with her grandson and asked for help in dealing with them, the superintendent implored the grandmother that, if she needed her, to not hesitate to call. The grandmother took the superintendent up on her offer. This was a student headed toward inclusion in our district’s dropout statistics.

My meeting with the superintendent included a limited amount of background on the grandmother and student problems. The information provided consisted of paperwork showing the student had been listed on several occasions as a runaway. I was also given a directive to meet with the student, who had returned to school, to determine the scope of the problem and to come up with a program that could help this student and other students attending other secondary campuses that may have had similar problems.

My meeting with the student disclosed that his areas of concern were almost exactly aligned to the areas identified to reasons for students dropping out of school and aligned to the areas addressed in Dr. Ivory A. Toldson’s work titled Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-Age African-American Males published in 2008. Several telephone calls with the grandmother, the school’s resource officer at the high school, and secondary school administrators and counselors also validated the concerns expressed by both the student and those contained in Dr. Toldson’s work.

The following includes a synopsis of my research on dropouts and the work by Dr. Ivory Toldson:

• Dropping out of school by African American males is an explicit response to the influence of circumstances related to one or more factors throughout the student’s lifetime.

• Research indicates that early predictors for dropping out of school can manifest themselves in the following ways:

o bonding with antisocial peers

o low or decreased school bonding

o low parental educational expectations

o low socioeconomic status

o antisocial, inappropriate, and/or general deviate behaviors

The following includes a synopsis of key points drawn from Dr. Toldson’s work titled Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-Age African-American Males. It served as a framework for the development of the MAN-UP Initiative modules:

• Important factors that affect positive academic results for African American males include school-based activities, sports, computers/technology, and civic, volunteering, and faith-based activities.

• The adverse effect of the absence of a male role model in the home is greater for African American males than females.

• The academic performance of students is impacted by food policies: students who eat healthier foods reflect an increase in their academic performance at school.

• Feelings of connectedness to the teacher lead to positive academic results.

The school district had also adopted the use of the 5E teaching and learning model as a part of a teacher’s lesson planning. A modified 5E teaching and learning model was applied to the MAN-UP Initiative modules in our efforts to show continuity and consistency in the instructional process for students in this extended day program.

Thus began the conceptual framework for the MAN-UP Initiative.

Overview of the Program to Campus Administrators

An overview of the program, its purpose, student criteria, and roles and responsibilities of students, parents, and campus administrators was conducted. An emphasis was placed on the fact that there would be no expense or additional workload on the campus with the exception of assisting in providing the names and required school-related information for students they would be recommending. Administrators were also informed that a limited number of accountability measures would be in place to ensure students were meeting the criteria set forth in the program. This would require progress reporting on student academic performance, attendance, and discipline referrals.

Participants in the overview were provided a one-page summary of the program, along with its purpose, mission, and nomination packets. They were also afforded the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback and additional recommendations. This information was also sent via e-mail to all campus principals.

The Purpose of the MAN-UP Initiative

GPISD secondary campuses focused on but not limited to the following:

• Increase academic student performance

• Increase student attendance

• Reduction in student dropout rates

• Understanding the impact of their culture within the school and community environment

• Reduction in school violence such as bullying, date violence, gang violence

• Building relational capacity between teacher and student, home and school, school and community

• Improvement of self-advocacy, self-determination, self-motivation

Action Needed

• Select five to eight students

o Form will be sent via e-mail

• Provide support for program

Action Not Needed

• No funds from campuses

• No excessive time away from campus and curriculum areas

• No additional staff from campuses

Time and Location for the Program

The MAN-UP Initiative began with an introductory session held at the district’s Education Center. This session was called Juntos for Umoja: Coming Together for Unity. Transportation was provided to the Education Center for the students selected as potential participants in the program.

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The delivery of the MAN-UP Initiative Modules was scheduled as an after-school experience from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. The sessions were held at John A. Dubiski Career High School, the newest of the district’s high schools, with a focus on equipping students with the skills they need for twenty first century professions. Dubiski is a uniquely designed high school containing five schools within the high school that are aligned with the U.S. Department of Labor. This location was selected to serve as a motivator for the students attending the program.

Transportation was provided for all students from their home school to Dubiski Career High School and back to their home school. Parents would then pick the students up from their home school. Parents were required to sign a permission form as identified below:

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Student Nomination Process

There were 120 names submitted by campus administrators, counselors, and parents. Of the 120 names submitted, 50 students completed the required information needed to participate in the program. Of the 50 students who began the program, 47 students successfully completed the program.

Below is a sample of the information requested on the student nomination form:

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Juntos for Umoja: Coming Together for Unity—The Commitment

The purpose of MAN-UP Initiative introductory session called Juntos for Umoja: Coming Together for Unity held at the district’s Education Center was to provide the prospective participants with the goals and an overview of the MAN-UP Initiative.

Students were asked to sign a commitment form if they wished to participate. Parents would also be required to sign a commitment form indicating their support of the program. Parents were also invited to attend the sessions.

Juntos for Umoja: Coming Together for Unity Program

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The Student Commitment Form

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The Parent Commitment Form

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MAN-UP Initiative Modules

The first module was held on March 8, 2010, and was a huge success. The module began with fifty young men of diverse backgrounds attending with commitment forms signed by the student and parent/guardian to attend all five modules. Men, many of whom represented volunteers from the district’s staff, conducted the core content of each module.

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Special Field Trip

Students participating in the program also had an opportunity to participate in a special air show at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas. This event was coordinated by one of the program’s sponsors, Captain Cynthia Macri, who then served as USN Equal-Opportunity Special Assistant, Office of the Chief, Chief of Naval Operations, United States Department of the Navy.

The students had the opportunity to meet several officers, were given guided tours on several aircraft, and received special recognition at the event. Several of the parents, including some fathers, attended the event. This time served as a special bonding time with their fathers for many of the young men.

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Incentives: Critical Component

The research used in the designing of the program supported the significance of providing incentives for students participating in after-school programs like this. It was found that the program tended to be more successful when you provide students with incentives. The identification of the types of incentives students desired was generated during the first module using the form What Turns Me On.

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The rubrics used for the awarding of incentives identified in Module 1 included:

Level 1: Attended all five sessions. Passing all core classes. Decreased discipline referrals. Attendance: two days or less.

Level 2: Attended four out of five sessions. Passing three out of four core classes. Decreased discipline referrals. Attendance: two days or less.

Level 3: Attended two or three out of five sessions. Passing two out of four core classes. Decreased discipline referrals. Attendance: two days or less.

Sample of the final status report chart identifying the incentives students earned:

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Sponsorships

Because of an increase in the number of young men participating in the program, their continued success rate in meeting the criteria set before them, and the unexpected reduction in funding originally designated for this initiative, it became necessary to seek additional funding sources.

Our team reached out to sponsors through local businesses, community and faith-based organizations, parents, administrators, and teachers to serve as a sponsor for items identified by students as a part on their incentives survey What Turns Me On.

Sponsorship letters were developed and distributed. See example below:

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Modules Structure and Alignment with 5E Teaching and Learning Model

GPISD had adopted the 5E model throughout the district and included its implementation in their district improvement model. The Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS), a team led by Principal Investigator Roger Bybee, developed this instructional model for constructivism. This model, which describes a teaching sequence, can be utilized for specific units, entire programs, or individual lessons.

The development and design of the modules for the MAN-UP Initiative utilized an adaptive format of the 5E model as demonstrated below.

Module 1

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Presenters for Module Core Content

Families of minority children, especially African American families, are often stereotyped as matriarchal and being raised by one parent, usually by a mother. On the other hand, Latino families are often perceived as living in two-parent families. Of the forty-seven male students participating in the program (40 percent African American, 40 percent Latino, and 20 percent white), over 75 percent of the students lived either with a mother or a grandparent. A male was not present in the home due to incarceration, divorce, or other unknown reasons.

The research is clear: fathers play an important role in lives of children, particularly middle- and high-school-aged male students. The National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) is an organization whose mission is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children with involved, responsible, and committed fathers in their lives. This organization concurs that there exists what they termed a Father-Absence Crisis in America (found at http://www.fatherhood.org/father-absence-statistics). Supported by research, this crisis reveals a strong correlation between lack of father involvement and many of the larger social challenges that exist in our country.

There is also a host of research literature supporting the positive impact of the involvement of fathers and father-like role models and/or mentors in the life of our youth, in particular young men of color. Research and evidence on fatherhood is far more abundant now than it has ever been. Several outstanding reviews and compilations have summarized the literature quite comprehensively. The work conducted by Koray Tanfer (Battelle Memorial Institute) and Frank Mott (Ohio State University) titled The Meaning of Fatherhood for Men prepared for NICHD Workshop Improving Data on Male Fertility and Family Formation at the Urban Institute, Washington DC, on January 16–17, 1997, identified two emerging themes. The two included the changing role of fathers over time and the arising of two seemingly conflicting trends: the nurturing, caring, emotionally attuned father who enters fatherhood consciously and performs his duties conscientiously versus those who may not have wanted to become fathers, who deny paternity, who are absent from the home, and shirk their parental responsibility and obligations. Studies that are more recent support these themes. For the purposes of this guide, a father is defined as being one whose relationship with his child can be described as being warm, affectionate, close, comforting, friendly, supportive, intimate, nurturing, encouraging, and accepting.

Fathers play an important role in the lives of their children, especially during adolescence, a time when critical decisions are being made about which identities to adopt fathers and during a time when these young men are transitioning into manhood. A multitude of research reports reveal the absence of a father in the home has damaging effects on a wide range of child development outcomes including health, social and emotional, and cognitive outcomes (Wertheimer, Croan, Moore, and Hair, 2003).

According to information found in the 2007 report The Effects of Father Involvement: An Updated Research Summary of the Evidence Inventory published by the Centre for Families, Work, and Well-Being from the University of Guelph, there is clear evidence of the positive effects involved fathers have on children. A synopsis of key-findings in, this report reveals that children of involved fathers are more likely to:

• Have higher levels of economic and educational achievement, career success, occupational competency, better educational outcomes, higher educational expectations, higher educational attainment, and psychological well-being (Amato, 1994; Barber and Thomas, 1986; Barnett, Marshall, and Pleck, 1992a; Bell, 1969; Flouri, 2005; Furstenberg and Harris, 1993; Harris, Furstenberg, and Marmer, 1998; Lozoff, 1974; National Center for Education Statistics, 1997; Snarey, 1993).

• Demonstrate more cognitive competence on standardized intellectual assessments (Lamb, 1987; Radin, 1994) and have higher IQs (Gottfried et al., 1988; Honzik, 1967; Radin 1972; Shinn, 1978).

• Have higher levels of economic and educational achievement, career success, occupational competency, better educational outcomes, higher educational expectations, higher educational attainment, and psychological well-being (Amato, 1994; Barber & Thomas, 1986; Barnett, Marshall, and Pleck, 1992a; Bell, 1969; Flouri, 2005; Furstenberg and Harris, 1993; Harris, Furstenberg, and Marmer, 1998; Lozoff, 1974; National Center for Education Statistics, 1997; Snarey, 1993).

• Be at greater risk of being physically abused, of being harmed by physical neglect, or of suffering from emotional neglect (Sedlak and Broadhurst, 1996).

• Experience health-related problems (Horn and Sylvester, 2002).

• Drop out of school (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994; Painter and Levine, 2000), twice as likely to repeat a grade (Nord and West, 2001), less likely to finish and graduate from high school, more likely to complete fewer years of schooling, not likely to enroll in college (Krein and Beller, 1988; McLanahan and Sandefeur, 1994; Painter and Levine, 2000).

Of significance to the goals and mission of the MAN-UP Institute, the revised version of the MAN-UP Initiative, is the findings from this report that reflect that adolescents who are securely attached to their fathers report less conflict in their interactions with peers (Ducharme, Doyle, and Markiewicz, 2002). Additionally, the fathers’ levels of direct involvement with their teen are positively related to adolescents’ friendship and peer experiences (Updegraff, McHale, Crouter, and Kupanoff, 2001). On the other hand, negative paternal situations such as high levels of hostility had significant direct and indirect effects on adolescent negative social behavior, which in turn predicted decreased peer acceptance (Paley, Conger, and Harold, 2000).

Given the rise of bullying from multiple sources, this next finding provides a great deal of insight and rationale for schools and other organizations to enhance efforts to engage fathers in activities that provide ways to connect with their child within and outside of school. According to this report, father involvement is also negatively associated with the behavior problems of children, conduct disorder, as well as hyperactivity (Flouri, 2005). Additionally, the report revealed that father involvement was not only negatively associated with bullying behavior, but that it tended to provide a shielding or buffering effect for children by protecting the children from extreme victimization (Flouri, 2005).

Other important findings included:

• Father’s absence rather than poverty was the stronger predictor of young men’s violent behavior (Mackey and Immerman, 2004).

• Adolescents in father-absent homes face elevated incarceration risks (Harper and McLanahan, 2004).

• They are more likely to drop out of school (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994; Painter and Levine, 2000).

• Students are twice as likely to repeat a grade (Nord and West, 2001).

• Students are less likely to graduate from high school, more likely to complete fewer years of schooling, and less likely to enroll in college (Krein and Beller, 1988; McLanahan and Sandefeur, 1994; Painter and Levine, 2000).

Unfortunately, many young men of color, in particular African American adolescents, find themselves in fatherless households. The report Is There a Place for Me/ Role Models and Academic Identity between White and Students of Color? by Sabrina Zirekel (Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, 2002) helped to provide further insight relative to the importance of providing not only role models (farther figures) but race- and gender-matched role models for young men of color.

Zirkel’s study (2002) explored the ways that race- and gender-matched role models provided young individuals with a greater sense of opportunity available to them in the world. Her study involved a longitudinal study of young adolescents. The study discovered that students who reported having at least one or more race- and gender-matched role model at the beginning of the study performed better academically up to twenty-four months later. These students also enjoyed achievement-relevant activities to a greater degree, reported more achievement-oriented goals, concentrated more on their futures, and looked up to adults rather than peers more often than students without a race-and gender-matched role model. Of significance is that the results of her study held regardless of educational achievements of the specific role model.

Race- and gender-matched role models provided through the presenters and others interacting with students participating in the institute would, in fact, support an important finding in this study. This finding indicated that gender-matched role models provide clear and concrete images through which young people can begin to develop a deeper sense of having a place of value within the structure of the larger culture in which they live. The matched role models would provide for the most part individuals the student could say, Looked like me, and who held desirable and positive positions.

An important significance of this study is that it demonstrated how goals and academic performance can be enhanced by the sense of opportunity afforded by seeing others who looked like the participants and who were in desirable social positions.

The data from Zirkel’s study also demonstrates a clear connection between the presence of race- and gender-matched role models and students’ investment in their future and their academic performance in later years. Race and gender models provided students with an increased sense of their own potential, value, and opportunities and caused students to think more about their futures and to work harder to achieve their goals. Hence, the use of presenters that are race and gender matched to these young men of color created the potential to help shape these adolescents investment in and efforts toward their personal academic goals.

Presenters and