Creating Middle School Harlem Historians: Motivating Urban Students through Community-Based History

The Middle School Harlem Historians (MSHH) was a six-session after-school program in which middle school students learned to become historical researchers of their community, with the goal of motivating low-performing urban students to write in powerful and inspiring ways. Specifically, MSHH occurred in three cycles, with students picking a historical topic related to their lives in Harlem and writing an essay about their research. By fostering a culturally affirming and "scholarly" atmosphere in coordination with careful pedagogy that encouraged independent work, students became much more motivated to write and improved their writing abilities in result.