"Today’s teachers need to provide students with literacy and learning experiences that will provide them with the cross-cultural knowledge and skills they will need as future adults in a nation that has become increasingly diverse."
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Authors in this text discussed best practices of integrating reading into all content areas. An important factor for implementing reading across the curriculum is culturally responsive pedagogy. According to the text, teachers should be cognizant of the diverse cultures, expectations, values, and attitudes towards education altogether. There are 7 characteristics of a culturally responsive classroom environment:
Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A. L., & Mraz, M. (2016). Content Area Reading: literacy and learning across the curriculum (12th ed.). Pearson Education, INC.
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Pressley and Allington discussed the benefits of implementing a balanced literacy approach for struggling readers. Balanced literacy is the successful combination of explicit skills instruction with an emphasis on reading for meaning in a literacy classroom. According to the text, cultural-minority students benefit from consistent high-quality instruction, safe learning environments that promote parent educational partnerships, and authentic opportunities to engage in the curriculum. Text choice is also an important factor when considering independent reading, including culturally relevant options in the selection.
Pressley, M., & Allington, R. L. (2015). Reading instruction that works: the case for balanced teaching (4th ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
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"At-risk cultural-minority students benefit from instruction that sounds much like Balanced Literacy Instruction..."
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"The barriers impeding our progress in assuring equitable outcomes for our diverse students must become a priority: As literacy leaders, we can do no less than provide optimal education for all students."
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Dagan and Bean challenged educators to reflect on how their explicit personal beliefs and potential biases that affect their instructional decisions. According to researchers, instructional practices should support equity and diversity. In a culturally responsive classroom, students must be exposed to literature that values their identities and life experiences. Curriculum must be reshaped with the development of integrated units based around global and authentic concepts and support alternative viewpoints about different topics. Exposure to authentic concepts creates opportunities that can lead to student leadership and advocacy. Student engagement and motivation are positively impacted when family and community knowledge is made public and relevant to the curriculum. Ultimately, literacy leaders have a responsibility to enable equitable learning environments for all types of learners.
Dagen, A. S., & Bean, R. M. (2020). Best practices of literacy leaders: keys to school improvement (2nd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
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Beers and Probst argue that educators tend to confuse the terms "relevance" and "interest". Because students' interests shift so quickly, it is almost impossible to keep them engaged on that alone. However, if we help students recognize the relevance of a topic they are likely to be more engaged and put forth more energy. Educators must challenge their own thinking as it relates to constantly building student interest. Instead, we should help students discover the relevance of the lesson. Educators should challenge curriculums to help students make meaningful connections, which will increase student engagement and motivation altogether.
Beers, G. K., & Probst, R. E. (2017). Disrupting thinking: why how we read matters. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
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"When they discover the relevance, their energy for and attention to the task will soar. Getting their attention is about interest; keeping their attention is about relevance." |
"When literacy leaders know the curriculum and support teachers to be curriculum-creators, students know that teaching has been planned and that their learning and identities matter."
Wepner, S. B., Gomez, D. W., Cunningham, K. E., Rainville, K. N., & Kelly, C. (2016). Literacy leadership in changing schools: 10 keys to successful professional development. New York: Teachers College Press.
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In this text, the authors provide various approaches to helping literacy leaders improve professional development for teachers. One key to successful professional development is being able to support teachers in aligning culturally relevant instruction to standards. When curriculum and culturally relevant instruction are both aligned, teachers are empowered to make more purposeful decisions in the classroom.
Questions to ask to ensure implementation of culturally responsive curriculum can include the following:
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