Culturally Affirming Literacy Practices For Urban Elementary Students

The nation’s demographic of public schools are more ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse than ever before (Strauss, 2014). However, there are still educational policies and practices that call to question whether traditionally marginalized students receive an equitable education. This is demonstrated in national achievement trends, which highlight disproportionality ratings among minoritized student groups. Also when examining school discipline policies, expulsion ratings, special education services, and school choice movements, all seem to handicap educational opportunity for low-income Black and Brown students. As American schools become more and more diverse, it is imperative that the literacy practices used to teach young students of color reflect the nation’s changing demographic. This book provides practical insights guided by conceptual and contextual knowledge in understanding how to teach urban African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students by discussing issues associated with critical pedagogies, literacy, and culturally appropriate instructional strategies that have demonstrated success for traditionally marginalized student populations. This book examines culturally affirming literacy practices from three main components: (1) scholarship, (2) the field of practice, and (3) teacher education models. Each of these three are significant in understanding how to teach minoritized populations. As such, chapters have been organized into three main sections that address scholarship and research, trends in the field, and implications for teacher education models – all in order to advance the literacy achievement of African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students.

Today’s public schools represent greater student diversity than ever before in the history of the United States, yet pedagogical approaches as mandated by state education agencies and school districts superimpose mainstream curricula and instructional practices which ultimately disadvantage the academic outcomes of the majority minority: African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students. Unfortunately, national report findings also heighten the educational crisis that exists for Black and Brown children with regard to reading and writing achievement. As a result, there is need to deeply explore the relationship between Black and Brown student literacy achievement and educational policy, teacher education program, curriculum, and assessment. This book seeks to provide some practical insights guided by conceptual and contextual knowledge by understanding how to teach urban African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students by discussing culturally appropriate instructional strategies that have demonstrated success among African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students. This book will showcase successful models for teaching literacy to urban student through a discussion of topics that include: (1) increasing literacy achievement and motivation, (2) multicultural literacy practices, and (3) early and elementary literacy instruction.

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection

The achievement of students of color continues to be disproportionately low at all levels of education. More than ever, Geneva Gay's foundational book on culturally responsive teaching is essential reading in addressing the needs of today's diverse student population. Combining insights from multicultural education theory and research with real-life classroom stories, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences. This bestselling text has been extensively revised to include expanded coverage of student ethnic groups: African and Latino Americans as well as Asian and Native Americans as well as new material on culturally diverse communication, addressing common myths about language diversity and the effects of "English Plus" instruction.

"Dispels the myths regarding culturally diverse learners and provides concrete strategies that any teacher can easily implement. The book contains current research from the most reputable sources in the field and is a must-read for every teacher."-Akina Luckett-Canty, Special Education TeacherBrighton Middle School, Birmingham, AL"This text addresses the literacy needs of learners who have been 'left behind.'"-Ursula Thomas-Fair, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood EducationUniversity of West GeorgiaGive students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds the literacy skills to succeed! All students bring unique cultural and language experiences to their learning. Offering perspectives from experts in diversity and literacy, this clearly organized, comprehensive resource illustrates how teachers can improve reading achievement for students from diverse backgrounds by combining research-supported best practices with culturally responsive instruction.Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction connects students' backgrounds, interests, and experiences to the standards-based curriculum. Teachers will find effective practices to help plan, implement, manage, and evaluate literacy instruction for students with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This book provides:A range of interventions that support five critical areas of reading instruction-phonemic awareness, phonics/decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehensionLearning materials that take advantage of multicultural literature, themes, and topicsGuidelines for helping students connect language and literacy tasks to their own cultural knowledge and experiencesMake a significant difference in all your students' reading success with effective, culturally responsive teaching practices!

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Hip Hop Pedagogy is the first reference work to cover the theory, history, research methodologies, and practice of Hip Hop pedagogy. Including 20 chapters from activist-oriented and community engaged scholars, the handbook provides perspectives and studies from across the world, including Brazil, the Caribbean, Scandinavia, and the USA. Organized into four topical sections focusing on the history and cultural roots of Hip Hop; theories and research methods in Hip Hop pedagogy; and Hip Hop pedagogy in practice, the handbook offers theoretical, analytical, and pedagogical insights emerging across sociology, literacy, school counselling and youth organizing. The chapters reflect the impact of critical Hip Hop pedagogies and Hip Hop-based research for educators and scholars interested in radical, transformative approaches to education. Ultimately, the many voices included in the handbook show that Hip Hop pedagogy is a humanizing and emancipatory approach which is redefining the purposes and practices of education.

Toward Community-Based Learning provides an essential and comprehensive view of community-based learning in the U.S.A., India, and China. It explores the foundations, development, research, and pedagogical practices available to educators, researchers, and administrators interested in building community-based relationships.

Today’s public schools represent a demographic of students that are more diverse than ever before. In turn, culturally responsive and affirming teaching practices should mirror the academic, social, and cultural needs of an ever-increasing population of diverse students. Through multicultural education students can discover the ways they are shaped by their own culture, as well as learn more about others. Multicultural education practices provide mutually beneficial dialogue between cultures, and the pedagogical practices increase learning outcomes for not just the ethnically and racially diverse, but all students who are participatory in the content. This book provides educational stakeholders with culturally relevant and affirming techniques for utilizing multicultural literature as a pedagogical tool in social studies, mathematics, science, and reading. Each chapter provides a brief summary about the selected multicultural text and also contains an instructional strategy to be used. Following this, an inquiry-based lesson is provided with supplementary materials and resources that allow for K-12 differentiation.

This book features effective artistic practices to improve literacy and language skills for emergent bilinguals in PreK-12 schools. Including insights from key voices from the field, this book highlights how artistic practices can increase proficiency in emergent language learners and students with limited access to academic English. Challenging current prescriptions for teaching English to language learners, the arts-integrated framework in this book is grounded in a sense of student and teacher agency and offers key pedagogical tools to build upon students’ sociocultural knowledge and improve language competence and confidence. Offering rich and diverse examples of using the arts as a way of talking, this volume invites teacher educators, teachers, artists, and researchers to reconsider how to fully engage students in their own learning and best use the resources within their own multilingual educational settings and communities.

There has been little public discussion on the devastating impact of Covid-19 on mothers, or a public acknowledgement that mothering is frontline work in this pandemic. This collection of 45 chapters and with 70 contributors is the first to explore the impact of the pandemic on mothers' care and wage labour in the context of employment, schooling, communities, families, and the relationships of parents and children. With a global perspective and from the standpoint of single, partnered, queer, racialized, Indigenous, economically disadvantaged, disabled, and birthing mothers, the volume examines the increasing complexity and demands of childcare, domestic labour, elder care, and home schooling under the pandemic protocols; the intricacies and difficulties of performing wage labour at home; the impact of the pandemic on mothers' employment; and the strategies mothers have used to manage the competing demands of care and wage labour under COVID-19. By way of creative art, poetry, photography, and creative writing along with scholarly research, the collection seeks to make visible what has been invisibilized and render audible what has been silenced: the care and crisis of motherwork through and after the COVID-19 pandemic.