Enhancing Core Reading Programs With Culturally Responsive Practices

Abstract

Teachers implementing core reading programs can enhance instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse students by mindfully using cooperative learning and engagement strategies to respect students' cultural learning and communication styles.

Exploring Cultural Responsiveness Among European American Principals in Rural Schools With High-Performing African American Readers

“…Khalifa, Arnold, and Newcomb (2015) described culturally responsive parent–school relationships as a sustained and systematic collaboration between parents in schools that includes trust building and welcomes parent voices in decision-making and advocating for community-based projects. To establish sustainable parent–school relationships, rural school principals should increase communal dialogue with African American families and increase their engagement in African American community events and celebrations (Toppel, 2015). Recruiting African American community members to engage in the learning to read process at school creates a synergistic system of support for the successful reading development of African American youth in rural schools.…”

Supporting Literacy of English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms

“…What cultural information and whose culture brought to the classroom need to be carefully examined (Lantolf, 2011). As identified earlier that insufficient background knowledge on the target culture may hinder access for students to grasp meaning of the text, especially when their own culture is disregard during the process of learning (Drucker, 2003;Hite & Evans, 2006;Toppel, 2015).…”

“…It has widely known that English language learners (ELLs) may not have full participation in a mainstream classroom due to multiple factors. Those factors may include limited oral language proficiency (August & Shanahan, 2006;Flynn, 2007;Quiros et al, 2012), limited access to the target language culture (Drucker, 2003;Hite & Evans, 2006;Toppel, 2015), and limited support to engage with more complex texts (Iddings, Risko, & Rampulla, 2009;Kibler, Walqui, & Bunch, 2015).…”

Selecting Texts for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction

“…Multitext selection is also important to extending students’ thinking beyond the information found in traditional textbooks or readers, which often offer only one perspective. This selection grounds a more socially and culturally relevant approach to literacy learning by keeping in mind students’ diverse backgrounds and lives and offering different perspectives relevant to multiple learners (Toppel, ). Texts that offer multiple perspectives, offer different formats to study, and ask students to question more traditional textbook information encourage a critical lens for learning and place value on minority or less‐focal viewpoints.…”

“…The Disciplinary Text Selection Table (DTST; see Table ) uses these identified texts to guide teachers in effectively considering whether and how those texts might support socially and/or culturally relevant instruction. To do so, the DTST first outlines identified disciplinary texts (International Literacy Association, ; Shanahan, ), then offers prompts supported by socially and culturally relevant practices (Ladson‐Billings, ; Toppel, ) to promote disciplinary literacy.…”