Sean Cousins,M.A., M.Ed., OCT

Culturally responsive instruction (CRI) is a student-centered approach to teaching that includes cultural references and recognizes the importance of students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences in all aspects of learning. The approach is meant to promote engagement, enrichment, and achievement of all students by embracing a wealth of diversity, identifying and nurturing students’ cultural strengths, and validating students’ lived experiences and their place in the world. CRI is characterized by teachers who are committed to cultural competence, establish high expectations, and position themselves as both facilitators and learners (Capacity Building Series, 2013).

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Questions the CRI educators:

• How might we check our privilege, biases, and preconceptions towards diversity, equity, and social justice?

• What methods might we use to draw upon and integrate students' backgrounds, experiences, and cultural practices into the classroom?

 

Questions for CRI curricula:

• How might we support a culturally responsive program of learning across the reading experience?  

• How might we build cultural sensitivity towards marginalized perspectives, experiences, and ways of knowing and being in the world?  

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Suggested Reading

 

Cummins, J. (2011). Literacy Engagement: Fueling Academic Growth for English Learners. The Reading Teacher, pp. 142-146.

(Click on PDF below to view this source)

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Dr. Marie Clay's body of knowledge on Reading Recovery is based on her emprical work in the study of reader readiness, fluency, and comprehension (Becoming Literate: The Construction of Inner Control, 1991). As readers make sense of text and the features of print, such inevitably exhibit the developmental stages of an "inner control," a complex neuro-psychological construct that emerges from sustained practice of four interdependent cognitive processes:  (i) Using language; (ii) Gaining concepts about print; (iii) Attending to visual information; and (iv) Hearing sounds in sequence.   

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In teaching the literate learner to develop her/his inner control, the educator becomes a facilitator primed to "roam around the known" (Clay, 1991), that is, occupy their work in drawing upon percieved strengths, assets, and capabilities to further the objectives of literacy development from early to fluent readers.  Such tactical orientation requires careful observation of specific reading behaviours - systemically monitoring, recording, and tracking -  so that decision-making processes used to inform pedagogical next steps lead to the design and generation of an effective tutorial system.  Throughout this tenure of sustained practice is the co-construction of intersubjectivity—that is, a shared understanding of each other’ s  goals, resources, and ways of acting.

 

Suggested Reading

 

Anderson, N. L., & Kaye, E. L. (2016). Finding Versus Fixing: Self- Monitoring for Readers Who Struggle. The Reading Teacher, pp. 543-550.

(Click on PDF below to view this source)

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Reading Response Theory (RRT) is rooted in a transactional perspective of meaning-making.  It serves to illuminate the interconnectedness of knower and known in a way that undermines modernist epistemological claims of detachment, certainty, and universality. Dewey’s pragmatism emphasizes the process of coming-to-know, the tentativeness of all knowledge claims, the active role of the knower, and the need for communication and agreement among inquirers (The Child and The Curriculum, 1902).

 

Drawing on these epistemological constructs, Rosenblatt develops RRT as a reading theory that highlights how the reader’s aesthetic experience with a text contributes to the formation of meaning.  What counts as meaningful, sensical, and reflecting authenticity is a construction of knowledge that points to the primacy of the reader-text relationship.  Speculation on intentionality, purpose, and meaning through text (e.g., considering the author's role and the materiality of text) is irrelevant, absurd, and (on this account) unreasonably bespeaks to a quest for universality, certainty, and objectivity.  Accordingly, RRT seeks to validate an appeal to the organic nature of experience in the confrontation with text.

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Suggested Reading

 

Parsons, L. T. (2009).   Readers Researching Their Reading: Creating a Community of Inquiry. National Council for the Teachers of English, pp. 257-267. (Click on PDF below to view this source)

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As of 2018, the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) has 55,314 elementary students enrolled in 132 elementary schools (K-8) accross the Middlesex, Elgin, and Oxford Municipal Districts (TVDSB Annual Report, 2018).

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While TVDSB population statistics reflecting home language usage and demographic data is confidential, such information can be obtained through receipt of an approved Access to Information Request (See Privacy and Freedom of Information, 2018). 

 

In my classroom this year, linguistic diversity encompasses the following characteristics:

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How to Teach English For Different Learning Styles (2018) is a website designed to provide teachers with practical tools and lesson activities that can support the development of multilingualism and English as a Second Language in the classroom environment.  When teachers build upon the strengths of students through their cultural and linguistic bachkround, there is an opportunity to observe and recognize the talents, gifts, and promise that comes with learning English as an additional language.  Students are no longer viewed as being at risk, but become identified as being at promise for further academic prowess and emotional strength.

Suggested Reading

 

Cummins, J. (2006). Multiliteracies and Equity: How do Canadian schools Measure Up? Education Canada, pp. 4-7. 

(Click on PDF below to view this source)

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Embedding CRI within instructional strategies for reading involves setting up an effective reading program, including the use of read-alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading.  The following outline depicts a model of reading intervention taken from the Early Reading Strategy (2003). 

 

Read-alouds

The teacher:

➜ reads daily to students;

➜ offers full support;

➜ generally teaches the whole class;

➜ promotes enjoyment of reading;

➜ models reading strategies;

➜ models “think-alouds”.

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Shared Reading

Shared Reading Students:

➜ join in the reading when they feel comfortable doing so.

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The teacher:

➜ reads regularly with students;

➜ offers a high level of support;

➜ generally teaches the whole class;

➜ uses opportunities presented to teach reading strategies and skills.

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Guided Reading
 

Guided Reading Students:

➜ read by themselves.

 

The teacher:

➜ provides support as needed;

➜ teaches small groups of students on a weekly basis;

➜ uses opportunities presented to reinforce previously taught reading strategies and skills.

 

Independent Reading

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Independent Reading Students:

➜ read daily by themselves;

➜ receive little or no teacher support; ➜ read for pleasure and enjoyment;

➜ practise learned strategies and skills.
 

Suggested Reading

 

Toppel, K. (2015). Enhancing Core Reading Programs with Culturally Responsive Practices. The Reading Teacher, pp. 552-559.

(Click on PDF below to view this source)