Today’s classrooms are very diverse. Incorporating diversity in lessons creates meaningful learning experiences for students as well as supporting mindfulness and tolerance of differences. By doing this, the teacher can create a welcoming environment where students feel safe and part of a group while feeling supported to celebrate who they are.
Sometimes, teachers in certain discipline areas struggle with incorporating culturally responsive literacy into their lessons. Collaborating with colleagues is a great way to learn how other teachers integrate literacy in a meaningful and relevant manner.
Create a 10-15 slide digital presentation to share with grade level teachers in your content area to help them create inclusive and engaging curriculum that accounts for students’ diverse literacy skills and abilities. Identify the grade level of the teachers you will be addressing.
Include the following in your presentation:
- Five or more student specific developmental (academic, physical, or social-emotional), cultural, and language characteristics that often differ across your selected grade level of students that should be considered when planning curriculum and supportive learning environments.
- Two lesson planning strategies that can be used for developing literacy skills in your content area, and that also address two or more of the diverse characteristics you identified in the first bullet.
- Parameters of readability (e.g., Lexile) as they apply to selecting content area reading material.
- Two content area reading materials that can be used in lessons that are academically developmentally appropriate, relevant to the age of students, and free of cultural bias.
- Description of how implementing culturally responsive literacy instruction into your content area demonstrates care and compassion for building a respectful classroom community.
- Title slide, reference slide, and presenter notes.
The digital presentation must be visually appealing, including graphics that are relevant to the content, and using space appropriately.
Support your presentation with 3-5 scholarly resources.
