foundry10 is an education research organization with a philanthropic focus on expanding ideas about learning and creating direct value for youth. In collaboration with diverse partners, we surface, evaluate, and share opportunities to better support youth learning both inside and outside the classroom. We do this through applied and experimental research, as well as collaborative philanthropy and educational programming rooted in evidence-based best practices.
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About the Culturally Relevant and Multilingual Book List
About the Culturally Relevant and Multilingual Book List
The Interventions team at foundry10 works with educators, schools, and community organizations to support students’ social, emotional, and academic development (SEAD) through intervention programs, resources, and research. To be responsive to the current needs of educators and students, our projects are informed by community conversations and relevant literature. You can see that reflected in this Culturally Relevant and Multilingual Book List resource project that aims to synthesize literacy research and the real work and voices of educators and organizations working to bolster students’ literacy development.
Designing Student-Centered Literacy Interventions
Designing Student-Centered Literacy Interventions
By Riddhi Divanji, Janelle Salcedo, and Kat Chen, foundry10
Over the past few years, the foundry10 Interventions team has received more frequent requests for literacy support materials from schools and community organizations in Washington state. In response to this growing need, we have organized multiple take home book programs, supported literacy clubs, and helped school communities acquire books and literacy curriculum that are tailored to the needs of their student population.
While a large body of research supports the benefits of youth engaging with books featuring diverse people and experiences, figuring out how to best acquire and incorporate these books can be a challenge. Here are a few ways that we worked with our partners to bring multilingual and culturally relevant books to their students.
Refresh the Library to Represent Your Students
Refresh the Library to Represent Your Students
Research with diverse students indicates that culturally relevant books can help validate students’ identities, cultures, and languages (Rodríguez, 2019). At Lake Stickney Elementary School, the student body has evolved over the years and now serves 62% students of color.
When the school staff partnered with the equity team to review the books available to students, they found their current stock was no longer representative of their increasingly diverse school community.
At foundry10, we were able to work with Lake Stickney to acquire books to refresh their library and make sure the books are representative of their student population.
“We have purchased books for each classroom teacher to reflect the students we teach, build inclusivity and social emotional learning. We purchased 74 different titles for a total of 356 books. Students loved seeing themselves represented in the books. Teachers expressed appreciation for having read-alouds to begin conversations about different cultures and experiences.” - Lake Stickney Administrator
Recognizing that this need was not limited to their own school community, the staff at Lake Stickney went on to share their book list with other schools in the district. The books they purchased were primarily for students grades one through five and can be found in our Student-Centered Book List.
Ask for Student Input
Ask for Student Input
Discovery Elementary had a similar desire to make sure students feel represented in the learning environment and material at their school. Students of color make up 69% of the student body at Discovery Elementary.
The staff at Discovery took a unique student-centered approach to building out a diversity, equity, and inclusion book list. They surveyed the students in the last few weeks of the school year to see what topics were most important to them at the different grade levels. Students used stickers to vote on the topics that they were most interested in learning about.
Their school Equity team used information from that survey to find books and create a list for each grade level that reflects the topics the students said were important to them. With support from foundry10’s Interventions team, they were able to order 10 titles per class for grades K-5.
Create Context and Resources for Teachers
Create Context and Resources for Teachers
In addition, the school staff at Discovery went a few steps further by creating resources for teachers to aid them in integrating these books into their lessons. They created slide decks to help teachers foster dialogue around the books they purchased in accordance with national holidays celebrating various cultural icons, movements, and moments.
They also created reference sheets (example) for each text to better help teachers understand the author or narrator perspective of the book.
Embrace the Flexibility of Summer Reading Programs
Embrace the Flexibility of Summer Reading Programs
Summer reading can be a great time to broaden the books students are exposed to and curate titles that connect to them on a more personal level. Public libraries and community centers tend to run wonderful summer reading programs that do exactly this.
One of our partners, El Centro de la Raza, was interested in curating a list of culturally relevant books for their summer reading program. Like Discovery Elementary, the staff at El Centro let youth attending the program led the book selection process. All youth listed the titles they wanted to see, voted on the top choices, and then El Centro worked with foundry10 to purchase these books for their sixth to ninth grade student population.
Youth in the program provided some insights into the value they saw in having access to multilingual and culturally relevant reading materials through this program:
“I mean. I think the books have been cool because the names are familiar and they have similar traditions sometimes.” –Eighth Grader
“I like seeing words in Spanish as I read.” –Seventh Grader
“Pues todos quieren que me ponga a leer pero apenas estoy aprendiendo el inglés. Y con libros en español si puedo, pero no hay muchos.” –Seventh Grader
An El Centro staff member working on the program said, “Youth loved these books because they could see other people like them and similar experiences. Especially in books with family dynamics!”
Encourage Students to Write Their Own Story
Encourage Students to Write Their Own Story
Two or three “runner-up” titles on the students' voting list were sent home with them so they had access to reading materials outside of the summer school setting. Their reading club then built a program around these titles that focused on narrative storytelling and character building. They also incorporated a “write your own story” component into the program.
The Culturally Relevant and Multilingual Book List
The Culturally Relevant and Multilingual Book List
The Culturally Relevant and Multilingual Book List is a collection of carefully curated books created by the teachers, staff, and students at El Centro, Discovery, and Lake Stickney.
Organized by title, author, and grade appropriateness, the book list includes a variety of multilingual and culturally relevant books from kindergarten to ninth grade. Students and staff chose books that cover a variety of topics, including race and ethnicity, skin color, disabilities, cultural foods, beliefs, and holidays.
Connect with the foundry10 Interventions Team
Connect with the foundry10 Interventions Team
We hope you find this book list to be a helpful resource in building your own classroom or school library. If you are interested in learning more how to support your school community through literacy efforts like the ones mentioned above, please contact interventions@foundry10.org. We would appreciate the opportunity to learn more about your school and your students’ literacy journeys.
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