Embedded Files
The Key to a Healthy Learning Environment
Fostering belonging in your classroom
among students & teachers relative
to their diverse cultures & communities
Edutopia, 2019
This I Believe
All images taken by Lauren Tragale
This is why I believe teachers of literature and language arts have a moral and societal obligation to incorporate culturally relevant and abolitionist teachings into their classrooms.
Literature needs to be accessible as it is representative—the essays, articles, novels, poems, comics, journals, and other literary works one reads shape and affirm their sense of self amid their perspective of others. Thus the sustainability and impact of our societal culture depends on the diversity us as writers, readers, and teachers of literature employ and perpetuate. Literary and linguistic diversity refers to work that gives voice to those who are differently abled, those who are of different races and ethnicities, social and economic classes, those of different gender identities, sexualities and sexual orientations, those of different religions, citizenship and documentation statuses, and those of other cultures and communities that impact one's perspectives and experiences in life. Such literature is vital to interpersonal understanding and intrapersonal growth. This is why I, a prospective secondary-education English teacher and prospective professor in the humanities and social sciences, am continuously observing and researching the surrounding world and its diversities within and beyond the literary realm.
Lauren Tragale is an undergraduate student at The College of New Jersey, working towards a BA in English - Secondary Education and recently accepted into the Five-Year English MA program in which she plans on focussing on postcolonial literary studies.
Visit her public Instagram page, @postcolonial.painter, to view some of her visual adaptations of texts that engage in literary and linguistic diversity.
Jamila Lyiscott
Jamila Lyiscott
"Three Ways to
Speak English"
TEDSalon NY2014
April Baker-Bell
“Dismantling Anti-Black Linguistic
Racism in English Language Arts Classrooms:
Toward an Anti-Racist Black Language Pedagogy”
Image: "The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black"
The Atlantic, 2020
How to Implement this Resource into your Teaching:
You are able to integrating the suggested lessons, activities, and suggested supplemental resources (Baker-Bell 8-10) into your standard lessons that respond to the following New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Progress Indicators for Reading Literature: NJSLSA.R4, NJSLSA.R6, RL.9-10.6, NJSLSA.W7, NJSLSA.W8, and NJSLSA.W9. The students can be instructed to examine structural and discourse features of Black language ideals within class readings and media by Black authors, and present their observations in class in the form of oral or visual presentations, multimedia projects, roundtable discussions, and/or student-lead socratic seminars. The students can then use such research towards writing their own stances on the power of Black language, the historical and cultural of Black language in the form of longer research essays, shorter literary analysis papers, annotated bibliographies, and/or book reviews.
Article Description
Topic: Linguistic Diversity Relative to
the Black and other Minority Communities
Appropriate Grade Level(s): 9-12
The Pedagogy Discussed:
Baker-Bell discusses language pedagogy in which she introduces the notion that specific languages and dialects (of racial and ethnic minorities, and lower-class communities) possess negative cultural and societal connotations. She allows the students to conclude such after assessing the connotations of words specific to the lexicon of underprivileged communities, instructing the students to select such words and discuss in groups or pairs the emotions and characteristics associated with those words. The class is then encouraged to have a larger discussion on where (or by whom) these connotations originate from and how are the perpetuated (social media, news, canonical literature, etc.). Baker-Bell follows this instruction with assigned reading written by and for the communities represented in the words discussed during the class. These readings are incorporated into classwork and homework in which the students evaluate how the character (if the readings are fiction) or person/people (if the readings are nonfiction) are perceived within their cultural community and outside of their cultural community. Baker-Bell specifically seeks to encourage her students to examine the intersection of language, culture, and identity within the Black community, and foster cultural and historical awareness of the students' literary texts and their authors beyond the first researched community.
Michelle Fowler-Amato, Kira LeeKeenan,
Amber Warrington, Brady Lee Nash,
& Randi Beth Brady
"Working Toward a Socially Just Future
in the ELA Methods Class”
Image: "Social justice and our school system: A blueprint for equity"
SecEd, 2020
How to Implement this Resource into your Teaching:
You are able to integrating the suggested lesson questions/guides (Fowler-Amato, et. al. 160) into your standard lessons that respond to the following New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Progress Indicators for Reading Literature: NJSLSA.R4, NJSLSA.R6, RL.9-10.6, NJSLSA.R5, NJSLSA.R10, RH.6-8.3., NJSLSA.W7, NJSLSA.W8, and NJSLSA.W9. The teachers can host interdisciplinary book clubs that evaluate assigned texts approved by the curriculum to discuss the texts' accessibility, and in that, its relativity to school and student culture and develop lesson plans accordingly. This book club can be extended to the students' families including families of alumni and other school community members to ensure educational and literary practices are inclusive and equitable for its students—extensions of such communities.
Article Description
Topic: Social Justice in English Language Arts
Appropriate Grade Level(s): 6-12
The Pedagogy Discussed:
The authors discuss how teachers, cooperating teachers and their preservice teachers, and school administration can encourage their students and co-workers/peers to use critical literacy to foster a desire for social justice within themselves and others. To accomplish this goal, the authors describe approaches towards teaching in which the following is enacted among teachers, school administration, and students, and encouraged outside of the classroom within the familial and cultural communities surrounding the school: "learning with and from students and their communities," "expanding what counts as text, genre, language, and literacy practice [and encouraging the students and teachers to use and share such literary resources]," "preparing all students to become critical consumers and producers of texts," "considering how teachers’ cultural positionality affects teaching and learning," "developing an awareness of inequities within schools and society," and "questioning whether or not practices and policies increase or limit access [to literature and educational resources] and participation" in the academic realm.
Michelle Fowler-Amato
& Stacia L. Long
"The Road to Occupying Language
in Our Classrooms: Learning from
and for Our Students”
Image: "It’s Not Uncommon for Schools to Have Dozens of Home Languages—
And Our Classrooms Need to Reflect That"
We Are Teachers, 2019
How to Implement this Resource into your Teaching:
You are able to integrating the suggested lessons themes and objectives (Fowler-Amato and Long 6-7) into your standard lessons that respond to the following New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Progress Indicators for Reading Literature: NJSLSA.R4, NJSLSA.R6, RL.9-10.6, NJSLSA.R5, NJSLSA.R10, RH.6-8.3., NJSLSA.W7, NJSLSA.W8, and NJSLSA.W9. The teacher can plan textual immersion days in which the students read texts of different language translated and transcribed into present-day standard English while provided audio and visual versions of the original text in its original language. The teacher can encourage willing English language learners and multilingual students to present literature/media of their native linguistic culture to the class. (For the upper-secondary classrooms) the teacher can also prompt their students to critically read and write a literary analysis on the canonical literature assigned by their school's English department standard in which they deconstruct the systemic biases placed in their public education.
Article Description
Topic: Our Social and Cultural Worlds Inside
Our Classrooms
Appropriate Grade Level(s): 6-12
The Pedagogy Discussed:
Similar to Baker-Bell, Fowler-Amato and Long discuss classroom activities and resources towards exposing students to critically thinking relative to linguistic cultures and communities within their classroom. The authors emphasize how a student is able to learn about their surrounding cultures through occupying the language of themselves, their families, and their peers. They affirm that "teachers can serve as co-inquirers" in affirming and perpetuating their students' language practices, attesting that "[c]urriculum and artifacts for language study are everywhere." Fowler-Amato and Long encourage teachers to instruct their students to do independent research (through peer and familial inquiry inside and outside of school) and then share their observations through roundtable discussions in which fosters critical stances on the linguistic cultures of themselves and others amid increasing awareness of language, and thus, literary, diversity. This allows for a classroom in which culturally aware students and their teacher ensure culturally relevant discussions and lessons that are accessible to the classroom's learners and their diversity.
Rudine
Rudine
Sims Bishop
Sims Bishop
Her beliefs about diversity within and beyond our literature and language arts
Reading Rockets, 2015
"Mirrors, Windows, & Sliding Glass Doors" Revisited
"Mirrors, Windows, & Sliding Glass Doors" Revisited
Akhand Dugar on Rudine Sims Bishop's notion
of literary and linguistic diversity
TEDxMountainViewHighSchool, 2020
Article Description
Topic: Critical Literacy towards
Awareness of Cultural Impact
Grade Level(s): 6-12
The Pedagogy Discussed:
Boutte discusses the influence literature, specifically children's and young adult books, has on a child's sense of self, perspective of the world around them, and sense of belonging and purpose in the world. Accordingly, Boutte prompts educators and school curriculum makers to conduct critical analysis of the literary resources they supply to students, and encourages teachers to conduct critical discussions about books relative to the "Four Resource model" (see right image) and consequently, relative to the cultures and communities of the students' familial and surrounding worlds. Though similar to Fowler-Amato and Long, Boutte focuses more on a text's cultural impact on the reader's sense of self and the reader's sense of their past and present societal and cultural communities rather than evaluating the text's linguistic diversity and its resulting implications. In addition to providing a template for discussing biases in books and guidelines for evaluating multicultural genre elements/themes, Boutte provides guidelines for critical discussions about books framed around the text's individual and collective impact on its audience, and the intentions of the author relative to societal and cultural impact. She attests that it is the teacher's role to examine and provide such resources to facilitate and perpetuate roundtable discussions among students regarding the "power of books and the importance of critical literacy."
Gloria Swindler Boutte
"The Critical Literacy Process
Guidelines for Examining Books”
Image :"The Four Resource Model: A Useful Framework for Planning Programs
both Inside and Outside the Classroom in Development Education"
Palms Austrailia, 2021
How to Implement this Resource into your Teaching:
You are able to integrating the suggested lesson questions/themes and resource guides (Boutte Tables 1-3) into your standard lessons that respond to the following New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Progress Indicators for Reading Literature: NJSLSA.R4, NJSLSA.R6, RL.9-10.6, NJSLSA.R5, NJSLSA.R10, RH.6-8.3., NJSLSA.W7, NJSLSA.W8, and NJSLSA.W9. The teachers can host interdisciplinary book clubs that evaluate assigned texts approved by the curriculum to discuss the texts' accessibility, and in that, its relativity to school and student culture and structure lesson plans accordingly. The students can be instructed to do similarly, though their book clubs will occur over the course of the school year in which one day of the week is dedicated to reading the assigned book club (one book a month) At the end of the month, the students (in their book club groups) will present what they learned from the book regardless of its genre (fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, etc.) regarding the book's world/subject, the author's message/rhetoric, the characters' relation to the reader/intended audience, and the plot's potential political connotations and imagery. For the students' final paper for the school year (or final paper for each marking period), they can write on a book of their choice from their book club readings and develop an argument towards the impact literature and literary culture has on themself/their community.
Article Description
Topic: Our Social and Cultural Worlds
Beyond the Classroom
Grade Level(s): 9-12
The Pedagogy Discussed:
The author encourages the teacher to facilitate similar discussions Boutte presents in her article, though this article frames discussions around anti-bias standards in which "[s]tudents respond to and pose questions from the four anti-bias domains: identity, diversity, justice and action." These domains are used to guide the students in finding and analyzing the student's/class's central text and perpetuate peer-to-peer and individual reflection on the text and its implied cultural discourse. This allows the students to engage in anti-bias and social justice education and work in which the students are able to start and participate in discussions that "draw distinctions among bigotry, institutionalized racism, stereotypes and legal discrimination." The article provides activities that allows class "think time" to help facilitate such student-led individual and group research and class discussions.
Learning For Justice
"Community Inquiry: Four Perspectives"
Image: 123RF Logo Clipart
franzidraws, 2021
How to Implement this Resource into your Teaching:
You are able to integrating the suggested lessons, activities, and suggested supplemental resources into your standard lessons that respond to the following New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Progress Indicators for Reading Literature: NJSLSA.R4, NJSLSA.R6, RL.9-10.6, NJSLSA.W7, NJSLSA.W8, and NJSLSA.W9. As a classwork or homework assignment, the class can be divided into four groups, one for each anti-bias standard, in which the groups of students are instructed to read the same text and present (at the end of class if assigned as classwork, or the next day if assigned as homework) their reading of the text with their assigned lens. The class can then discuss how these lens intersect and play a role in the author's rhetoric and the text's cultural impact (in socratic seminar format).
Work Cited
"3 Ways to Speak English." TEDSalon, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9fmJ5xQ_mc.
Baker-Bell, April. “Dismantling Anti-Black Linguistic Racism in English Language Arts Classrooms: Toward an Anti-Racist Black
Language Pedagogy.” Theory Into Practice, vol. 59, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 8–21.
Boutte, Gloria Swindler. “The Critical Literacy Process Guidelines for Examining Books.” Childhood Education, vol. 78, no. 3,
Taylor & Francis Group, 2002, pp. 147–152.
"Building a Belonging Classroom." Edutopia, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6niuYToam4.
"Community Inquiry: Four Perspectives." Learning For Justice, 2014, https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-
resources/teaching-strategies/community-inquiry/four-perspectives.
Fowler-Amato, Michelle, Stacia L. Long. “The Road to Occupying Language in Our Classrooms: Learning from and for Our
Students.” English Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2020, pp. 2-7.
Fowler-Amato, Michelle, et al. “Working Toward a Socially Just Future in the ELA Methods Class.” Journal of Literacy Research,
vol. 51, no. 2, SAGE Publications, 2019, pp. 158–76, https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X19833577.
"Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors." Reading Rockets, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAu58SNSyc.
"Mirrors, Windows, & Sliding Doors." TEDxMountainViewHighSchool, 2020,
https://www.ted.com/talks/akhand_dugar_mirrors_windows_sliding_doors.
"New Jersey Learning Standards: English Language Arts." State of New Jersey Department of Education, 2019,
https://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2016/ela/.
Work Consulted
Adams, Maurianne, Warren J. Blumenfeld, Carmelita R. Castaneda, Heather W. Hackman, Madeline L. Peters, and Ximena Zuniga.
Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Ashcroft, Bill, et al., editors. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2005, pp. 18-23, 24-28, 36-44, 77-82, 87-91, 95-98,
119-124, 164-166, 223-227, 237-241.
Boutte, Gloria Swindler, Mary E. Earick, Tambra O. Jackson. “Linguistic policies for African American language speakers: Moving
from anti-Blackness to pro-Blackness.” Theory Into Practice, vol. 60, no. 3, 2021, pp. 231-241.
Bhabha, Homi. "Of Mimicry And Man." The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994, pp. 121-131.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for 'Indian' Pasts?’." Representations vol. 32, 1992.
Collins, Cory, Jey Ehrenhalt. "Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students: A Teaching Tolerance Guide." Learning for Justice, 2020,
https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/publications/best-practices-for-serving-lgbtq-students.
Fanon, Frantz. "The Fact of Blackness." Black Skin, White Masks (1952) (trans. Charles Lam Markmann), London: MacGibbon &
Kee, 1968.
Wa Thiong'o, Ngugi. "The Language of African Literature." Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature
London: James Currey, 1981.
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Resources for All Prospective/Current Teachers & Learners
Recommended Reads for Prospective
Literature and Language Arts Teachers
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
Naoki Higashida
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism
Naoki Higashida
When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers on and Off the Streets
Timothy Black
If you have any recommendations regarding books, plays, graphic novels and other works that engage in literary and linguistic diversity, submit its title and author into the Google Form below! I will check the responses and add your suggestions periodically :)
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