Culturally Responsive Reading

Help students to explore the intertextuality of literature and to think more deeply and compassionately about the world. This book shows high school teachers and college instructors how to foreground a work’s cultural context, recognizing that every culture has its own narrative tradition of oral and written classics that inform its literature. The author introduces readers to the LIST Paradigm, a guided approach to culturally responsive reading that encourages readers to access and analyze a text by asking significant questions designed to foster close, critical reading. By combining aspects of both literary analysis (exploring the elements of fiction such as plot, setting, and character) and literary criticism (exploring works from multiple perspectives such as historical, psychological, and archetypal), the LIST Paradigm helps educators “unlock” literature with four keys to culture: Language, Identity, Space, and Time. In Culturally Responsive Reading, Washington exposes cultural myths, reveals racist and culturally biased language, dismantles stereotypes, and prevents the egregious misreading of works written by people of color.

Book Features:

• Describes a unique approach to culturally responsive reading, including specific teaching strategies and rich classroom examples.
• Explores numerous texts by writers of color that are rarely included as required reading in literature courses.
• Provides examples and illustrations of innovative ways to incorporate multicultural texts into an introductory literature course.
• Incorporates epigraphs and questions that highlight each component of the LIST approach.
• Includes a critical essay that guides teachers through the process of teaching a complex postmodern novel (Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao).

Durthy A. Washington is a writer, seminar leader, former English professor, and founder of LitUnlocked©, which offers workshops and seminars dedicated to the art of mindful culturally responsive reading.

“ Culturally Responsive Reading: Teaching Literature for Social Justice is an essential resource that provides educators with an explicit and accessible approach to analyzing, criticizing, and making meaningful connections across diverse texts that foster conversations between students and teachers related to perspective, culture, race, and systems of power and oppression.”

—Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy

“There is still much work that needs to be done in our efforts to teach in culturally responsive ways. Washington’s book, outlining her new LIST Paradigm, provides an important foundation, especially for secondary teachers, to develop the strategies needed to help students read and analyze literature by writers from different cultural backgrounds.”
—From the Foreword by Carolyn Denard, founder and board chair, Toni Morrison Society

“A book that is brilliantly incisive and generative beyond words, Culturally Responsive Reading is a gift that will be welcomed in classrooms everywhere.”
—Junot Díaz, author, This Is How You Lose Her

“As the nation still struggles with literacy development and how to engage students in reading and analyzing literature, this book provides research-based and practical solutions for culturally responsive reading. Dr. Washington provides a guide on how to select, promote, and engage children in reading literature that disrupts ‘misreadings’ and Eurocentric texts. She centers inclusivity, representation, and criticality in a time where we need it most. Culturally Responsive Reading should not be optional, but instead a necessary read for every educator who seeks to cultivate the next generations of leading readers and thinkers of the world.”
—Gholdy Muhammad, associate professor, University of Illinois Chicago and author, Cultivating Genius and Unearthing Joy

“Culturally Responsive Reading is an exciting, much-needed book. Durthy Washington’s skillful deployment of her compelling LIST paradigm enriches our understanding of literature, from Shakespeare, Lahiri, and Cisneros, to Morrison, Komunyakaa, and Adichie.”
—Verner D. Mitchell, professor, The University of Memphis

“Durthy Washington’s Culturally Responsive Reading offers readers the critical fruit of her highly successful LIST Paradigm, as well as the daily benefits of greater and more meaningful intercultural experiences through reading, writing, and relating with others. This book, which is rich in case studies and advanced critical inquiry, is a must for every language arts professor’s reading list, whether for secondary or higher education.”
—Andrea Van Nort, professor, United States Air Force Academy

Contents

Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi

Preface: “Why Are We Reading This?” xiii
The Tar Baby Incident xiii
The LIST Paradigm: A Guided Approach to Teaching Literature xv
Creating the LIST Paradigm xix

Introduction: Culturally Responsive Reading: What It Is and Why It Matters 1
“Moving Out Beyond Yourself”: Coping With Culture Shock 3
Defining “American” Literature: Reading Western “Classics” 4
Exploring Postcolonial Literature: Telling Our Own Stories 5
Achieving Agency: Rejecting “The White Criterion” 6
Misreading Multicultural Texts 6
Challenging Censorship 10

PART I: The LIST Paradigm: A Guide to Culturally Responsive Reading

1. Culture in the Classroom: Introducing the LIST Paradigm 15
Teaching at the Academy 16
Exploring Cultural Myths 17
Exploring Definitions of “Culture” 20
Teaching Values 22
Introducing the LIST Paradigm 22
Literary Analysis 23
Literary Criticism 25
LIST Paradigm Exercises 25
Teaching Through the Lens of Culture 27

2. Telling Our Stories: Exploring the Power of Narrative 35
Defining “Story” 38
Bibliotherapy 39
Mindful Reading 39
Types of Stories 40

3. Readers, Reading, and the Reading Process 43
Why We Read 44
What We Read 44
How We Read 49

4. Interrogating the Text: Asking Significant Questions 63
Conflicting Views on Reading Literature 63
Engaging Questions From Other Disciplines 64
Who Is “Qualified” to Speak? 67

PART II: Exploring the LIST Paradigm: Four “Keys to Culture”

5. Language: “How Does the Author Contextualize Linguistic Signs and Symbols?” 75
Language as Resistance 76
Language in Postcolonial Studies 77
Reading Ousmane Sembène’s Niiwam 78
Language Creation: Code-Switching and Code-Meshing 79
Language Validation: Standard English and Vernacular 80
Language Use: Unlocking the Power of Language 81
Significant Questions—General 93
Significant Questions—Music 93

6. Identity: “Who Are These People and What Do They Want?” 97
Identity Politics (Race, Racism, and Colorism) 98
Literary Archetypes 103
Cultural Stereotypes 106
Significant Questions 109

7. Space: “How Do Characters Negotiate the Text’s Physical, Psychological, and Cultural Landscapes?” 111
Physical Space 112
Domestic Space (“Home”) 114
Racialized Space 115
Counterspaces (Third Space Theory) 116
Psychological Space 117
The Subaltern 118
Cultural Landscapes: The Slave Ship 119
Narrative Space 119
Significant Questions 120

8. Time: “How Does the Author Manipulate Time?” 123
Cultural Perceptions of Time 123
Historiography 124
Historicity 124
Exploring Time in Contemporary Fiction 125
Significant Questions 130

PART III: Exploring the LIST Paradigm: Unlocking the Text

9. Cultural Contexts for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 135
Reading Oscar Wao 136
Language in Oscar Wao 137
History: The Parsley Massacre 138
Major Influences 138
Author Background 139

10. Exploring the LIST Paradigm: Reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 142
Introducing the Novel 143
Narrative Structure 144
Language: "How Does the Author Contextualize Linguistic Signs and Symbols?" 144
Identity: "Who Are These People and What Do They Want?" 147
Space: "How Do Characters Negotiate the Text’s Physical, Psychological, and Cultural Landscapes?" 150
Time: "How Does the Author Manipulate Time?" 152
Coda 154

Appendix A.1: Exploring the LIST Paradigm: A Reader’s Guide 156
Appendix A.2: LIST Paradigm Worksheet 158
Appendix B: Defining Elements of Morrison’s Fiction 160
Appendix C: Notes on Narrative Structure 163
Appendix D: Suggestions for Pairing Texts 169

References 173
Index 184
About the Author 194