Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogies

This practical book will help literacy teachers operationalize research on culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) to reach all students. The authors guide pre- and inservice educators in creating classroom environments and learning experiences that foster students’ literacy and language development, engagement with school, and critical consciousness. Chapter authors explore questions about how CSP is enacted in classrooms and how it impacts students, especially in schools that are heavily influenced by standardized testing and curricula. Readers will find concrete examples of how CSP is being used to shape students’ identities and their literacy abilities. The text is organized in three sections: Part I offers models in elementary classrooms; Part II presents models in classrooms for adolescents and youth; and Part III illustrates considerations for implementing CSP across K–12 contexts.

Book Features:

• Focuses on enacting literacy practices that will make teaching and learning more equitable for all students.
• Provides authentic examples of culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy across multiple grade levels.
• Includes photographs, trade books, and lesson examples that reflect

culturally relevant and sustaining teaching in actual classrooms.

Susan Chambers Cantrell is a professor of literacy at the University of Kentucky. Doris Walker-Dalhouse is professor of literacy in the College of Education at Marquette University and professor emerita of literacy at the Minnesota State University. Althier M. Lazar is professor of education at Saint Joseph’s University.

“This book is essential to the campaign for social justice. It is an indispensable resource for any literacy educator who aspires to incorporate culturally sustaining practices in their practice.”

—Teachers College Record

“The authors of this volume present many pedagogical opportunities for reimagining literacy instruction in ways that honor and cultivate students’ cultural and linguistic identities and that allow students to drive curricular decisions. While reading the stories in this text, one cannot help but be struck by the importance of culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy and the need to resist traditional test-driven pedagogies that deny student voice and agency.”
—Rebecca Powell, professor emeritus, Georgetown College

“In the introduction to this edited book on culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy (CSLP), the editors state that they see ‘enormous potential of CSLP to gain a foothold in literacy classrooms.’ This carefully crafted and well-thought-out edited volume is a massive step in the direction of realizing that enormous potential!”
—Cynthia Brock, Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chair in Literacy Education, University of Wyoming

Contents

Acknowledgments  vii

Introduction: Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogy: From Relevance to Permanence  1
Althier M. Lazar, Doris Walker-Dalhouse, and Susan Chambers Cantrell

Part I: Models of CSLP in Elementary Classrooms

1.  Writing Their Stories: Using Culturally Sustaining Multimodal Composing Practices to Transform Writer’s Workshop  19
Olivia Murphy, Jennifer D. Turner, and Chrystine Cooper Mitchell

2.  Learning From Alina: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Within an Elementary Reading Intervention Context  33
Kelly K. Wissman

Part II: Models of CSLP in Classrooms for Adolescents and Youth

3.  Disciplinary Literacy and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Tensions and Potentials  53
Britnie Delinger Kane and Rachelle S. Savitz

4.  Making Arij Chaj N en Tres Idiomas: A Middle School Language Arts Lesson  75
Sarah N. Newcomer and Kathleen M. Cowin

5.  Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Amplifying Youth Critical Consciousness in Classrooms  95
Aimee Hendrix-Soto, Erica Holyoke, Heather Dunham, and Melissa Mosley Wetzel

Part III: Considerations, Practices, and Taking Action for CSLP

6.  Collective Diamond Mining: Using Collaborative Curriculum Excavation to Embrace the Educator’s Responsibility Toward Culturally Sustaining Literacy Pedagogy  123
Kelli A. Rushek and Ethan Seylar

7.  Five Frames: A Multicultural Curricular Approach to Culturally Sustaining Literacy Practices  141
Susan V. Bennett, AnnMarie Alberton Gunn, Alexandra Panos, Steven M. Hart, and Jenifer Jasinski Schneider

8.  Enacting Culturally Sustaining Literacy Practices: Toward More Socially Just Teaching  159
Susan Chambers Cantrell, Doris Walker-Dalhouse, and Althier M. Lazar

References  171

Index  185

About the Editors and Contributors  196