ABSTRACT This article explores the integration of structured literacy with culturally responsive teaching to enhance phonics instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse students and to promote equitable educational opportunities.
ABSTRACT Teachers are uniquely positioned to educate about grief, but we do not always know how. Drawing from findings of a qualitative research study, this article describes how K‐5 teachers provide literacy lessons connected to the Day of the Dead. Examples include opinion writing, analyzing characters, and comparing concepts in informational texts. Importantly, lessons engage students in discovering diverse and healthy ways to grieve loss, which may include losing a loved one or losing one's homeland. This article shows how teachers can foster thinking, reading, and writing about a topic that is difficult, critical, humanizing, and universal.
ABSTRACT With classrooms becoming ever more linguistically diverse, meaningful strategies for the engagement of multilingual pupils are continually being developed. This paper focuses on storytelling in multilingual contexts—specifically in contexts where the storyteller or teacher may not share the languages of the children in the class. Building on a decade of experience as a multilingual storyteller, I provide in this paper an autoethnographic account of a reflective developmental journey by following three examples of stories told, drawing out key elements and recommendations for practitioners looking to share stories in multilingual settings.
ABSTRACT This article describes the use of gratitude journaling as a social emotional learning intervention in a kindergarten classroom. Implementation strategies and benefits of the intervention are discussed.
This article highlights the power of authentic children's literature to affirm African American English as a legitimate, rule-governed linguistic system and elevate it as a source of cognitive strength, cultural richness, and academic potential. While foundational literacy skills emphasize English language structure, they often center General American English and overlook the linguistic realities of many African American students. As a result, traditional literacy instruction can marginalize Black students by framing their home language as a deficit rather than a resource. Authentic children's literature featuring AAE validates African American students' identities where their voices can be celebrated in the classroom. This article calls for the intentional use of authentic literature to affirm students' primary language. It provides research-based strategies that foster literacy development and build linguistic pride. By merging AAE-rich literature with culturally responsive practices, educators can create classrooms that center students' full linguistic repertoires as assets for learning and meaning-making.
