Page 79 - EdViewptsSpring2020

It’s Not Just the Books:

Tailoring Instructional Practices

With a Culturally Responsive Lens

By Gary Pankiewicz, Ph.D., K-12 Supervisor of Language Arts and Literacy
and Liliana Lopez, K-12 Supervisor of World Languages, English Language

Learners, and Music, Fair Lawn

Great strides continue with engaging instructional practices prompt attention to culture while
to be made toward the that catapult our cultural competencies growing our students’ capacities to
and land on more culturally responsive
listen, learn, and be heard.
integration of more diverse platforms. Adding meaningful and
texts that better represent relevant multicultural texts to any course Personal and Cultural
Connections in Partner
of study is the first step to developing a
the cultural nuances that culturally responsive classroom. Next Conversations
exist within our schools comes a focus on how these texts might Most educators would agree that
be taught, perhaps how any texts are
and the world. When educators taught, in ways that disrupt the quieting the orchestration of student partner
conversation is helpful to student
acknowledge and honor the significance of students’ voices and promote the expression and engagement. A clear
of these cultural differences, it makes development of knowledge construction expectation and an intriguing prompt
culturally responsive teaching more and enhanced perspective. oftentimes result in a melodious hum
possible (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Rucker, The purpose of this article is to share of paired discussions while advancing
2019). Rather than throwing books at several familiar instructional practices students’ cultural knowledge develop-
matters of culture, it’s important to make that were tailored with a culturally ment. In other words, in addition to
sure that diverse books are aligned responsive lens in our attempts to

Educational Viewpoints -77- Spring 2020