Redefining and reimagining foundational skills: Centering joyful, culturally, and linguistically sustaining instruction in literacy instruction for CLD students

Abstract

Language and culture hold power and significant connections to students' identities. However, these connections are often minimized, especially for students from diverse racial-ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds who are neither white nor monolingual speakers of English. In literacy instruction, we often see complete disregard and devaluation for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students' home languages, dialects, and cultures as a resource for their development of English. Many home languages that students bring with them to the classroom do not match the language of texts traditionally considered academic. These texts often contain complex language structures in English that do not match students' oral language and language structures students must learn to navigate. Students who are still learning foundational skills must be given access to these complex language structures to access rigorous academic content, which can otherwise serve as a gatekeeper to college and career opportunities. In this paper, we argue for the essential role of joyful, culturally, and linguistically sustaining, and grade-level foundational skills instruction in literacy education. We demonstrate why and how teachers of adolescent students, particularly those who have not yet secured foundational skills in English, can leverage students' cultural and linguistic assets to build the knowledge needed to access the complex language of academic texts. Additionally, we provide a vignette to illustrate instructional routines that classroom teachers can use to support students in building their foundational skills in a joyful, culturally, and linguistically sustaining, and grade level. Through these efforts, we aim to deepen teachers' understanding of how language and culture can be leveraged to enhance learning and honor the linguistic and cultural diversity students bring to the classroom. We conclude with implications for practice and research.