Integrating Culturally Relevant Text to Reach English Language Learners in the ELA Classroom

Abstract

The majority of the texts in the ELA curriculum are focused through a mostly white literary canon and our student population is ever-changing. Students struggle with understanding the perspectives presented in the texts. Our students’ experiences are vastly different than those of the authors we include in our ELA curriculum. With the increasing number of immigrants coming into the United States education systems, we need to be able to meet these students through the curriculum we teach because they are learning a new language alongside new content. By providing culturally relevant text in our curriculum for our ELL students, they will see themselves in the texts they read and will feel that they are part of the whole picture even in a new country and become more engaged as they are able to focus more on skills they are learning instead of struggling with the context of the text and the skills.