Early Literacy Tutor Continuous Learning Resource Bank
Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education
Resources from the most time intensive training scope and sequence in the recipe book are also included in this resource bank. Providers that use the ~72 hour (or more) sequence will see some resources reappear in this bank.
Resources Your Organization Can Have Tutors Learn from to Accomplish Goals:
Choosing Diverse Texts
- In this brief video clip, Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop shares her “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” analogy to discuss the importance of diversity in books and the authors who write them. We need books in which children can see reflections of themselves, but also look through and see other worlds.
- Lee and Low’s Beyond Good Intention: Selecting Multicultural Literature is a brief article with clear guidelines, relevant for tutors who will choose their own read alouds or texts for older students to read.
- Colorín Colorado’s Diverse Books: Booklists and Related Resources is a collection of resources to help tutors learn more about books representing diverse cultures and backgrounds, along with guidelines for selecting appropriate titles.
- In Black Language in Children’s and YA Lit, Kaelyn Muiru and colleagues at #BlackLanguageSyllabus highlights books and stories (and ways to teach with them) that center powerful examples of young Black people and their inventive approaches to Black Language as an asset to their literacy, learning, and life.
Understanding the Relationship between Language, Race, and Power
- Scholar, educator and poet, Jamila Lyiscott, PhD, notes that educators need to examine their ideas about “appropriate” and “inappropriate” language within school. Specifically, Lyiscott highlights that when educators dig into the roots of these ideas, central to them are the ways language, race and power impact the ways educators police the language patterns and practices of specific ethnic, cultural and racial groups.
Learning about Students and Families
- Learning for Justice’s Culture in the Classroom includes brief videos, reflection questions, and related resources about how teachers overcome stereotypical notions about students’ cultures, select diverse texts and authors, and honor home languages. These resources are geared for classroom teachers but are largely relevant to tutors as well.
- #BlackLanguageSyllabus emphasizes Black Language Education as central to educators understanding the beauty, brilliance, and resilience of Black Language through Black children and youth language practices. They invite educators to “check” the anti-Black language ideologies they carry around with them, and interrupt the deficit thinking about Black Language that permeates classrooms and communities. Tutors are encouraged to view the Black Language + Black Children video and engage with the reflections.