It is imperative that students have access to culturally responsive materials that help them understand not only themselves but others as well. Research shows that students are more engaged, achieve better learning outcomes, and have more empathy toward their classmates when they have books and lessons that reflect their personalities.1 When educators provide this essential support, they honor the rich and diverse experiences of their students by telling stories that reflect those experiences.
To make this happen, educators, authors, publishers, and literacy activists must work together to bring books that honor and celebrate cultures of all kinds to even more students and their families. There’s no better time than now to learn about each other’s cultures through literacy to build unity among students. Here are some ways to increase access to culturally responsive materials, strengthen family-school connections, and improve learning outcomes for schools and students.
Expand access to culturally responsive materials
It is vital for all students to improve access to books. We should go a step further and also focus on the type of books we make available to students. By showing students stories with customs, traditions, languages and lifestyles different from their own, they can gain positive insights and respect for other people and their experiences.
For example, Haitian Creole is one of the most common native languages of multilingual learners, and very few classrooms have access to high-quality books on Haitian American culture. This gap in access struck us at Scholastic as a problem affecting students across the country that we could help solve.
Scholastic partners with Haitian-American authors to bring the rich history of Haitians and Haitian-Americans to classrooms through authentic and engaging texts that reflect the wonder and vibrancy of the Haitian community.2
This collection is the first of its kind and features a blend of bilingual Haitian Creole and English literature. Earlier this year, actor, author, and program mentor Jamie Hector joined students in Boston for a storytime to celebrate Haitian Heritage Month and introduce children to culturally engaging books that help build knowledge and expand vocabulary. Our Community: Haitian Heritage is the first in a series of multicultural book collections that celebrate the rich and diverse experiences of English learners.
Resources like Our Community help break down barriers and break down stereotypes. They encourage students to broaden their horizons and not only think critically about their thoughts and feelings about others, but also learn from them. This, in turn, leads to more empathy in the classroom, where every student, regardless of their native language or culture, can celebrate their peers and their own experiences. Developing materials that highlight the world’s many cultures and ethnicities is critical for students to recognize and understand the power of sharing and belonging.
Strengthen the bond between family and school through reading
Books can be a powerful tool for building connections and strengthening existing relationships among students, families, educators, the community, and district leaders, especially when those books reach children at every access point, including in their own homes. Research shows that children are awake for about 6,000 hours per year, and only about 1,000 of those hours are spent in school.3 To truly improve access to books and address the inequities that arise in the process, we need to look not just at schools but at the places where children spend those other 5,000 hours. And we need to work to strengthen family-school bonds through literacy skills.
Inviting your families and guardians to join in the class is an easy way for students and their caregivers to connect with their school and community, strengthening this important relationship. We see great success when schools and districts encourage the community to read together, whether it’s having the author of a popular children’s book read to a class or having family members or community/business leaders become more involved. In fact, we know that 52% of kids say they enjoy going to community events that focus on reading.4 When students and families feel welcomed and valued by their school and community, student engagement increases and overall family engagement also increases.
In addition, we need to provide children with a wide variety of books to make them even more inclined to read. One way to do this is to build home libraries. When students have access to books at home and supportive families to read aloud with them, the possibilities are endless. Reading together and talking about books as a family is one of the most important things caregivers can do to support their children’s reading skills. More than half a century of reading research supports this point, showing again and again that the interactions young readers have with caregivers at home, from conversations to storytelling to reading aloud, play a significant role in academic success and beyond.5 These interactions can help children and families develop a stronger connection to their school as families gain a better understanding of their children’s learning process and become more interested in fostering a love of reading.
When children read more, they are more successful in areas other than academic achievement. Creating an environment and positive relationships between schools, families and communities that emphasize stories and books that reflect students is critical to making children feel included, welcomed and motivated to achieve their goals.
Improve your students’ learning outcomes
During my (Jinica’s) time teaching, many students were English Language Learners (ELs). I noticed that these students showed the most interest in books with characters that looked like them or had backgrounds similar to their own. When they encountered such books, they made more effort to understand what they were reading. By having access to more culturally responsive materials, they gained skills that positively impacted their overall literacy development. We know that children want books with characters that look like them and stories that feel familiar—they want to feel connected and recognized with the stories they read. We have a responsibility in the educational world to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students.
In addition, a survey for the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report found that nearly half of black and Hispanic children have a hard time finding books with characters that resemble them. And more than half of black and Hispanic children ages nine and older wish there were more books with a more diverse perspective.6 When students have access to culturally responsive books with strong characters and everyday, relatable stories, they can see themselves in a positive, powerful, and loving light—and so can their friends and classmates. We can introduce them to books they want to read again and again. Children become more engaged, contribute their own perspectives, and develop even more confidence in their reading skills. These culturally affirming stories can spark powerful classroom conversations that increase feelings of inclusion and leave a lasting impression on children for years to come.
As the love of reading grows, these young readers will rate themselves as more capable and seek out books of higher difficulty as they are more aware of their abilities. We also know that reading volume and book consumption have a positive impact on students’ reading performance and are important contributors to a range of academic skills.7 This underscores the importance of putting books in children’s hands and how directly they contribute to improving student outcomes. The academic impact of these materials is lasting and life-changing.
Whenever and wherever students read, they deserve access to books that reflect their lives and the diversity of our world. It’s never too early or too late to introduce these much-needed resources. A lack of representation in the stories we share with our children can lead to isolating experiences at any age.
It is our responsibility to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, have access to books that they want to read again and again. Books that encourage children to develop empathy, learn more about the world around them and put themselves in the shoes of others. By making a greater variety of different stories available to children and their families, more young children will have the opportunity to connect with their cultures and each other through books.
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1/ https://teacher.scholastic.com/education/researchpdf/topic_paper/home-libraries.pdf
2/ https://oomscholasticblog.com/post/new-classroom-collection-our-community-haitian-heritage
3/ www.carnegie.org/publications/joining-together-create-bold-vision-next-generation-family-engagement-engaging-families-transform-education
4/ www.scholastic.com/content/corp-home/kids-and-family-reading-report.html
5/ https://teacher.scholastic.com/education/rr-home-libraries.htm
6/ www.scholastic.com/content/corp-home/kids-and-family-reading-report.html
7/ https://teacher.scholastic.com/education/rr-home-libraries.htm
Michael Haggen is senior vice president of Scholastic Education Solutions.
Jinica Dauphin ((email protected)) is a former Haitian-American elementary school teacher and author of Haitian hot chocolate or ginger tea? And Soup Joumou Toujou?!: Soup Joumou Still?!
