Missing Mirrors: First-Grade Literacy Decodables Analysis With Culturally Relevant Education

• In Event: Addressing Race and Culture in Teachers' Work With Students

Abstract

As a Black preservice teacher, I observed my mentor teachers use literacy curriculums as their primary source for teaching young learners how to read. I then adopted this practice into my first grade classroom at an elementary school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District as a novice teacher. However, there was a disconnect between my culturally diverse students, including those who were Arabic, Black, and Hispanic, and the curriculum. In making the curricula more culturally relatable and engaging for students from communities of color to use while developing foundational literacy skills, I analyzed first grade decodables from EL Education using the three tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Author

• Amber Lawson, Michigan State University