Designing Literacy Rich Environments by Kaliana https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1 Philosophical and practical elements of cultivating literacy rich classrooms en-us 2022-07-05 16:53:28 UTC 2026-01-24 23:04:38 UTC hello@padlet.com Cultivating literacy-rich environments KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238239375 Cultivating a literacy-rich learning environment involves so much more than a well-stocked library. A crucial element of the richly literary classroom is integrating texts (in diverse formats), reading, and writing across content areas.

Too often, “libraries” are compartmentalized, actively used during select ELA periods. To instill literacy as a cross-disciplinary skill, the acts of selecting, consulting, and drawing from diverse texts needs to be consistent and actively modeled. And the diverse piece is essential--information encoded in audio, visual, tactile and other mediums need to be taught as specific types of text, and specifically taught as unique subsets of overall literacy.

Teachers can model processes of research and discovery by actively drawing from classroom texts while giving lessons across content areas. As students gain increasing agency in the process, lessons might be enriched by students consulting a range of literary resources as a lessons unfolds.  


]]> 2022-07-06 16:32:26 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238239375 Positive classroom community: Literacy-based strategies KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238248769 Creating a positive classroom community is deeply intertwined with the richness of the literary environment. Carefully selected texts function as “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” (Rudine Sims Bishop).  Students need to feel “safe and seen” before they confront the uncertainties inherent in exploring other perspectives. Engaging students with stories and topics that reflect their identity is a priority that spans all textual representations. Posters, works of art, music and spoken word, maps, and numerical representations may all be incorporated as features of the culturally responsive literary environment.

For example, the Peters Projection map—also known as the equal area projection, shows the the landmasses in true proportion to one another. Africa blossoms to it’s “true” size relative to North America and Europe, and may center on the Eastern or Southern Hemispheres. ]]> 2022-07-06 16:49:54 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238248769 Representing diverse cultures through curated texts KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238251326 A truly rich literary environment will respectfully and joyfully represent diverse cultures across a range of texts. To encourage student agency and curiosity, libraries and other textual sources should include selections that carefully reflect students’ backgrounds, abilities and interests. Rotating titles according to current events, global holidays, and heritage months also help to retain and refresh student interest. 

Lessons in any given content area are opportunities to present texts as multiple, overlapping, and culturally rich. During math, teachers can highlight non-Western numerical representations, and Muslim and Indian contributions to modern math. Guest speakers can share diverse ways of knowing to enrich lessons, and art projects can be inspired by particular cultural heritages. 

How a classroom is “decorated” also matters greatly—art and posters are texts whose layers of meaning students absorb day after day. Posters featuring multicultural heroes are visual emblems of diversity, and are themselves specific types of texts which students can learn to read, analyze and respond to. Multilingual books, posters and audio content can be incorporated across content areas, challenging monolingual students to feel into the complexity of unknown languages.]]> 2022-07-06 16:54:51 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238251326 Text: The fabric of cultural communities KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238258467 There is no community without text. Text, understood as the sum of culturally embedded information across visual, auditory and tactile formats, is the fabric of identity. A classroom environment is composed of a profusion of texts, each of which encodes layers of information, meaning and values. 

In cultivating a radically inclusive classroom community, each text needs to be considered as a repository of cultural information, and carefully vetted. When not only the teacher, but students, families and community members collaborate to curate classroom texts as positive vehicles of cultural knowledge, a classroom community emerges in which students and families are empowered as partners in a dynamic learning process. ]]> 2022-07-06 17:08:39 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238258467 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238263096 2022-07-06 17:17:55 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238263096 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238263915 Connecting values across cultures]]> 2022-07-06 17:19:45 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238263915 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238264663 Art projects rooted in diverse traditions]]> 2022-07-06 17:21:12 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238264663 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238265433 Posters as focal points for heritage months]]> 2022-07-06 17:22:41 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238265433 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238265660 Posters represent cultural diverse leaders

]]> 2022-07-06 17:23:11 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238265660 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238266051 Guest speakers present many ways of knowing]]> 2022-07-06 17:24:05 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238266051 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238267354 2022-07-06 17:26:41 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238267354 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238270096 Historical and cultural context of numbers

]]> 2022-07-06 17:32:39 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238270096 KalianaConesa https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238270429 2022-07-06 17:33:26 UTC https://padlet.com/KalianaConesa/sqau6iazx9lbssh1/wish/2238270429