How to Introduce Diverse Perspectives in the ELA Classroom

Last week, I posted these seven strategies for adding diverse perspectives to your ELA classroom on my Instagram account. I wanted to give this information a permanent place on my blog. Plus, I had some great follow-up questions that I want to address here by giving you some specific examples and ideas from my classroom or linking to additional information.

To give you a bit of background, I have been researching perspective-taking strategies in the ELA classroom since 2010. I started my dissertation with a primarily study that dove into critical thinking in the secondary ELA classroom. Since my days as an English Literature major in undergrad, I always regretted that I didn’t learn anything about literary theory until college. I used that preliminary study to find out why ELA teachers weren’t using literary theory with their ELA secondary students. From there, I designed my dissertation to create a way to teach ELA teachers how to use literary theory in their ELA classroom. I field tested the model with practicing ELA teachers, and the results were promising.

I’ve been studying perspective-taking in ELA every since. While some teachers have complete autonomy over their curriculum choices, I know a lot of educators do not. These strategies are for both ends. You can use ideas to build your curriculum. Or, you can use them to adapt your curriculum.

1. Build a Diverse Library

As Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) famously explained, books can be both windows and mirrors in the classroom, mirrors to reflect ourselves and windows to see the world. Providing students with diverse voices and experiences through reading is vital.

Creating a diverse classroom library doesn’t have to be expensive and overwhelming. Check out this blog post to read about ways to build your classroom library in a cost efficient way.

REFLECTION:

1. Can I enrich my classroom library with new perspectives?
2. Can I introduce a choice reading and provide options that represent diverse perspectives?
3. Can I encourage students to engage in the process through a reading or writing challenge?

2. Make Room For Choice Reading

Providing students with opportunities to choose their own windows to the world is vital in an ELA classroom (Miller & Anderson, 2009). A standalone choice reading unit can fit almost any curriculum. Still, you can encourage choice reading in addition to your standard curriculum through reading challenges.

In my classroom, my two favorite ways to incorporate choice reading are through a standalone unit and a reading challenge that I call Windows to the World. The first unit utilizes our school and classroom libraries to give complete reading freedom. You can read about how I organize this unit here.

I also encourage choice reading with my high schoolers through a reading challenge. The reading challenge encourages students to read one book from diverse genres. The incentive can be anything from a picture on the wall to extra credit.

REFLECTION:

1. Can I work choice reading into my curriculum through full choice or a selection of books?
2. Can I provide other opportunities for students to engage with choice reading (book talks, book clubs, reading challenges, etc.)?
3. How can I encourage rich analysis and provide accountability checks (i.e. discussions, literature circles, projects, etc.)?

3. Teach Literary Lenses

Literary theory refers to the different schools of literary analysis. Each theory calls for a different perspective to analyze a text. You can infuse the study of any work with literary lenses that include multiple perspectives for discussion and interpretation. Clark and Whitney (2009) explain, “books that highlight multiple perspectives allow teachers to create a bridge to powerful critical literary learning in their classroom” (p. 530).

For my high schoolers, I frame the theories as lenses to channel the idea that the lens provides a new way to look at a text. Diverse lenses are a great way to pull in diverse voices and perspectives especially when you have a prescribed curriculum by your school district.

You can get my free literary lens reading unit plan guide below. In it, I teach you how to ditch those boring, old study guides and instead create an engaging literary lens unit.

I created a Literary Lenses Workbook that I use with my students to learn about and explore literary lenses through literary analysis. You can check out this highly-rated resource here.

REFLECTION:

1. What literary perspectives are present in this text?
2. What perspectives are underrepresented in this text?
3. Can I create activities to encourage students to analyze the work from multiple perspectives?

4. Pair Texts for Diverse Perspectives

Pairing classic novels with young adult novels or nonfiction is yet another way to introduce diverse perspectives to your prescribed curriculum texts and create opportunities for rich discussion about different and often conflicting perspectives in the text. A good place to start is by pairing texts that have similar themes (Knickerbocker & Rycik, 2002).

Like literary lens units, this is another great way to add diverse perspectives when you have a canonical work that you have to teach per your school district’s curriculum. One example is the play, The Crucible. I created a literary lenses unit to add gender, historical, and cultural analyses to name a few.

REFLECTION:

1. How can I pair my text to a text with a similar theme?
2. How can I use this pairing to highlight new interpretations, information, and perspectives?
3. How can I encourage students to work through these perspectives?

5. Pair with Film and Podcasts

Similar to text pairings, film pairings harness the power of visuals to bring in new perspectives (Brown, 2009). Coupling documentaries and dramatic films with works in your curriculum not only provides another layer of perspective but also adds cinematic interpretations for discussion (Muller, 2006).

There are so many dramatic films that can be used as pairings, but I personally, love using documentaries for this type of pairing. Of my students’ favorite documentaries, PBS’s documentary, People Like Us, a documentary about social call in America. (The documentary is now retired from PBS, but you can use the free playlist that I linked above from YouTube that includes key clips.) Any novel that is a social commentary, such as The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, and Great Expectations, would pair well this documentary to expand the discussion to social class in the United States.

Additionally, I don’t think we need to limit this category just to film. Podcasts can be a great pairing for diverse perspectives as well. For example, you could pair the first episode of The Happiness Lab by Dr. Laurie Santos with Macbeth. This podcast discusses the pursuit of happiness and how money and power don’t make us as happy as we might think. It’s a great pairing for Macbeth.

REFLECTION:

1. What films can I pair with my text to highlight or challenge the dominate perspectives?
2. How can I use this pairing to highlight new interpretations, information, and perspectives?
3. How can I encourage students to work through these perspectives?

6. Make Cross-Curricular Connections

Pairings might not only come in your classroom but through a multidisciplinary approach in which other subject areas are studied to garner new perspectives (Savage, 2010). In fact, working with another teacher in your school could be one way to make this work. Visual arts and history can often be used to enrich these perspectives.

A natural connection in my school district is through my AP Language and Composition Course and my husband’s AP US Government and Politics course. (My husband and I teach at the same school district.) Students in his course read Just Mercy, and they study the rhetorical situation with Bryan Stevenson’s TedTalk in my class. Next, our goal is to link the timing of these units, so that we can create a cross-curricular study for our students.

REFLECTION:

1. What other disciplines are relevant and valuable to this study?
2. Can I collaborate with another expert in my school to enrich this text with new perspectives?
3. Can I encourage students to engage in the process through a reading or writing challenge?

7. Make Classroom Connections

Teachers can utilize the conveniences of our digital world to bring global perspectives to students in local settings through cross-cultural communication. Still, communication is not limited to one form but rather it examines verbal, nonverbal, and written communication in different contexts, such as in-person and telecommunication (Gore, 2013).

Mystery hangouts, virtual pen pals, and collaborative discussion boards are a great way to make classroom-to-classroom connections. One of the best options for classroom teachers is #GridPals by Flipgrid. This optional is all in one meaning they help you find a classroom and they provide their free and secure video chatrooms. What’s great about it this option is that it’s asynchronous so if your students have pals in other time zones, it won’t be an issue.

REFLECTION:

1. How can I create a classroom-to-classroom connection for my students?
2. Can I utilize technology to do so (e.g. Padlet, Flipgrid, Skype, Google Meet, Zoom, etc.)?
3. How can I facilitate cultural sensitivity, inclusivity, and awareness?

I hope you found these strategies helpful! If so, I would love for you to share on Pinterest!

REFERENCES

Bishop, S. R. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3). 

Brown, K. (2009).Teaching literary theory using film adaptations. London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Clarke, L., & Whitney, E. (2009). Walking in their shoes: Using multiple perspectives texts as a bridge to critical literacy. The Reading Teacher, 62(6), 530-534.

Gore, V. (2013). The importance of cross-cultural communication. The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 7(1), 59-65.

Knickerbocker, J., & Rycik, J. (2002). Growing into literature: Adolescents’ literary interpretation and appreciation. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 46(3), 1-14.

Miller, Donalyn; Anderson, Jeff. (2010). The Book Whisperer. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

Muller, V.(2006). Film as film: Using movies to help students visualize literary theory. English Journal, 95(3), 32-38.

Savage, J. (2010). Cross curricular teaching and learning the secondary school. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.