With the 2010 inception of the ELA CCSS, the push for a cohesive, common curriculum and literacy experiences came to the forefront of schools. However, the resources and materials of the past do not necessarily connect with our current demographic of students. Research shows that students are motivated and engaged in texts and tasks when they perceive them as pertinent to their lives. Schools champion a focus on equity, inclusion, and the celebration of diversity, but the required curricula do not necessarily reflect these values and student voices. How can students use their schema to decipher, interact, and construct text if they lack the necessary background, experiences, tools, and the desire to do so? Literacy instruction should include the cultures, backgrounds, and language practices of all students. This session will provide strategies for bridging CCSS standards and texts with multimodality and relevancy that appeal to students’ interests, identity formation, and range of ability levels to account for multiliteracies and view language as a resource. These facilitate students’ self-efficacy, a primary motivational determinant of achievement and a critical precursor to student success. We help students redefine literacy beyond an emphasis on skill and drills to unlock the transformative power within the classroom community.
