Chapter 7: Closing the Gap with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the Urban English Classroom

This chapter describes the teaching/learning of one middle school English teacher who implemented culturally relevant pedagogy in seventh- and eighth-grade urban English classes. He made connections that closed the gap between the mandated state curriculum and students’ interests and backgrounds to create lesson plans designed to motivate learning and develop classroom community. He came to understand that the success of his teaching appeared to relate to previous life experiences and information gained in a graduate literacy course.