Chapter 9: Cultural Issues Related to Teaching Reading

Many claims are made that one reading program or another is better for students in general or ethnic minority students in particular, but there is little independent research to support these claims, and efforts like the Reading First provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 have fallen short of their goals to close the achievement gap that exists between many ethnic minority students and their majority group peers. The problem of assessing the impact on students of any reading program is influenced by the personality, cultural background, motivation, and skills of individual teachers and students who can together or separately ruin good programs or overcome the weaknesses of poor programs. In this chapter, the authors describe a culturally sensitive constructivist approach to teaching reading that teachers can use to develop students—especially ethnic minority students—into good readers. The chapter closes with recommendations for improving reading instruction for ethnic minority students.