How do I teach Cultural Literacy?
Read, Read, Read!
In order to achieve cultural literacy, you can encourage students to read a lot! Students who read a lot of books about different subjects becomes more culturally literate. They learn to understand more about what they are reading about different perspectives, histories, traditions, cultures, religions, and places around the world.
Read Alouds
Since some students don't feel inspired or feel confused about what kind of books to read that are about different cultures than their own, it is beneficial to read a book to the whole class about a different culture. This way, all of the students will be exposed to literature about cultures they might not have chosen, or even have known about.
Pen Pals
Having students in your class practice their writing by sending letters to other students of different cultures can really help students broaden their cultural literacy. Having them ask questions to their pen pal about what they like to do, where they live, what they like to eat, and other questions, as well as encouraging them to use some words in their pen pal's language could really give them a unique cultural experience.
Virtual Tours
If you can't travel to another place in person, you can travel virtually! You and your students can visit websites of museums and castles to take tours in order to learn about places with different cultures. You can add this into part of your literacy lesson about different places for an element that is more concrete and visual.
Let your students become the teachers
Those students you have who are from different cultures or have newly immigrated might feel like they are much different from the rest of the class, or like they don't fit in. To make your classroom a place where everyone feels comfortable, you can have each student share something about their own culture. Let students teach their classmates some words in a language that they speak, about a celebration they participate in, or about a tradition their family has. They can even bring in pictures that represent things that are important in their culture. The student who presents will get excited to share something new with their peers and to bring a part of their own culture into the classroom, and the rest of the students will gain more knowledge about other cultures.