Differentiated Reading Groups: Bridging Literacy Instruction and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) that builds on and sustains students' cultural and linguistic practices is important for students' academic achievement and identities. While CSP is applicable to any content area, a critical time to incorporate it is during differentiated reading groups—small‐group contexts that provide explicit code‐based and/or meaning‐making instruction using varying types of texts. This article seeks to help teachers develop a stronger understanding of CSP and how to leverage students' cultural identities and experiences within small groups. We then highlight two differentiated reading group lesson examples to illustrate how to apply the tenets of CSP, along with code‐based and meaning‐making strategies, with a second‐grade group reading Trombone Shorty and another reading Reina Ramos. Additionally, this article provides steps and resources for how to select and teach with culturally sustaining texts to promote students' identities and literacy success.