Arlette Ingram Willis

Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of language and literacy, claims that educators can teach literacy effectively if they develop a collaborative and culturally sensitive learning environment that encourages meaningful, engaged learning for all students in their classroom.

Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of curriculum and instruction of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois, claims that as schools become more diverse due to the rapidly shifting demographics of school aged children, understanding the students' diversity becomes essential to the success of any literacy program.

Willis states that in order to improve students' academic achievement, teachers must be culturally sensitive to the differing backgrounds and experiences of students and try to build on those different experiences to enhance learning.By building on prior knowledge and/or experiences, teachers can be incredibly effective in increasing academic performance due to greater engagement, interest, and motivation on the students' behalf.

Willis refers to the Derman-Sparks' "Pygmalion effect," which explains how teachers' nonverbal communications can greatly effect students' behavior and performance.Whether or not teachers voice their prejudices, any negative feelings about an individual or a culture, will be felt by students.

Teachers Need Six Essential Knowledge Bases in Diverse Classrooms

Willis explains that there are six essential areas for teachers to effectively teach literacy in diverse schools.
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Willis cites research that found that often when students express boredom, disinterest and frustration in literacy education, it is not because they are not capable of doing a literacy task but rather they do not like that task because it is very different from their known activities.

What is most important, according to Willis, is when teachers develop a collaborative and culturally sensitive learning environment that encourages meaningful, engaged learning for all students in their classroom.

Citation: This Keytext reports some of the ideas and findings from the following source:Willis, A. I. (2000).

Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois, lists the problems that can occur when trying to implement literacy programs which recognize and infuse the cultural diversity of the student body.

Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois, explains that there are many problems that can occur when trying to implement literacy programs that recognize and infuse the cultural diversity of the student body.Willis lists the following five issues/problems:
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According to Willis, many educators are incapable or unwilling to recognize their own prejudices.

Willis explains that the first step that teachers must take in order to efficiently teach in diverse classrooms is to understand their own prejudices.
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Willis does not validate or refute any of these claims, she merely presents them as potential issues that may have to be faced when implementing culturally diverse literacy programs.

Citation: This Keytext reports some of the ideas and findings from the following source:Willis, A. I. (2000).

Many researchers--including Harris (1992a, 1992b); Sims-Bishop (1992); Slapin and Seale (1992); Pang, Colvin, Tran, and Barba (1992); Willis (1998); and Yokota (1993)--also have offered invaluable insights into selecting multicultural literature.

The literacy curriculum also can be the venue to help students understand the relationship of culture and power.Delpit (1995c) discusses five aspects of power in the classroom.She argues that teachers should explicitly teach children "the codes needed to participate fully in the mainstream of American life, not by being forced to attend to hollow, inane, decontextualized subskills, but rather within the context of wonderful communicative endeavors" (p. 45).
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Barrera (1992) and Willis (1995) have argued that the use of literacy approaches that appear to support the language and literacy of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds must be coupled with teacher knowledge and commitment.
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This Critical Issue was written by Arlette Ingram Willis, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, Division of Language and Literacy, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Willis, A. I. (2000).Critical Issue: Addressing literacy needs in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.Retrieved October 15, 2001, from North Central Regional Education Laboratory Web site: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areaas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li400.htm#
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Five Challenges Associated with Teaching Literacy in Diverse Classrooms Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois, lists the problems that can occur when trying to implement literacy programs which recognize and infuse the cultural diversity of the student body. Understanding Culture is an Essential Element for Teaching Literacy Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of language and literacy, claims that educators can teach literacy effectively if they develop a collaborative and culturally sensitive learning environment that encourages meaningful, engaged learning for all students in their classroom.

Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois, lists the problems that can occur when trying to implement literacy programs which recognize and infuse the cultural diversity of the student body. Understanding Culture is an Essential Element for Teaching Literacy Arlette Ingram Willis, professor of language and literacy, claims that educators can teach literacy effectively if they develop a collaborative and culturally sensitive learning environment that encourages meaningful, engaged learning for all students in their classroom.

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