ABSTRACT
Culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) is centered on “building upon, appreciating, and sustaining students’ cultural difference in one’s teaching practice”. More specifically, this approach views "cultural differences as assets", so teachers apply CRP to their classrooms by using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them. This chapter describes an English as a Second Language (ESL) composition class taught at a large land-grant university in the Midwestern United States, considered to be highly diverse and among the most popular schools for international students. The ESL Composition class was designed to prepare international students with necessary skills for successful writing in college courses. Supplementary reading materials selected by ESL composition instructors varied in theme and genre. Most students had just left their home country or prior university and tested directly into Medwin’s course.
