Wonderful resource for teachers of all levels on how to improve, shift, and re-perspective our teaching pedagogy.

Lorena Escoto Germán offers in Textured Teaching a challenge to educators to evolve our pedagogy. One of the central theses of Germán's work is that teaching is social justice work. Building on Culturally Sustaining Practice, Textured Teaching is a comprehensive but accessible guide to applying antiracism in the classroom.

For teachers who can do so, I recommend this book as a tool for school- or faculty-wide professional development. If you are in a school where this kind of corporate antiracism work is unlikely to occur, the next best thing is, of course, to work through the text yourself. Best of luck to you, keep doing good work!

Even beyond Textured Teaching's relevant and evidence-based content, its design is gorgeous, and I look forward to picking up a hardcopy for my desk!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in reponse for an honest review.

This book.gives examples of books to use to help teach students about their communities and the cultures within it through literature .This book offers strategies, question prompts, and project ideas. This book can be useful to all teachers regardless of content area. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

A handbook for teachers looking to diversify the classroom with relevant and timely materials and ideas that will make your teaching come to life for students.

This is a book that I didn't realize I needed. I infuse social justice initiatives and elements in my class (so much so, that I wrote our Malcolm X unit for the district to set the tone for the remaining texts) and it's something that I truly feel passionate about. My goal is always to introduce various perspectives alongside the canonical texts we're required to read.

German does a phenomenal job of breaking down the formula to teaching through the social justice lens. She does a phenomenal job of providing examples and resources for teachers to use. Furthermore, I felt as if this was a conversational professional development opportunity for me. I will definitely tell my coworkers and other teacher friends about this book. It should be required for all teachers.

I've read a lot of "professional development," "culturally responsive teaching," and "social justice" books; however, this book, by far, is one of my absolute favorites. I cannot wait to implement the strategies and suggestions that I've learned in my classroom.

I'm already obsessed with this book and I'm readying to hear more from this author. Escoto German has a clear voice that implores the reader to do better, but does it as a coach equipping teachers with ideas. While written explicitly for Language Arts or Humanities teachers, many of the activities are conversations that should be happening in every classroom. Reading this text made me more prepared to help teachers have important conversations about racial equity, justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies.

4 stars

What a fantastic workbook/guide on how to include culturally sustaining practices in your teaching ethics and classroom. The text and information is really engaging and easy to understand and written in a way that explains what the practices mean and really breaks down and gives demonstrations on how to make it applicable to your work. Also, the graphics and questions posed to the reader were not just there to fill up page space they actually added to and brought a richer understanding to the text. I know this is a text that I will constantly reach for when developing any teaching or training materials.

Definitely recommend to those in any leadership or teaching position, this doesn't just apply to teachers but any kind of educators or folks in leadership roles that host events or guide training orientations, etc.

ARC given by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

With respect to asset-based pedagogies, you’ll know that an educator is the real deal when Dr. Django Paris pens the foreword for their book. As Dr. Paris, the establishing proponent of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), indicated within his contribution to the book, Lorena Escoto Germán’s gravitational pull on pedagogues and students alike emanates through the authenticity of her “vision, passion, [and] commitment” towards the project of justice for marginalized “communities across intersections.” Textured Teaching is an extension of that pull, and, as readers will discover, Germán is truly an instructional force to be reckoned with.

Sharing a strong linkage to CSP, the conceptuality of Textured Teaching (TT) is “a purpose-driven” means of instruction with strong emphasis on the concepts of learning, growth, consciousness, beauty, and liberation. Similar to its umbrella-theory, this is indeed an instructional approach which places love for the fabric of all students - their cultures, their languages, their concerns, their interests, their very being - at the forefront of everything that happens within the classroom. Educators in search of strategies and techniques to begin or enhance their foray into asset-based methodology will appreciate how Germán’s voice comes to life on the page. As she shares anecdotes related to her experiences as a learner, an educator, and an instructional leader of color, she weaves for her readers a quilt that embraces them in the realness of genuine passion for social equity, best practices for community building, classroom management, and curriculum revitalization, and; most importantly, the courage to become what’s best for kids. Germán’s guidance and exemplars are presented in a manner that is not only easy for the busy facilitator to absorb, but to visualize and implement. Evidence of this can be found not only within the companion resources she offers, but through the reflection-based inquiries, multimodal text recommendations, professional reading supplements, as well as the many low-lift, high-yield strategies she intertwines within the framework.

4.5 stars

This book is an excellent resource for educators. The author covers some of the basics of Culturally Sustaining Practice and anti-racism but then extends beyond those foundations and includes practical examples of how to incorporate strategies into any classroom, but specifically English/ELA classes at the intermediate and senior levels. Because I read the book as an advanced copy in a digital file, I couldn’t view a lot of the visuals in their intended formats, but I’m looking forward to exploring them in greater depth once I’m able to purchase a physical copy of the text (and the preview of the book on the publisher’s website gave me a good idea of what some of those pieces look like). The content itself is relevant, evidence-based, and necessary for contemporary educators, regardless of the demographics of their student populations. I’m looking forward to having a hard copy of the book and am confident I will reference it regularly in the future.

As a fairly new teacher, I've been looking for supportive materials that would augment my practice. I wasn't even halfway done the book and I tried to preorder it. Unfortunately, it is not available in Canada at the moment. I hope one day soon it will be available! Easy read and I enjoyed actual resources and suggestions that I could incorporate into my practice. I would recommend this to colleagues and adminstration. Thank you for writing this book and sharing with educators.

This book is an excellent contribution to the ongoing dialogue around culturally sustaining practices and social justice in English/Language Arts education. As an experienced high school ELA teacher, I appreciated the specificity of focus, as this text not only speaks to the broader need for (and impact of) intentionally creating affirming, sustaining, and intellectually challenging educational spaces, but also offers a wealth of ideas and strategies for how to make changes to your practice. Although I have been following the #DisruptTexts movement for years and am quite familiar with the work of many of the educators and scholars Germán cites throughout the book, I still left my reading with new information and ideas I can implement in my own classroom. I also found the writing enjoyable to read, and the classroom examples were relevant without overtaking the focus on purpose and strategy. That’s all I want from a professional development text.

I was able to get the gist from the digital ARC I read, but I already preordered my copy of this so that when it is released, I’ll be able to easily refer to the different figures and sample assignments/assessments included throughout the text. I’m going to recommend it as a group read for my department and probably purchase a copy for my new student teacher as well.

Textured Teaching is a valuable reading experience for teachers to consider and return to as tensions persist in education — a well-developed and researched approach to social justice-informed classroom practice.