Learning About Students’ Culture and Language Through Family Stories Elicited by Dichos

摘要

Teachers’ knowing about students and their families is critical to ensuring relevant classroom instruction. The Family Storytelling through Dichos approach is explored as a culturally and linguistically appropriate mechanism for learning about students’ backgrounds. This article posits that this approach may be a viable one, since it is rooted in the Hispanic culture and language and integrates three critical elements (a) familism, a core Hispanic cultural value; (b) storytelling, a vehicle for exploring families’ identities; and (c) dichos or popular sayings in the Spanish language, authentic cultural constructs present in Hispanics’ everyday oral discourse.