Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) as a teaching framework uses the strengths of ethnically diverse students' funds of knowledge to enhance their academic learning. This framework can potentially increase students' success, but little is known about its use in a virtual setting. Due to the COVID-19 school closure, the first seven months of the academic year 2020/2021 were virtual. In this setting, I conducted a teacher action research study on the efficacy of using a CRP approach in two high school English Learners (ELs) classes focusing on the influence of CRP efforts on EL students' motivation to engage virtually and in their learning during the socially challenging time of a pandemic. Results suggest that daily active engagement and learning in an online platform requires intentional and innovative efforts to build student-teacher relationships while redefining engagement, maintaining a consistent daily routine, and offering a curriculum grounded in the CRP framework.