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vvvvvv

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Provide tasks that give the opportunity to be the expert

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Provide tasks that give the opportunity to be the expert

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get diverse answers

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Ask others for their favorite lessons

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when working with teachers, model how to leverage the collective efficacy of the room by including the ideas of all participants.

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Talk about what they DO know! (Tiktoks, movies, video games, art) give them the space!

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Talk about what they DO know! (Tiktoks, movies, video games, art) give them the space!

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allow team to work on solving or addressing a common problem. positions everyone as learners.

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Provide wait time for students to ready their thoughts

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Provide wait time for students to ready their thoughts

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Provide time and structures to do so.  Show how. Make connections to classroom practices

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Have the confidence that not knowing all the strategies allows students to be experts and share their thinking in authentic ways.

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Have the confidence that not knowing all the strategies allows students to be experts and share their thinking in authentic ways.

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embrace their expertise (small groups, lessons planning, and etc)

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Use community partners (families, local leaders, business owners) to act as experts. Bring them into the class to share their wealth of knowledge and expertise.

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Share a common strategy to elicit responses from other experts.

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Share a common strategy to elicit responses from other experts.

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Use student interest to build problems they would want to solve in their own context.

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Ask them to find another person (video) explaining that topic. Online resource. Finding good resources

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Let your audience help with tech issues-as you did :)

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Allow for all voices and perspectives

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Elementary - have students draw diagrams, arrays, pictures to model word problems. Select and sequence a few pieces of student work to display for the class. Ask kids to notice and wonder about each sample.

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Deliberately elevate the ideas of others and show what this looks like and sounds like. Model defining expertise as contributing to the group rather than having power or fancy credentials.

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Be open to learn from others! Ask and share!

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Be open to learn from others! Ask and share!

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Ask wrong ways to do it, embrace mistakes

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Ask wrong ways to do it, embrace mistakes

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Give the floor to the students who fought for an insight rather than always the ones who "already knew the answer" 

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Give the floor to the students who fought for an insight rather than always the ones who "already knew the answer" 

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give students the opportunity to share their thought process 

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give students the opportunity to share their thought process 

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Included current events that’s affect students (climate change)

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I would ensure that all participants have a voice and platform to speak… because everyone’s voice is important and their prior knowledge and experiences add expertise to a multitude of areas (whether it be content, cultural, technological, etc.). 😊

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In site PD, give example lessons of how to: highlight exemplar work, facilitate peer grading, assign student experts (explaining Do Nows, teaching a topic, etc)

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Supporting varys topic for informative data

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Don’t always answer the question for them, allow other experts and call them experts to boost confidence!

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Don’t always answer the question for them, allow other experts and call them experts to boost confidence!

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Having students help other students and share strategies

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Having students help other students and share strategies

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What is the math of your culture - START here 

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What is the math of your culture - START here 

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teach students about mathematicians who are women, LGBTQ+, racial minority, etc so that they can see themselves in those mathematicians

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Discuss with teachers all the ways in which students can contribute and what we've been conditioned to believe counts as a contribution.

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Mathematical genius is not dependent on one's skin color or culture.

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Mathematical genius is not dependent on one's skin color or culture.

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Students deal with their own situations. Always provide a hand if they are willing to take it. Let them know that you have their support and show that you care. Life comes first.

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Encourage teachers to understand who they are and respect their own identity. Once they get it, they can encourage their students to do the same.

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Take implicit bias survey, read books, do a critically conscious inventory of your classroom, materials, and teaching practices. Do a curriculum/book inventory with your students to see whose identities are reflected in your materials.

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Build relationships with students. Know them

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Growth Mindset: Promote and accept students to fall forward

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Have students write a math autobiography about their "relationship" with math. Use this as a resource to understand where your students are coming from.

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Provide opportunities to reflect on themselves and their students

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Support others culture and encourage them to share

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Being their champion and modeling how to be their own advocate. All students CAN be successful. Confidence building to their unique personalities.

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Talk about the contributions made in mathematics by different cultures. Mayans, Aztecs, Africans, Women, etc

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we all have unique math brains and we can learn from each others different strategies 

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we all have unique math brains and we can learn from each others different strategies 

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Have dialogues about experiences & lessons learned in working and learning from our diverse students

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Have dialogues about experiences & lessons learned in working and learning from our diverse students

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model acceptance by celebrating students' differences openly

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model acceptance by celebrating students' differences openly

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Start with self-work - know your beliefs and how that may affect your performance/teaching (implicit bias) 

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Start with self-work - know your beliefs and how that may affect your performance/teaching (implicit bias) 

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Highlight various groups that are underrepresented in math so students can see themselves

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Use culturally relevant contexts for story problems.

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Being aware of the wording of math problems. Create a safe space for students where their respective identities are acknowledged and celebrated.

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Frontload that coNFIDence does not equal coMPETence.

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Frontload that coNFIDence does not equal coMPETence.

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I tell my students often: "the most confident people in the world will take advantage of their socioeconomic privilege, jump the line, and get ahead of you but be completely unqualified for their position. Get competent in something, and then ALSO be confident!"

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Ask them who they are, where they come from!

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As teachers begin to unpack their own mathematical identity and how it intersects with other identities they hold, they can draw connections to how they are leading their classrooms and how that impacts their students developing identities

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Reach out to parents, include them in your mathematical talks for homework

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Reach out to parents, include them in your mathematical talks for homework

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Be sure to learn about the assets within families and communities rather than focusing on perceived deficits.

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Listen more than you talk.

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Ask teachers to keep track of which students are being asked to share their thinking. Notice if there are students who might feel excluded because themselves or the group(s) they identify with are never used as models for other students.

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Use assessments then ask students to write an auto biography about there math story!

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learn about their culture and relationship with mathematics.

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learn about their culture and relationship with mathematics.

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Relationships, relationships, relationships! Know and love your students. Allow time for relationships building in the classroom.

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Do interviews. Get to know them, not just academically. What do they like, who are they, etc. 

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Do interviews. Get to know them, not just academically. What do they like, who are they, etc. 

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Build genuine relationships with students and their families. Get to know the student as a whole

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Spend time getting to know your students. Formative interviews as CFA's is critical.

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Spend time getting to know your students. Formative interviews as CFA's is critical.

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By asking about their day to day, you can learn what they value/celebrate and therefore bring their life into the class.

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Students are more willing to share information about themselves when they feel it is safe to speak freely, even if it causes a brief segue from the lesson. We can use these insights to tailor our lesson and teaching style to connect better to them.

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Get to know your students outside of the curriculum. what are their interests?

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get to know their story both inside/outside of classroom

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Have activities where they can share openly their thoughts experience etc

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Encourage teachers to ask students how they see themselves and highlight the ways that even well-meaning teachers can reinforce these stereotypes (ie, showing “Stand and Deliver”- supposed to be inspiring for low income students, but many students in low-income areas don’t actually see themselves that way)

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How do you feel about math?

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Be genuine and truly desire to know your students with simple gestures like greeting them or asking how they're doing.

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Raise questions when you hear underlying assumptions about students or groups of students. Ask other teachers why they’re making the assertion they’re making. We should all be responding to what we know about the students we support.

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Using time to build non math specific structures and conversations. Using that info to embed it and apply it to math in a tangible manner

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Regularly provide students a chance to reflect on their week/experiences in class. Allow them to reflect via written word, pictures, etc.

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Bring in community members to take your teachers on a community walk to learn the history of the neighborhood surrounding the school - you will see the students' bus routes, where they hang out, etc.

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Let them know you see them. Comment on something positive you know about them.

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Get to know your students and understand how they learn math. Their strengths and weakness, to better understand and help them.

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Connect with students via restorative circles.

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Get to know your students! Talk to them. Listen to them. Reach out to parents

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Get to know your students! Talk to them. Listen to them. Reach out to parents

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Set up sign-up genius and invite students to sign up for individual times with you to talk about non-math topics of their choice

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Suggest some activities that help students to share both of their negative and positive experiences that have affected their learning in math and other subjects, such as journaling, one-on-one short conferences, sides about their significant live events, etc.

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Kow your parents and your students.

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Have weekly family Flipgrid homework (examples: show us something you love to do together, show us one of your favorite family meals)

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Other Countries Strategies for Problem Solving

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Other Countries Strategies for Problem Solving

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Long Division from Latin America
Singapore Math

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Get to know your teachers well and model honoring their humanity

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Be culturally and historically relevant 

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Be culturally and historically relevant 

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Delve into stories and tie it to content. Highly recommend looking into Dr. Gholdy Muhammed’s work.

https://ace-ed.org/teaching-toward-genius-an-equity-model-for-pedagogy-in-action/

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Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those doing it. - James Baldwin

For decades, critical scholars and educators have come together to ask the question, how can we interrupt systems and teaching practices that have not served all youth well? In much of the same way, Ivelisse and I came together to envision what can be done. Specifically, we wanted to know what we could do in the spaces we occupy as a professor (Gholdy) and teacher (Ivelisse).

Given the limitations of state standards and mandates, we have collaborated to move education forward in classrooms, especially for underserved students across the nation. And, in the spirit of James Baldwin, we specifically wanted to interrupt pedagogy that only taught skills and not other standards that students need.

Ivelisse and I met over a year ago in a teacher professional development I conducted on my book, Cultivating Genius. In the book, I outline four major standards of learning that were derived through my study of historical archives in the 19th century, which include teaching and learning to advance students' identity development, skills, intellectualism and criticality.

I name this the HILL model because it responds to students' histories, identities, literacies and liberation. Teaching these four standards collectively fosters the genius of who our students are. They Teach the whole child and not just skills. We will dive deeper into this equity model to specifically address the question: What does equity- centered education look like during times of remote teaching and learning?

Having been pushed into the waters of remote learning, many teachers might be asking themselves if they should prioritize identity, criticality, and intellect and if it is even possible without face to face interaction. And if it is possible, then how? We know it is rather easy to hand out packets or create activities that focus purely on skills. In many ways, we cannot judge these teachers, most of which were unprepared to abruptly move instruction online.

In this essay, we explicate the four learning standards of the HILL model and discuss its practical applications and challenges in the classroom and in remote learning. Teaching in equitable ways, and across genius, is more urgent than ever given the inequities we see each day.

What is the HILL Model?

The HILL model is an equity framework for teaching and learning across all disciplines. Honoring traditions and theories of culturally responsive learning, this model is historically responsive and grounded in Black education and Black excellence. Members of 19th century African American literary societies had four collective goals toward advancing their education:

1. Identity is made up of who we say we are, who others say we are, and the people we desire to be. Students are constantly making sense of who they are, and classroom instruction needs to be responsive to their identities. Because we are complex beings, we have racial, cultural, gender, environmental, and community identities, to name a few. Not only is it important to teach youths who they are, but educators should also teach students about the identities and cultures of others different from them. As learning takes place, one asks, "How am I learning about who I am and about the lives of others?"

2. Skills are the requite proficiencies and competencies for every content area. As learning takes place, one asks, "What disciplinary skills am I advancing?"

3. Intellectualism is knowledge of people, places, things and concepts and the ability to put this knowledge into action. As learning takes place, one asks, "What am I becoming smarter about?"

4. Criticality is the capacity and ability to read, write, think, and speak in ways to understand power and equity in order to understand and promote anti-oppression. In Cultivating Genius, I (Gholdy) define oppression simply as any wrongdoing, hurt, or harm, including racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, or any other oppression. Unlike lower case "c" critical, which is just deep and analytical thinking, Critical with a capital "c" is related to power, equity, and anti-oppression. As learning takes place, one asks, "How am I developing an understanding of power, equity, anti-racism and anti-oppression?"

The last goal of criticality helps students to become "woke" and socio-politically conscious beings so that they aren't merely passive consumers or producers of information. When studying the Common Core State Standards and state mandated standards, the central focus is skills and, at times, intellect. There is a glaring absence of s identity and criticality.

This is problematic for all youth who need to know themselves, know others (especially those different than them), and understand how to navigate a society and nation that is founded upon oppression. It is especially problematic, however, for Black and Brown youth, such as African American or Latinx youth, whose people have been negatively depicted and misrepresented in the public eye and ear.

In the following section, we engage in critical conversation about the use of the HILL model and specifically Ivelisse's experiences with implementing the model and her students' responses to the learning. We hope that this exchange will shed light on a new way of teaching toward genius.

In Conversation

Gholdy: What have been your experiences teaching with the HILL Model, and what was planning like?

Ivelisse: I had to deeply reflect on biases within my curriculum and admit that it was incomplete. In the past, I envisioned new units starting with texts; I would think about the skills I could teach through the texts and make certain I hit enough of the Common Core State Standards. Admittedly, identity, criticality, and intellect were ancillary. In contrast, when I planned units around the HILL Model, I no longer privileged skills in my instruction; skills became a smaller piece of a larger puzzle and purpose. Paradoxically, they also carried greater value because they were a means to move my students towards deeper personal and sociopolitical consciousness, empathy, and intellectualism.

Doing this work also presented an exciting intellectual challenge for me: If I wanted my students to be smarter about something, I had to be smarter about it first. It also answered a question I didn't even know needed answering: " Why am I teaching this?" For me the answer had always been, "To support students' skill development so they can be successful in college and careers." I see now that my job is so much bigger than that; there is a new urgency in everything that I teach.

Gholdy: Can you offer an example of something you have taught using the HILL model?

Ivelisse: I recently started a unit anchored in text The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien. My colleagues and I have been committed to diversifying authorship in our ELA curriculum, and this text is grounded in the experience of a middle-class white man; so we chose it reluctantly and as a matter of practicality. I teach in NYC; when COVID-19 hit and school buildings were preparing to close, we had to consider accessibility. There were several hundred copies of this book in our closet-enough to distribute to every student who wanted one; and audio files and a pdf of the text are also accessible for free online.

While I had taught with this text before, I knew I had to redesign the entire unit, both to frame it in the HILL Model and to plan for challenges that my students and I would inevitably face. In planning, I began with the unit objectives for each goal, and then I crafted essential questions around the objectives. In starting with Identity, students researched Vietnam's political history as well as its people's dynamic religious and cultural identities and values. In addition, students also reflected and wrote about the ways in which their own histories and cultures impact what they value. These activities yielded manifold outcomes. Students learned about the richness and beauty of Vietnam and its people; and they thought critically about how the tangible and intangible things they carry are connected to their personal and cultural identities. Finally, I learned a great deal about the students in reading their reflections; and I don't think there's ever been a time when knowing them has been more critical.

In hindsight, I see the HILL Model was the antidote to some of the challenges I anticipated, particularly around engagement. This unique, albeit catastrophic, moment in history presented entry points for rich sociopolitical discussion and learning that I had not seen in previous years of teaching the novel. The criticality piece was a major component of this unit, so we spent time learning about the history of American dissent and the 1960s Counterculture movement as well as the challenges and contributions of people of color over the course of American military history. We're living in a time when inequities created by racial injustice are impacting marginalized communities in ways that cannot and should not be covered or avoided; so those conversations held real weight and value for my students.

Gholdy: How did your students respond?

Ivelisse: As part of action research on the impact of the HILL model, and in an effort to assess my students' needs and interests during remote learning, I periodically administer surveys. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. One of the comments read, "What we learn is much more connected to our everyday lives." Another said, "I like how we relate everything to what is going on right now in the world." Quite a few commented on the parallels they easily drew between the divided nation of the 1960s and our current state of social and political polarization on race, socioeconomics, and even the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of them also communicated excitement about work that required them to consider their own perspectives. "Much better than just a yes or no answer," one wrote.

Part 4: Conclusion

In a recent interaction with another teacher using the HILL Model, we heard a response: "This approach to teaching alleviates the question I often hear from my students: 'Why are we learning this?'" If you have ever taught, you may have heard students question the purpose of learning, as they should. We have found through research and practice, that translating equity and purposeful teaching into action is possible. Through the example in this essay, which uses the HILL Model, we are reminded that we can still teach students about their lives, the lives of others, and inequities in the world.

To start interrupting the norms of teaching, we must first interrupt accepted standards, theories, and approaches to teaching that do not serve the needs of all students. Educators must go beyond these and teach more of what our young people need. This first calls for interrupting our thinking and rethinking genius.

Genius must not be reserved for a selected few; it must be the ways we think of ourselves and of our youth.
Ivelisse Ramos-Brannon teaches ELA and AP Language and Composition at Central Park East High School in New York City. She is also an AP for All Teacher Leader and founding Member of the Drew University Digital Literacies Collaborative. Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University. She is the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

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View all posts by American Consortium for Equity in Education

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Teaching Toward Genius: An Equity Model for Pedagogy in Action | Equity in Education

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By Ivelisse Ramos-Brannon & Gholdy Muhammad Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those doing it.

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Know your students and use their background information and ideas to the table for exploration.

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Know your students and use their background information and ideas to the table for exploration.

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Making sure your students are represented in their story problems. Know their lives.

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Making sure your students are represented in their story problems. Know their lives.

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Research mathematicians behind the current math concepts

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From Cultivating Genius by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad: use photos, videos, short texts, etc. to bring context to the math being learned. Use her HILL model of Identity, Skill, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy to ensure culturally and historically relevant lessons.