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A cultural activity that I think would be fun would be to do a Music Around the World project. We would listen to music from different cultures around the world. We would then talk about the different cultures, different types of music and different musical instruments that were used in the music. The students would have a activity book to fill out with information about the different cultures/places, types of music and musical instruments.

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A cultural activity I think would be fun would be to do a globe art project. As a class we would create a large, flat depiction of the globe with all of the continents drawn/painted onto it. Each child would pick an area of the globe to research. They would then share with the class what they found out about the country they chose, and create a symbol that relates to their country to place onto the globe. This would help the students learn about different areas and make connections geographically and through symbols.

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For cultural diversity, I would like to do a less concentrated activity. This would be having a group story reading each week that uses a new culturally diverse book. The class would read the book together and discuss about it afterwards. Then the class could do some research on the culture, together. I think that this would be a good ongoing activity that gives the students a chance to learn about a variety of different cultures, while interacting with their peers.

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A cultural activity that I think would be fun would be to do an about me poster. Students will be given a few days in class and several days at home to construct a poster that tells about them and their lives. They will be able to draw/cut out from magazines/ print pictures ect. When they are finished with the production of their posters, we will all walk around and put sticky notes about things that we think are interesting on other students posters. Then we will come back as a class and talk about some of the interesting things we learned about each other. This is a good way to get to know each other without having to present information about yourself, which for some students is extremely anxiety inducing.

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The cultural activity that I think would be great to do with my future classes, is a cultural potluck. This activity is where each one of the students brings in a dish that represents the culture that their family is a part of. The hope of the activity is to have students get a glimpse into their classmates home lives, while widening their view on the world. I did this sort of activity while I was studying the country of Italy when I was in the second grade. Everyone brought in an Italian dish and the students along with their families enjoyed a meal together. There can be many options as to how you go about this activity. You can make the activity where students bring in dishes from their own cultures, or you study different countries and then you have students bring dishes from those particular countries. Obviously as the teacher you need to be aware of any food allergies before you do this activity, but it can be a very fun and interesting activity if it all works out.  https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/Exploring-Cultures-in-Your-Classroom-Activities-to-Try1710.html

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The cultural activity that I have chosen is Making Diverse Art. This is a fun activity where you introduce a culture and then make a piece of art that is popular in that culture. The example they gave is one time they chose greek and they made worry beads. These beads are traditionally made in greek culture to relax and diffuse their worries and concerns. This is a fun way to find out more than just dress and food of cultures. Art tells a story and what better way to learn about cultures than a fun and engaging art activity. You could do this with just cultures within the classroom or you could do the globe thing where you spin it and see where your finger lands. Or you could do both!

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An activity I found is a fun and creative way to incorporate math with culture. My activity would be completed in a four step process. First, student make a list of issues they are passionate about in their community. In the article I read, the 7th graders chose police brutality because it was a personal issue for them, but students can choose anything that is relevant in their communities. Next, as the teacher, I would write a focus question for the class, based on the topic. The next part is where math comes into play. Students find data that relates to the focus question. Third, students use graphs, mean/median/mode, rational numbers, conversions, and tables, etc, to represent the data. At the end of the project, students discuss what they found about their community and compare with each other. This project provides access points for the students to become diverse learners. Learning about something that is important to your students is very important and they will want to learn.

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An activity for cultural diversity in the classroom that I found and looks interesting is using a globe or a world map. Have a student pick a country at the end and the next day come in with fun facts about the country the student picks. This lets the kids lead the start of the lesson and allows for them to learn facts about an area that interests them. Along with fun facts, you can also find a book about the country thread to the students to learn even more. This gets students thinking about how their country is different from others. You could compare and contrast similarities and differences between the countries and their cultures.

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A cultural activity that I would like to do in my classroom is like a passport project. I planned a lesson like this for a history unit plan last semester but this would be shorter and simpler, more for younger children. Each student would get to make a passport. As we study a basic geography of the world each student will get to pick a specific place in within a country to learn about. When we learn about that place we learn the food the people eat there, the animals that live there, the kind of plan that lives there, what kind of jobs the people have there and other cultural things involving music, movies and books. After each student learns about that location and culture they can draw the flag of the  country or place in their passport to symbolize as a stamp. At the end they can choose their favorite location and create a poster advocating for why people should visit or live there. Each student will get to present and share their opinions of each. This gives students the opportunity to see other cultures outside of their own.

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I did a cultural diversity assignment as part of my history unit plan last semester. It was and still is one of my favorite lessons I have ever designed. It was a few days long but the end result would be worth it. First, students would chose a country to research. These would be determined by the teacher beforehand but small groups would have their choice of which one they wanted. Then, over the course of a few days, the teacher would set assign time for students to research their country's culture and its values, religion, language, and more things that were important to their culture. Then, on a pre-determined date, the groups would each get a small part of the classroom where they could set up a small station to represent their culture. They could hang up pictures of a map of where it is, traditional dress, popular food, values, religion, they could speak the language; anything to represent the culture in a respectful and accurate way. Then, other classes and teachers could come in with pretend passports and get them stamped at each station where they learn about the countries.

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The cultural activity that I chose to share is simple that all students and teachers can do for any grade. My activity is for the teacher and students to start off each morning with a multicultural greeting. This can be done either as students walk in the door in the morning or the teacher can do it with the whole class at the same time. Each morning can be something different or the greeting can be changed weekly or monthly. This is something that can be left open to interpretation by the teacher. I chose this because not only is it introducing other languages in class but it is also a fun way to start off each day. It is a small activity that can open doors for students to become more interested in other cultures. It is also a great way to represent all kinds of cultures around the world.

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An activity I was thinking of doing before I looked at this and saw someone from a previous class had talked about it was doing pen pals with students from another country. I remember having pen pals in fourth grade with a school in another state, but it would be such a unique experience to have pen pals in another country. A book that I read in my children's literature class called Extra credit is a story about an American student who has a pen pal across the world with a student in the Middle East. I also found another book called Same Same but Different, and together (depending on the age level of students) they would create a great foundation for students to learn about students their age across the world. The teacher can turn this into a unit with writing, and history by discovering about a region's history by learning about students from all around the world.

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The activity I found involves making art from different cultures. The way I would apply this is learn about the different cultures my students are from and then research different art pieces we could make from their culture. This way the class can celebrate the culture of their peers and it shows how we all are different but beautiful things like art or jewelry can come from out differences. The example used was Greek jewelry, I think finding something the students could make for themselves and wear would be a good way to create a dialogue if their parents or other friends ask about it. While the students are making their art pieces or jewelry I would be teaching them more about the culture so that if someone asked they would be able to talk about the culture accurately and help spread cultures to others.

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I noticed this was a popular one, and crazy enough I am actually doing this lesson with my BGC students virtually currently. The lesson is about making passports. To go along with this, we will be taking virtual field trip on google earth. On the field trip we will discuss what it is like in the place and will have a discussion compare cultures. THis will allow the students to identify their own culture and allow them to think critically about it. After each trip, we will create a stamp in our passport and this will allow the kids to look back and remember the trip and the discussion we had for each place.

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The activity I would do with my class is called Games Around the World. The class would split into small groups and each group would play a game that is played in a different culture. This gives the opportunity for students to play and learn games that they do not usually play. After each group has played a game from all the different cultures we will have a whole class discussion. We will talk about the likes and dislikes, how they felt, what was challenging, etc. This activity opens each student up to a game they are unfamiliar with. This is also an activity that can be taken out of the classroom and played at recess. Hopefully, this activity allows for many students in the school to experience the diversity in all cultures.

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The activity I chose to share will bring more creative learning into the classroom. Along with this, we will get to see diversity throughout the classroom. Each student will a popsicle stick and a cut-out paper person. The student will design their person however they would like. The paper person will resemble themselves. After this, there will be a large map in front of the class. Each student will place their paper person in the country/state where they are from or where their family is front. At the end of the class, we will be able to see where everyone is from. Each student is welcome to provide additional feedback or information about their favorite home tradition. This activity encourages diversity, while also creating students to interact with one another.

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The activity that I chose is to bring knowledge to all different cultures around the world to all of my students. The students will make a paper person of themselves, based on their culture and beliefs and how they see themselves. We will then read a book that pertains to each of their cultures, as well as cultures that may not be apart of our classroom, and they will get to use their little paper person to help read the book to the class with the teacher. At the end, each student will connect their paper people together on a string and we will hang it up in our classroom to show that no matter what culture or background someone comes from, we are all one in the same and are part of one classroom!

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The cultural activity that I picked was to use pen pals. I did some research and there is a website that connects students to other cross culture students. I think this idea is a great idea to help my students improve their writing skills while learning about students from all around the world.

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The activity that I decide to share is Passports, which is promote students' multicultural awareness and know more about other cultures. I'll ready the passport booklet and will let student to fill out the form in this passport, like their basic information, and they can put on some pictures that involved various countries and cultures, and students will fill out some sentences, like On___ (date) I visited___ (place), I learned___ (3 facts in this place), these sentences will on the next page of these pictures to noted. Students will engage this activity and the process of making passport might be take a few weeks, which is make student more attention and have enough time to collect information to learn more different cultures.

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The activity that I chose was having each student create a "Who I am" poem. Each student would create a short poem about who they are starting with "I am". I would then have them pair up and share their poems. Then they would switch partners a few times. I would then ask the students to join me on the carpet for a discussion. I would have students share things that they had in-common or something that different that they thought was cool, from one another. This encourages diversity in a positive environment while also creating unity among students.

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my activity is to help extend knowledge of students of different languages and cultures. i wanna do this by listening to different music and songs in different languages, and printing out a sheet of the lyrics. i would put some blanks in on the lyric sheet and then have a word bank where students pull words from that and put them in the blank based off of listening. this would probably be best with spanish. we did this in my spanish class growing up and i lovedddd it because i started loving a lot of music in spanish and listened to it outside of school too! spanish has the same sounds and letters (mostly) so it would be challenging but not impossible to do with fourth or fifth grade!! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:spanish%20song%20fill%20in%20the%20blank this website gives a lot of fill in the blank sheets for songs and you can choose your fav songs :) you’d just play the song out loud in class and the students will listen and fill in the blanks- very fun!!!
to take it a step further, they could film a music video to a song of their choice! (one that isn’t in english) :)

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The activity I chose was to have students choose a place they have never been before. I would have them close their eyes and imagine the new place, trying to picture what they would see there and where things would be. I would ask them to try to draw what the place looks like. Afterwards, we would discuss how they felt trying to draw a map of a place they are unfamiliar with. This might help students understand how immigrants could feel coming to a new place. The book "Dreamers" would also work well in connection with this activity.

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The activity that I picked was called global passport. In the activity each kid makes their own passport and they fill it out as we learn about different countries and their cultures.

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The name of the lesson is "World Passport." I found it here: http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/multicultural.htm
This lesson would ideally be used with kindergarten to teach the concept of "around the world." The materials needed are a blank booklet and a stamp for each country. The description is as follows: Teachers decide which countries you want your class to visit. We did Russia, China, Mexico, Egypt and United Kingdom.  We took a sheet of paper for each country and researched facts through books, the internet and guest speakers.  We wrote down important facts and when we were done, I had made "stamps" from each country (Ex: Egypt = Pyramid) and the children  glued them at the bottom of their sheet.

Once the week was up we went through our passport and planned a 'Round the world party where each child dressed like the people from one of the countries we visited and we made native foods and played native games.
I think kids would love the amount of interaction with this lesson.

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The activity I found is a passport that is printed out. You take a picture of each student and tape it to the inside of their passport. Throughout the unit/year, as your class studies a different country's cultures, they get a sticker for that country to go on their passport.

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My activity I found was the "I am different" activity which covers diversity throughout the classroom to really discuss personal details that students are willing to share. It is similar to the I am.. poem that we discussed in lecture but I plan on reading to students an example of a "I am" rhyme then I will discuss with the class about what they heard or noticed throughout the read aloud. I would also try to squeeze in my own personal example so students can gain the trust and open to share personal information with us. The class can have a open discussion about who they are and what is meaningful to them and write on a notecard if willing what they find meaningful then posting to the bulletin board anonymously. I will take headshot photos of the students to post to a bulletin board and hang the poem that we read in the beginning next to their photos so they have a daily reminder! I would cover this activity once the class has gained trust with one another and willing to be open throughout the school year to relate to classmates.

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My idea was to create a rainbow diversity bulletin board. Students will take a cloud with seven strips of rainbow paper and on each paper, they will write something that makes them unique. The cloud says "I am unique because..." and the strips of paper will each have something that sets them apart from other students. This will allow students to celebrate their differences.

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In my classroom, theoretically, I would have students bring in 3 objects that they currently own that describe themselves.  These items can be things about their culture, background, or things that they simply enjoy to do. Once everyone has come to class with their 3 objects, we will go around the class and explain what each item is and why it is unique to each student.

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My activity involves representing the diversity in a country, whether it be the United States or another country. Students will cut out images from magazines or newspapers that show the diversity in this country. They will glue these photos to a poster board that is in the shape of the country or a monument that represents that country. For example, they could use an outline of the Statue of Liberty if they were representing the diversity found in the United States

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My activity will be similar to the activity we just did in class. I will have students draw a picture of themselves and label what makes them different by adding adjectives describing themselves. We will then share with other students and then have a discussion about what makes each of us different. Asking questions like "are all of us exactly the same?" "what makes each of us different or unique?" "what did you see in yourself or somebody else that nobody else has?" https://www.goodcharacter.com/elementaryschool/prejudice/

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I chose to do an activity that requires students to create a social action plan. They go through the process of thinking about concerns with their community and problems they have noticed. They'll collaborate to gain more perspectives and ideas. They'll also think through a solution and the logistics that follow. Examples, how to raise money? Who to speak to? Then they will carry out the plan and  document the milestones. http://www.teachpeacenow.org/takingaction.html

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My activity involves making a difference in the community.  This could be culturally, world wide, or even in the classroom.  Students are able to provide their ideas by starting with a writing prompt, "If I could change one thing it would be..."  This allows them to really explore their options and the class is able to come together to share their ideas.  Once the class has decided on one social action to work on they brainstorm their ides and the resources they will need to do this.  http://www.teachpeacenow.org/takingaction.html

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My activity is called the blue/brown eyed experiment. First, I would split up the students depending on their eye color. The blue/green eyed people would be in one group and the brown/hazel eyed people would be in the other group. I would give the blue eyed people just a sheet of paper and a pencil. Meanwhile, I would give the brown eyed group a couple of sheets of paper, colored pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, pencils, books, etc. I would then inform the students that they will be making a poster over the Industrial Revolution. The student's posters will be graded based on the content of the poster, creativity of the poster, and how well the group worked together. I would also tell the blue eyed group that I think it will be very difficult to complete the activity and that I don't really believe in them. I would tell the brown eyed group that I think they will be able to do a great job. Then, I would examine how the groups work together and what they say about how this project is going. After they complete the posters I would debrief with them about how they think it went and if this was a fair activity. We would then talk about prejudice and how some people are judged and put into certain groups based on who they are and how they look. Overall, I would hope the students would begin to grasp the concept of prejudice and how it feels to be placed in certain groups that are not your decision.

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Teaches about different cultures around the world and those cultures' different customs and traditions.

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The activity I chose was a passport activity. I tweaked the activity a bit. I decided I could take a picture of every student in the class first. Then I can use construction paper to create a passport with their photo in it. From there, the student can fill out their personal info (height, weight, address, etc.) for the passport front page. Then,  I can assign students to do research on different countries and create pages in their passport about those countries. They can then create their own stamps for each country and share with groups. Each student will have a different country but will start with the country they were born in.  I would probably do this activity with 4th or 5th graders. This project could be connected with other activities for social studies (learning history about countries), science (how technology has allowed us to travel and advance from different countries), math (seeing the miles and traveling time differentiated based on location and technology), reading (reading books on different cultures around the world), etc. The link to the activity is here: http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/multicultural.htm

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My activity will help students see how a person's success is largely related to the resources they are given in life and think about the disparity between different schools and districts. I will divide my students into two groups and tell them they are making an art project. One group will get nice colored pens, construction paper and special scissors. The other group will get yellowed notebook paper, dull scissors, and broken crayons. They will have the same amount of time to make the art project and then we will compare results. If time allows, the groups could switch. Then we could talk about the impact of the activity.

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Teach students about the privileges and responsibilities of childhood around the world.

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Children Around The World | Free Lesson Plans | Teachers

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Get FREE lesson plans for Grades 3-5. Discovery Education has an engaging childhood culture lesson plan available for FREE with no sign up!

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1. This website has children's picture books that are in a variety of different languages. http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
2. This website has a lot of really great early literacy practice for ELLs. http://www.starfall.com/

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This website has cultural activities for preschoolers!!

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https://www.diversitycouncil.org/diversity-lesson-plans-elementary

This website has many lesson plans and activities regarding cultural diversity, gender, human rights, social justice, race, ethnicity,

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1) https://www.themaven.net/kidsactivities/kidsactivities/what-is-diversity-egg-activity-for-martin-luther-king-jr-day-Fds0P44pX0uA1E73ujbxpg?full=1
Helps students fully understand diversity
2) http://mrsgoffskinders.blogspot.com/2013/09/thanks-to-my-blogging-buddies-for-these.html
All students are different and unique but they all fit together

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https://www.funwithmama.com/cultural-diversity-activities-for-elementary-students/

"The People Shapes Project" would be a fun activity that allows students to create a craft that represents them and their culture, or you can expand it and have the students read a book of other kids in different countries and create dolls of their culture.

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1.  https://sites.google.com/site/crmmprojectsite/Home/chapter-3--culturally-responsive-lessons-for-students
This website provides several lesson plans that you can use for grades 2-5 that are culturally responsive

2. Introduce Diverse Authors and Illustrators
this lesson is for kindergarteners, and provides a read aloud that is relevant for peruvian students, as well as providing experiences that all students can relate to.

http://blog.leeandlow.com/2017/08/16/culturally-responsive-teaching-in-kindergarten/

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1. https://www.teachervision.com/culture-diversity/thanks-around-world
This lesson teaches students to say thanks in many different languages, good to use around thanksgiving

2. https://www.teachervision.com/icebreakers/similar-different-activity
This lesson helps students to discuss ways in which they are similar and different.

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Teacher Vision is a website that has many activities and lesson plans surrounded around cultural diversity. Lessons can be used for any grade.
https://www.teachervision.com/subjects/social-studies-history/culture-diversity
2. Children Around the World is an activity where students will learn about other cultures.
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/children-around-the-world.cfm

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1.)https://www.diversitycouncil.org/diversity-lesson-plans-elementary
This is a website I found that has a variety of lessons that address cultural diversity, gender, human rights, social justice, race, and ability.
2.) https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/many-languages-many-cultures/
This website contains four strategies for working with students of different languages and cultures.

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1. https://www.teachervision.com/subjects/social-studies-history/culture-diversity
This website has many different printable activities for all different grade levels. It also has many resources you can look at to get information on different cultural holidays, celebrations, and traditions.

2. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/preparing-cultural-diversity-resources-teachers
This is an article that talks about how to prepare for cultural diversity in the classroom. Throughout the article there are many links to different resources you can use for lesson plans.

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1.http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum/steps.html
This website discusses how to celebrate different cultures in an inclusive and supportive way.

2.http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/activities/activity3.html
This website discusses the different prejudices in our society so students can be aware of bias.

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https://www.tolerance.org/learning-plan/the-differences-between-us

This lesson is focuses on the topic of race and ethnicity and it geared for kindergarten-2nd grade. The essential question being answered is, "What is the difference between us and how do I acknowledge them?"

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This lesson helps students explore cultural diversity within their own classroom community and around the world. This lesson was created for 2nd & 3rd graders.
http://www.pbs.org/parents/arthur/lesson/world/

http://www.goodcharacter.com/GROARK/Prejudice.html

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This is a good list of things to focus on when developing or modifying existing lessons/activities. https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching/
This website is more geared towards older students, but it is an interesting way to incorporate social justice and math http://www.radicalmath.org/

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1. I found an website that is a PDF of a book titled "Center For Strengthening the Teaching Profession". The book gives tons of examples of activities for culturally responsive activities.

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1. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/ This website talks about how you can make any lesson you teach, a culturally responsive lesson. It gives you the top 3 tips to making any lesson more culturally responsive.
2. https://www.teachaway.com/blog/5-steps-becoming-culturally-responsive-teacher
This website gives five different steps to

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All Posts

No single teaching approach will engage each student at once, but building a strategy to consistently deliver culturally-responsive teaching lessons will help you appeal to diverse learners with distinct backgrounds.

Rooted in differentiated instruction principles, culturally-responsive pedagogy aims to link content - from delivery to assessment - with students' ancestral and contemporary cultures.

To augment their understanding and responsiveness, this involves:

Empowering students to share thoughts

Integrating diverse work and study practices

Understanding student learning needs and styles

Emulating culturally-significant instruction styles, such as oral storytelling

To help you plan and deliver lessons that resonate with a diverse classroom, we'll explain what culturally responsive teaching is and how it is implemented.

We also put together 15 culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples that will resonate with diverse students and foster an inclusive classroom environment.

These strategies are available as a downloadable list below for quick reference so you can reference them during classroom instruction.

Let's start with some simple explanation of what culturally responsive teaching actually means.

What is culturally responsive teaching?

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a pedagogy that acknowledges and embraces students' cultures, languages and experiences - and relates them to classroom learning.

Culturally responsive teachers are actively aware of the various cultural backgrounds present in their classrooms, and act as a facilitator of lessons that can resonate with each.

It is not an easy task - creating this learning environment requires not only a high level of cultural competence, but also an intentional effort to learn about students' backgrounds and cultures.

It can be majorly beneficial to closing achievement gaps between students of different backgrounds and addressing inequities in the classroom. You can also create stronger partnerships with your students by fostering a learning environment where they are represented clearly.

Conditions for creating a culturally-responsive classroom

Reflected in the 15 strategies and examples in the next section, there are four conditions any teacher must fulfill to establish a culturally-responsive classroom, according to an authoritative academic book about the subject called Diversity and Motivation.

As you prepare and deliver any lesson, strive to:

Establish inclusion

This starts by highlighting how the topic you're teaching may relate or apply to students. For example, many societies and cultures have fireworks festivals.

While such a festival runs, you could teach how to calculate speed using fireworks in sample questions. Establishing inclusion also involves regularly grouping students with different classmates, encouraging discussion to solve problems. In doing so, they can share unique perspectives and diverse background knowledge.

Develop positive attitudes

This further focuses on relating content to students. A popular method is allowing them to choose between activities and assessments that let them showcase their values, strengths and experiences.

For example, while providing clear learning goals and evaluation criteria, encourage students to submit their own project ideas.

Enhance meaning

You can bolster lesson content by drawing connections with real-world issues, asking students to use opinions and existing knowledge to address them.

For example, when teaching about government, you could contextualize concepts through municipal political issues. When appropriate, use student jargon to clarify these issues or improve communication in general.

Foster confidence

Make the assessment process less intimidating by offering different ways to demonstrate skills and understanding. For example, avoid handing out quizzes that are purely multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank.

Among other question types, mix in problems that involve writing short- and long-form answers. After, give students time to assess their own progress and performance, helping them focus on growth.

Meeting these four conditions largely relies on using specific approaches, such as the 15 explored below.

15 Culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples

1. Learn about your students

At the start of the year or semester, demonstrating a desire to adapt your teaching style to students can help them feel valued. Because open communication should uncover their learning needs and preferences, try:

Distributing questionnaires, asking about interests

Handing out surveys, gathering information about learning styles

Holding open discussions, allowing students to talk about positive experiences from past classes

Once you've gathered enough information, tell the class you'll focus on adjusting your teaching approach to help them learn as best as they can. Students should quickly warm up to you.

2. Interview students

You'll build a stronger understanding of students' values and habits - as well as strengths and weaknesses - by individually asking them questions. While running a large-group exercise, pull each student aside for a few minutes. Ask about:

Hobbies

Their favourite lessons and activities

Which kinds of exercises help them remember lessons and improve skills

Note what each student says to identify themes and different preferences. Then, when possible, relate content to their interests and deliver lessons that appeal to shared strengths.

3. Integrate relevant word problems

Many students will take a greater interest in math if you use word problems to contextualize equations. Working with 41 7th grade students throughout an academic year, a study published by the Canadian Center of Science and Education used such contextual learning strategies to increase test scores by more than 44%. Create culturally-relevant word problems by:

Including student names to make subject matter relatable

Linking to student interests, such as by measuring the shot distance of a famous soccer player

Referencing diverse cultures, such as by determining the diameter of a specific ethnic food platter

Using these word problem tips will not only help you establish a culturally-responsive classroom, but engage students more than by using abstract questions.

4. Present new concepts by using student vocabulary

Delivering relatable content goes beyond math class. In any subject, you can grab and keep student attention by using their vocabulary to build understanding before moving to academic diction. Let's say many of your students are sports fans with family from soccer-crazed nations. Use a soccer example to demonstrate metaphors in language arts class:
Andrea Pirlo is an eagle on the pitch, armed with vision sharp enough to detect the smallest openings and recognize opportunities his opposition can't.
This kind of culturally-responsive language should open the door to presenting challenging skills and concepts, engaging students while doing so.

5. Bring in guest speakers

Guest speakers can bring context and passion to history, geography and social studies lessons, capturing student interest.

A war veteran could deliver a vivid narrative of his or her experiences. A mountaineer could give a striking recount of scaling Lhotse. Both could answer questions many teachers would struggle with, while engaging students much more effectively than a slideshow.

Plus, according to a study by the Economics of Education Review, students are often encouraged to work harder when they share a background with an educator. So, diverse guest speakers may inherently engage and motivate students who share a culture with them.

6. Deliver different forms of content through learning stations

Whether due to culture, socialization, preference or learning needs, students respond differently to different types of content. You can provide a range of material to each student by setting up learning stations. Each station should use a unique method of teaching a skill or concept related to your lesson.

For example, students can rotate between stations that involve:

Playing a game

Creating artwork

Watching a video

Reading an article

Completing puzzles

Listening to you teach

After going through each station, you can help students further process the material by holding a class discussion or assigning questions to answer.

7. Gamify lessons

Want another way to consistently diversify content and its delivery, appealing to different learning styles? Gamify some lesson elements. Easy-to-implement practices include:

Offering rewards, such as badges, for completing specific tasks or achieving certain scores

Setting a clear learning goal for the lesson, charting progress throughout the class to motivate students

Creating an "instruction manual" for a project, which contains the rubric and best practices for earning a high grade

Plus, gamifying your lessons is a way of making connections with contemporary gaming culture - helping students within this culture process and demonstrate understanding of content.

8. Call on each student

Call-and-response - the practice of asking students frequent questions while giving lessons - usually keeps them engaged, but also enables them to share thoughts and opinions. Involve everyone by:

Encouraging the sharing of personal perspectives, when a question allows for it

Calling on students without their hands up, acclimatizing them to speaking amongst peers

Asking a question after each new point or thought, having a student teach back the concept you just spoke about

By lesson's end, this call-and-response approach should allow each student to speak at least once.

9. Use media that positively depict a range of cultures

Children process content more effectively when their cultures and languages have places in the curriculum, according to an oft-cited academic book about teaching in multiracial schools.

Using media, such as books and movies, that positively depict a range of cultures and are relevant to your syllabus can partially address this need. Finding options through databases such as IMDB or American Literature isn't a tough task.

As a bonus, using different media should boost engagement levels.

10. Offer different types of free study time

Free study time typically appeals to students who prefer solo learning, but many cultures prioritize learning in group settings. You can meet both preferences by dividing your class into clearly-sectioned team and individual activities, such as the following:

Provide audiobooks, which play material relevant to your lessons

Create a station for group games that teach curriculum-aligned skills

Keep a dedicated quiet space for students to take notes and complete work

Allow some students to work in groups while taking notes and completing work, away from the dedicated quiet space

Presented with these options, free study time should appeal to a wider range of learners.

11. Encourage students to propose ideas for projects

By asking students to submit ideas for their own projects, the benefits of choice extend beyond free study time. Specifically, they should build confidence by showcasing their strengths and existing background knowledge.

So, encourage them to pitch ideas for taking a project from concept to completion. A student must show how the product will meet academic standards in his or her pitch. If the idea falls short, give the student ideas to refine it. If the student can't refine the idea, he or she can choose a project from a list of options you provide.

Not only will you be pleasantly surprised by some pitches, but you may generate ideas for future culturally-responsive exercises and assessments.

12. Experiment with peer teaching

There'll almost always be some student vocabulary and communal practices you never pick up on. But you can fill these gaps through peer teaching. Relatively-simple exercises include:

Students who read and discuss story passages with peers recall more content and score higher on assessments, according an Ohio University pilot study. And, according to a science education study, students who work in pairs and groups typically perform better on tests that involve reasoning and critical thinking.

Such results are largely achieved due to students discussing and rationalizing concepts in their own words, many of which belong to contemporary cultural lexicon and are not academic.

13. Establish cooperative base groups

Cooperative base groups - which come from collaborative learning pedagogy - allow students to regularly learn and process content together.

Your role consists of creating groups of three or four, scheduling meeting times and detailing agendas for them. Filling knowledge gaps and encouraging communication is also involved. Students' roles focus on supporting each other while striving to meet learning goals over the year.

While working in base groups, students can:

Review lessons

Take on guided research

Address each other's questions

Complete in-class assessments

The connection to culturally-responsive teaching is the same as peer learning: cooperative base groups encourage students to make sense of concepts you've taught by using their own words and thoughts.

14. Run problem-based learning scenarios

The flexibility of problem-based learning lends itself to culturally-responsive teaching. This is because, when presenting a relatable real-world problem for your students to solve, two cultural connections will typically occur.

1. First, there will likely be a cultural link in the question, whether it's explicit or students make it themselves.

2. Second, because they can apply different approaches toward problem-solving, they may use unique cultural perspectives.

But if you want to create a scenario with explicit cultural ties, consider:

Encouraging students to take historical, sociological and anthropological viewpoints

Framing the problem using ethnic events - for instance, solving logistical challenges of running a heritage festival - in the area

Regardless, the student-centred nature of problem-based learning will allow your class to use culturally-relevant examples and information when appropriate.

15. Involve parents by using take-home letters

Involving parents in their child's learning is a core part of almost any culturally-responsive teaching approach -- they act as the main educators in many societies and can provide cultural context. When starting a new unit or trying out an education tool for the first time, consider sending a letter home to parents.

For reference, here's the letter Prodigy provides to its teachers. This opens the door to parent participation. While not all parents will be subject matter experts, most should be able to provide guidance.

Downloadable list of culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples

Click here to download and print a simplified list of the 15 culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples to keep at your desk.

Interested in other teaching strategies to deploy in your classroom?

Culturally-responsive teaching strategies overlap in important ways with many other pedagogical approaches. Consider researching other teaching and instructional strategies to help bolster your approach, or combine different elements of each strategy!

Active learning strategies empower, engage, and stimulate your students as they put them at the center of the learning process.

Experiential learning activities, in contrast to traditional learning activities,aim to develop knowledge and skills through direct, firsthand experience.

Project-based learning involves an open-ended approach that sees students work alone or collectively to work on engaging, intricate curriculum-related questions or challenges..

Inquiry-based learning is broken down into four categories, all of which emphasize student questions, ideas and analyses.

Adaptive learning focuses on changing - or "adapting" - content for each student on an individual basis, especially with the help of technology.

Social emotional learning activities help students build social skills, establish healthy relationships and manage their emotions.

Final thoughts about culturally-relevant pedagogy

Delivering culturally-responsive lessons can not only help you engage students, but allow them to make personal connections with content.

Student populations across your school district are comprised of different races, backgrounds, cultural identities and socioeconomic statuses - it's important that teaching practices reflect and embrace these differences.

Greater student investment should lead to other benefits, such as more rigor and motivation. A happier, focused classroom is the ideal outcome.

Prodigy is a digital game-based learning platform that delivers a range of culturally-relevant math content through engaging word and scenario-based problems. Standards-aligned, it's used by millions of teachers and students across the world.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: Examples, Strategies & Activities for Success

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All Posts No single teaching approach will engage each student at once, but building a strategy to consistently deliver culturally-responsive teaching lessons will help you appeal to diverse learners with distinct backgrounds. Rooted in differentiated instruction principles, culturally-responsive pedagogy aims to link content - from delivery to assessment - with students' ancestral and contemporary cultures.

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1.) https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/games-around-world/
This website has multiple games that students can play to learn about different cultures- anywhere from K-3rd grade
2.) https://www.teachervision.com/icebreakers/similar-different-activity
A fun worksheet activity that allows students to compare how they are similar or different

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1. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/index.htm
This website allow students to go on a virtual field trip to Ellis Island to discover and explore immigration in the past and present day.

2. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/games-around-world/
This website provides teachers with games that children play around the world, and ways to implement them in a classroom.

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A brief description of an activity or a lesson plan

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Exchanging Stories--Names
Preparing and Assigning:

Ask participants to write short (one or two page) stories about their names. (You may have to assign this prior to the class in which you want to use it.) Leave the assignment open to individual interpretation as much as possible, but if asked for more specific instructions, suggest some or all of the following possibilities for inclusion in their stories:

Who gave you your name? Why?

What is the ethnic origin of your name?

What are your nicknames, if any?

What do you prefer to be called?

Ecourage students to be creative. In the past, some have written poetry, included humor, listed adjectives that described them, and so on. Also be sure to let them know that they will be sharing their stories with the rest of the class.
Facilitator Notes:

In order to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to share her or his story, break into diverse small groups of five or six if necessary. Give participants the option either to read their stories or to share their stories from memory. Ask for volunteers to share their stories.

Points to remember:

1. Because some individuals will include very personal information in their stories, some may be hesitant to read them, even in the small groups. It is sometimes effective in such situations for facilitators to share their stories first. If you make yourself vulnerable, others will be more comfortable doing the same.

2. Be sure to allow time for everyone to share, whether reading their stories or sharing them from memory.

3. When everyone has shared, ask participants how it felt to share their stories. Why is this activity important? What did you learn?

Sample--My Personal Name Story:
According to my mother, "Paul" means "small". When I say that to other folks, they tell me it doesn't mean "small," though no one seems to know what it means.

My parents wanted to name me "Cameron." "Paul" goes back three or four generations, I'm not sure which. My father and his father and his father are all named "Paul." But my mother liked "Cameron," so "Cameron" it was. But then I was born...five weeks prematurely. I was a tiny baby. I was the itsy-bitsiest baby in the new baby room at the hospital. According to my mother, that was a sign. Remember, "Paul" means "small".

So I am Paul Cameron Gorski. My father is Paul Peter Gorski. The exception, of course, is when someone calls my parents' home for one of us. At that point we become Big Paul and Little Paul, the father Paul and the son Paul, or the older one and the younger one (my Dad doesn't appreciate that one too much). Sometimes people call and I'm too exhausted to explain to them the whole idea that there are two Pauls living in one house, so I just pretend to be Paul Peter, and give my Dad the message later. He doesn't seem to mind that, especially when the caller is trying to sell us something. Still, I hope he doesn't do the same thing.

Paul lends itself well to rhyming nicknames. Bill, a good friend of mine, calls me "Tall Paul". He does so sarcastically, usually after blocking one of my shots in a basketball game. I often have to remind him that the whole irony of that nickname is that, according to my mother, "Paul" means "small," which is very nearly the opposite of "tall." In high school, I was often called "Paul Mall" in reference to a brand of cigarettes, because, as they said, my ball handling skills were smokin'. And again, the irony is that generally the small players have better ball handling skills.

The truth of the matter is that I really don't know whether or not "Paul" means "small". Perhaps it means "Jedi warrior" or "sunflower" or "career student". No matter. I've never looked it up, and never will. According to my Mom, "Paul" means "small." That sounds good to me.

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Exchanging Stories--Names Preparing and Assigning: Ask participants to write short (one or two page) stories about their names. (You may have to assign this prior to the class in which you want to use it.)