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Incorporate Real-World Problems and Situations

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Incorporate Real-World Problems and Situations

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Learning stations with diferentiated materials.

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Learning stations with diferentiated materials.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain Part 1

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Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain Part 3

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

Understanding students' lives can help teachers foster a sense of belonging and ensure that all students feel respected and challenged.

The world of education is buzzing with talk of being more culturally responsive, but what does that mean, and how important is it really?

When I talk about culture, I'm talking about norms, beliefs, and behaviors that are passed down from one generation to the next-the things that explain why a student might answer a question the way he does or why another might not feel comfortable looking you in the eye when you're speaking to her. These aspects of culture are among the most misunderstood in the teacher-student dynamic and are often the things that cause students to get into the most trouble in the school discipline system. Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) attempts to bridge the gap between teacher and student by helping the teacher understand the cultural nuances that may cause a relationship to break down-which ultimately causes student achievement to break down as well.

In her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, Zaretta Hammond writes that "by third grade, many culturally and linguistically diverse students are one or more years behind in reading." CRT is one of the most impactful tools for empowering students to find their way out of that achievement gap. This alone makes being culturally responsive one of the most important things you can learn at this moment.

Getting Started

The first step in being culturally responsive is to do an internal audit-yes, you read that right, an audit: truly digging deep inside of ourselves and recognizing and naming those things we don't want to look at or talk about. The experiences we've had along our journey in life have formed stereotypes which have then turned into implicit bias. These unintentional, unconscious attitudes impact how we relate to our students and their parents, and how we choose curriculum, assess learning, and plan lessons. Harvard University's Project Implicit has an online test you can take to examine your implicit bias.

Culturally responsive teachers also have to be aware of the sociopolitical context schools operate in and dare to go against that status quo. Students need to understand the system that is working around them in schools. Give them context and don't be afraid to talk about the tough subjects that may not be addressed in your school. In addition to Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, another great resource is Affirming Diversity by Sonia Nieto. The most important part of this work is a willingness to do something different to get different results, with the goal of increasing academic achievement.

For your audit, take some time to ask yourself hard questions and reflect on past and current practices. Are you operating from a place of critical care within your classroom-a place that marries high expectations with empathy and compassion? Are your students, regardless of socioeconomic status or background, being held to high standards? Has your past interaction with a particular race of people impacted your ability to communicate with parents? Identify those places in your instructional planning where you might have allowed your implicit biases to prevent you from pushing your students to achieve at optimal levels. Answering questions like these might be hard, but in order to create change, you have to identify and unearth the roots of your teaching practice.

Now that you have conducted an internal self-audit, your curriculum will need one as well. What books are students reading? Do they have a voice in what they read, where they sit, how they interact with each other?

Encourage students to make a social media campaign that champions their favorite cause, and have them bring evidence of their results to class to discuss the role social media plays in social change.

Use current songs that students might love to analyze the use of literary techniques and imagery in music videos. Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams" is a great one. Better yet, instead of assigning a song, ask students for their suggestions.

Watch and discuss documentaries like Race: The Power of an Illusion.

Zaretta Hammond shared three simple strategies you can use to make lessons in any subject more culturally responsive.

Empowering students to take ownership of not just their learning but the environment itself is another critical component of CRT. One strategy for fostering a student-centered environment is having students create a classroom agreement that answers the question: "How will we be together?" Allowing students to answer this question will give you a window into how their cultures dictate the ways in which they want to feel respected, heard, safe, and included in the classroom and in their interactions with one another and with you. This reinforces the idea not only that they belong but that the way they show up at school every day, with all of their outside experiences in tow, has value.

Finally, put some thought into your lesson planning. You have taken the time to reflect and really look into your own biases that may have been getting in your way. You have revamped your classroom environment to reflect your students' voices, their various cultural needs, and their choice. Now let's have some fun. For example:

Our students need us now more than ever, and we have to roll up our sleeves and do what we must to close the achievement gap. Culturally responsive teaching is one step in the right direction. The outcome is a student body that loves learning, excels academically, and has teachers who respond to their needs.

Being culturally responsive encourages students to feel a sense of belonging and helps create a safe space where they feel safe, respected, heard, and challenged.

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Getting Started With Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Understanding students' lives can help teachers foster a sense of belonging and ensure that all students feel respected and challenged.

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Zaretta Hammond: Culturally Responsive Teaching 101 | #PLtogether

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Imagine a world where each time you messed up or said something mean, you yelled, "My amygdala made me do it!" Although that may sound funny, it could be just the thing to help you step back from reactivity and take more responsibility for your actions.

Why?

The amygdala is the portion of the brain responsible for sounding the alarm when we perceive a threat or some nearby danger (see Carol's blog post: Change Your Brain). The time between the amygdala sounding the alarm and our reaction is so fast we usually do not realize the alarm has sounded until after the situation has remedied. The chain of reaction from potential threat to action is lighting fast-and it can cause us to react in not so helpful ways.

However, with just a few minutes of mindfulness practice each day, we can learn to listen to our alarm system and to use the information it is sending to make better choices. We can choose to RESPOND appropriately to each situation, rather than instinctively REACT based on the clanging noise of the amygdala's alarm.

What Might This Look Like?

I remember the first time I caught a glimpse of the power of learning to listen to my amygdala's alarm. My three children were very young. I do not remember why, but I found myself sitting on the couch in my living room for a brief moment. It's just as likely that I had walked into the living room to do something and promptly forgot what it was.

As I sat, head in my hands and lost in thought, my daughter (who was 18 months old at the time) decided to take advantage of my stillness and climbed up next to me. I immediately jerked away-as if she was about to attack! In the past, I would have become frustrated and maybe even lost my temper. But this time, I was conscious of the fact that I jerked away, and being aware of my reaction allowed me to do something I had never done before.

At the time of this incident, I was participating in my first 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course. I took the course as a last ditch effort to figure out how to deal with the stress of parenting three small children. Thanks to the practice of mindfulness, I was becoming more sensitive to my own alarm system. And for one of the first times ever, I paused and listened to what my amygdala was saying ("Danger! Danger!") BEFORE I found myself stuck in a cycle of action and reaction. I remember sitting there, wide-eyed, and thinking, "Whoa! I just jerked away from my daughter as if she was going to hurt me!"

After I was able to recover from my initial shock and slight dismay at my strong reaction to my daughter, I decided to check out my reaction by doing the exact opposite of what my amygdala wanted me to do. Instead of jerking away more, I leaned into my daughter's tiny body. And, as you might imagine, there was no threat or danger to be found.

What did I discover instead of a threatening, scary, presence?

I felt my daughter's soft hair, her warm body, the tickle of her clothing, and her sweet baby skin against mine. My amygdala received the more accurate message that this was not a dangerous situation and turned off the alarm. It was a life-changing and hopeful moment for me, because I was able to interrupt a very familiar pattern in my life. I realized I could say, "My amygdala made me do it..." and mindfully chose to respond in a wiser and more loving way. In the end, I was able to wrap my arms around my daughter and share a moment with her that I will never forget.

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My Amygdala Made Me Do It! | Grand Rapids Center for Mindfulness

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Imagine a world where each time you messed up or said something mean, you yelled, "My amygdala made me do it!" Although that may sound funny, it could be just the thing to help you step back from reactivity and take more responsibility for your actions. Why?