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3 Tips to Make Any Lesson More Culturally Responsive 

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3 Tips to Make Any Lesson More Culturally Responsive 

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This link provides three tips to make lessons more culturally responsive. It first explains what culturally responsive learning is and then it explains the three tips. The tips are, gamify it, make it social, and storify it.

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Last month, I reviewed Zaretta Hammond's fantastic book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. Now I'm proud to have Zaretta here as a guest writer to share some specific strategies with us.

Culturally responsive teaching. Everybody is talking about it. The big question is: How do you actually make lessons culturally responsive? That comes up regularly when I am working with groups of teachers to improve outcomes for diverse students who are struggling. I remember working with a group of sixth grade teachers on improving learning for their at-risk students. These teachers were frustrated that their students, 95 percent of them students of color and English language learners, were not applying themselves to learning.

I suggested that we explore making lessons more culturally relevant in order to accelerate student learning. I remember the reaction of Janice, the science teacher. "I am not going to be rappin' about the periodic table," she said defiantly as she crossed her arms and sat back in her chair.

I couldn't blame her. Google "culturally responsive teaching" and you can find a dozen videos of well-meaning teachers leading some call-and-response chant about exponents or rapping about the Boston Tea Party while students sit back and giggle. That's because we usually talk about culturally responsive teaching only as an engagement strategy designed to motivate at-risk students to take learning seriously. Or we try to find a race-based connection to the content to make it "relevant" to minority students.

One of the biggest misconceptions about culturally responsive teaching is thinking you have to tie the lesson's content to African American or Latino students' racial background. The common belief is if you mention Africa, Mexico, or famous black and brown high achievers, it will spark students' attention. Then they will be motivated to participate.

In reality, culturally responsive teaching is less about using racial pride as a motivator and more about mimicking students' cultural learning styles and tools. These are the strategies their moms, dads, grandmas, and other community folks use to teach them life skills and basic concepts long before they come to school and during out-of-school time.

Culturally responsive teaching leverages the brain's memory systems and information processing structures. Why? Many diverse students come from oral cultural traditions. This means their primary ways of knowledge transfer and meaning-making are oral and active. It's a common cultural tradition that cuts across racial groups: African American, Latino, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander communities all have strong oral cultures. Each of these cultural groups uses the brain's memory systems for turning inert information into useable knowledge. They use memory strategies to make learning sticky, like connecting what needs to be remembered to a rhythm or music (that's why we still know the ABC song) or by reciting it in fun ways like a poem, riddle, or limerick.

I asked Janice what area of learning she wanted to help her kids improve. She said science vocabulary; they weren't learning the weekly words and it was getting in the way of their understanding of key concepts. She was frustrated and at the end of her rope. I asked how she was teaching it. She used the typical approach: On Monday, she listed the words on the board. Students copied them down and were required to look each word up and use it in a sentence. On Wednesday, there was a vocabulary test.

I suggested that we design word study to be more culturally responsive by making it more like the students' own cultural learning process. She was open for trying something different.

I offered her these three tips for transforming any lesson into something that looked and felt more culturally responsive to diverse students, something that would allow them to engage more and process the content effectively.

Games are the power strategy for culturally-grounded learning because they get the brain's attention and require active processing. Attention is the first step in learning. We cannot learn, remember, or understand what we don't first pay attention to. Call and response is just a way to get the brain's attention. Most games employ a lot of the cultural tools you'd find in oral traditions - repetition, solving a puzzle, making connections between things that don't seem to be related (Ever play Taboo or Apples to Apples?).

Organizing learning so that students rely on each other will build on diverse students' communal orientation. This communal orientation can be summed up in the African proverb, "I am because we are." Even making learning slightly competitive in a good-natured way increases students' level of attention and engagement. It's why the T.V. show Survivor has been around for so many years; it's a social-based game.

The brain is wired to remember stories and to use the story structure to make sense of the world. That's why every culture has creation stories. In oral traditions, stories play a bigger role in teaching lessons about manners, morality, or simply what plants to eat or not eat in the wilderness because it's the way content is remembered. Diverse students (and all students, really) learn content more effectively if they can create a coherent narrative about the topic or process presented. That's the brain's way of weaving it all together. (Bonus: It also offers a great way to check for understanding and correct misconceptions.)

So Janice took her weekly list of science vocabulary and created a variety of sorting and matching games for students. She built a set of simple card games based on Go Fish or Old Maid. In addition she created some team games. Each week students had different active ways to learn the vocabulary. For 10-15 minutes a couple of times during the week, students got to play these learning games rather than look up words in a dictionary. She gave them instructions for making the games at home if they wanted to.

Instead of the traditional weekly vocab test, she asked them to "storify" their understanding of key concept words like metamorphosis, using vocabulary from past weeks.

When I checked in with the group a few weeks later, she was the first one to share. She said student engagement was like night and day. Now all students were participating. She said she knew they were learning the vocabulary at a deeper level because they were actually using the new science terms during discussions and in their writing with no prompting from her.

The big A-ha's for the group that day were that (1) Culturally responsive teaching doesn't have to be some performance the teacher does to entertain students and (2) It doesn't have to mention race or reference culture at all. Instead, what makes a practice culturally responsive is that it mimics students' own cultural learning tools. They all realized that these practices are helpful for all students, not targeted at minority students.

The real trick is to use these strategies regularly as part of your instructional routine rather than doing them randomly every now and then. Consistency is the key. ♦

Learn more about how to improve diverse students' information processing skills and actually grow their brains in Zaretta Hammond's book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students .

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3 Tips to Make Any Lesson More Culturally Responsive

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Google "culturally responsive teaching" and you can find a dozen videos of well-meaning teachers leading some call-and-response chant about exponents or rapping about the Boston Tea Party while students sit back and giggle.

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5 steps to becoming a culturally responsive teacher

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5 steps to becoming a culturally responsive teacher

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This website consists of five steps to becoming a culturally responsive teacher. The first step is, assess your own behavior, then, get to know your students, make your classroom a judgement-free zone, adapt your teaching, and finally, include all cultures in your teaching. These five steps should help any teacher become more culturally responsive.

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What is culturally responsive teaching?

It's much more than just recognizing your students' cultural background (although that's a good start).

Culturally responsive teaching, or cultural intelligence in education, helps create a learning environment that is engaging and accessible to a broader range of students.

As a teacher in today's multicultural classroom, fostering culturally responsive teaching practices is becoming more and more necessary.

The Census Bureau had projected that by 2020 more than half of all students in US public schools will be minority students.

Figuring out how to meet the diverse needs of students with differing economic and cultural backgrounds, not to mention varying learning styles, has become a top priority for educators.

Teachers need to have cultural knowledge. You should try to understand achievement gaps as well as cultural and linguistic differences.

Increasing your understanding will help you resolve potential cultural differences between students in the classroom.

To become a more culturally responsive teacher you should:

1. Assess your own behavior.

2. Get to know your students.

3. Make your classroom a judgment-free zone.

4. Adapt your teaching practices.

5. Teach for all cultures.

1. Assess your own behavior.

It's important to recognize that your own culture influences your attitudes.

Have you ever heard of implicit bias?

Implicit bias is the attitudes or stereotypes that affect someone's understanding, actions, and decisions unconsciously. These are biases we are completely unaware of, so it's important to learn more about your implicit biases towards other cultures.

If your students' cultures differ from yours, you need to be sensitive to the differences in attitudes and customs to build relationships with your students.

The first step to creating a culturally responsive classroom is being aware of your actions and working to shift your mindset into culturally inclusive and open-minded ones.

This awareness also applies to your interactions with students' families and their communities.

Being sensitive to how specific cultures process learning is a key first step towards building a positive, respectful relationship with families from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Feel like you may already be culturally competent? You can assess your cultural competence by doing this checklist.

2. Get to know your students.

Be proactive when it comes to learning about the different cultural backgrounds of the students in your classroom. Do your research, either online or by talking to your teaching colleagues.

As a teacher, you cannot create a culturally responsive classroom if you don't take the time to get to know your students as individuals.

Establishing set times to sit down with a student can give them a chance to speak about themselves in a more personal setting. Some students may not feel comfortable talking about their life outside of school with the whole class listening.

Be sure to show a genuine interest in each student's understanding of content and their general well-being. Creating a culturally responsive classroom is all about creating an environment in which students of all cultures feel comfortable and ready to learn.

If there is a student in your class who has recently immigrated from another country, for example, sit down with them to ask if there were any activities or traditions they enjoyed at school in their home country. This will not only help put your new student at ease, it can also breathe life into your lesson activities.

3. Make your classroom a judgment-free zone.

Students must be able to look at situations regarding culture with an unbiased opinion and be comfortable asking questions to further their understanding.

If a conversation arises about a current event or behavior, welcome a discussion. But be sure the conversation is directed towards learning, not criticizing.

Encourage students to ask questions and challenge the status quo. Make critical thinking the norm and teach your students to value each other's differences.

It's common for many students to too shy to speak up.

Encouraging them to voice their opinions and questions about what is happening in the world around them is one of the best ways to help them understand and overcome some of their preconceived notions.

We want to make it easier for you to start becoming a more culturally responsive teacher today. Enroll in our industry-leading Culturally Responsive Teaching course for only $49 (that's 50% off the course price!) when you use code BLOG50.

4. Adapt your teaching.

Culturally responsive teaching is a student-focused approach.

It identifies the differences between students and the unique strengths of each child to encourage their academic achievement and a sense of belonging in the classroom.

There are some important questions you should ask yourself, including the following:

Are there any activities in your classroom that don't benefit all students?

What activities seem to engage all students and get them participating?

What actions have you noticed seem to get the best reactions out of your students?

It's important to honestly assess your current teaching practices and modify your instruction and curriculum to consider all students' backgrounds and readiness levels.

Research has shown that students are more engaged in learning and learn more effectively when the knowledge and skills taught are presented within the context of their own experiences and cultural frames of reference.

As a result, it's critical to learn how to adapt your teaching strategies and techniques to students of all cultural backgrounds in your classroom.

Incorporating learning strategies that have a sense of familiarity for international students, for example, can not only help them better connect to the classroom environment, but feel more comfortable sharing their own experiences with classmates.

Make learning as interactive as possible.

Educational games are fun for students; they also require active listening and a higher chance for memory retention.

Puzzle-solving, making connections, storytelling or visuals and repetition are all tools that can be used in the classroom and are commonly seen across cultures.

5. Teach for all cultures.

Choose content that reflects the different cultures of your students in your lessons.

Lessons should incorporate multicultural information and approaches whenever possible.

Suppose a teacher only references people from a specific cultural background or ethnicity exclusively in-class examples. In that case, students may feel that their cultural background is being excluded and may feel disengaged.

Teachers at home and especially teachers abroad need to make cultural competence a priority.

Become a more culturally responsive teacher today!

Now more than ever, teachers should be looking to make their classrooms and school community space where students of all cultures feel supported to learn and succeed.

Try to remember to be mindful of the following tips so you can be a more inclusive, culturally responsive teacher:

1. Assess your own behavior.

2. Get to know your students.

3. Make your classroom a judgment-free zone.

4. Adapt your teaching practices.

5. Teach for all cultures.

By embracing culturally responsive teaching principles, your classroom can, over time, become a more positive learning environment for all of your students - it all starts with you.

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5 steps to becoming a culturally responsive teacher | Teach Away

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Here's 5 easy steps you can take today to become a culturally responsive teacher. Make culturally responsive teaching part of your teaching practice today.

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15 Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies 

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15 Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies 

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This link includes fifteen different culturally-responsive teaching strategies. In this link, you can also access downloads and printable resources.

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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.

Create your free teacher account

Create your free teacher account

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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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This link provides information on Culturally Responsive Teaching. It explains that culture is central to learning and that it plays a huge role in communication as well.

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This collection holds materials from the Education Alliance at Brown University. The Education Alliance was a reform support organization committed to advancing equitable educational opportunities that prepare all student populations to succeed in the 21st century. From 1975-2021, the Alliance partnered with schools, districts and state departments of education to apply research findings in developing solutions to educational challenges. Its mission was to enhance learning for culturally and linguistically diverse students and focused on district and school improvement with special attention to underperformance and issues of equity and diversity. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26300/7eez-dz04

The Education Alliance archived website can be found here

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Brown Digital Repository | Collection | The Education ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This collection holds materials from the Education Alliance at Brown University. The Education Alliance was a reform support organization committed to advancing equitable educational opportunities that prepare all student populations to succeed in the 21st century. From 1975-2021, the Alliance partnered with schools, districts and state departments of education to apply research findings in developing solutions to educational challenges.

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Art Activities for Social Emotional Learning

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Art Activities for Social Emotional Learning

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This link is a general link with multiple different activity ideas for social emotional learning.

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Art Activities for Social Emotional Learning

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Art is such a powerful tool to help shape the minds of kids and young adults. Simply put, there are many benefits to using art as a way to teach new skills. Art is often non-threatening to kids and young adults. It is seen as a fun and hands-on activity, rather than hard work. Because it is not perc

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Responsible Decision Making using mentor texts 

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Responsible Decision Making using mentor texts 

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This link is for responsible decisions. The link consists of many different children's books that help students learn about good decision making.

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Teaching Students Responsible Decision Making

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Mentor texts are wonderful for content areas like reading and writing… but what about Character Education and Social Emotional Learning? I’d love to share with you some of my favorite books to give students a frame of reference when teaching them how to be responsible decision makers. *This post contains affiliate link

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Social & Emotional Learning: Friendship lessons & activities 

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Social & Emotional Learning: Friendship lessons & activities 

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This is an activity for relationship skills. Within this link, there are multiple different options for activities about relationship skills. There are cut outs, short stories, and coloring activities to help when learning about relationships.

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Friendship Activities that will Improve Classroom Relationships

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Teach friendship activities and improve social skills in the classroom with these ideas, such as sharing, taking turns, listening, teamwork, & cooperation.

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Social Emotional Learning Fortune Teller For Social Awareness

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Social Emotional Learning Fortune Teller For Social Awareness

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This activity is about social awareness. This activity is very similar to the self-awareness activity in the way that it is also a fortune teller. The key topics in this activity are, social skills, respect, empathy, and diversity. The student is able to answer questions about each of these topics.

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Use this paper fortune teller activity to target SEL skills for social awareness, including empathy, social skills, celebrating diversity, respecting others, and more. It's the perfect back to school activity for kids and teens that's both a DIY craft and

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This activity is about self-management. The "Calming Ther-Llama-Ter" is a worksheet that has a meter with labels, "out of control," "scared of losing control," "nervous," "unsure," "calm." The student can fill out what types of things they can do when they are feeling these ways. Each student's worksheet should be personalized from themselves.

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This activity is great for anxiety relief and anger management in kids.  Students learn to self regulate and return to class when they are c… | Therapy | Social emotional learning, Anxiety activities, Coping skills

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This activity is great for anxiety relief and anger management in kids.  Students learn to self regulate and return to class when they are calm. Llama Relieve Your Stress

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Social Emotional Learning: self awareness fortune teller 

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Social Emotional Learning: self awareness fortune teller 

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This activity is about self-awareness. It is a "self-awareness fortune teller." The activity allows the students to reflect on their hopes, strengths, values, and emotions.  The activity is something they can color the way they want and it gives

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Use this paper fortune teller activity to target SEL skills for self-awareness, including hopes, strengths, emotions, values, and more. It's the perfect back to school activity for kids and teens that's both a DIY craft and a skill-building lesson. Social emotional skills set the foundation for everything! #sel #socialemotional

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Social Emotional Learning is the way that children and adults manage their emotions. SEL consists of: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.