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Culturally Responsive Teaching: 4 Misconceptions | Cult of Pedagogy

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In some cases, teachers think they’re practicing culturally responsive teaching, when in fact, they’re kind of not. Zaretta Hammond helps clear things up.

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12 Great Quotes on Culturally Responsive Teaching - Brookes Blog

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What is culturally responsive teaching? Understood.org defines it as “a research-based approach that makes meaningful connections between what students learn in school and their cultures, languages, and life experiences. These connections help students access rigorous curriculum, develop higher-leve…

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"Language is power, in ways more literal than most people think. When we speak, we exercise the power of language to transform reality. Why don't more of us realize the connection between language and power?" - Julia Penelope (American linguist, author, and philosopher)
If the last few years have taught us one thing, it is that all our fates are linked. From the climate crisis, to global pandemics, wars, and racism - it is evident that collective problems require collective solutions. Communicating in a way that builds bridges and breaks barriers resonates with more audiences and is key to laying the groundwork for collective solutions. Simply put, words matter. Language is powerful. It can enhance our empathy, clarity, and understanding of each other as complex individuals with intersectional and varied identities and experiences. However, when language ignores issues of power and equity that shape people's lives, it only foments further exclusion of marginalized people. It is more important than ever to use language that creates inclusive and equitable cultures.

Inclusive language is more than just avoiding the use of a few antiquated or offensive terms and phrases. It is about embracing communication that acknowledges the power differentials and dynamics of our society and their deleterious effects. It is about showing appreciation for the diversity everyone brings to the table. And finally, it is about creating cultures where people can feel free to be their full authentic selves.

This type of communication is needed more than ever to adapt to a rapidly diversifying nation and world. In the United States, Generation Z is on track to become the most diverse generation in history. Nearly half (48%) identify as people of color and over one in five (20.8%) identify as LGBTQ+. On a global scale, the world's population is projected to reach 8 billion by November 2022 , each with their own unique identities that are influenced by factors such as age, disability, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.

In December 2021, APA released the first edition of its Inclusive Language Guidelines to raise awareness, guide learning, and support the use of culturally sensitive terms and phrases that center the voices and perspectives of those who are often marginalized or stereotyped. It includes guidance for people working to foster equity, diversity, and inclusion in the settings in which they learn, live, and work.

The guidelines are grounded in psychological science and designed to be iterative given the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of language. They provide direction not only for research articles and formal writing but also for verbal communication, due to the significance of building relationships in day-to-day exchanges.

Within the guidelines, you will find:

definitions related to issues of power and equity that cut across various social identities

explanations of the differences between person-first and identity-first language with numerous examples

identity-related terms that cover age; disability status; race, ethnicity, and culture; sexual orientation and gender diversity; and socioeconomic status

guidance for how to avoid cultural appropriation, pejorative language, and casually offensive language in conversation.

Inclusive communication can be awkward and uncomfortable for even the most well-intentioned person. Many people feel inadequately prepared or lack confidence in their abilities. Others fear they may cause unintended offense or, even worse, appear performative in their efforts. These are all natural and understandable emotions to have.
Here are three tips to use as you build your inclusive communication skills.

Focus on people over labels

Putting people into boxes is reductive, dehumanizing, and harmful. Listen carefully to the ways in which different groups identify themselves and reflect those choices when in communication with them. For example, various groups differ on whether they prefer person-first or identity-first language. They all have their own unique and valid reasons that reflect their experiences and it is best to do your research rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

Show cultural humility

Embrace that you are a learner, not an expert, when it comes to understanding the experiences of other people, their cultures, and their experiences - especially if they are from a marginalized group. This requires challenging some of your own biases, continual self-reflection, and knowing that you may mistakes but should remain open to continual learning and growth.

When you make a mistake, think impact over intention

Everyone makes mistakes - we are human. When you learn you have caused someone harm with your words, decenter yourself and focus not on what your intentions were, but on the impact on that person or group. Listen carefully to understand how it affected them, give a genuine apology, and commit to doing better.

References

American Psychological Association. (2021). Inclusive language guidelines. https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equitydiversity-inclusion/language-guidelines.pdf

Fry, R., & Parker, K. (2018, November 15). Early benchmarks show 'post-millennials' on track to be most diverse, best-educated generation yet. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/11/15/early-benchmarks-show-post-millennials-on-track-to-be-most-diverse-best-educated-generation-yet/

Jones, J. M. (2022, February 17). LGBT identification in U.S. ticks up to 7.1%. Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbt-identification-ticks-up.aspx

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results. UN DESA/POP/2022/TR/NO. 3. https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/wpp2022_summary_of_results.pdf

About the author

Efua Andoh is a public engagement manager on the APA Communications team. She has a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and a certificate in strategic communications from George Washington University. Prior to her current role, Efua managed communications and outreach for APA's Public Interest directorate. More recently, Efua has been involved in much of APA's equity, diversity, and inclusion-related communications including the development and rollout of the APA's Inclusive Language Guidelines and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Framework. She also manages a number of strategic communications partnerships between APA and other organizations.

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Consider these important tips as you build your inclusive communication skills.

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The achievement of students of color continues to be disproportionately low at all levels of education. More than ever, Geneva Gay's foundational book on culturally responsive teaching is essential reading in addressing the needs of today's diverse student population. Combining insights from…

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Every educator has those moments when they wish they knew more. Maybe they wish they knew more about reaching a challenging learner, or maybe they wish their use of technology was more effective. Whatever the challenge, educators will work tirelessly to equip their instructional tool belts, all for the improvement of their learners' academic achievement. Yet, for many, becoming a culturally responsive educator has remained in the "realm of magic and mystery, knowledge that only a select few possess" (Hammond, 2015, p. 5).

Zaretta Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain presents a "serious and powerful tool for accelerating student learning" (Hammond, 2015, p. 3). The Ready for Rigor Framework combines evidence-based instructional practices with neuroscience. Educators equipped with this tool are empowered to strive to close the achievement gap and to do so with rigor and consistency. Time and time again, dependent learners, or those who struggle to complete higher-order thinking tasks independently, are mistaken for being deficient. For many culturally and linguistically diverse learners in the American school system, dependency is the first step in the "school-to-prison pipeline". The pipeline, suggested by Michelle Alexander in New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness , is a compounding of innocuous educational structures and instructional decisions that leave learners of color falling academically further and further behind. Hammond provides concrete examples and strategies that help build the capacity of educators and school leaders to resource dependent learners with the tools needed to practice and grow into self-directed independence.

We have summarized 10 concepts from Hammond's powerful resource to engage you on your journey to culturally responsive teaching.
#1. Let's get ready for rigor!
Traditionally, when a learner is academically progressing at a slower pace, the response is to exchange rigorous activities with low-level basics. These low-level activities tend to be boring, unstimulating, and generally void of any meaningful context. As this continues throughout the learner's life, the learning gap increases. Hammond suggests that the answer is not to maintain rigor for rigor's sake, but rather to increase the learner's neuroplasticity by teaching them new habits of mind. Neuroplasticity is the brain's response to a productive struggle or cognitive challenge. When a productive struggle is removed, learners' intellective capacity becomes stagnant rather than supported to process complex information. Hammond's Ready for Rigor Framework is built on four key areas to build an educator's capacity to rethink traditional responses to dependent learners. The four areas to build culturally responsive instructional practices are awareness, information processing, learning partnerships, and a community of learners and learning environment. These key concepts will be unpacked throughout the summary (Hammond, 2015, p. 12-16).
#2. Culture is like a tree.
Hammond argues that culturally responsive teaching is less about being sensitive to every surface culture in the classroom and more about understanding shallow and deep culture. Culture not only shapes the way we interpret the world, but also how we learn. Hammond suggests that schema is built by our cultural experiences and plays a role in our perceptions. Each of the three levels of culture triggers increasingly intense emotional responses. Hammond breaks down each cultural level likening it to a tree. The first key area of culturally responsive teaching is increasing our own awareness of how deep culture is encoded into the brain. Threats to surface culture produce a low emotional response, yet, its elements are the most observable. Comparable to leaves or fruits of a tree, surface culture includes fashion, family dishes or holidays - to name a few. Hammond describes the next level, shallow culture, as the branches and trunk of the tree because it is dynamic and changes over time. Threats to shallow culture produce a stronger emotional response because it dictates all social norms and interactions. We may perceive these cultural behaviors as disrespectful or defiant because shallow culture often informs nonverbal cues such as eye contact, touching, and nonverbal communication. Finally, threats to deep culture can trigger the brain's fight or flight response because this level includes the "tacit knowledge and unconscious assumptions that govern our worldview" (Hammond, 2015, p. 23). In other words, deep culture is the roots of our tree - it is who we are and how we learn. Building awareness of the three levels of culture improves an educator's ability to understand which behaviors are rooted in culture and which are not (Hammond, 2015, p. 21 - 14).
#3. It's not all about you.
Hammond introduces the idea of cultural archetypes as another element to culture that helps educators to be more culturally responsive. Cultural archetypes are defined as universal patterns that manifest in all cultures. Hammond argues that collectivism and individualism are two archetypes of which educators should be most aware due to blending of these types in many American schools. Collectivist cultures value interdependence within a community. In other words, learning is cooperative, collective, and collaborative. Many of these cultures are found in the Eastern and Southern hemisphere. Alternatively, individualist cultures value independence and individual achievement. Learning is individual and academic progress is a reflection of what the individual achieves. Western cultures tend to exhibit a higher level of individualistic characteristics. What does this mean for culturally responsive teaching? Many culturally and linguistically diverse learners have cultures deeply rooted in collectivist practices where talking and sharing is commonplace. Many of these same collectivist learners find themselves in the individualistic American school systems and consequently, within the achievement gap. The learner's native culture is mismatched with the education system's dominant culture. With a greater understanding of how deeply rooted culture is, culturally responsive educators can begin to reinterpret the perceived behaviors of their learners by asking "is the behavior a cultural response or is it defiance?" Reviewing these scenarios from a collectivist lens provides cultural responsiveness and a more inclusive classroom community (Hammond, 2015, p. 25 - 28).
#4. When the amygdala hijacks the brain, learning stops.
You have two brains - one is your reptilian brain and the other is your limbic. The reptilian brain is made up of your cerebellum and your brain stem. It is always on and reacting. It does not think. It perceives using the reticular activation system to notify us of anything that may be a potential threat or reward. Your limbic layer is the humanizing brain as it is responsible for remembering past experiences and related emotions, behaviors, and decisions. The limbic layer is made up of the thalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala, which are responsible for communication, memory, and guarding the brain, respectively. The amygdala acts as a gatekeeper between the limbic and reptilian brain. At a moment's notice, the amygdala can initiate the fight, flight, freeze, or appease response by sending distress signals to the reptilian brain. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is produced in order to bypass all other cognitive functions unrelated to survival. Hammond connects that when marginalized learners perceive microaggressions or subtle verbal and nonverbal slights, the brain is hijacked by the amygdala, and the limbic layer responsible for working and long term memory is bypassed. The compounding impact of this biological process is that culturally and linguistically diverse learners begin to slowly fall behind academically. To reverse the hijacking process, oxytocin, our bonding hormone, is needed. This hormone is released when we feel safe, which is observable through laughing, talking, and hugging. Hammond concludes that when culturally responsive educators can recognize the perceived threats that hijack the brain, they can begin to adjust their own practices in order to avoid unintentional threats (Hammond, 2015, p. 37 - 41).
#5. Know your triggers.
Hammond emphasizes that one way to avoid the unintentional threats is by understanding who you are and what triggers you. Common classroom triggers stem from social interactions. Social neuroscience suggests that when the brain feels socially threatened, it is usually one of the five social interaction elements that are at risk. The five social interactions are standing, certainty, connection, control and equity. Hammond posits that educators who are able to reflect on their own triggers will allow them to self-manage their consequential emotions. One self-management strategy, S.O.D.A, takes advantage of the 10 second delay between our triggers and our reactions. The first step is to and consider that there may be an alternative explanation for the trigger. Then, , check yourself, and breathe. It takes about 10 seconds for cortisol to reach your prefrontal cortex, which in turn results in an emotional response. Hammond suggests that if educators can leverage this time period to rethink the originally perceived threat, a more culturally responsive reaction is possible. The next stage advocates that educators cognitively, by imagining happier memories or images. If that does not work, detaching physically may be necessary. The final stage Hammond suggests is to by removing your focus from your own emotions to the person who caused the trigger. Following these steps manages the biological responses to perceived threats and prevents an amygdala hijacking of the brain (Hammond, 2015, p. 62 - 68).
Pause to Process:
Throughout the book, Hammond intentionally models appropriate places to stop and reflect on the content. On page 41, Hammond poses these three questions in order to provide a moment to process what was presented on the brain:

What did you read that squared with your understanding?

What questions are going around in your head about how the brain structures interact?

What three points stood out for you? Why?

#6. Trust starts with listening.
In the second part of Hammond's book, titled "Building Learning Partnerships", she shifts focus from educators building their own self-awareness to placing attention on the learners, classroom and the content. Strengthening the relationship between educators and learners is what Hammond calls the "learning partnership" (Hammond, 2015, p. 72). Hammond challenges readers to reflect on and observe their relationships and interactions with all learners, but with particular focus on those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Reflecting on the relationships and interactions between learners and educators allows us to begin positions ourselves as an ally or partner in supporting learners in building self-efficacy and cognitive insight. The author explains how rapport and affirmation are the building blocks of a learning partnership. In order to build rapport and affirm learners' personhood, there must be trust. Hammond provides educators concrete strategies to support developing trust with learners, starting with listening. Whether it's through characteristics of "Learning with Grace" or reading about "Trust Generators", educators learn more about how to be a culturally responsive teaching ally, explore examples, and process inquiry questions to apply to their practice (Hammond, 2015, p. 78).
#7. Work to restore hope.
In working to create a learning partnership, Zaretta Hammond highlights how the alliance phase "provides an opportunity for teachers to restore hope" for learners who have deficit perceptions of self as a result of learned helplessness, stereotype threats, and internalized oppression (Hammond, 2015, p. 91). As an ally in the learning partnership, educators work to empower through validation. Culturally responsive educators acknowledge inequities that impact learners and validate who they are as a people, thereby negating mainstream messaging about their being that has branded characteristics as "wrong". Acknowledgement and validation can support the restoration of hope. Hammond emphasizes the value of highlighting communities' resiliency and vision for social change to empower learners. In addition, the author cites research clarifying types of hope that impact real change and that are essential to a learning partnership alliance (Hammond, 2015, p. 93).
#8. Feedback is an essential element.
In earlier chapters, Zaretta Hammond breaks down concepts of neuroplasticity and describes how it is "the brain's ability to grow itself in order to meet the challenges presented to it from the environment" (Hammond, 2015, p. 101). When educators create opportunities for learners to reflect on feedback and monitor their own progress, engagement increases. When learners are reflecting and engaging with the feedback, they are building their brain power or neuroplasticity. The brain depends on regular feedback from the environment to adjust and strategize to minimize threats and maximize wellbeing. Activities that promote reflection, feedback, and analysis can cause the brain to literally grow and therefore allow learners to reach higher-order thinking tasks. Hammond states that feedback is an "essential element in the culturally responsive teacher's arsenal" to support culturally and linguistically diverse learners in being able to change their learning moves, acquire new ones and develop plans for approaching a task. Through this text, readers learn more about the power of providing relevant and timely feedback and are presented tangible examples and protocols to promote instructive and corrective feedback. (Hammond, 2015, p. 101-104)
#9. Culturally responsive teaching is for all classrooms.
The power and effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching, as posited by Zaretta Hammmond, is in the ability to support learners in deepening their understanding and building independence in their learning through skill development and empowerment. Through the text, readers learn that culturally responsive teaching is not just for English or social studies but for all subjects, including math and science. Hammond clarifies how culturally responsive teaching is not just relating all instruction to a learner's race or culture. Rather, culturally responsive teaching includes the validation of the learner's personhood by demonstrating authentic care, acknowledgement, empowerment, and support of the learner's independence through deeper conceptual understanding and personal connection building to the learner's life. Hammond explains the neuroscience of information processing to unlock understanding about how to promote higher order thinking in learners. Hammond identifies cognitive strategies to incorporate in any classroom setting, grade level and content area to provide possible next steps to support learning (Hammond, 2015, p. 132-138).
#10. Create a culturally responsive community.
In the last chapter of her book, Hammond invites educators to inquiry as they reflect on the learning environment they have set up for their learners. Through the chapter, readers reflect on how they would characterize the ethos in the classroom - the spirit of the classroom. Hammond provides the reader with considerations on how their classroom environment creates a physically, socially and intellectually safe space for learners to engage in meaningful learning. Readers also learn about routines, rituals, learner voice and agency strategies, and structures for social and academic discourse to incorporate in the classroom. Hammond summarizes that attending to the classroom environment is an important part of culturally responsive teaching in supporting a learner's journey to independence in learning (Hammond, 2015, p. 142-150).

In conclusion, Zaretta Hammond's book, Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain , provides neurological insight and research to explain how culturally responsive pedagogy can optimize learner engagement and facilitate deeper learning for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. This powerful text provides readers with concrete connections between brain science and instructional strategies in order to begin their journey to becoming allies to their learners and culturally responsive educators.

References:

Hammond, Zaretta. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain . Corwin.
Erin Sailor, Senior Learning Leader/Curriculum and Quality Assurance Coordinator - Eduscape
Erin was a Teach for America corps member, teaching high school students prior to joining as a Senior Learning Leader at Eduscape. Erin holds a Bachelor's in History and Sociology from Loyola University Maryland and a Master's in Special Education from Fordham University. During her time in the classroom, Erin taught in an integrated co-teaching setting as a special education teacher predominantly in 11th grade English and US History. Erin served as a tenured teacher leader, leading various grade teams, the special education team and was selected as a Model Teacher in the NYC DOE. As a teacher leader, Erin supported the development of school wide curriculums, including a humanities curriculum and social-emotional learning curriculum. Erin also designed, facilitated and monitored the effectiveness of professional development of teachers and served as an instructional coach.

After teaching, Erin pursued a SCRUM project management certification and joined Eduscape, ready to support the sustainability of education by providing purposeful professional development to school leaders and educators. As a Senior Learning Leader, Erin obtained certifications as a Google Educator, Microsoft Innovative Educator and ISTE Educator. Her love for continuous learning and self-growth has supported Erin's ability to engage educators and school leaders in developing their skills and knowledge to implement equitable and meaningful learning experiences for all learners.
Mike Wojtaszewski, Senior Learning Leader/Instructional Design Coordinator - Eduscape
Mike was an elementary and middle school teacher before joining Eduscape as a Senior Learning Leader. Throughout his time teaching, Mike worked alongside classroom teachers as well as created district workshops to support his colleagues' use of educational technology tools and research-based pedagogical strategies. These skills have been translated into work with a variety of university partners including an adjunct position with Harvard Extension School in digital media design. His willingness to try new things and position himself as a lifelong learner led him to acquire a unique breadth of experience. Mike is also a certified Google Educator and Microsoft Innovative Educator.

Mike's passion for helping those around him become the best they can be does not stop in the classroom. He translates his instructional skills to the gym setting as a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor. He enjoys staying active and exploring the outdoors. He's an avid traveler and has been to 35 countries and visited 5 of the 7 continents. Mike holds a Graduate Certificate in Learning Design and Technology from Harvard University Extension School, a Master's degree in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum from Drexel University, and a Bachelor's degree in History from Drexel University. He hopes to add to this list in the future.

Zaretta Hammond is a national education consultant and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. She is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor and has published articles in Educational Leadership, The Learning Professional, and Kappan. She is passionate about the intersectionality of equity and culturally responsive teaching as a way to help educators close opportunity and learning gaps for underserved students. She has consulted widely with school districts, regional education service agencies, and coaching organizations across the country on ways to help students accelerate their own learning through the science of learning. Hammond sits on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Collaborative Classroom and is involved in a number of working groups committed to educational equity through improvement science.

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Book of the Month | Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain - edWeb

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Every educator has those moments when they wish they knew more. Maybe they wish they knew more about reaching a challenging learner, or maybe they wish their use of technology was more effective. Whatever the challenge, educators will work tirelessly to equip their instructional tool belts, all for the improvement of their learners' academic achievement.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

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Book - Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

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Helping Students be the Leaders of their Learning

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Activities

Greetings in many languages and ways

Display greeting signs in the languages spoken in your classroom to raise language awareness, make students and families feel welcome, and allow for a flow of knowledge, ideas, and positive feelings between home and school and across languages.

Displaying greeting signs in the languages spoken in your classroom raises language awareness, makes students and families feel welcome, and allows for a flow facilitate the flow of knowledge, ideas and feeling between home and school and across languages.

World Map

Assist students to mark with a pin where they come from, to create a visual representation of the class composition. Have a discussion about it.
Teacher and students build classroom community by visualizing the origins of their families and ancestors.
1. The teacher engages the students and establishes the context of the lesson by reading aloud a text which is focused on family, origins, ancestry, or identity from the suggested list of multicultural books. See lesson named "Read Aloud Culturally Informative and Sensitizing Children's Books" for more information on these books.

2. Through the story read aloud and discussions, students will reflect on their individual and family identities. Afterwards, they will have the at-home task of talking with their families about their family lineage and where their parents, grandparents, (and possible great grandparents) came from. Did they come from another part of Oahu? From another Hawaiian island? From the mainland? From another country?

3. Lastly, each student and the teacher will present about their family history including specifically where they come from. A pin or some sort of mark should be placed on the map to identify the name of the person and origins. This visual representation allows the students to know more about each other, to deepen their classroom community, and to know about their family heritage. In addition to the above lesson, the teacher may do additionally activities to build upon this mapping activity and connect to subject content in social studies, reading, math, etc.

Show and Tell using cultural and linguistic artifacts

Students or family members bring a special item from home that they share with the class to learn about each other's backgrounds.

1. Students or a family member bring in a special item from home that they share with class to learn about one's and each other's backgrounds. Empower students' sense of identity, background, and uniqueness by sharing a piece of their family's cultural heritage.

2. Some questions to start off the lesson:

What makes you special?

What makes you different from your classmates?

3. While discussing, these questions can lead to more questions such as

What makes our families special?

How is our family different from everyone else's?

4. This dialogue sets the context for students to get to know each other better and building community. They will then be given a task to talk with their family members about what makes their family special. Through their discussions, they will need to decide on an artifact that says something about their family. The artifact could represent their family, tell a story, an event in the family history, etc.

5. The teacher and students negotiate the criteria of the cultural artifact and the corresponding presentation. Students present. You may consider inviting family members to participate in the audience.

Biography of an important person in the child's community

students research and write a biography about a special person in their community, such as an immediate family member, a relative, neighbor, or community leader, and share with the class. This allows for positive learning about each other's communities and community members.

1. Students research and write a biography about a special person in their community, such as an immediate family member, a relative, neighbor, or community leader, and share with the class.

2. Ideally, students will engage in interviewing, talking to others who know that person, and doing Internet and/or library searches.

3. Students can collaborate with their families to expand their work and they can be invited to present the information on a three-dimensional object such as a decorated shoebox, a paper-bag vest, a hanging mobile, or a poster collage.

4. These items can be used to create a gallery to which the students can return throughout the year to look at it, learn more about it, and be reminded of each other's communities and their contributions.

RL.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding

RL.2: Recount stories

RI.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding

RI.2: Identify the main topic

RI.3: Describe connections between historical events

RI.10: Read and comprehend informational texts

RF.4: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension

W.1: Write an opinion piece

W.2: Write an informative or explanatory text

W.5: Focus on a topic and strengthen writing by revising and editing

W.6: Use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing

W.8: Recall information from experiences or gather information from sources

SL.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners

SL.2: Recount or describe key ideas aloud

SL.3: Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says

SL.4: Tell a story or recount an experience

SL.5: Add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences

SL.6: Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task

L1: Demonstrate command of standard English grammar and usage

L2: Demonstrate command of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in writing

L3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when r/w/l/s

Buddy Program

Assign children to a buddy to help them gain the tools and socio-emotional connection to be able to succeed in school.

1. Use a buddy to help students and families gain the tools and socio-emotional connection to be able to succeed in school.

2. Buddy programs can be used with new students, ELLs, or any other student who would benefit from being welcomed to the school and guided through the process of adjusting to a new environment.

3. The goal is to help students give the tools and socio-emotional connection to be able to succeed in school.

4. You could do the same program with families, having a welcoming gathering with families and assigning one "veteran" family to a new family.

RL.1-3: Reading literature (key ideas and details)

RL.4-6: Reading literature (craft and structure)

RL.7 & 9: Reading literature (integration of knowledge and ideas)

RI.10: Reading literature (range of reading and level of text complexity)

RI.1-3: Reading informational (key ideas and details)

RI.4-6: Reading informational (craft and structure)

RI.7-9: Reading informational (integration of knowledge and ideas)

RI.10: Reading informational (range of reading and level of text complexity)

RF.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis to decoding words

RF.4: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension

W.1-3: Writing (text types and purposes)

W.5-6: Writing (production and distribution of writing)

W. 7-8: Writing (research to build and present knowledge)

SL.1-3: Speaking and Listening (comprehension and collaboration)

SL.4-6: Speaking and Listening (presentation of knowledge and ideas)

L.1-2: Language (conventions of standard English)

L.3: Language (knowledge of language)

L.4-6: Language (vocabulary acquisition and use)

Building Background

Learners develop understandings through connections they make between what they already know and the new information they are learning. Teachers have to use strategies to explicitly activate students' prior knowledge and build background when prior knowledge of a particular content topic is lacking.

1. Let's look at two important aspect of building background:

Key vocabulary emphasized

Concepts explicitly linked to students' background experiences

2. Click on Building Background PDF file. Indicate which strategies you have already used for each of these aspects of building background. Leave blank those strategies you have not yet tried. Now select one strategy from each aspect you think it would be a good fit with your instructional practices and your students' need. Try out each of the strategies. Reflect about how your students reacted, especially your ELL students. What will you do the same? What would you change? How often would you like to use the strategies you implemented?

Building Background (PDF)
InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards Standard #2: Learning Differences
2(c) The teacher designs instruction to build on learners' prior knowledge and experiences, allowing learners to accelerate as they demonstrate their understandings.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge
4(d) The teacher stimulates learner reflection on prior content knowledge, links new concepts to familiar concepts, and makes connections to learners' experiences.

4(m) The teacher knows how to integrate culturally relevant content to build on learners' background knowledge.
Standard #7: Planning for Instruction
7(d) The teacher plans for instruction based on formative and summative assessment data, prior learner knowledge, and learner interest.

Comprehensible Input

Teachers need to provide information and interact with students so that students can understand what is being said and do what is expected of them. This includes teachers being mindful of the words they use, the rate at which they speak, and explaining things clearly to their students.

1. Comprehensible Input includes the following instructional aspects:

Speech appropriate for students' proficiency level (e.g., slower rate, enunciation, and simple sentence structure for beginners). It is important that you use "thoughtful speech" - that you know your English language level and adapt your speech appropriately, remembering to focus on the zone of proximal development or always talking at a level the students can follow but at the same time building their ability to progressively understand more.

Clear explanation of academic tasks. Make sure you write out clear directions that are easily seen by all students and that are also given orally, in a step by step manner, with visuals when appropriate and necessary. For very young learners, adding drawing to your written instructions also helps.

A variety of techniques used to make content concepts clear (e.g., modeling, visuals, hands-on activities, demonstrations, gestures, body language).

2. Next, complete a self-assessment of your comprehensible input instructional practice. First, identify how frequently you integrate each of the following comprehensible input techniques. Second, list the techniques you use less often. Third, choose 1-2 techniques to work on in the next couple of weeks. Finally, document how the implementation of these techniques goes and reflect on how you will continue to use those techniques in effective ways. Comprehensible Input Self (PDF)

Practice and Application

Students have to practice and apply new concepts and language skills in the classroom. Some effective ways to do so with diverse students is to make learning hands-on and implement activities that scaffold students' learning while allowing them to practice the academic language skills they are acquiring.

1. Hands-on materials and/or manipulatives provided for students to practice using new content knowledge. When ELL students practice what they have learned in relevant, meaningful, and (especially for younger students) concrete ways, they have more opportunities to learn the material. Your task: work individually or with your peers to come up with the longest list of hands-on activities you could use for your students to practice what they learn in the class. Similarly, create a table for each content area and find out which manipulatives are already available in your school, which ones you could obtain through donations or a grant, and which ones you might need to purchase.

2. Activities provided for students to apply content and language knowledge in the classroom. The application of content and language knowledge is important because when students discuss and use what they have learned it makes the learning concrete and attainable for all learners. In addition to thinking of ways in which you can ask your students to apply content knowledge (for example, engaging in problem solving activities, engaging in cooperative work, or participating in a debate), it is also important to think about the linguistic demands of the tasks students are asked to do. Please see click here to learn more about Cummin's Model of Academic Language.

3. Activities integrate all language skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Reading, writing listening, and speaking are complex, cognitive language processes that are interrelated and integrated. They also mutually support each other. One area that teachers of ELL students need to emphasize more is the development of oral language.

OVERVIEW OF CUMMIN'S ACADEMIC LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT MODEL

Based on Cummins, J. (1981). The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. In California State Department of Education (Ed.), Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework (pp. 3-49). Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University, Los Angeles. Available for free download at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269101664_The_Role_of_Primary_Language_Development_in_Promoting_Educational_Success_for_Language_Minority_Students

APPLICATION OF THE MODEL TO CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Inclusive Print Rich Environment

As a soon-to-be elementary teacher, you may likely have heard of creating a "print-rich environment" for your students. Apply the same concept to create a print-rich environment that demonstrates the diversity of the micro-culture of your classroom and school and the macro-culture of Hawai'i and the United States. Decorate the room with student work that shows inclusiveness, maps, values of respect and differences.

1. As a soon-to-be elementary teacher, I'm sure you've heard of creating a "print-rich environment" for your students. In the same respect, apply the same concept to creating a print-rich environment that demonstrates the diversity of the micro-culture of your classroom and school and the macro-culture of Hawaii and the United States. Decorate the room with student work that shows inclusiveness, maps, values of respect and differences, etc.

2. Here is an example that you can start with-

Give each student a blank heart shape paper.

Each student writes something special about themselves on the heart. For example, the activities they like to do with their families, their favorite family members.

Each student shades around the words with a crayon that matches the student's skin color.

Each student explains to their classmates why they chose the words on their heart. The teacher looks for unique choices and common characteristics.

3. Display in the classroom or hallway as a reminder of the uniquely diverse class.
InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards Standard #2: Learning Differences
2(n) The teacher makes learners feel valued and helps them learn to value each other.
Standard #3: Learning Environments
3(a) The teacher collaborates with learners, families, and colleagues to build a safe, positive learning climate of openness, mutual respect, support, and inquiry.

3(f) The teacher communicates verbally and nonverbally in ways that demonstrate respect for and responsiveness to the cultural backgrounds and differing perspectives learners bring to the learning environment.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge
4(d) The teacher stimulates learner reflection on prior content knowledge, links new concepts to familiar concepts, and makes connections to learners' experiences.

4(m) The teacher knows how to integrate culturally relevant content to build on learners' background knowledge.

Read Aloud Culturally Informative and Sensitizing Children's Books

Integrate culturally informative and sensitizing books in the read aloud selections. Explore books that contain text that truly engages students in reflecting, questioning, and making personal connections on issues such as diversity, identity, values, and social norms.

1. Integrate culturally informative and sensitizing books in the read aloud selections. Explore books that contain text that truly engages students in reflecting, questioning, and making personal connections on issues such as diversity, identity, values, and social norms.

2. A teacher who is instructing in a demographically diverse population should build up a classroom library which has a rich variety of multicultural texts. These texts can be incorporated into read aloud time, reading instruction, silent reading time, and independent work stations. They should be made available in classroom and school libraries.

3. Throughout the school year, the teacher can have students explore books that are not just at the superficial level of culture but content that truly engages students to reflect, question, and make personal questions on issues such as diversity, identity, values, social norms, etc.

4. Use the following list of books as a resource. Please contact the AFFECT team if you would like to suggest your favorite book(s). Books (PDF)
InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards Standard #2: Learning Differences
2(n) The teacher makes learners feel valued and helps them learn to value each other.
Standard #3: Learning Environments
3(f) The teacher communicates verbally and nonverbally in ways that demonstrate respect for and responsiveness to the cultural backgrounds and differing perspectives learners bring to the learning environment.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge
4(d) The teacher stimulates learner reflection on prior content knowledge, links new concepts to familiar concepts, and makes connections to learners' experiences.

4(m) The teacher knows how to integrate culturally relevant content to build on learners' background knowledge.

Student/family made dual language storybooks

Create the context and written support system to have students/families write their own dual language books.

Create the context and written support system to have students/families write their own dual language books.

Students and families will develop a sense of empowerment with their cultural and linguistic identities by reading and writing their own dual-language story books.

Some possible questions to set the context of the lesson:

Who can speak a language other than English?

Who speaks a language other than English at home with your family?

Does anyone speak a language other than English every day with your family?

Discussions can follow on the value of language learning for those monolingual and multilingual students. The classroom teacher will then incorporate a variety of themes from multiculturalism, diversity, caring, respect, and acceptance into the instructional reading block time. Depending on the linguistic make up of the students, the teacher may read aloud dual language storybooks.

After providing sufficient amounts of input and modelings, the teacher will guide the students through the writing process of making their own monolingual or dual language story book. Work will be completed in class and at home in order to engage families and build upon their cultural knowledge. Finally, students will read aloud their books; you may also invite family members as part of the audience.

CLICK HERE FOR AFFECT TEAM'S LIST OF STORYBOOKS WITH SYNOPSES: STUDENT.FAMILY MADE DUAL LANGUAGE BOOK FILE

Incorporate minority families' home cultures into the school curriculum

Engage and integrate the cultures of your students and their families into your curriculum in order to scaffold their learning, respect their heritage, empower their learning, and develop a sincere sense of community and learning for all students.

1. Work with your grade-level planning team before the start of the school year to make a list of the home cultures that are representative of your ESL population. Brainstorm ways in which you can tap into this vast, inherently rich resource. For example:

a. How can you empower students' sense of cultural identity and worth?

b. What do the Common Core Standards for your grade level say about diversity, culture, multiculturalism, identity, and students' background knowledge?

c. What are the mainstream assumptions in the social studies, history, and other content lessons?

d. Do all your students, including the ESL students, have a "voice" in the curriculum?

e. How are they portrayed in the literature?

Consider your answers to these questions when designing your curricular lessons, so that all students' cultures can be acknowledged fairly and respectfully and you can use the students' background knowledge to introduce them to new material.

2. Get to know your students, their families, and their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Have the families "teach" you about their language, culture, educational expectations, and so on. By taking the role of a "student," you will create a more dynamic and reciprocal relationship between home and school. Incorporate all this knowledge in your lesson planning.

3. Talk to your school community (e.g., colleagues, administrators, students, parents, PTA) about having a "Take Your Parent to School Day" (it could also be a guardian or any adult family member responsible for the student). Schedule the day to include:

a. Activities for students, families, and teachers to get to know each other.

b. Opportunities for parents to share their expertise/knowledge of their culture, language, profession, and interests.
InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards Standard #2: Learning Differences
2(c) The teacher designs instruction to build on learners' prior knowledge and experiences, allowing learners to accelerate as they demonstrate their understandings.

2(d) The teacher brings multiple perspectives to the discussion of content, including attention to learners' personal, family, and community experiences and cultural norms, including Native Hawaiian history and culture.

2(j) The teacher understands that learners bring assets for learning based on their individual experiences, abilities, talents, prior learning, and peer and social group interactions, as well as language, culture, family, and community values.

2(k) The teacher knows how to access information about the values of diverse cultures and communities and how to incorporate learners' experiences, cultures, and community resources into instruction.

2(m) The teacher respects learners as individuals with differing personal and family backgrounds and various skills, abilities, perspectives, talents, and interests.

2(o) The teacher values diverse languages and dialects and seeks to integrate them into his/her instructional practice to engage students in learning.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge
4(m) The teacher knows how to integrate culturally relevant content to build on learners' background knowledge.
Standard #7: Planning for Instruction
7(i) The teacher understands learning theory, human development, cultural diversity, and individual differences and how these impact ongoing planning.

7(k) The teacher knows a range of evidence-based instructional strategies, resources, and technological tools and how to use them effectively to plan instruction that meets diverse learning needs.

7(n) The teacher respects learners' diverse strengths and needs and is committed to using this information to plan effective instruction.
Standard #8: Instructional Strategies
8(k) The teacher knows how to apply a range of developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate instructional strategies to achieve learning goals.

8(p) The teacher is committed to deepening awareness and understanding the strengths and needs of diverse learners when planning and adjusting instruction.

9(e) The teacher reflects on his/her personal biases and accesses resources to deepen his/her own understanding of cultural, ethnic, gender, and learning differences to build stronger relationships and create more relevant learning experiences.

9(h) The teacher knows how to use learner data to analyze practice and differentiate instruction accordingly.

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Activities Greetings in many languages and ways Display greeting signs in the languages spoken in your classroom to raise language awareness, make students and families feel welcome, and allow for a flow of knowledge, ideas, and positive feelings between home and school and across languages.

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Truly supporting the needs of all learners requires intentional planning and design. In our recent session on designing equitable learning spaces at the Aurora Institute Symposium, the Equity Institute explored how culturally responsive teaching and leading pushes us to reimagine what is possible in our schools. Placing student voices and identity at the forefront of our work helps ensure that those we serve help to define what counts as successful. It challenges us to build student-centered, actionable strategies to support our vision for an equitable education system.

The workshop took its participants on a journey, rooted in equity and focused on becoming culturally responsive educators. We begin with identity development and understanding how educators' individual identities are intrinsically connected to our students' identities. Using uniquely designed tools, such as the Equity Institute's "identity bonds," participants gain skills necessary for engaging with their communities. Identity bonds provide educators with the opportunity to reflect on their own personal identities and ask critical questions like:

Which identity are you most proud of?

What part of other people's identities do you notice first?

Which identity gives you power?

Which part of your identity do you see having the most effect on your interactions with your students?

When educators have the opportunity to think about their identities and have critical conversations with their colleagues, they gain crucial awareness about themselves. This awareness can, with practice, enable them to connect to the larger community and ultimately their students in more authentic ways.

We may think of ourselves as individuals, but each one of us is operating as a member of larger groups in society, depending on how we have been socialized. As Sensoy and DiAngelo (2017) have stated, "Our socialization is the foundation of our identity. Thus to consider that we have been socialized to participate in systems of oppression that we don't condone is to challenge our very sense of who we are." For example, I may have been socialized to think of gender as binary. Today, we know that gender identity is not fixed and falls along a continuum. Recognizing how we have been socialized and how this process impacts our beliefs today is critical when trying to build connections with students who may have been socialized differently. The work with the Equity Institute is informed by the knowledge that our identities and our students' identities are profoundly impacted by culture and socialization.

Our goal is that the participants begin to develop a deep understanding of how life experiences, values, assumptions, and identity influence the way we see the world around us. When teachers can understand their own identity, they can develop the characteristics needed to effectively teach their students who may have different cultural backgrounds.

A section of the workshop is dedicated to developing and maintaining relationships with students by empowering their cultural identity. If teachers start the school year by building a responsive classroom community and understanding who their students are, where they come from, and how they learn, then they can begin to build trusting relationships. The goal during this process is for teachers to understand how their own experiences and backgrounds impact their day-to-day practice in the classroom. This daily practice can lead to forming connections with all of their students. The teacher can then leverage students' cultural identities to create units and curricula that reflect students' passions. Additionally, teachers will begin demonstrating a greater appreciation for diversity and building a strong learning community. We aim for educators to strengthen their understanding of how relationships are a cornerstone of culturally responsive teaching and personalized learning.

Educators explore and analyze our Building Equity in Your Teaching Practice framework (shown below) by collectively making meaning of it and asking themselves how they may or may not be applying some of the practices to their work. Questions they explore include:

Are materials and resources reflective of the diverse identities and experiences of students?

Does the curriculum create windows and mirrors for students?

Does the content affirm students as well as exposing them to experiences other than their own?

Does this unit or lesson help students question and unpack biases and stereotypes?

Gloria Ladson-Billings originated the concept of culturally responsive teaching (CRT). She saw it as a way to maximize students' academic achievement by integrating their cultural references in the classroom. Geneva Gay, a professor of education at the University of Washington-Seattle, defines CRT as "the ability to use the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of culturally and linguistically diverse learners as conduits for teaching them more effectively."[2] CRT is also supported by scholar James A. Banks, known as the "father of multicultural education."

A deep field of research has developed around CRT. This includes recent work by Zaretta Hammond on the neuroscience that supports CRT, which we incorporate into our workshops. We support teachers to explore the science behind culture and how it impacts the brain. When you help students think about how they think, it helps build neuroplasticity which helps create more neural pathways. It is important to help students activate their prior knowledge or schema so they can begin making connections and creating new knowledge. For example, educators can offer multiple ways to solve a challenging math problem and encourage group work as an option. They can also create multiple entry points when teaching foundational material, especially reading. They can expose students who are learning to read to tactile, phonemic, kinesthetic and other creative ways to reach them. By understanding students' cultures and experiences, teachers develop skills to use cultural scaffolding and help students achieve. When folks say that students don't have the capacity to learn, it is simply not true. An essential step toward ensuring that all students learn is reaching and connecting with them to impact their attitudes and behaviors.
Equality vs. Equity
Our schools are filled with resources, people who care, frameworks for learning, technology, and a host of other ways to equip our students for success. Creating equal access to resources and pathways to success is important, but it is only one part of the answer. In the final part of the Equity Institute workshops, we assert that equity has to be an integral part of any classroom and school. It's about expanding your reach to meet the needs of all students. For many folks, equality means the same as equity. We often are asked questions like, "Aren't equality and equity the same thing?"

"Shouldn't I treat all of my students the same?"

We guide educators and leaders to make an important distinction between the two by using our visual below. We instruct participants to look at the picture of "Equality" below and talk about what the image means to them, what they see, and what connections they can make to their organizations, schools, and classrooms.

Soon after the discussion, teachers and leaders are asked to think about how the picture would change if the caption said "Equity" instead of "Equality." They are assigned the "Equity" image below and work collaboratively to create and design at their tables. How would they transform the image to be a metaphor for equity? Participants may add on to the image or create their own image of what equity would look like. We remind them that no one has to be perfect; we are focused on moving the metaphor forward. When they are finished, they present their work to the whole group.

We wrap up the activity by saying that equity is about expanding your reach to meet the needs of all students. As stated by author, anti-racist advocate, and former classroom teacher Enid Lee, "Equality is giving everyone a pair of shoes, but equity is giving everyone a pair of shoes that fit." Equity is about giving kids what they need in order to be successful; giving students shoes that FIT is being culturally responsive.

Equity can only exist when educators, leaders, and schools modify their instruction, policies, and practices in ways that facilitate the academic achievement and emotional well being of students from diverse racial, cultural, gender, and social-class groups. For instance, to name a few of the strategies advocated by the Equity Institute: Educators and school leaders should examine their practices to ensure strong differentiation of classroom instruction. School leaders should shift to a disciplinary approach that is grounded in restorative practices. School communities should have an explicit equity statement to ensure that staff, family, and the community at large have a clear understanding of the school's commitment. High-quality training should be provided for staff to sustain equity and culturally responsive teaching. And intentional efforts should be made to hire teachers with diverse identity backgrounds.

Equity Institute develops innovative systems that cultivate culturally responsive schools and communities for all learners through organizational development, research, and networking. We envision an educational system that recognizes identity and human connection is central to the process of teaching and learning and ensures young people have access to educational experiences that allow them to build the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in the world.
Learn More
Born in El Salvador and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Karla Vigil serves as the CEO and co-founder of the Equity Institute, an organization whose mission is to develop innovative systems that cultivate culturally responsive schools and communities. She has also been an advocate in her state and beyond voicing the importance of recruiting and retaining teachers of color. Karla was a senior associate for District and School Design at the Center for Collaborative Education, where she worked as a thought partner in the development of frameworks and resources centered on equity, culturally responsive teaching, and personalized learning. She was also a fourth-grade classroom teacher dedicated to broadening students' perspectives through multicultural and social justice education. Karla was a Deeper Learning Equity fellow and was recently selected as a Pahara NextGen Fellow. She lives in East Providence with her partner and three sons.

Emily Abedon is a teacher in East Providence, Rhode Island, and consults with the Equity Institute. She is a passionate youth developer who spent years working in non-profit, college prep programs in New York City. Her formal teacher training began as a New York City Teaching Fellow. She earned her Masters of Science in Education at Brooklyn College. Emily spent six years teaching fourth and fifth grade students at her neighborhood school in Brooklyn. She has completed anti-racism training with the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond and is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island's Center for Peace and Nonviolence. She is a member of the antiracism group White Noise Collective that works at the intersection of whiteness and gender oppression and organizes with Showing Up for Racial Justice RI.

Sensoy, O., and DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education. New York: Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/is-everyone-really-equal-9780807758618

[2] Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), pp. 106-116. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022487102053002003

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Designing Equitable and Culturally Responsive Learning Spaces - Aurora Institute

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Truly supporting the needs of all learners requires intentional planning and design. In our recent session on...

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Equity. In Vermont and beyond, educators and administrators are talking about equity. But what does equity look like in practice? Most importantly, how do we stop talking about it and start doing it? Culturally responsive practices are a concrete way to do equity work in the classroom.

So what are they and what do they look like?

What we are calling culturally responsive practices (CRP) come from an array of research and pedagogies:

culturally relevant teaching;

culturally responsive pedagogies;

and culturally sustaining pedagogies.

To name a few.

In the 1990s, Gloria Ladson-Billings, one of the leaders in this movement, studied eight teachers who were positively impacting academic achievement among African American students. Her profound findings inform the work that continues to influence us today.

At the heart of CRP is this truth: education is not a culturally neutral practice.

Naming this forces us to reckon with reality: when we fail to acknowledge culture we are silently but powerfully endorsing dominant cultural narratives and sustaining the status quo.

4 aspects of culturally responsive practices we've identified from the research literature.

These themes will guide us as we move towards more equitable classrooms.

1. Be transparent and intentional about culture.

2. Take an appreciative stance.

3. Provide mirrors and windows.

4. Educate about and for social justice.

Let's look at them one by one.

1. Be transparent and intentional about culture.

Randy Bomer defines culture as "a group of peoples' way of life". It includes patterns of communication, values, behaviors, habits of being, and ways of belonging and interacting. The default, in schools and beyond, is dominant culture. In the United States that means white, middle class, heteronormative, and able-bodied.

The problem isn't culture itself, it is assuming that everyone shares the dominant culture. If we assume dominant culture is THE culture, we alienate some students from our classrooms.

This lack of belonging is a precursor to the school-to-prison pipeline. As a result, when we foster a sense of estrangement for some students we are unintentionally sending a message. That message is that some people don't belong, are not intelligent, or that school has no relevance to their lives.

CRP asks us to name culture, talk about it, and make it plural rather than singular.

Culturally responsive classrooms embrace diversity as an asset. As a result, they welcome cultural strengths from all students. They move from monocultural to multicultural by naming cultural perspectives. They make it clear that there are many ways of being, doing, and understanding the world.

CRP forces us to acknowledge all students' lived experiences by planning learning experiences that are personally meaningful and relevant. We must build on their cultural understandings.

2. Take an appreciative stance.

Learners come to us with so many strengths from their lived experiences. As a result, we can only begin to understand these when we seek to know students and their communities well. This understanding becomes the foundation upon which to build new skills, knowledge, and understandings. As well as strengthening the skills, knowledge, and understandings that are a part of their cultural heritage.

It's important to note that relationships are at the core of a culturally responsive classroom. Being in genuine relation with our learners and their communities is complicated.

For instance, it means seeing their assets and strengths, not their deficits. Griner and Stewart talk about this as closing the divide between home and school.

"CRP builds bridges of meaningfulness between home and school experiences as well as between academic abstractions and lived sociocultural realities" (p. 589).

For educators, this often means we must acknowledge and confront the stereotypes we hold about our learners in order to see them in all of their glory! An appreciative stance allows us to appreciate what they know and can do while moving them towards their next steps for learning.

3. Provide mirrors and windows.

Rudine Sims Bishop gave us the metaphor for windows, mirrors, and sliding doors when thinking about literature. Books serve as mirrors when they allow us to see our experience represented in their pages. They become windows when we see the lives of others come to life on the page. And sliding doors help us build common ground across differences.

Sims Bishop says,

"When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part. Our classrooms need to be places where all the children from all the cultures that make up the salad bowl of American society can find their mirrors.

Children from dominant social groups have always found their mirrors in books, but they, too, have suffered from the lack of availability of books about others. They need the books as windows onto reality, not just on imaginary worlds. They need books that will help then understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans" (p. 1).

The metaphor of windows and mirrors has salience beyond the books we share.

In short, all learners should see themselves in the curriculum, environment, and instruction in their classroom. And all learners should see perspectives different from their own in these areas as well. If our goal is to prepare our students for participation in a diverse democracy, we should be providing windows and mirrors from the moment they enter our schools.

4. Educate about and for social justice.

CRP seeks to support students' immediate success while also providing them with the tools to make a positive impact on their communities and society.

From the inception of Critically Relevant Teaching, Ladson-Billings identified sociopolitical awareness as a central component, alongside student learning and cultural competence. Yet in the recent book Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World , Django Paris and Samy Alim observe that "critical consciousness is the neglected component of CRP."

CRP is often u sed as a proxy for good teaching, but without systems analysis and active anti-oppression, it is more of a bandaid than a long-term solution.

Further, Paris and Alim bring us back to the need for CRP in a pluralistic democracy:

"Robust learning environments must address goals beyond cognitive skills alone [and also focus on] the problems of sustaining a democracy, resisting stereotypes, engaging in activism for that which is just, and learning to be resilient in the face of changing and evolving sources of threat." (p. 270)

In CRP classrooms, students learn how to critique and dismantle oppressive systems. They have the opportunity to make immediate impact in their communities. Furthermore, they can make connections to the long-term project of transforming society so that inclusion and justice for all is the norm. They are not just learning how to be successful individually, they are learning how to live and grow collectively.

Culturally responsive practices are for all students

Ladson-Billings developed Culturally Relevant Teaching for Black students. The concept and practices have evolved for the primary purpose of supporting students who are marginalized inside and outside of schools. As white authors, we are sensitive to the danger here of centering whiteness and appropriating ideas into spaces that they aren't designed for.

One strategy is to make sure we are clear about where the ideas and research originally came from. That's why we will be quoting and citing extensively in this series.

Gholdy Muhammad makes it clear that these pedagogies are for ALL students in her book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

"One fallacy is that criticality is only for Black and Brown people, or others who have been oppressed across the world... Perhaps the people who need criticality the most become those who share identities with the greatest oppressors of the world. But in truth, given the complex identities of youth, all students and teachers need culturally and historically responsive education" (p. 121-122).

Similarly, in a review of research, Equity and Cultural Responsiveness in the Middle Grades, editors Kathleen Brinegar, Lisa Harrison, and Ellis Hurd emphasize that culturally responsive approaches need to extend to white students as well:

"Two questions to guide this work might include: Does the middle grades concept sustain all aspects of students' identities? And does it prepare students with dominant identities to be critically conscious? Given that its founders began the middle grades movement to create more equitable schooling experiences for young adolescents, it is time to revisit those activist roots" (p. 343-4).

Educating for and about social justice is for all students, and CRP is the best way we know of to get there.

A note on culturally responsive pedagogies in predominantly white schools

In Vermont, most schools serve predominantly white students and communities. We think that culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies are an important tool for furthering equity in these schools.

But we want to keep a few things in mind:

Our Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color (BISOC) deserve CRP in all educational spaces. This applies to predominantly white institutions, perhaps especially so. For example, Vermont is often referred to as a "white state." This framing erases our BISOC students and their educational needs. Yet 10% of our students identify as BISOC - that's more than 8000 students! And we know they have less access to opportunity and are harmed more by punitive policies than their white counterparts. Even if there is only one BISOC student in a classroom or school, that student has the right to fully inclusive and effective education.

White students have cultures too. Being transparent about culture means interrogating whiteness and also going beyond race and ethnicity. A white student may participate in youth culture, Vermonter redneck culture, sports cultures, etc. Like heritage cultures, these cultures can provide curriculum relevance, broaden perspectives, and strengthen identity and self-awareness. They are deserving of both honoring and critique.

White educators need to start with themselves. The "cultural excavation" work of white teachers, as Paris and Alim put it, is especially important since the pervasiveness of white culture makes it even more difficult to see. This is ongoing work of unlearning and learning history, interrogating whiteness, and recognizing biases in beliefs, perceptions, and actions.

The cultures and identities of students, educators, and their communities must be kept front and center.

We hope you join us.

In future posts, we will look at three aspects of schooling one by one: the learning environment, curriculum, and pedagogy. For each, we will apply the four themes that we've explained in this post. We will share practices and examples that can make CRP in Vermont and rural schools as concrete as possible.

How are you enacting or promoting culturally responsive practices?

This post is the first in a four-part series. We use the four aspects (cultural transparency, an appreciative lens, windows and mirrors, and a focus on social justice) to explore culturally responsive learning environments in part two . We use the four aspects to take a look at culturally responsive curriculum in part three and instruction and assessment in part four. The series is co-authored by Jeanie Phillips and Life LeGeros.

References and further reading

Bomer, R. (2017). What would it mean for English language arts to become more culturally responsive and sustaining? Voices from the Middle, 24(3), 11-15.

Brinegar, Kathleen, Lisa Harrison & Ellis Hurd (Eds.). (2019) Equity and cultural responsiveness in the middle grades. Information Age Publishing.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Gorski, P. C. (2017). Reaching and teaching students in poverty: Strategies for erasing the opportunity gap. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Griner, A. C., & Stewart, M. L. (2013). Addressing the achievement gap and disproportionality through the use of culturally responsive teaching practices. Urban Education, 48(4), 585-621.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491.

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Culturally responsive practices for equity in the classroom : Innovative Education in VT

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What are culturally responsive practices and how can they impact your approach to connecting with & knowing students as learners?

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Teacher does not always model, explain and demonstrate new skills and concepts prior to asking students to apply them.

Teacher does not use visuals, comprehensible input etc. to facilitate understanding.

Teacher does not build upon students' home languages to teach terms, skills and concepts in English.

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Culturally relevant education is viewed as critical in improving student engagement and achievement, and college readiness and success for all youth, particularly for youth of Color. Specifically, CRE is a comprehensive teaching approach that empowers all students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impact knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

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Culturally relevant education is a conceptual framework that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural backgrounds, interests, and lived experiences in all aspects of teaching and learning within the classroom and across the school.