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http://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/culturally-responsive-teaching-and-the-brain/book241754

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain

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In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compati…

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“In culturally responsive pedagogy, the classroom is acritical container for empowering marginalized students. It serves as a space that reflects the values of trust, partnership, and academic mindset that are at itscore.”

To me a welcoming, safe, trusting and relaxed classroom community is so important for our learners. It helps to support our dependent learners reach more toward independent learning. Culturally responsive pedagogy means you are there for all your kids; not holding their hand, but cheering them on. Culturally responsive teaching is about feeling safe to take risks, and safe to be seen. Every child deserves to feel safe in their learning community; valued, trusted, and loved.

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Mr. Heywood "Culturally Responsive Teaching" (Block Scheduling)

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Mr. Heywood "Culturally Responsive Teaching" (Block Scheduling)

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We can acknowledge what ALL students from all backgrounds bring to our classroom by centering the learning around their experiences as students. We can do this by incorporating time within certain classes, or a portion of each class during the blocks, where we include culturally diverse topics within our curriculum that allow us to validate students within that culture.

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244016660744

Does Culturally Relevant Teaching Work? An Examination From Student Perspectives

This research paper gives light to the students' perspective regarding Culturally Relevant Teaching across racial groups and demographics.

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Reconsider the posters and bulletin boards within your classroom and what they display and take inventory of your classroom's library, what does your current library represent and what is it missing to include everyone?

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Over the past few decades, students, their experiences, upbringings, and backgrounds have changed. Classrooms now reflect families of varying races, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses. As a result, the way teachers educate these students must change, too, says Cherese Childers-McKee, assistant teaching professor in Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies. One of these shifting approaches to education is known as culturally responsive teaching.

Below, we explore the concept of culturally responsive teaching, compare it against traditional teaching models, and offer a number of strategies that you can use to incorporate the approach into your own methods.

Download Our Free Guide to Earning Your EdD

Learn how an EdD can give you the skills to enact organizational change in any industry.

What is culturally responsive teaching?

Culturally responsive teaching, also called culturally relevant teaching, is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Traditional teaching strategies emphasize the teacher-student dynamic: The teacher is the expert and adheres strictly to the curriculum that supports standardized tests while the student receives the knowledge. This teaching method is outdated, Childers-McKee says.

"Teachers have more diverse classrooms today. We don't have students sitting in front of us with the same background or experience, so instruction has to be different," she says. "It needs to build on individual and cultural experiences and their prior knowledge. It needs to be justice-oriented and reflect the social context we're in now. That's what we mean when we talk about culturally responsive teaching."

Culturally Responsive vs. Traditional Teaching Methods

Culturally responsive teaching can manifest in a number of ways. Using traditional teaching methods, educators may default to teaching literature by widely accepted classic authors: William Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger, and Charles Dickens, for example, adhering to widely accepted interpretations of the text.

Culturally responsive teaching, on the other hand, acknowledges that there's nothing wrong with traditional texts, Childers-McKee says, but strives to include literature from other cultures, parts of the world, and by diverse authors. It also focuses on finding a "hook and anchor" to help draw students into the content using their past experiences.

"This way, students can see themselves in some of what they're reading and not just the white, western world. The learning is more experimental, more hands-on," she says. "Instead, you're showing them a worldwide, multicultural community and looking for different interpretations while relating it to what it means for society today."

Why is culturally responsive teaching important?

Culturally responsive teaching is especially pertinent today because the traditional education path from school to college to a career and life in the suburbs isn't a reality-or desire-for everyone, Childers-McKee says. Educators' approaches to teaching need to reflect these differences.

"That typical, mainstream education is not addressing the realities of today's students. Culturally responsive teaching isn't just for those students who don't come from white, middle-class, English-speaking families-it's an important teaching strategy for everyone. When done the right way, it can be transformative."

When integrated into classroom instruction, culturally responsive strategies can have important benefits such as:

Strengthening students' sense of identity

Promoting equity and inclusivity in the classroom

Engaging students in the course material

Supporting critical thinking

Here's a look at five culturally responsive teaching strategies all educators can employ in their classrooms.

5 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for Educators

1. Activate students' prior knowledge.

Students are not blank slates, Childers-McKee says; they enter the classroom with diverse experiences. Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning. Taking a different approach to the literature that's taught in classrooms is one example of this.

2. Make learning contextual.

Tie lessons from the curriculum to the students' social communities to make it more contextual and relevant, Childers-McKee advises. "If you're reading a chapter in history class, for example, discuss why it matters today, in your school, or in your community," she says. "Take the concept you're learning about and create a project that enables them to draw parallels."

3. Encourage students to leverage their cultural capital.

Because not all students come from the same background, it's important to encourage those who don't to have a voice. Say, for example, you teach an English class that contains ESL students. It's important to find ways to activate the experiences they do have-their cultural capital, Childers-McKee says.

The teacher may choose a book for the class to read in which the ESL students could relate and feel like they could be the expert, for instance. As a teacher, Childers-Mckee's once chose a book that told the story of a child of migrant workers because some of her students came from an agricultural background.

"When you have a mixed classroom, you want those in the minority to feel like they are an expert. You want to draw from their experiences," she says. "I do caution that you don't want to cross a line and make 'Johnny' feel like he needs to speak for all Mexican people by putting them on the spot, for example. That's a line you need to walk."

4. Reconsider your classroom setup.

Take inventory of the books in your classroom library: Do they include authors of diverse races? Is the LGBTQ community represented? Do the books include urban families or only suburban families? Beyond your classroom library, consider the posters you display on your walls and your bulletin boards, too. "These are all small changes you can make to your classroom more culturally responsive," Childers-McKee says.

5. Build relationships.

Not all students want to learn from all teachers because the teachers may not make them feel like they're valued, Childers-McKee says. Teachers need to work to build relationships with their students to ensure they feel respected, valued, and seen for who they are. Building those relationships helps them build community within the classroom and with each other, which is extremely important, she says.

"When we think about culture and diversity, people often automatically think about black students, but people need to think broader than that, now," Childers-McKee says. "Some teachers whose students are all white and middle-class struggle with how culturally responsive teaching strategies apply to them. It's equally important for them to teach students about diversity. These aren't just teaching strategies for minorities, they're good teaching strategies for everyone."

Educating for the Future

Educators have the unique power to impact the lives of their learners. Making use of thoughtful, inclusive instruction can have positive effects on students that last far beyond their time in the classroom.

Employing culturally responsive teaching strategies is a small step toward enacting meaningful change in education. If you're interested in leading your organization toward positive change on a larger scale, earning an advanced degree is one way to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.

Pursuing a degree, such as a Doctor of Education , will empower you to address the challenges currently facing education and improve the learning experience. Students of the program work with industry-aligned faculty on real-world organizational issues, allowing them to have an immediate impact on their professional environments.
To learn more about how an EdD can further your career while improving students' educational experiences, explore Northeastern's Doctor of Education program page, or download our free guide below.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: 5 Strategies for Educators

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Culturally responsive teaching values students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Here are five strategies to bring to the classroom.

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http://successfulacademics.com/BlackChildSEL/CRT.html

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Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' culturally references in all aspects of learning.

The significance of CRT is it provides framework and practical approach to instruct, make meaning, and discuss information in a way essential to relevant learning. CRT is a critical factor in what John Dewey (1938) describes as progressive education.
"Traditional education did not have to face this problem; it could systematically dodge this responsibility. The school environment of desks, blackboards, a small schoolyard, was supposed to suffice. There was no demand that the teacher should become intimately acquainted with the conditions of the local community, physical, historical, economic, occupational etc., in order to utilize them as educational resources. A system of education based upon the necessary connection of education with experience must.. take these things constantly into account. ... upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying."
Without CRT, a teacher cannot effective engage "the learner in the formation of the purposes" which is essential to "secure the active cooperation". Moreover, without purpose, a teacher should/cannot expect intelligence or discipline. In that, as Dewey suggested, intelligence is the ability to strategize to execute a purpose and discipline is the commitment to follow the strategy to execute purpose. Not only is "purpose" essential for intelligence and discipline, it is the core criterion for education. So much so, that Dewey warns that to not engage a student's sense of purpose the teacher is creating a slave (i.e. someone who is meant to execute the purposes of someone else).

7 Principles of Culturally Responsive Practices: (1) Communication of High Expectations; (2) Active Learning and Teaching Methods; (3)Student strengths are Identified and Nurtured; (4) Inclusion of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse teaching strategies; (5) Cultural Sensitivity; (6) Supportive Learning Environment Reflecting the Cultures of all Children; and (7) Small Group Instruction.

Specifically, when working with African American students, to be Culturally Responsive Teacher (i.e. to use CRT strategies), one must use African-centered philosophies and techniques.

Culturally Responsive Teaching "look fors"

1. Intellectual humility - a demonstrated willingness to ask questions instead of make assumptions; particularly in regard to another person lived experiences. Intellectual humility requires active listening. It requires a willingness to be informed by another's narrative and by the facts, rather than rely on one's own opinions.

2. Cultural competency - The procession of specific knowledge of and the skills to engage a unique community of people. In particular, knowledge of intragroup and intergroup power and privilege dynamics. Furthermore, process the skills necessary to negotiate and strategize interaction between the aforementioned groups in order to promote and facilitate equity and social justice.

3. Authentic Voice - Opportunities to express lived experiences and perspectives. Moreover, expressions are possible in varied forms; and, such expressions inform pedagogy in policy and practice. Additionally, students have opportunity to critique the prevailing narrative and its representative symbols of such narrative, and transform and/or replace them.

4. Representation - The presence of people, images, symbols, and values of the heritage of the students; to include family, neighborhood, ethnic group, nationality, cultural, and the child him/her self. These people, images, symbols, and values must visible in the classroom and curriculum.

Culturally Responsive Teaching facilitates rigor by supporting teachers getting the "permission to push" from students and their families/communities
Additional Resources:
John Dewey (1938) Experience & Education The Seven Principles of Culturally Responsive Teaching - Gary Howard Culturally Responsive Pyramid Model Practices Five Steps to Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching All Students Equitably Edutopia - Culturally Responsive Teaching Culturally Responsive Teaching: 4 Misconceptions Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching A Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practice Resources for Culturally Relevant Teaching ...https://www.avid.org/CRTresources
Lathardus Goggins II (1996) makes a compelling argument for African centered rites of passage as a factor for positive academic success. Goggins examines the relationship between socialization and the learning process. His analysis is drawn from an extensive literature review of noted scholars and narratives from people involved in the rites process. Goggins frames his discussion with the following questions: 1.How is sense of self dealt within rites of passage, and specifically within African Centered Rites of Passage?; 2. What is the theory regarding the construction of self and its relationship to the educative experience?; 3. What are the operating assumptions about "educating" African Americans?; and 4. In what ways does the rites of passage process influence the educative experience?

Goggins provides an in-depth discussion on the educative process, formation of purpose and discipline, and the tragedy of parental and community non-involvement in educating African American students. He concludes that regardless of funding, teachers, and the latent values in the surrounding environment, African American students can obtain positive academic success. [ available on Amazon]
What does it mean to be African-centered?
Africana Cultural Resources [ click here]

/

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Culturally Responsive Teaching - Lathardus Goggins II, Ed.D.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' culturally references in all aspects of learning. The significance of CRT is it provides framework and practical approach to instruct, make meaning, and discuss information in a way essential to relevant learning.

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https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/

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Over the past few decades, students, their experiences, upbringings, and backgrounds have changed. Classrooms now reflect families of varying races, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses. As a result, the way teachers educate these students must change, too, says Cherese Childers-McKee, assistant teaching professor in Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies. One of these shifting approaches to education is known as culturally responsive teaching.

Below, we explore the concept of culturally responsive teaching, compare it against traditional teaching models, and offer a number of strategies that you can use to incorporate the approach into your own methods.

Download Our Free Guide to Earning Your EdD

Learn how an EdD can give you the skills to enact organizational change in any industry.

What is culturally responsive teaching?

Culturally responsive teaching, also called culturally relevant teaching, is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Traditional teaching strategies emphasize the teacher-student dynamic: The teacher is the expert and adheres strictly to the curriculum that supports standardized tests while the student receives the knowledge. This teaching method is outdated, Childers-McKee says.

"Teachers have more diverse classrooms today. We don't have students sitting in front of us with the same background or experience, so instruction has to be different," she says. "It needs to build on individual and cultural experiences and their prior knowledge. It needs to be justice-oriented and reflect the social context we're in now. That's what we mean when we talk about culturally responsive teaching."

Culturally Responsive vs. Traditional Teaching Methods

Culturally responsive teaching can manifest in a number of ways. Using traditional teaching methods, educators may default to teaching literature by widely accepted classic authors: William Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger, and Charles Dickens, for example, adhering to widely accepted interpretations of the text.

Culturally responsive teaching, on the other hand, acknowledges that there's nothing wrong with traditional texts, Childers-McKee says, but strives to include literature from other cultures, parts of the world, and by diverse authors. It also focuses on finding a "hook and anchor" to help draw students into the content using their past experiences.

"This way, students can see themselves in some of what they're reading and not just the white, western world. The learning is more experimental, more hands-on," she says. "Instead, you're showing them a worldwide, multicultural community and looking for different interpretations while relating it to what it means for society today."

Why is culturally responsive teaching important?

Culturally responsive teaching is especially pertinent today because the traditional education path from school to college to a career and life in the suburbs isn't a reality-or desire-for everyone, Childers-McKee says. Educators' approaches to teaching need to reflect these differences.

"That typical, mainstream education is not addressing the realities of today's students. Culturally responsive teaching isn't just for those students who don't come from white, middle-class, English-speaking families-it's an important teaching strategy for everyone. When done the right way, it can be transformative."

When integrated into classroom instruction, culturally responsive strategies can have important benefits such as:

Strengthening students' sense of identity

Promoting equity and inclusivity in the classroom

Engaging students in the course material

Supporting critical thinking

Here's a look at five culturally responsive teaching strategies all educators can employ in their classrooms.

5 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for Educators

1. Activate students' prior knowledge.

Students are not blank slates, Childers-McKee says; they enter the classroom with diverse experiences. Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning. Taking a different approach to the literature that's taught in classrooms is one example of this.

2. Make learning contextual.

Tie lessons from the curriculum to the students' social communities to make it more contextual and relevant, Childers-McKee advises. "If you're reading a chapter in history class, for example, discuss why it matters today, in your school, or in your community," she says. "Take the concept you're learning about and create a project that enables them to draw parallels."

3. Encourage students to leverage their cultural capital.

Because not all students come from the same background, it's important to encourage those who don't to have a voice. Say, for example, you teach an English class that contains ESL students. It's important to find ways to activate the experiences they do have-their cultural capital, Childers-McKee says.

The teacher may choose a book for the class to read in which the ESL students could relate and feel like they could be the expert, for instance. As a teacher, Childers-Mckee's once chose a book that told the story of a child of migrant workers because some of her students came from an agricultural background.

"When you have a mixed classroom, you want those in the minority to feel like they are an expert. You want to draw from their experiences," she says. "I do caution that you don't want to cross a line and make 'Johnny' feel like he needs to speak for all Mexican people by putting them on the spot, for example. That's a line you need to walk."

4. Reconsider your classroom setup.

Take inventory of the books in your classroom library: Do they include authors of diverse races? Is the LGBTQ community represented? Do the books include urban families or only suburban families? Beyond your classroom library, consider the posters you display on your walls and your bulletin boards, too. "These are all small changes you can make to your classroom more culturally responsive," Childers-McKee says.

5. Build relationships.

Not all students want to learn from all teachers because the teachers may not make them feel like they're valued, Childers-McKee says. Teachers need to work to build relationships with their students to ensure they feel respected, valued, and seen for who they are. Building those relationships helps them build community within the classroom and with each other, which is extremely important, she says.

"When we think about culture and diversity, people often automatically think about black students, but people need to think broader than that, now," Childers-McKee says. "Some teachers whose students are all white and middle-class struggle with how culturally responsive teaching strategies apply to them. It's equally important for them to teach students about diversity. These aren't just teaching strategies for minorities, they're good teaching strategies for everyone."

Educating for the Future

Educators have the unique power to impact the lives of their learners. Making use of thoughtful, inclusive instruction can have positive effects on students that last far beyond their time in the classroom.

Employing culturally responsive teaching strategies is a small step toward enacting meaningful change in education. If you're interested in leading your organization toward positive change on a larger scale, earning an advanced degree is one way to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.

Pursuing a degree, such as a Doctor of Education , will empower you to address the challenges currently facing education and improve the learning experience. Students of the program work with industry-aligned faculty on real-world organizational issues, allowing them to have an immediate impact on their professional environments.
To learn more about how an EdD can further your career while improving students' educational experiences, explore Northeastern's Doctor of Education program page, or download our free guide below.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: 5 Strategies for Educators

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Culturally responsive teaching values students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Here are five strategies to bring to the classroom.

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Learning who your students are. Use student friendly vocab

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Learning who your students are. Use student friendly vocab

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Learning who your students are. Use student friendly vocab

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Learning who your students are. Use student friendly vocab

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One of the biggest reasons teachers don't do CRT is because "they don't have time" and "need to focus on curriculum." Doing block scheduling allows us to have more time, and incorporate  activities like this on a regular basis (especially in our Friday days!) While CRT isn't just about activities like this, there's now no reason not to incorporate them, or think about similar activities as part of the lesson plan.

--AD and AE

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: Examples, Strategies & Activities for Success

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Need to engage your diverse classroom? Try using these 15 culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples, complete with a downloadable list.

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Culturally relevant ideas in physical education/health

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This news article brings up strategies for making material in classroom more relevant to different races and cultures. A block schedule would allow for more time to integrate varying strategies.

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The HipHopEd co-creator Christopher Emdin, left, in the sound studio with Isaiah Mitchell and Andre McCarthy, two Brooklyn Preparatory students who participated in the Science Genius program last year. Credit... Elias Williams for The New York Times

Some educators are experimenting with their approaches to teaching to make course materials more relevant to various cultures and communities.

The HipHopEd co-creator Christopher Emdin, left, in the sound studio with Isaiah Mitchell and Andre McCarthy, two Brooklyn Preparatory students who participated in the Science Genius program last year. Credit... Elias Williams for The New York Times

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This article is part of our latest Learning special report. We're focusing on Generation Z, which is facing challenges from changing curriculums and new technology to financial aid gaps and homelessness.
In high schools across the country, there have traditionally been a set of curriculum guidelines that teachers are hesitant to disturb.

But as the population in the United States becomes more ethnically and racially diverse, re-educating teachers about how to be aware of the cultural differences in their communities has been gaining traction.

Some educators are experimenting with new approaches of teaching to motivate studentsand to examine concepts like racism, social justice, inequality and discrimination. These teachers are reimagining and shifting conventional curriculums to reflect their more diverse student bodies.

At the forefront are teachers like Christopher Emdin, 40, a science educator and the author of "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood ... and the Rest of Y'all Too." He has been a leader in the #HipHopEd initiative, which integrates urban youth culture with learning. The Science Genius program, for example, uses hip-hop music and rhymes in teaching science.

Mr. Emdin - who said he did not like school growing up - co-founded an initiative in 2012 with the rapper GZA to use hip-hop to teach science in 10 New York City public schools. It is about "remixing education," he said.

Today, he advises educators on ways to incorporate these techniques into their classrooms. "Writing these raps, poems over beats, is a way of giving students' voice," he said.

Louis Tavares, 17, a senior at Brooklyn Prep, said hip-hop motivated him to learn. "Before hip-hop, I would go to school and not really look forward to learning," he said. But now with hip-hop, he said, "It brings a certain type of vibe to the classroom."

Teaching Tolerance, the education arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has produced social justice teaching standards that many teachers are using, from kindergarten through high school, to guide curriculum development.

"We are beginning to address race and racism explicitly in the classroom," said Lecia Brooks, a former teacher and a member of the senior leadership team of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "We are letting go of the false notion that it is too heavy, too much for children to talk about it head on."

The change has been gradual. One factor: Teachers are still predominantly white even as the student population grows increasingly diverse, she said. While students of color are expected to make up 56 percent of the nation's elementary and secondary public schools by 2024, 82 percent of public schoolteachers identify as white, according to a report by the United States Department of Education.

That figure has barely changed in more than 15 years. And only 7 percent of the nation's public schoolteachers are black.

"It is such a hard nut to crack because the education system is so steeped in bureaucracy," Ms. Brooks said. "We have had pushback from administrators, who have seen our Teaching Tolerance materials as too radical, or too progressive."

For Ms. Brooks, it is a sweeping shift that needs to roll out. "We believe in decolonizing the curriculum," she said. "It can't just be confined to language arts, or a holiday, or a month."

Image

Lorena Germán teaches at Headwaters School in Austin, Tex. Credit... Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

Ms. Germán, who came to the United States as a child, teaches at the Headwaters School in Austin, Tex. She said she experienced classroom racism as a child in Lawrence, Mass. "They wanted to bring us into a classroom that required us to dismiss our way of being in order to assimilate - as if ours had no value," she said.

She rebelled. "I was a menace," she said. "My chemistry teacher, for instance, would not speak to me or respond when I raised my hand."

Today, after nearly two decades as an educator, she practices "activism every day in the classroom," she said. "This is not about politics. This is about working toward social justice. I am constantly asking myself how I can model that thoughtfully in my classroom."

Ms. Germán's ninth-grade students, for example, study graffiti and debate questions such as: Is it vandalism? Where does it come from? What does it mean? What does it contribute to society? Does it count as text? Is there a message there?

The students read Gene Luen Yang's " American Born Chinese," a graphic novel that centers on issues of conformity, issues of identity, particularly around race, she explained. "The discussions get pretty heavy."

"My students are really engaged with the content," Ms. Germán said. "Over and over, they comment on how modern it is. What they are saying is that it's very relevant to their lives."

She is also a member of #EduColor, a platform that "seeks to elevate the voices of public school advocates of color on educational equity and justice," according to its website.

In 2018, she co-founded #DisruptTexts to help "teachers build a community and find alternatives to the white male-dominated literary canon," she said.

Tricia Ebarvia, whose parents immigrated from the Philippines, also helped found #DisruptTexts. She teaches AP English Language and Literature at Conestoga High School, outsidePhiladelphia. "Part of the work I have been doing is grounded in a deep belief in public education as being a transformative tool for social justice and for democracy," she said. "That's why I went into teaching."

As an Asian-American, Ms. Ebarvia was "socialized in a white culture," she said. "Through all of my K-through-12 education, I never read a text that addressed my racial identity. I internalized that, to be considered well read, I needed to read Shakespeare and Tolstoy and Nathaniel Hawthorne - all the traditional greats. So initially, I taught those kinds of texts."

"But I have worked against that in my classroom over the years," she said. "For example, my 10th-grade class is reading '1984' by George Orwell as part of our required curriculum. My goal, though, is to study truth. What does Orwell, this white British man, have to say about truth, what is the perspective he is coming from with people in power trying to oppress others?"

Students understand there are big problems in the world. "They want to be able to have an informed conversation," Ms. Ebarvia said. "School is a place we can have these conversations and establish a habit of seeking multiple perspectives."

The cultural classroom change is happening, but it is far from mainstream. Ms. Ebarvia said that there could be pushback among teachers but that was also encouraged by the growing number of those willing to engage in conversations about how to educate a new diverse generation.

To re-educate herself, Ms. Ebarvia is continually looking at racism in her own life. "To teach, I must do that self-reflection, and that's hard work," she said.

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Bringing a New Vibe to the Classroom (Published 2020)

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Some educators are experimenting with their approaches to teaching to make course materials more relevant to various cultures and communities. The HipHopEd co-creator Christopher Emdin, left, in the sound studio with Isaiah Mitchell and Andre McCarthy, two Brooklyn Preparatory students who participated in the Science Genius program last year. Credit...

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making connections to cultures, language, life experiences and school. -https://www.understood.org/articles/en/what-is-culturally-responsive-teaching

unique, variety of experiences, student centered learning, pronounce names correctly, communication is key! -https://ncte.org/blog/2018/01/culturally-responsive-teaching-todays-classrooms/

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Culturally Responsive Teaching in Today’s Classrooms

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Valentina Gonzalez offers a number of recommendations to ensure a culturally responsive classroom and respecting each student’s unique culture.

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Educators today hear a lot about gaps in education - achievement gaps, funding gaps, school-readiness gaps. Still, there's another gap that often goes unexamined: the cultural gap between students and teachers.

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Educators today hear a lot about gaps in education - achievement gaps, funding gaps, school-readiness gaps. Still, there's another gap that often goes unexamined: the cultural gap between students and teachers.

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When kids enjoy reading titles with characters who look like them, it helps form a connection to the book on another level. Identifying with the characters in a story allows for a deeper comprehension of the text because kids are making these kinds of self connections. This enables kids to demonstrate a growth mindset because they are able to see characters in stories who look like them and believe they are able to achieve the same strides.  

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When kids enjoy reading titles with characters who look like them, it helps form a connection to the book on another level. Identifying with the characters in a story allows for a deeper comprehension of the text because kids are making these kinds of self connections. This enables kids to demonstrate a growth mindset because they are able to see characters in stories who look like them and believe they are able to achieve the same strides.  

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https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/why-its-important-kids-to-see-themselves-books.html#:~:text=It%20allows%20for%20connections%20to,these%20kinds%20of%20self%20connections.

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Why It’s Important for Kids to See Themselves in Books

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Discover three important reasons to choose books with characters who resemble your child.

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Promotes cooperative learning and smaller group lessons.  More time on task would also limit daily homework.  More time to compare and contrast various culture perspectives on the lesson https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/what-is-block-scheduling/

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Not all schools adhere to the same scheduling systems. Between the wide array of online schools to traditional schools, there are different possibilities within education for how to manage students' and teachers' time. If you've ever heard of the term "block schedule" and wondered, "What is block scheduling?" we are about to shed light on everything you need to know about this scheduling method.

What is Block Scheduling?

Block scheduling is a way of designing classroom schedules for students. It means that students will have fewer classes per day, but the subjects will be on a rotation.

Block rotation is typically practiced more so in middle and high schools than in elementary school. This is because elementary schools generally have one teacher for all subjects and are not broken into periods.

Block Scheduling Examples

What does block scheduling vs traditional scheduling look like? Here's how it works!

Traditional Schedule

A traditional schedule is typically set up such that students have 50 minutes of class time per subject, per day. With about 180 days of each class, it results in 9,000 minutes of total class time.

Traditional Block Schedule

A traditional block schedule is set up so that a student can attend the same four classes every day for 90 days. For the second semester (remaining 90 days), the student attends a different set of 4 classes every day. This means that with 90 minutes per class for 90 days, a student will receive 8,100 minutes of each class by the end of the year.

A/B Block Schedule

Rather than dividing the block schedule by semesters, some schools may opt for an A/B block schedule structure, in which classes rotate by day. For example, on Mondays and Wednesdays (Block A), students may have: Geometry, History, English, and Biology. Then, on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Block B), they'll have: Economics, Computers, PE, and Spanish. The schedule will rotate each Friday between Block A and Block B.

Pros of Block Scheduling

There are numerous benefits of block scheduling. Some of the most notable are:

1. Promotes Cooperative Learning

Block scheduling means that teachers can take advantage of smaller group lessons more frequently. With smaller groups, collaborative learning can take place more easily.

2. Quality Time

Teachers will see fewer students over the course of the day. This means that teachers can build closer bonds with students and get to know their individual learning needs more deeply.

3. More Focus

Students have less classes per day, which means they can remain more focused on their subjects.

4. Less Daily Homework

Since students have less classes per day, it can translate into less homework per day. When students have less daily homework, they have more time to pursue their interests, hone their skills, and even reduce stress levels through relaxation methods.

5. Individualized Teaching

All students have different ways of learning that works best for them. When class sessions are longer, it can give the teachers the time needed to work closer with each student and address their needs.

6. Longer Planning Periods

When there are less classes per day and semester, teachers have longer planning periods to develop their curriculum.

Cons of Block Scheduling

1. Loss of Continuity

If schools elect an A/B block schedule, then a student's schedule is changing on the daily. This could cause a loss in continuity for their learning as they will only revisit the same subject after a day's delay.

2. Greater Loss If Absent

When students are out sick for a day, they may miss more in a block schedule than a traditional schedule. This is because classes are longer, so the day's lesson may actually be like missing two lessons rather than one.

3. Too Fast

Since students have less days of each subject, the curriculum may feel sped up. This could hurt some students who find it difficult to keep up with the pace.

What Does Research Say?

While it's hard to say one way is better than another, some studies have found that block scheduling is ineffective. Some research has shown that students in the block schedule format have scored lower in science, biology, physics, and chemistry.

Block schedules may be harder on students because of the pace and lack of continuity. For teachers, it means developing longer lesson plans that should be compressed in a shorter amount of days.

Effects of Block Scheduling

Beyond students and teachers, block scheduling has even more far-reaching effects:

Culture: Both students and teachers may feel initial stress at the thought of introducing a block schedule. However, after it becomes the new normal, the culture within the school can be more relaxed.

Performance: The 4×4 (traditional block schedule) has proven to have better performance results for students when compared to the A/B block schedule.

Retention: The traditional block schedule can cause an issue for students in AP classes who have to take AP tests at the end of the year. If they have an AP class in their first semester, but only take the test at the end of the semester, the results have shown they do more poorly than students who have traditional school schedules.

Considerations: The best way to implement a block schedule is to have the buy-in from teachers and parents. One way to do this is to allow them both into the decision-making process.

Lesson Plans: Many teachers may require assistance to develop block schedules. Having long class times may require different activities during the same class period. Successful implementation means that teachers have the right support to create engaging lesson plans.

Best Practices for Block Scheduling

To implement block scheduling successfully, consider these 6 best practices:

1. Don't lecture for 90 minutes straight - involve other activities and time for questions and feedback

2. Break up the class and even consider giving students time to do homework in class

3. Foster a culture of collaboration and peer learning

4. Switch activities every 15 or 20 minutes

5. Use a smart pacing guide

6. Overplan rather than underplan

More Out-of-the-Box Learning

Block scheduling is just one of many alternative methods of teaching and learning.

For students who are seeking to earn their higher education degree, but may have hurdles in doing so at a traditional college campus, consider online universities! Online universities like the University of the People offers degree-granting programs that are entirely online.

With tuition-free programs, students can design their own schedule of when and where to learn at a fraction of the cost of traditional colleges.

The Bottom Line: Inside or Outside the Box?

Every school and its respective administration has the right to choose whether or not a block schedule is the right way to go. While there are some obvious benefits of block scheduling, there are also downsides to its implementation.

Regardless of the schedule you have as a student or teacher, the ultimate best practice is to maintain open communication and ask for help when you need it!

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What Is Block Scheduling and Is It Effective? Pros and Cons

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Not all schools adhere to the same scheduling systems. Between the wide array of online schools to traditional schools, there are different possibilities within education for how to manage students' and teachers' time. If you've ever heard of the term "block schedule" and wondered, "What is block scheduling?"

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Block scheduling gives us extended time with our students. This means more time for them to read and explore content. This article helps us think about WHY students must to be able to find themselves reflected in the books they read.