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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br22BFA7bAg

As I was browsing I came across this TED talks on Bridging the Cultural Gap in the Classroom. He discuss that multicultural students want to learn, but classroom materials were not relatable to their own cultural experience.

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This writer shared what culturally responsive means and shared some tips on how to be culturally responsive. Hammond said, "Culturally responsive teaching is less about using racial pride as a motivator and more about mimicking students’ cultural learning styles and tools." I think a common misconception is that when we include race in our lesson that means we're being culturally responsive. However, as stated by Hammond there's more to it then race. Here is the link: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/

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Culturally & Linguistically Responsive Teaching

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Culturally & Linguistically Responsive Teaching

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Throughout these readings and the video, I kept thinking about a training I attended two years ago called SIOP. It was essentially a training to improve involvement of ELL students. There were many strategies introduced to make them feel more comfortable and included in the classroom while also teaching me to adapt lessons to meet their needs.

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Savvas Learning Company (formerly Pearson K12 Learning)

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Savvas Learning Company, formerly Pearson K12 Learning, creates K-12 education curriculum and next-generation learning solutions to improve student outcomes.

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As I was browsing, I came across this link for stratagies to use in the classroom for culturally responsive teaching. One thing that I feel often gets missed with some teachers is taking the time to get to know your students, their likes and dislikes. Just knowing the simple things about them and showing interest in their lives can change the classroom environment so much.

https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching/

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https://cadrek12.org/sites/default/files/Culturally%20Responsive%20STEM%20Education.pdf
I found this journal written in 2016. It is based on the roundtable discussion at a National Science foundation Meeting.

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After looking through resources I came across this list of 15 culturally responsive teaching strategies. What caught my eye first is that is it for Prodigy website, which is a math game. My students are pretty obsessed with it! I was surprised to find this article on this specific site. Along with providing the various teaching strategies, they also include examples for each one.

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All Posts

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

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

To augment their understanding and responsiveness, this involves:

Empowering students to share thoughts

Integrating diverse work and study practices

Understanding student learning needs and styles

Emulating culturally-significant instruction styles, such as oral storytelling

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

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

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

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

What is culturally responsive teaching?

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

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

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

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

Conditions for creating a culturally-responsive classroom

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

As you prepare and deliver any lesson, strive to:

Establish inclusion

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

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

Develop positive attitudes

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

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

Enhance meaning

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

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

Foster confidence

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

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

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

15 Culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples

1. Learn about your students

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

Distributing questionnaires, asking about interests

Handing out surveys, gathering information about learning styles

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

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

2. Interview students

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

Hobbies

Their favourite lessons and activities

Which kinds of exercises help them remember lessons and improve skills

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

3. Integrate relevant word problems

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

Including student names to make subject matter relatable

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

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

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

4. Present new concepts by using student vocabulary

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

5. Bring in guest speakers

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

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

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

6. Deliver different forms of content through learning stations

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

For example, students can rotate between stations that involve:

Playing a game

Creating artwork

Watching a video

Reading an article

Completing puzzles

Listening to you teach

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

7. Gamify lessons

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

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

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

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

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

8. Call on each student

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

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

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

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

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

9. Use media that positively depict a range of cultures

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

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

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

10. Offer different types of free study time

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

Provide audiobooks, which play material relevant to your lessons

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

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

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

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

11. Encourage students to propose ideas for projects

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

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

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

12. Experiment with peer teaching

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

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

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

13. Establish cooperative base groups

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

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

While working in base groups, students can:

Review lessons

Take on guided research

Address each other's questions

Complete in-class assessments

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

14. Run problem-based learning scenarios

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

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

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

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

Encouraging students to take historical, sociological and anthropological viewpoints

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

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

15. Involve parents by using take-home letters

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

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

Downloadable list of culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples

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

Interested in other teaching strategies to deploy in your classroom?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final thoughts about culturally-relevant pedagogy

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

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

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

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

Create your free teacher account

Create your free teacher account

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: Examples, Strategies & Activities for Success

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

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Teaching Channel Blog - Danielle Menear 

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Teaching Channel Blog - Danielle Menear 

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After reading through the resources for this module, I decided to do a little more digging. I came across a blog post on the Teaching Channel that spoke to me. I like how the author explained that sometimes people make the mistake of solely focusing on culture/diversity and they forget about the "responsive" aspect of culturally responsive teaching. An integral part is the relationships and bonds that lead to trust and understanding.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: It Begins with Responsiveness

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Early last fall, I had the opportunity to sit with a team of sixth grade teachers at a middle school serving a large number of low-income Latino and African American students. Many of those students were at least two grade levels behind in reading.

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As I worked my way through the seminar, I was able to think about how I have created a culturally responsive classroom. My first two years of teaching was in a Head Start classroom which taught me how to build relationships with families. As a teacher I was required to have 2 school conferences and 2 home visits a year. I got to know the parents or guardian really well and built a collaborative relationship with them. Some of my families didn't speak English, and their children had to ask as translators. When a family opens up their home and allows a teacher to get to know them and their family, you see a huge difference all around. From this experience, I learned how to communicate and build those relationships. Invitations to class events had about 98% parent participation. When a teacher invites the families into the classroom, and lets them know that the door is open, families are willing to share their culture. One family that I had in my first year of teaching Georgia Pre-K - was a family from Bosnia. The family spoke very little English- but I wanted to help their son. I started using Google translate to help my student. The parents knew that I had the best interest for their child.

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When I read and watched all of the material for this seminar, I reflected on my own teaching practice. When I think about my philosophy of education, I think that one of the most important beliefs is that of creating a classroom environment where students feel like they are important members of the community. Building relationships is crucial to me. I want to learn everything I can about my students. I view my classroom as a family. So I am in turn very open and I share about myself with my students. I feel like when students and teachers have a good relationship learning can happen because everyone is comfortable with one another. It also allows for me to set those high expectations because the students know that I care about them and believe in them or else I would never ask that from them. I showcase all students and allow for all culturally diverse students to share their knowledge and experiences. I just think it makes for a family of engaged learners. I was happy to learn that this is an integral part of implementing a Culturally Relevant Classroom.

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Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher

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Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher

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When viewing Seminar 2 information, I came across this video and loved it so much I wanted to share it with everyone.

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Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher

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“Just Not Interested” P. 21 - 23

This section of the text takes a closer look as to why females are not as interested in STEM careers as males.  Several rationalizations and studies are mentioned.  Some previous investigations, into this matter, show that culture could be a key factor in this situation.

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Here are some examples of CLR Science lessons.

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This workspace - all pages, files, comments etc - has been deleted. Please update your links and bookmarks. If you want another free public or private workspace, just click here to make your own!

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Chapter 10: Culturally Responsive Lessons for Students, K-5 - Culturally Responsive Classroom Management & Motivation Handbook

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This site is the home of a handbook written about culturally responsive classroom management and motivation. It was written by a graduate class at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the Fall of 2008.

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All Posts

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

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

To augment their understanding and responsiveness, this involves:

Empowering students to share thoughts

Integrating diverse work and study practices

Understanding student learning needs and styles

Emulating culturally-significant instruction styles, such as oral storytelling

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

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

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

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

What is culturally responsive teaching?

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

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

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

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

Conditions for creating a culturally-responsive classroom

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

As you prepare and deliver any lesson, strive to:

Establish inclusion

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

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

Develop positive attitudes

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

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

Enhance meaning

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

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

Foster confidence

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

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

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

15 Culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples

1. Learn about your students

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

Distributing questionnaires, asking about interests

Handing out surveys, gathering information about learning styles

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

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

2. Interview students

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

Hobbies

Their favourite lessons and activities

Which kinds of exercises help them remember lessons and improve skills

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

3. Integrate relevant word problems

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

Including student names to make subject matter relatable

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

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

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

4. Present new concepts by using student vocabulary

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

5. Bring in guest speakers

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

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

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

6. Deliver different forms of content through learning stations

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

For example, students can rotate between stations that involve:

Playing a game

Creating artwork

Watching a video

Reading an article

Completing puzzles

Listening to you teach

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

7. Gamify lessons

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

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

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

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

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

8. Call on each student

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

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

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

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

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

9. Use media that positively depict a range of cultures

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

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

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

10. Offer different types of free study time

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

Provide audiobooks, which play material relevant to your lessons

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

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

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

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

11. Encourage students to propose ideas for projects

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

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

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

12. Experiment with peer teaching

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

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

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

13. Establish cooperative base groups

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

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

While working in base groups, students can:

Review lessons

Take on guided research

Address each other's questions

Complete in-class assessments

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

14. Run problem-based learning scenarios

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

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

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

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

Encouraging students to take historical, sociological and anthropological viewpoints

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

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

15. Involve parents by using take-home letters

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

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

Downloadable list of culturally-responsive teaching strategies and examples

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

Interested in other teaching strategies to deploy in your classroom?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final thoughts about culturally-relevant pedagogy

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

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

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

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

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: Examples, Strategies & Activities for Success

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

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Practice Brief 53 -- Topics: Instruction Equity Background Culture ESPAÑOL

How to avoid possible pitfalls associated with culturally responsive instruction

Teachers should learn how to engage in culturally responsive and sustaining instruction-but avoid possible pitfalls that come with this important work.

District Staff & PD Providers should focus professional learning experiences on building the cultural competencies and knowledge of teachers. They should involve community members and support relationship building.

School Leaders should institutionalize support for teachers to learn about and attend to the cultural lives of youth and communities being served.

What Is The Issue?

All science learning is a cultural process. For the purposes of equity, it is crucial for science teaching to make meaningful connections to the cultural knowledge, experiences, and ways of knowing of students and their communities. However, it is complex work and involves avoiding possible complications and prevalent myths. Culturally responsive and sustaining instruction should attend to the historical and dynamic nature of culture, inherent variation within cultural communities, and issues of power and sovereignty that come with responsibly connecting to culture.

Authors:

PHILIP BELL, ALBERTO J. RODRIGUEZ, CARRIE TZOU & DEB MORRISON | FEBRUARY 2018

Reflection Questions

Read below about culture. Identify communities you belong to related to the natural world.

What do you know about the youth and communities you serve? How can you learn about their cultural history and goals?

How can you work to "overlap" your curriculum with the lives of youth in respectful ways?

Things to Consider

Avoid Essentializing Cultural Groups. Do not assume entire cultural groups engage in certain behaviors-or share values and worldviews. Within every cultural group, there may be some cultural regularities (practices, values, and worldviews), but there will also be variation. Cultural groups also change over time.

We are All Cultural Beings. Do not send the message that the dominant culture has no culture (e.g., that it is "normal" and that only people of color "have culture"). Each of us belongs to multiple communities that share practices, purposes, ways of interacting, and approaches to conceptualizing and engaging with the world.

Defining "Culture"

"By 'culture,' we mean the constellations of practices communities have historically developed and dynamically shaped in order to accomplish the purposes they value, including the tools they use, social networks with which they are connected, ways they organize joint activity, and their ways of conceptualizing and engaging with the world."

- Nasir, Rosebery, Warren & Lee, 2014

Attending to Equity

Review this video presentation by Alberto J. Rodriguez (Rodriquez, 2017).

Culturally Responsive vs. Sustaining Pedagogy: Instruction can be culturally responsive by connecting to the cultural lives of youth and their communities-their languages, literacies, and practices. It can also be a context for sustaining cultural communities-by valuing and working to maintain the languages, literacies, and practices of cultural communities. Culturally sustaining pedagogy promotes cultural pluralism within our democracy.

Recommended Actions You Can Take

Build on Prior Interest & Identity. Learn how to use self-documentation techniques to identify and leverage local, dynamic views of cultural life in culturally responsive science instruction.

Move Beyond Token Cultural References. Do not make token references to the history of cultural groups. Do not include unrealistic scenarios about non-dominant communities in instruction. Instead, interweave the history, present, and future of cultural groups deeply throughout instruction.

Work Against the Savior Fetish. Narratives often position members of a dominant culture as saviors, rescuers, and fixers of non-dominant communities. Instead focus on: How are non-dominant communities already effecting change? How can non-dominant perspectives and knowledge contribute to the betterment of society?

Do Not Position Students as Cultural Representatives, but Welcome their Voices. Do not ask students to shoulder the burden of representing what "their culture" is like. No individual speaks for their culture, race, or gender. Do support students to share aspects of their lived cultural experiences in ways they are comfortable.

Invite Genuine Cultural Contributions from Students. Building on the cultural funds of knowledge of youth and communities is a best practice. But if you do so, be prepared to truly engage and respect their varied contributions.

Minimize Epistemic Injury. Fully embrace relevant sensemaking routines students bring to instruction. Do not adversely position their contributions against a Western science way of knowing.

Support Students in Taking Meaningful Action. Scientific knowledge can be used to guide and promote social progress, community interests, and civic action. Support student agency in efforts to critically and meaningfully engage in real-world issues.

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This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Research + Practice Collaboratory (Award #1238253). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Others may adapt with attribution. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

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How to avoid possible pitfalls associated with culturally responsive instruction : StemTeachingTools (en-US)

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Practice Brief 53 -- Topics: Instruction Equity Background Culture ESPAÑOL Teachers should learn how to engage in culturally responsive and sustaining instruction-but avoid possible pitfalls that come with this important work. District Staff & PD Providers should focus professional learning experiences on building the cultural competencies and knowledge of teachers.

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A MiddleWeb Blog

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a current buzzword in education. And you know what? As an ambassador for English Language Learners, I'm going to capitalize on this momentum.

First, let's make sure we have a common understanding of the term. There's nothing more frustrating than someone saying, "let's be more culturally responsive" or "teach with more rigor" but not really defining what that means.

There are many definitions for CRT. To sum them up, CRT is teaching that takes the experiences and assets of the students and uses them to enrich the curriculum. Rather than taking the curriculum and trying to fit it into the students' lives, CRT reverses this mindset.

Culturally Responsive Teaching
What it is...
♦ assets based
♦ student centered
♦ values native languages, cultures, and experiences of students
♦ challenges and supports students
What it is not...
♦ strategies
♦ curriculum
♦ only for some students
♦ watered down lessons

When we take a culturally responsive stance in our classrooms, students will respond by having a lower affective filter. Their walls of fear and anxiety will come down. When students feel safe and comfortable to learn, they will be capable of learning more in their content classrooms. Their cognitive and linguistic development will progress at a faster rate.

A classroom or campus that is culturally responsive believes that the students who learn in their building enrich the building with their cultures and backgrounds. These teachers want students to share their cultures, traditions, and languages with the class. Students feel safe and secure, self-confident and proud of their individuality. Instead of feeling they have to shed their native language, culture, and traditions, students feel empowered by their uniqueness.

CRT embraces differences and creates an environment where all learners are valued. CRT is not about eating tacos once a year to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It is everyday practices that embrace the cultures of all students no matter where they come from, what language they speak, or what color their skin may be.

How does this happen?
1. In order to be assets based, the teacher must get to know the students beyond the permanent record folder.
Building relationships will ensure that the teacher knows how much literacy the student has in their native language and what types of experiences they have had. Using what they know builds self-confidence and empowers students.

ELLs and students who struggle benefit from feeling that they come with useful knowledge. If a student knows a lot about families who make a living from the sea, we can use that to help them progress. Knowing students' likes/dislikes, hobbies, and family life to help make connections with learning proves beneficial.
2. Keeping students at the center of learning is key to success.
Remember that we teach students the curriculum and not vice versa. Cooperative learning, project based learning (PBL), and student choice will help students develop and accelerate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. With PBL, we can take our students' assets (what the students know well) and use them to help drive learning.

For example, if a student has a curiosity for rain forests and would like to research them because there were many in his native country, this may be a good topic for him. When students have choice in learning, an environment is created where students feel that their learning is valued. In addition, placing student work on the classroom walls and including signs in other languages helps to build an inclusive, accepting community.
3. Valuing a student's native language gives them power and a sense of assurance that it's okay to speak a language other than English.
Feeling that you have to shed your native culture and language is one of the worst feelings ever. Letting our students know that what they have is something special and unique is important. They need to hear it from their teachers. We are influential role models in their lives and when we verbalize this to them, it means something.

We can value their native language by learning a few key words and using them in the class. Words like hello, how are you, bye, seasons, days of the week, etc. Encouraging students to speak in their native language helps build empathy and models for English-only students that we value and accept other languages.

Recently I was visiting with a few teachers and had a great conversation about the importance of allowing and encouraging students to read books in their native language. Not only does supporting ELLs to read in their native language build a foundation for their target language, it also sends students a clear message that we appreciate their culture and identity.

As with encouraging ELLs to speak their native language, reading their languages builds their self-esteem and confidence as a bilingual student. And for our monolingual students, it sends a message that we embrace and invite other cultures into our classrooms and lives.
4. We have to remember that not knowing English (yet) is not an indicator of intelligence level.
For instance, I don't know Korean (yet - maybe one day I'll decide to learn it), but I would not want my intelligence judged on how much Korean I can read, speak, write, or listen to.

That being said, if I did go to Korea as a grade school student, I would want to learn grade level curriculum. I certainly wouldn't want my teacher to give me coloring sheets. ELLs are entitled to equal access to grade level curriculum using scaffolds and accommodations to support their current linguistic needs.

It is up to us as educators to learn more about how to effectively instruct ELLs. If we are not meeting their needs, it is not something they are doing wrong. We have to look at our practices and reflect.

Unfortunately, pre-service teachers receive very little training on serving ELLs, and much of the learning happens hands-on when we get our first classrooms. It's up to us and the districts where we work to ensure that we continue to develop the skills required to meet the diverse needs of our changing population.

Our ELLs need us to set high expectations for them. They are expecting us to expect much of them. We have to remember that they are just as capable of achieving as all of our monolingual students. ELLs may be carrying a heavier workload because they are learning English along with learning a new culture and new content, but they have dreams and hopes like every child. We must set high goals for them as well.

Creating opportunities for each of our students to shine

Fostering a classroom that is culturally responsive and builds community doesn't happen on a whim. As educators, we have to be intentional about creating opportunities for each of our students to shine. Planning intentionally the books we will share, the stories we will talk about, the vocabulary, the grouping arrangements...all of this takes time, effort and thoughtful energy by the teacher who is empathetic to the needs of the students and understands the impact a culturally responsive classroom can make.

The bottom line is always the same - the student comes first.

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How to Create Culturally Responsive Classrooms

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A MiddleWeb Blog Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a current buzzword in education. And you know what? As an ambassador for English Language Learners, I'm going to capitalize on this momentum. First, let's make sure we have a common understanding of the term.