Cultural Responsiveness

1. Affective Domain - sense of comfort

2. Background knowledge 

3. Facilitates brain processing which builds intellective capacity

4. Opportunity to develop an awareness from another culture

1. Include references to student’s culture when appropriate.

2. Use media that depicts a wide variety of cultures in a positive light.

3. Invite families to share part of their cultural heritage through music, stories (books or oral), photos, cultural artifacts or presentations.

4. Be sensitive to students’ cultural norms by offering alternative activities and assessments that do not require the student to speak in front of the class.

5. Support students in their cultural and religious celebrations, such as wishing them well on feast days, but not asking specific questions that may place the student in the awkward position of disclosing tribal privileged information.
   (Feast Days Calendar: https://indianpueblo.org/feast-days/)

6. Incorporate collaborative activities in addition to ones that foster competition as some cultures focus on group harmony rather than individual success.

7. Learn a greeting or phrase in that child’s language. If the child is Native American, be sure to consult parents as many tribal languages are considered sacred and not to be shared.

8. Use names or places from that child’s culture when giving examples, designing word problems or creating assignments.

9. Be careful of taboos from that child’s culture such as owls (puebloan cultures) or snakes (Navajo). Consult the family or your EL teacher to see if there are topics to avoid.

10. Allow the child to share aspects of his/her culture with the class if he/she would like to. Sometimes students want to explain cultural differences or dispel stereotypes explicitly.

11. Students may live in a multigenerational household with nightly family obligations that could make it stressful to complete an assignment over night. Consider granting an extension if asked.

12. Allow students to decline any food offered for class or birthday celebrations. There may be dietary restrictions the child is concerned about.

13. Incorporate language objectives when designing lessons. Use aspects of SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Operated Protocol) lesson template.

14. Link new learning to students' previous cultural experiences.

Bulthuis 2020

• Use “study buddy”/peer tutor in class

• Partner work for reading in class

• Allow opportunity to verbalize information read or discuss with a peer before doing an assignment

• Partner work for writing in class

• Structure shared experiences in school, extracurricular activities

• Teach friendship, sharing, negotiating skills

• Seat student carefully in relation to dynamics of class

• Explain/Simplify classroom procedures, expectations one-on-one as needed

• Assign student to group work carefully, in helpful group that will work, not socialize

• Make extra effort at parent contact, home language/easier English letters/invitation home, etc.

• Include references to student’s culture when possible, opportunities for student/family to share

LAPS 2020