Culturally Responsive Teaching

About

Here you will find tools to help design culturally responsive lessons.

Culturally responsive lessons can transform the classroom experience to be more inclusive than would traditional lessons and can promote student academic achievement.

Below is an outline of resources and ideas on how to incorporate culturally responsive teaching into the classroom. Click on section topics to learn more.

Outline

What Is Culturally Responsive Teaching?

How to Get Started

1) Understand Key Components of Culturally Responsive Teaching

2) Observe and Reflect

3) Reshape the Curriculum

4) Implement

4) Review and Reflect

Literature on Culturally Responsive Teaching

Readings

What Is Culturally Responsive Teaching?

Definition

Teaching to and through students' personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments.

Source

Overview with Implementation Examples:

Key Takeaways

1) Promote a growth mindset.

2) Communicate that everyone can be good at Math.

3) Facilitate a sense of community.

How to Get Started

The following sections provide an overview of culturally responsive teaching and examples on how it can be implemented.

1) Understand Key Components of Culturally Responsive Teaching

The following are some key terms and a selection of important definitions that inform culturally responsive teaching.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Independent vs. Dependent Learning

Growth Mindset

“Students with a fixed mindset are more likely to give up easily, whereas students with a growth mindset keep going even when work is hard and are persistent…”

Source: Boaler, Jo. Mathematical Mindsets : Unleashing Students' Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015.

2) Observe and Reflect

Observing current classroom culture and teaching practices can help highlight opportunities to incorporate culturally responsive teaching.

The following are some example questions to facilitate reflection.

3) Reshape the Curriculum

Below are some sample culturally responsive activities.

Classroom Culture

1) Encourages students to build community by sharing about themselves at the beginning of class (Instructors too!)

2) Invites students to identify as a Math person, setting the tone for a growth mindset.

Growth Mindset

1) Teaches students that mistakes are learning opportunities, not the end of the world.

2) Exemplifies how students can rephrase self-talk to be more encouraging

1) Have students read the linked article.

Encourage discussion on the four types of learning mistakes.

2) Rephrasing Self-Talk

Independent Learning

Encourage students to research answers on their own by making a group activity in which students research a topic and share.

Low Floor, High Ceiling Tasks

Have multiple entry points, making them accessible for many levels. Below is an example of a LFHC task.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Below is an example of how to apply Bloom's Taxonomy to expand entry points for a Math topic.

4) Implement

The following are some examples of how to implement culturally responsive teaching practices.

Example Week-to-Week Culturally Responsive Activities

Explore the following list for more examples of culturally responsive lessons.

To access: Click on the external link icon -> File -> Make a Copy

CRT implementation journal

4) Review and Reflect

The following reflection and observation forms can facilitate assessment on the effectiveness of any implemented culturally responsive lessons.

To access: Click on the external link icon -> File -> Make a Copy

Share Pre-observation and Observation Forms

Literature on Culturally Responsive Teaching

Readings

Advice and Strategies for Teachers

Big Picture and Theories

Cautions, Concerns and Critiques