Setting The Course
Culturally Responsive Teaching Trip Tips by: Fabiola Torres ftorres@glendale.edu
Choose the right road for a safe, fun, informative and adventurous road trip. To get the most of your learning experience road trip, consider using the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning Trip Tips
1. Clean your car before and during your trip.
Look at your course and check for deficient/unwelcoming language. Pay attention to deficient, intimidating, unwelcoming messages. Encourage success vs scaring or intimidating students.
2. Check your vehicle
In your online class, check flow of your course. Go through the flow of your course on a mobile device.
Check out Mira Costa's 6 Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content
Here is a fun resource presented by Foothill College focusing on Canvas and accessibility
3. Offer a plan
Even before the course begins, offering an open, transparent and friendly plan of action can enable a high opportunity for a connection between students and instructor. Using a liquid syllabus can provide an tool for students. A Liquid Syllabus is a mobile-friendly, public syllabus with detailing the course, the expectations, FAQs and most importantly - YOU. Revisit the Pre-Course Contact to access the value of a liquid syllabus
4. Anticipate trouble spots
Rigorous expectations are part of the journey. Providing them model answers, helpful videos or a warning sign to give them a heads up. You can provide a message like: “You really want to look out for X...” or “Here’s a strategy.”
The following video was a reaction to the high stress students were experiencing during the Winter 2022 Session. I wanted to send them a video about stress and learning.
The following video was a reaction to the high stress students were experiencing during the Winter 2022 Session. I wanted to send them a video about stress and learning .
5. Add Entertainment
Have fun. Start creating a community! Prompt effort and achievement by showing that you really care. Tell your story. Tell you story of struggle, failure, success and achievements. Supportive instructional styles incorporating reciprocal experiences, such as providing students feedback reflecting our stories, can improve cognitive understanding between the students and the instructor. Let them know they are not alone in their learning process.
The following video is a video I created in for my Fall 2020 courses. It was an attempt to share one of my passions outside of teaching.
6. Tend to the division of labor
Some people are good at navigating; others couldn’t read a map if they tried. Some people are good at planning meals, while others think a big bag of chips counts as a good dinner. As you move forward in your course, identify who does what well, and what really matters to your students. Be clinical. Take notes on what students share. Referencing a student’s comment or work or even previous work in your feedback is like that teacher who put up your art project up on the board. It felt good. But keep notes of all students.
7. Join a roadside rescue service
Talk to other community college instructors. A great source is Twitter. Use your instructional resources. Roadside assistance is there. Here are some amazing Twitter hashtags to follow. #UnGrading #HumanizeOL #EdEQ #HigherEd #OnlineLearning
Fabiola Torres Twitter: @iLearnNow
8. Practice safe driving skills
We probably learned how to drive by watching our parents, model a behavior that truly encouraged and advocates for success. Be human. Use culturally inclusive images to promote a learning environment that just might connect with a student. Teachers model personal values such as patience, persistence and responsibility while incorporating skills such as self-determination throughout their curriculum.
9. Know your limit
Don’t drive and not enjoy the process. Being strategic with your formative assessments and your summative assessment. The best part of making it enjoyable is finally getting that connection with your students! So feedback become the most important tool. Over packing your course with activity with no ties to the unit outcomes will be exhausting. We need to have room in creating inclusive supportive learning environments that help our students find their voice, fulfill their potential, and reach their educational goals.
10. Bring Snacks
Caring is a process and we have to do what it takes to keep them engaged. When teachers are committed, competent, confident and knowledgeable about the content in cultural pluralism, they are placed "... in an ethical, emotional and academic partnership with ethnically diverse students. This partnership, this care is anchored in respect, honor, integrity, resource-sharing, and a deep belief in the possibility of transcendence, that is, an unequivocal belief that marginalized students not only can but will improve their school achievement under the tutelage of competent and committed teachers who act to ensure that this happens.
Digital Cookies - strategies that will feed their success in your class or others.
The following video is an example of a series I created called Wise Up To Rise Up Wednesday. (The series will be updates in Spring 2022)