What considerations must
teachers have when teaching? What type of mindset must teachers have? How can
you ensure you are supporting all learners?
A culturally responsive pedagogy looks like instances during
lessons and teaching in which the teacher is not calling on students but
inquiring with students. Prompting students to inquire further for answers,
rather than giving answers could be a way of acknowledging different student
strengths and abilities in different areas of study in the classroom. Inquiry
leads to not only the apprehension of knowledge in a natural and free flow
manner (every student at their own pace), but it also provides students with
the skills to demonstrate their knowledge with sound research and
scientific/fact backing.
Students learning that the personal features of a classroom
(themselves) and the institutional features of a classroom (the classroom
itself) come together in building the learning community. What students, may
not fully grasp in the beginning is the instructional piece that teachers bring
to the formula, to make it all blend together in a harmonious way.
Teachers are building the instructional dimension into the
formula by including high expectations as discussed as a characteristic in Capacity Building Series K-12, (2013).
This is clear to be an empowering tool for students who do struggle because
when they do succeed, they know they are succeeding at the level they are
expected to succeed it. To grant a student copious accommodations and
modifications because of how one aspect of their learning/education is
perceived is wrong. In the case of ELL/ESL students who are simply struggling
with “communication” are not incapable of achieving the same work as a student
who is a first language English speaker. To provide examples, Mesut, shared a
math exemplar how a student completed work in their first language and then
changed it into English after words to create a better understanding. Skills
are skills, the capabilities of demonstrating the skills in another language
are not necessarily in need of grand accommodation/modification, but need to be
nourished and scaffolded.
An interesting thought about how to foster learning using
culture comes from the idea of a teacher knowing when and where the students
come from. I will mention more in my next part how a student’s background is
crucial to knowing the potentiality of a student as well as building their
language. Having high expectations, doesn’t mean having the “highest”
expectations. The students should be expected to perform at a level they are
comfortable or better, but should not be penalized if they are not meeting the
expectations of the highest standard. This is where I feel students and
teachers find it difficult to make the culturally responsive pedagogy function.
Yes, I believe students are in part responsible for creating a culturally
responsive pedagogy. The relativity of this for my classes in particular I feel
is incredibly high, my students need to meet the expectations of the English
curriculum as they are not enrolled or recognized as second language English
Learners. Students completing the class materials in the same format as students
who speak English as a second language are expected to meet the same
requirements. I will provide assistance where needed. Support students who need
it, but I will not accept “I don’t know” for an answer to a question.
I find that an amazing number of students who use this,
actually do know the answer. The idea is that that they don’t know why they
know the answer or that they even do know the answer sometimes. In regards to
the classroom, or instructional dimension, teachers can do a lot to foster CR.
A teacher should not only ask every student a question in class as often as
possible, but also ask the question in a clear way (sometimes even simplifying
the question to its basic purpose). In doing this, the teacher is allowing not
only the student who is answering the question to better understand, but the
students around them who are listening and can better access the class
discussion from the accessible questions.
Ultimately, if a teacher follows the approaches that one may
take to participate in good conversation, they are practice a culturally responsive pedagogy.
Part 2
Create a list of strategies
that can support teaching implementing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Think
about: How can this support cross curricular approaches? How does it show your
advocacy for the Foundations of Professional Practice?
Teachers need to keep in mind the different socio-economic status
of students, not every student has access to the same amenities in regards to
at home learning and educational resources. Along with being aware that
students are coming from different family backgrounds economically, it is
important to remember that students coming from homes of different cultural
backgrounds could impact the ways of learning and understanding of different
content.
As a student, there was a time I would fast at lunch because
I overheard my parents talking about bankruptcy and I knew I ate a lot. If I
could eat less, that might help (they always joked about how much I ate), and I
could. I made my own lunches (my parents were both working class citizens), and
I knew that we couldn’t afford the “awesome” school snacks that my friends
could, or the awesome lunch meats that my grandmother always treated us with
when we visited around lunch on some weekends. I would either make some skimpy
peanut butter only sandwich or all in all, not make anything and just eat the
“healthy snacks” (mine and then would help myself to whatever was left after
lunch). The important part of this story is not that in elementary school I was
silly, but that my teacher actually noted to my parents that I couldn’t focus
in class and it was noticed that at lunch some of the monitors at the time
would ask the teacher if I ate my lunch before lunch, because sometimes I would
just be out of my seat visiting my friends. My parents had no idea, my Ma gave
me so much trouble. From that point on my Dad started waking me up when he was
getting ready for work and started making my lunch for me at first, then slowly
showing me how to make a proper lunch. I never mentioned to them that I was worried
that we didn’t have money and played along. I would go grocery shopping with my
Ma all the time and started paying attention to what she bought and how much it
cost. We had 5 people in our family, it wasn’t cheap. I stopped bugging them
about the good snacks and would sometimes even leave snacks at home and just
take fruit and sandwich. Unfortunately, as committed as I was to sticking to
what my dad was trying to instil in me, I just couldn’t eat blasted Chicken Loaf
or Bologna. I do now, but that is not
the point. I had a teacher once in high school (yes, it happened again-no
wasn’t worse or really as bad as elementary school, but with a growing appetite
I would basically just wait and gorge at dinner when I got home, with my
family). I was so ridiculous, I was trying to apply principles to my life that
didn’t quite understand and make sense of a situation that was beyond my
understanding. I was in class after lunch one day when my stomach started
growling. My teacher at the time was not ignorant or rude. No comments about,
well that is disruptive. He actually came over to me after circling around the
class during a work period and dropped a couple Halloween candies on the desk
of some of the students, left two on mine. This was a moment that I really felt
treated (a little embarrassed, but I wasn’t the only one) and that was
something that really stuck with me. I was not the only one. I wasn’t an easy
student to work with as a teacher for a number of reasons, but one thing I have
noticed among all my phenomenal teachers is that they are open minds. They
ALWAYS listened to what a student had to say and ALWAYS gave them benefit of
the doubt when situations were questionable to say the least. This is including
administrators who I learned through the years are sometimes a student’s best
friend when in high school. Its really funny actually how sometimes
administrators know so much about a student, but the student had yet to
formally meet the administrator. I think that sort of mindset is obtained
through teamwork, great anecdotal notation of the teachers on faculty and the
depth of knowledge the administrator feels necessary to have about the student.
Mindset, in my opinion is summarized as being open minded.
It is important to the functionality of a well-rounded environment. I feel as
though I have provided a few possible case studies, feel free to use them as
needed.
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