Jennifer Nicole Bacon, PhD, a guest writer for the Curry Blog, shared her thoughts on how to create a culturally responsive classroom. She mentioned to two experts and scholars on this topic, Gladys Ladson-Billings (The Dream Keepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms and the article “But That’s Just Good Teaching!”) and Jacqueline Jordan Irvine (Educating Teachers for Diversity and Culturally Responsive Teaching) that has contributed to her discussion on this topic. I would add myself Geneva Gay (Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research and Practice) to this list as someone who has contributed to this discussion.
Jennifer outlines her five tips for creating such an inclusive and relevant classroom environment as she wrote: “You do not need to have the same cultural background as your students to be a culturally responsive teacher and create a culturally responsive classroom. However, you do need to do the following:”
- Know your students
- Be a role model; set the tone in the classroom
- Provide representation and positive images reflecting cultural diversity – I would add that reflects the diversity that is in your classroom. Always start with what you have present.
- Collaborate
- Be in it for the long haul, in other words this can change throughout the year
http://curry.virginia.edu/blog/2015/10/14/5-tips-for-creating-a-culturally-responsive-classroom/
https://sites.google.com/site/kendraquimbysportfolio/about/culturally-responsive-teaching
Reflection question:
Looking at the above image what do you bring, as a teacher striving to be culturally responsive, that is reflective of each of the four quadrants?
Wisconsin’s Principle 6 in their guiding principles for teaching and learning speaks to how responsive environments engage learners. “A responsive classroom environment considers the individual learning needs of all students. These learning needs include a variety of factors that influence how students learn: culture, language, developmental level, readiness, social and economic background, and learning style.” https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/cal/pdf/guiding-principles6.pdf
Reflection questions:
Based on the programs and classrooms that your are engaged in through your practicum how does the current environment responds to and is a reflection of the children served?
If this environment was under your responsibility, what would it look like and what changes would you make? Please be specific as possible.
Infinity and beyond 
Answering the above question, what I bring as a teacher striving to be culturally responsive, I am fluent in Spanish and in English so I would say that helping Spanish speaking children that are new to the country and speak no English. I would help them by translating if they need translation whenever they do not understand what I am saying in English. Also helping Spanish speaking children that also speak English in their Spanish and helping them in their language when they are struggling in English. I hope this make sense, Providing each child or family with the opportunity to come and talk about their culture and their history would be a great way to learn about each others cultures and also give the children a learning experience about each others culture and their own culture. Involving families to come and speak about their culture or in activities that are done in class would be something I would incorporate in my classroom environment. Lastly I would bring in community guest speakers into the classroom such as police officers, firefighters, mail man/women to speak about their jobs and what they do for our community.
Based on the classroom that I am engaged in through my practicum the current environment responds to and is a reflection of the children served because Spanish speaking students are receiving extra help in their Spanish and are also learning more about their language such as how to write and read in Spanish. American children that only speak Spanish are also enrolled in the Spanish speaking classroom to learn a new language which is Spanish and they are also learning how to write, speak and speak the language. Children are also taken out either independently or in groups to work with a para educator and get extra help on their Spanish skills.
If this environment was under my responsibility I think it would like just as it is but a change I would do would be work more with children that are shy to help them more in speaking up and not be so shy in class because I noticed in a little girl that she is to shy to speak, raise her hand or participate even in small groups. I believe that this is what keeps her from learning because she has a great potential but because of her shyness she steps back. I would also look for strategies for children with bad behavior because that was one of the big issues in the classroom.
LikeLike
Great – you got it!
LikeLike