Culturally Responsive Teaching - First post

Communicate High Expectations
Communicate specific expectations for students to meet. Encourage and praise students as they reach them.

Students Make Choices
Students produce class topics, generate lists, and select materials:

• Share in the responsibility of instructing class,
• Inquire and discover projects for community matters,
• Create a community of learners, e.g. shared learning, cooperative learning.

Teachers Communicate with Parents and Families
Teachers talk with parents and/or extended family members through home visits, phone calls, newsletters, and/or parent meetings:

• Teachers find out what parents and extended family members expectations are, concerns, and suggestions for students, and for school administrators/teachers.
• Teachers gain cross-cultural skills necessary to communicate with families in the future.

Learning Styles Reflect the Community

• Seek out learning experiences and styles of learning in the community, i.e. talk to members of the community, ask about preferences, observe learning at community events.
• Create different ways for students to succeed, and to measure student's success,
• Involve culture relevant class culture, e.g. students share their knowledge in the class, class management styles are taken from the community, teach students to question and challenge their beliefs and actions and ask students to do the same.

The Curriculum Reflects the Community

• Use the community as a resource, e.g. talents, gifts, family, groups. Use resources other than the text book.
• Develop projects from various viewpoints, provide students with information.
• Develop learning activities that are more reflective of student's background.

Facilitate Teaching

• Have students share artifacts, talk about traditions, research different aspects about their culture.
• Vary teaching approaches to accommodate different learning styles,
• Use the community as a resource, have a member of the community teach lessons.

Develop an Appreciation of Diversity

• Vary teaching strategies, e.g. collaborative, role play, independent work, provide choices to complete a project, and/or use community issues for projects.
• Teach and talk about cultural differences, i.e. Between individuals, learning styles, cultural events.