1. Culturally responsive teachingPresentation Transcript
 1. CULTURALLY-RESPONSIVE TEACHING
 2. What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?“It is an approach that empowers students
intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart
knowledge, skills, and attitudes”-Gloria Ladson-Billings
 3. Culture is central to learning. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving
information, but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals. A
pedagogy that acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full,
equitable access to education for students from all cultures. Culturally Responsive
Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural
references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings,1994).
 4. characteristics of culturally responsive teaching are: Positive perspectives on parents
and families Teacher as Facilitator Reshaping the curriculum Student-centered instruction
Culturally-mediated instruction Foster a sense of belonging Sharing Cultures
 5. POSITIVE PERSPECTIVES ON PARENTS AND FAMILIES Parents are the child's
first teacher and are critically important partners to students and teachers. To help parents
become aware of how they can be effective partners in the education process, teachers
should engage in dialogue with parents as early as possible about parents' hopes and
aspirations for their child, their sense of what the child needs, and suggestions about ways
teachers can help. Teachers explain their own limitations and invite parents to participate
in their child's education in specific ways.
 6. TEACHER AS FACILITATOR Within an active teaching environment, the teacher's
role is one of guide, mediator, and knowledgeable consultant, as well as instructing with
a smile. Teachers should develop a learning environment that is relevant to and reflective
of their students' social, cultural, and linguistic experiences. They act as guides,
mediators, consultants, instructors, and advocates for the students, helping to effectively
connect their culturally- and community-based knowledge to the classroom learning
experiences.
 7. RESHAPING THE CURRICULUM The curriculum should be integrated,
interdisciplinary, meaningful, and student-centered. It should include issues and topics
related to the students' background and culture. It should challenge the students to
develop higher-order knowledge and skills. Integrating the various disciplines of a
curriculum facilitates the acquisition of new knowledge. Students' strengths in one
subject area will support new learning in another. Likewise, by using the students'
personal experiences to develop new skills and knowledge, teachers make meaningful
connections between school and real-life situations
 8. STUDENT-CENTERED INSTRUCTION Student-centered instruction differs from
the traditional teacher-centered instruction. Learning is cooperative, collaborative, and
community-oriented. Students are encouraged to direct their own learning and to work
with other students on research projects and assignments that are both culturally and
socially relevant to them. Students become self-confident, self-directed, and proactive.
 9. CULTURALLY-MEDIATED INSTRUCTION Instruction is culturally mediated
when it incorporates and integrates diverse ways of knowing, understanding, and

2. representing information. Instruction and learning take place in an environment that
encourages multicultural viewpoints and allows for inclusion of knowledge that is
relevant to the students. Learning happens in culturally appropriate social situations; that
is, relationships among students and those between teachers and students are congruent
with students' cultures.
 10. FOSTER A SENSE OF BELONGING There is an ongoing dialogue with students,
parents, and community members on issues important to them, along with the inclusion
of these individuals and issues in classroom curriculum and activities. For new students
or students who seem isolated, a teacher can assign a buddy who will help them to feel at
home.
 11. SHARING CULTURES Multiculturally sensitive education does not solely prescribe
to mainstream ways of knowing. Teachers make authentic knowledge about different
ethnic groups accessible to students. For example, the verbal creativity and storytelling
that is unique to some African Americans in informal social interactions is acknowledged
as a gift and used to teach writing skills. Teach students to know and praise their own and
other's cultural heritage.
Culturally Responsive TeachingPresentation Transcript
 1. Culturally Responsive Teaching Final Group Project Broward College - Educator
Preparation Institute 0030 Diversity - Ms. Hall April 23, 2009 Group Members: Susan
Convery Foltz Mia Montalegre Elizabeth McDonald
 2. We live in a culturally diverse world
 3. And a culturally diverse country…
 4. And we work in a culturally diverse community...
 5. How do we teach our children in a culturally sensitive environment?
 6. What is Culturally Responsive Teaching? “ It is an approach that empowers students
intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart
knowledge, skills, and attitudes” -Gloria Ladson-Billings
 7. If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you are said to be
so much representative of your culture that you are a victim of it" - S.I. Hayakawa
former US Senator from Hawaii
 8. How do we become culturally sensitive teachers? Acknowledge the legitimacy of the
cultural heritages of different ethnic groups, both as legacies that affect students'
dispositions, attitudes, and approaches to learning and as worthy content to be taught in
the formal curriculum.
 9. How do we become culturally sensitive teachers? Communication of High
Expectations: There are consistent messages , from both the teacher and the whole
school, that students will succeed, based upon genuine respect for students and belief in
student capability.
 10. How do we become culturally sensitive teachers? Use a wide variety of instructional
strategies that are connected to different learning styles.

3.  11. How do we become culturally sensitive teachers? Instruction is organized around
low-pressure, student-controlled learning groups that can assist in the development of
academic language
 12. "As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation,
so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit." -Unknown
 13. Teacher as Facilitator Within an active teaching environment, the teacher's role is one
of guide, mediator, and knowledgeable consultant, as well as instructing with a smile.
 14. Teacher as Facilitator Employ active teaching methods. Instruction is designed to
promote student engagement by requiring that students play an active role in crafting
curriculum and developing learning activities.
 15. Reflective Teaching Reflective teachers are alert to their own preconceptions and
open to new ways of thinking. Uncover your own beliefs
 16. Reshaping the Curriculum A reshaped curriculum is culturally responsive to the
background of students. Teachers should know the cultural heritage of their students and
include references in the curriculum. A Culturally Responsive Curriculum does not rely
on one-time activities, "add-on" units or "sprinkling" the
traditional curriculum with a few minority individuals
 17. Reshaping the Curriculum A Culturally Responsive Curriculum is authentic, child-
centered, and connected to the child's real life. It employs materials from the child's
culture and history to illustrate principles and concepts
 18. Reshaping the Curriculum Build bridges of meaningfulness between home and school
experiences, between curriculum and social reality.
 19. Reshaping the Curriculum Incorporate multicultural information, resources and
materials in all subjects routinely taught in schools.
 20. Reshaping the Curriculum Students are given the opportunity to control some portion
of the lesson, providing teachers with insight into the ways that speech and negotiation
are used in the home and community.
 21. "Culture is the sum of all the forms of art, of love, and of thought, which, in the
course of centuries, enabled man to be less enslaved" -Andre Malraux
 22. Classroom Activities Activities to increase cultural sensitivity: Autobiographical
writing assignments Oral presentations on students' native countries Discussing current
events from a multicultural viewpoint.
 23. Classroom Activities More activities to stimulate cultural sensitivity: Organizing ESL
students to provide peer tutoring to other students studying their native language
Organizing a cultural bazaar to showcase student cultures with the larger community.
Participating in a school talent show to share culturally unique skills and dances.
 24. Classroom Appearance Classrooms should be filled with photographs and artwork
representing the wide range of humanity and daily life.
 25. "Be what you is, not what you ain't. 'Cause if you ain't what you is, you is what
you ain't" - Luther D. Price
 26. Foster a Sense of Belonging There is an ongoing dialogue with students, parents, and
community members on issues important to them, along with the inclusion of these
individuals and issues in classroom curriculum and activities.
 27. Foster a Sense of Belonging For new students or students who seem isolated, a
teacher can assign a buddy who will help them to feel at home.

4.  28. Foster a Sense of Belonging "Each friend represents a world in us, a world
possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is
born." - Anais Nin
 29. Sharing Cultures Teach students to know and praise their own and other's cultural
heritage.
 30. Sharing Cultures Multiculturally sensitive education does not solely prescribe to
mainstream ways of knowing. Teachers make authentic knowledge about different ethnic
groups accessible to students. For example, the verbal creativity and storytelling that is
unique to some African Americans in informal social interactions is acknowledged as a
gift and used to teach writing skills.
 31. Sharing Cultures Christmas, Kwanzaa, Easter, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, St.
Lucia Day, Chinese New Year, Songkran, Aboakyere, Midsummer Day, O-bon, Basanth,
New Year, Holi, May Day... There are many holidays in the world. In a culturally
responsive curriculum students will learn about many different holidays and traditions.
 32. Sharing Cultures Culturally responsive teaching enables students to be better human
beings and more successful learners.
 33. Culturally Responsive Teaching is Empowering "Give a man a fish and he eats
today; teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of his life." -unknown
 34. Culturally Responsive Teaching is Transformative It means respecting the cultures
and experiences of various groups and then uses these as resources for teaching and
learning. It appreciates the existing strengths and accomplishments of all students and
develops them further in instruction.
 35. Culturally Responsive Teaching is Transformative Culturally sensitive education
empowers and transforms students by helping them to develop the knowledge, skills and
values needed to become social critics who can make reflective decisions and implement
their decisions in effective personal, social, political and economic action.
 36. Culturally Responsive Teaching is Transformative Multicultural education guides
students in understanding that no single version of "truth" is total and
permanent.
 37. Culturally Responsive Teaching is Transformative The validation, information and
pride generated by multiculturally sensitive education are psychologically and
intellectually liberating.
 38. "There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of
these is roots, the other, wings." -Hodding Carter
 39. Resources: Music by Angelina Kidjo “We Are One” from Oremi
http://www.intime.uni.edu/multiculture/curriculum/culture/Teaching.htm
http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1110&spotlightid=1110
Culturally responsive teaching – Knowledge Loom http://
www.culturallyresponsive.org/index.html Center for Culturally responsive learning and
teaching. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =Bw_9z_m6EFQ Culturally Sensitive Child
Care http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =VlMnCHrRM64&feature=related Global Kids
Show First! http://www.hol.edu/syllabusuploads/CLK-
Culturally%20Sensitive%20Classrm.pdf Course on Culturally Sensitive Classroom
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article847231.ece Pinellas County
Culturally Sensitive Teaching
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1145/is_n5_v32/ai_19494446/pg_3 Enhancing

5. Multicultural Sensitivity http://www.yourdictionary.com/esl/ESL_Classroom-and-
Cultural_Sensitivity.html ESL Classroom & Multicultural Sensitivity
http://hungerlandstudios.com/bh_articles/Multicultural_strategies.pdf Strategies for a
multicultural classroom http://www.sccoe.org/depts/ell/elac/0208/WhatsMxEd.pdf What
is Multicultural Education? http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4336
Success for ESL students http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=39 List
of articles on Cultural Sensitivity Martinez & Ortiz de Montellano, 1988; Chisholm et al.,
1991; Dickerson, 1993; Chion-Kenney, 1994).