Deep Learning to Inform Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Teaching

Teaching

Judy Paulick, University of Virginia

Students’ families and communities have shaped them into who they are and what they bring with them to their classrooms. When teachers access those vast resources and connect curricula, teaching, and classroom communities to students’ cultures and experiences, students thrive and so do their teachers. But learning about students—especially beyond surface-level information—can be challenging. And figuring out how to translate what’s been learned into culturally responsive/sustaining teaching can be equally challenging.

The most important part of this process is understanding what, exactly, culture is—our own and our students’. Yes, culture is holidays, clothing, music, language, and food. And all of that is important—essential, even—to who people are. Representing and nurturing those aspects of students’ identities in the classroom is necessary. But culture also includes things like how we engage in conversation, how we communicate nonverbally, our notions of time, ideas about competition and cooperation, and what is seen as fair or honest. It’s knowing and understanding these kinds of things about ourselves and others—and understanding that there are multiple “good” and “right” ways of doing all of these things—that undergirds culturally responsive/sustaining teaching. Imagine, for example, you have a student who will not look you in the eye when you are speaking to them or another student who talks over their classmates during discussion. Mainstream, dominant cultural models might cast those students as disrespectful, when their families and communities have taught them that these actions are actually respectful. When teachers simply interpret behavior through that mainstream, dominant lens, they are missing out.

So how do we learn about students’ (and their families’ and communities’) assets and cultural models? First, we need to be deeply reflective about who we are. What are our cultural models—what do we view as “good” and “normal”? What are our biases? And how might we shift our thinking to be broader and more inclusive? Next, we need to engage with families and in communities. Family engagement is not simply about families engaging with and in schools; it is also about teachers engaging with families and communities beyond the bounds of the school. Asset-framed, relationship-building home visits with families are one very powerful way to center families’ stories, learn about their cultural models, and redistribute power. The Parent Teacher Home Visit organization (pthvp.org) provides an excellent framework and resources for getting started with home visiting. Teachers can also have conversations with families on the sidelines of students’ games and recitals. Teachers can attend community events, visit houses of worship, and otherwise spend time in the community. Learning people’s and communities’ stories—through conversations, books, blogs, etc.—is key to the work of building trust and learning about assets and cultural models. The learning is ongoing and invigorating work; it is never truly done. Cultures are dynamic and shifting, and there is always more to learn.

Once teachers have begun to learn about students’ assets and cultural models, they can more robustly inform culturally responsive/sustaining teaching. Culturally responsive/sustaining teaching, according to scholars like Django Paris and Geneva Gay, does the following: honors students’ multilingualism and multidialectism and values communities’ language practices; incorporates students’/families’/communities’ assets and cultural models into teaching (planning, instruction, assessment, classroom community) and nurtures those assets and cultural models; and develops students’ awareness of and activism against injustice. I have seen content area teachers engage in the following culturally responsive/sustaining practices, and there are countless others:

Explicitly incorporating and highlighting the contributions of scientists, mathematicians, politicians, etc. from students’ cultural and identity groups and underrepresented identities;
Exploring/critiquing issues of justice related to the content area and students’ cultural and identity groups;
Including students in decision-making about activities, assessment, and the classroom community;
Inviting community members to support lessons, share ideas, etc.;
Incorporating home languages and dialects whenever possible (e.g., translanguaging).

Where to begin? With curiosity and humility. Students, families, and communities are an endless source of wealth and inspiration if we are able to see it!

Judy Paulick is an associate professor of elementary education at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. Before becoming a teacher educator, she was a classroom teacher in Compton, CA and Boulder, CO. Her research and teaching focuses on preparing teachers to engage with families and communities and use what they learn to inform culturally sustaining language arts instruction.

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Exploring Mentor Texts

Teaching

This post is written by Charlene Aldrich. You can learn more about Charlene at the bottom of this post.

I’ve always been a strong believer in the power of reading to identify important information and to grow decision-making processes. My mantra is, “Never tell someone what they need to know when they can find out for themselves by reading.” So, when I saw the book Micro Mentor Texts by Penny Kittle come up in my Facebook feed, I was especially intrigued by the idea that students might not need to read ALL of Romeo and Juliet to become knowledgeable of Shakespeare, his cheeky quotes, and 16^th-century literature.

I’m not trying to sell you on this book, instead, I AM trying to sell you on the idea that mentor texts don’t have to be complete works that students gloss over to “complete the assignment.” Can it be that teachers can provide specific sample excerpts to achieve their literacy goals?

Spelling and Vocabulary

Research has affirmed the idea that successful readers and writers tend to have prolific vocabularies ¹.

Useable vocabularies grow through listening and reading, speaking and writing². I continue to believe in the developmental nature of language to support literacy development as I watch my granddaughter on her preschool journey to beginning reading. Her speaking vocabulary includes words and phrases such as “cheeky little rascal,” “plaster,” and “go through” because of her fascination with the very British show featuring Peppa and George Pig! She may never read them in the same context, but the foundation has been laid for multi-meaning words if she sees these and similar words and phrases in reading selections.

What does this say to educators and about mentor texts? Reading, writing, and oral language are tightly knit; introducing mentor texts as examples of effective writing “… promotes students to view, discuss, read, and create literature that affords opportunities for spelling and vocabulary development that are engaging, relevant and active”³.

Blog writers from ELA Matters share “3 Engaging Mentor Texts for Middle and High School”. One that supports vocabulary development is My Name by Sandra Cisneros. While the language is simple, Cisneros weaves it into rich literary devices such as imagery, simile, and metaphor. Students of all reading abilities see how to use their own vocabulary levels to develop descriptive works that require precise vocabulary.

Beyond spelling and vocabulary

In addition to growing spelling and vocabulary, mentor texts contribute to the development of other traits of effective writing: organization, conventions, sentence fluency, and voice. Mentor texts are examples for students to follow as they develop their own ideas through these traits⁴. They can be below grade level to make the traits obvious; they can be on or above grade level to meet the standards that require complex texts. They can include a wide range of styles – from classical literature to graphic novels. Teachers can use them to develop critical thinking and persuasive arguments. Students can read memoirs in preparation for personal narratives. The inclusion of authors and diverse topics can even mentor acceptance and open-mindedness. And never overlook the power and pleasure of picture books for growing storytelling.

Mentor texts are not restricted to the ELA curriculum. As state standards have shown through the inclusion of disciplinary literacy requirements, each discipline contains its own set of unique formats, craft, and technical language. Thus, each content area teacher has the opportunity to include quality mentor texts for students to emulate as they meet the reading and writing needs of each discipline. What do YOU enjoy reading in your discipline? How can students also find enjoyment in your choice of reading selections of your discipline?

My grandson introduced me to A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen. This book takes readers through life behind the Berlin Wall, beginning with the night it was built. Social Studies/History courses are meant to provide multiple perspectives to ensure accurate representation of diverse experiences. This historical fiction book opens with vivid language to introduce a school-age girl’s reaction to the lack of freedom that was imminent. “There was no warning the night the wall went up. I awoke to sirens screaming throughout my city of East Berlin. Instantly, I flew from my bed. Something must be terribly wrong. Why were there so many?” Individual excerpts from the book can be extracted as a mentor text for writing essays that focus on the value of freedom. Using this text as a mentor, along with showcasing other fictional or nonfiction realities of this time period, can support students’ ability to also write about their own experiences with freedom or war.

Using Model Texts

Students NEED high-quality reading selections that challenge them to grow in their personal literacy skills; after all, literacy is power. In addition to meaning-making, model texts provide examples of effective composition techniques⁵. Using them effectively becomes the goal. Robyn English (2021) offers this advice⁶:

Be familiar with the reading selection and what you want it to demonstrate
Be purposeful in your use; plan for single successes, not multiple attempts
Be knowledgeable of the strategy or characteristic being taught
Be flexible, returning to a single text for other purposes
Be generous, sharing them as you would any book in your classroom library

In Short

Students need positive role models for growing into responsible adults. Likewise, they need effective models of texts for growing their literacy strength. As English notes in her text listed above, “Mentor texts support a teacher in modeled reading or writing.”

Charlene Aldrich is an instructor in the Office of Professional Development at the College of Charleston. While content-area literacy is her specialty, she also teaches Assessments in Reading, Foundations in Reading, and Instructional Practices as required by South Carolina for recertification. She serves as the Treasurer of LiD 6-12.

Cover Photo by NEOM on Unsplash

Where Does It All Begin?

Research

By: Dr. Kavin Ming, Winthrop University

For the month of August, our blogs addressed a variety of topics related to the idea of using culturally responsive teaching with English Language Learners. Specifically, we identified strategies to strengthen culture-sensitive instruction; highlighted the importance of allowing students to use their first language, and determined key questions to ask ourselves as we implement culturally sustaining pedagogy. The root of these positive practices starts with cultural competence.

What is Cultural Competence and Why Does It Matter?

Cultural competence is the ability to successfully teach students from cultures other than one’s own. This requires a deep understanding of complex awareness and sensitivity, a wide body of knowledge, and a set of skills that, when taken together, produces effective cross-cultural teaching. One key element is acquiring this capacity is having a keen awareness of one’s own culture and the culture of others. I once read where an author said that you cannot truly teach students if you don’t really know them.

An awareness of one’s own culture and the culture of students impacts the types of books read, the kinds of materials selected, the variety of strategies used, and the evaluation practices implemented. Culturally competent educators use their cultural competence as a guide for action when working with students, parents, and members of the community.

Culture Matters

Student achievement continues to be at the forefront of all educational entities, including district, state, and federal organizations. The poor performance exhibited by large groups of diverse students in many areas around the country leaves many asking what can be done to move these students to higher levels of achievement. As the demographics of schools have changed, teaching and learning has not followed the same evolutionary pace. For a number of educators, traditional methods of instruction have predominated, and these methods do not reflect a genuine consideration for effective instructional methods and the impact of culture on teaching and learning. Thus, one of the most significant implications of professionally developing cultural competence is the basic understanding that culture does impact learning, and by adapting a different stance, based on an understanding of the significance of culture, students from diverse backgrounds can make academic gains.

Knowing Your Students Begins with Introspection

Teachers who look within analyze their own feelings towards those who are culturally different, determine how those feelings relate to the dominant culture, and think about what frame of reference influences these feelings. Key factors in understanding diverse students include learning about each person, and taking a personal interest in establishing positive relationships. It also includes continuously questioning one’s self in order to clarify salient issues. Teachers can engage in introspection as part of the planning or preparation period on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This frequency ensures that it is an ever-present part of their teaching routines.

Coupled with learning about one’s students, and questioning one’s self, teachers can develop cultural competence through personal development. Reading and seeking to understand the profiles and experiences of different cultures introduces teachers to contexts that help them identify similarities and differences within and across groups. A starting point is for teachers to purchase or borrow books that are written by people of color, including history, literature, and education. Some of these books include:

Women of Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jimenez
I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

It’s Personal

In order to teach students, teachers must first reach them. Teaching starts with the heart. The best laid lesson plans will not amount to much if teachers don’t really know who are the students sitting in front of them. When students know that teachers care about them, and are interested in them as individuals, they will open themselves up to hearing what the teacher has to say. Culture matters, and effective teachers recognize this importance and strive towards achieving cultural competence.

References

Aceves, T. C., & Orosco, M. J. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching (Document No. IC-2). Retrieved from University of Florida, Collaboration for Effective Educator, Development, Accountability, and Reform, Center website: http://ceedar.education.ufl.edu/tools/innovation-configurations/.

Au, K. (2009). Isn’t culturally responsive instruction just good teaching? Social Education, 73(4), 279-183.

Diller, J. V., & Moule, J. (2005). Cultural competence: A primer for educators. Toronto, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Howard, T.C. (2003). Culturally relevant pedagogy: Ingredients for critical teacher reflection. Theory into Practice, 42(3), 195-202.

Pang, V. O. (2001). Why do we need this class? Phi Delta Kappan, 76(4), 289-292.

About the Author

Dr. Kavin Ming is a Professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. She is currently serving as the Department Chair in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. She teaches undergraduate literacy methods courses and graduate content area literacy and practicum courses. Kavin’s research interests include at-risk student populations, culturally responsive pedagogy, content area literacy instruction, and multisensory teaching of literacy skills. Kavin can be contacted at mingk@winthrop.edu.

Culturally Responsive Instruction for Non-Native Speakers of English

Research

By: Dr. Elke Schneider, Winthrop University

What is culturally responsive instruction and why is it important?

How would you feel if you involuntarily had to leave all you knew and were comfortable with, and found yourself in a completely new environment, including a school where everyone spoke a language you could not understand, and where people interacted differently than you are used to seeing happen in the culture you came from? How would you feel, if you did not even know how to ask for a bathroom break, or were not sure if it was safe to eat the unfamiliar food that you saw served in the school cafeteria? For some of us who have never moved far from the environment and home culture of our initial upbringing, this might be really hard to imagine. It would probably come close to a nightmare that you wished you could wake up from and forget.

Photo by Leonardo Toshiro Okubo on Unsplash

Such experiences are common for non-native speakers of English, or English Learners (ELs) who represent the fastest growing community of learners in our public schools nationwide as well as within the state of South Carolina. Many of them have recently moved into our state and only know themselves in their home language and culture. Coupled with this newness, ELs have to participate in state standardized testing without integration time, and their school performance is part of annual school report cards. All this puts pressure on content area instructors to have strategies at hand that help ELs succeed quickly.

ELs, along with their classmates, present a potpourri of diverse learner backgrounds due to different socio-cultural, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and socio-economic experiences. Teaching in a culturally responsive way actively integrates these differences into instruction in which a) a culture of respect for differences and diversity is fostered as an enrichment and asset for all, b) common life challenges are seen as connecting anchors amidst apparent differences, and c) knowledge is built in such a way that every student has the same fair chance to succeed.

Specifically, culturally responsive instruction thus provides explicit opportunities for students to link the newly learned content with what they already know. It infuses a variety of different, multisensory, carefully structured learning opportunities that occur often through cooperative learning interactions. These allow ELs to learn in the context of natural exchanges with peers and teachers. Such instruction requires teachers to model different learning and problem-solving strategies explicitly and to make academic language structures and associated nonverbal behavior patterns explicit.

The interconnectedness of acculturation and language acquisition

Acculturation refers to the process of integrating a representative of a minority culture into a majority culture. This includes accepting and learning social interaction patterns and the language of the majority culture. Acculturation and language acquisition are therefore tightly interrelated. This means for ELs in the school culture that the safer and more socially integrated ELs feel, the faster and more successful is their learning progress. This is true for all learners with language and cultural experiences different from those of the main culture. While this blog focuses only on ELs, many of the shared strategies can be considered for the integration of learners of other minority groups.

Strategies to strengthen culture-sensitive instruction of ELs

Helping ELs understand the American school culture

Create video clips about essential features of the school culture (i.e., school nurse, bus or morning routines, homework assignments) or routine tasks and expectations in your content area (i.e. science lab procedures, history project) in collaboration with colleagues and administration. These, both ELs and their parents (i.e., during parent conference times) can watch repeatedly until they understand the shared routines or procedures when the oral explanations are provided in several most commonly used languages. Each can be saved separately so they can be shared among teachers as needed.

Activating ELs’ unique contributions to the learning community

Allow ELs to use their native language to make connections with the content presented in English. Canadian multilingual learning researcher Jim Cummins stresses the importance of allowing the use of ELs’ first language in school because, if denied, an essential part of ELs’ identity and livelihood is squelched. This in turn impacts the learning progress negatively.

Examples could be a) providing space on graphic organizers to note a realization in the first language, b) allowing ELs to use their native language as they figure out tasks or work together with others by using a bilingual dictionary and translation digital devices, c) pairing up several ELs with native speakers so clarifications can occur naturally in two languages.

Prior to any topic, activate ELs’ prior knowledge by eliciting experiences from their home culture where appropriate (i.e., wild life, weather, socio-cultural routines, historic sites, historic events, or how basic math skills were taught in the home culture).

Infusing culturally and linguistically sensitive content instruction

Provide repeated opportunities for ELs to orally repeat essential academic language structures used with a content through whole or small group choral response. This builds ELs’ confidence in using academic language when engaging in natural group interactions with peers. Such oral practice also provides the basis for subsequent writing tasks.

Provide Illustrations in handouts, posters, and/or on PowerPoint presentations with subtitles in English for each step-in procedural task (i.e., math task, science project, history report). This makes content more comprehensible and allows ELs to participate in community learning tasks more successfully.

Building culturally sensitive relationships and understanding

If something does not feel right in the communication process (verbal and/or nonverbal), do not ignore it, rather seek clarification in a way that allows an EL to keep his/her face. Often ELs do not feel comfortable asking questions or acknowledging confusion, especially not in front of peers. Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to seek clarification, best one-on-one.

Teach all students about how to be a culturally responsive citizen. This includes building empathy for differences and practice of conflict resolution through explicit reflective dialog and role play as needed. It also includes clarifying what bullying is and what the consequences are for such behavior in the classroom learning community and during recess. It also includes teaching all students how to act respectfully towards each other. Positive behavior reinforcement of appropriate interactions can provide meaningful incentives.

Assessing ELs’ acquisition of academic knowledge

Preteach test language and response structures for different test tasks. This is important because American common test types may not be familiar to ELs nor may they have the language capacity. Collaborate with ESOL teacher/s on this as well.

Provide alternative assessments. ELs who cannot present their knowledge with proper academic language yet need to share their knowledge via projects that allow them to illustrate or gesture what they know or label graphic images with what they know. Provide word banks to use for responses, and simplified sentence structures and number of response choices in test tasks.

These are just a few ideas to infuse culturally and linguistically responsive strategies for ELs into content area instruction. The following three sources provide a variety of research-evidenced instructional practices beneficial for ELs to be culturally and linguistically integrated into the American education system.

Additional resources to investigate are:

a) Go to Strategies retrievable from: http://www.cal.org/what-we-do/projects/project-excell/the-go-to-strategies

b) 50 strategies for teaching English language learners by Adrienne Harrell and Michael Jordan (6^th edition)

c) For more project-based content instruction see Dinah Zike’s foldables resources on the internet for math, science, social studies, math

About the Author

Elke Schneider (PhD) is professor for Literacy, Special Education, and Second Language Learning at Winthrop University and has worked in this field for 25 years. She has supported regional and statewide efforts in training teachers at all grade levels and content areas in meeting learning needs of English learners with research-evidenced practices.