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Tips for planning for culturally responsive teaching
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 One of the current "buzz words" in education is "culturally responsive teaching." Teachers are expected to demonstrate the skills of culturally responsive teaching, as evidenced by the teacher evaluation tools used by many school divisions and administrators. To achieve this proficiency, teachers often ask, "What is culturally responsive teaching?" and "How do I include evidence of culturally responsiveness in my lessons?"
So, what is "culturally responsive teaching?" In short, culturally responsive teaching, sometimes referred to as CRT, is the art of teaching and planning that values the cultural nuances of the diverse students in a given classroom. Furthermore, CRT is more than mentioning the countries and cultures represented by the students in your classroom or planning a unit of study on a particular culture. CRT is a method of considering the learning styles of various cultures and designing lesson plans that incorporate those styles; it will enable students to engage in learning in the way they most often encounter at home. For example, one learning style that encompasses many cultures seen in today's classrooms is oral language. To support this style, teachers should consider how they can include multiple ways for students to communicate with each other to share what they know and what they are learning (Hammond, 2017). Additionally, culturally responsive teaching considers topics that are of value to the students in a particular demographic or geographic locality. Understanding the values of students and connecting with their interests will increase their engagement in your class and their academic performance.
So, how do you plan for culturally responsive teaching? The articles cited below under "Online Resources" have a variety of suggestions, but here are five strategies that can be integrated relatively easily and begin to establish a foundation of culturally responsive teaching in your classroom.
- Learn about your students (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, 2x10 strategy) to determine what they value and how they prefer to learn and demonstrate that learning.
- Gamify lessons/activities.
- Call on each student during each lesson.
- Frequently utilize cooperative learning (i.e., working in pairs or small groups, peer teaching).
- Allow for student choice in final work products.
For more information and ideas, consider the culturally responsive resources available from the TTAC at VCU library.
Resources
Reference
For more information, contact Leslie Murphy Brown (lmmurphybrown@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Active supervision: A proactive classroom practice
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Are you interested in an effective classroom practice to increase academic engagement, successful transitions, and reduce minor behavior incidents? The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs published a document, Supporting and Responding to Behavior: Evidence-Based Classroom Strategies for Teachers, which lists and describes eight evidence-based instructional practices that are proactive, positive, and support student success. One of the effective instructional practices is active supervision. Active supervision occurs when a teacher monitors the classroom or instructional setting in a manner that creates opportunities for instruction and feedback on expected behaviors (Haydon, Hunter, & Scott, 2019). By using the four components of active supervision, a teacher is able to support academic engagement and encourage social behavior success. There are four components of active supervision:
- Moving: Continuous circulation around the classroom/instructional area. Movement provides proximity and opportunities to prompt appropriate student behavior. It allows a teacher to observe students as they engage in instruction and tasks. The teacher can provide assistance, redirect students, or give feedback as she walks continually around the classroom.
- Scanning: Looking around the classroom/instructional area. Scanning occurs frequently as a teacher moves through the classroom or instructional area. As she scans, the teacher makes eye contact with students to indicate her awareness of their activity and to provide nonverbal praise (e.g., smile, nod head) or signals for redirection (e.g., brief shake of head, predetermined signal such as a thumbs up) (Menzies, Lane, Oakes, Ruth, Cantwell, & Smith-Menzies, 2018).
- Interacting: Engaging students in verbal communication. Interactions are opportunities to have brief authentic conversations with students (Haydon, Hunter, & Scott, 2019). An interaction can be a greeting, questions about an area of interest, or a correction that supports the student's success in the instructional environment (i.e., precorrection). Interactions can occur during transitions and/or as the teacher moves around the classroom.
- Acknowledging and providing feedback: Providing acknowledgement to students for demonstrating expected academic and social behaviors. A teacher acknowledges students by providing behavior specific verbal and nonverbal feedback when they demonstrate the expected behaviors (e.g., raise hand before speaking, walk in the classroom). Acknowledgement and feedback help students know and understand what is expected of them and encourages them to demonstrate similar behavior in the future (Menzies, Lane, Oakes, Ruth, Cantwell, & Smith-Menzies, 2018).
The components of active supervision are easy to implement. You can start by moving around the classroom during direct instruction as students complete classwork or are in centers or during small group activities. As you circulate the room, scan frequently and notice: Who is on task? Who is finished? Who needs guidance or redirection? Verbal and nonverbal feedback and acknowledgement can be provided as you scan and move. Implementing active supervision can help support students to demonstrate academic and social behavior expectations and lessen potential behavioral issues.
Resource
Office of Special Education Programs. (2015). Supporting and responding to student behavior: Evidence-based classroom strategies for teachers. Washington DC: Office of Special Education Programs.
References
Haydon, T., Hunter, W., & Scott, T.M. (2019). Active supervision: Preventing behavioral problems before they occur. Beyond Behavior, 28(1), 29-35.
Menzies, H.M., Lane, K.L., Oakes, W.P., Ruth, K., Cantwell, E.D., & Smith-Menzies, L. (2018). Active supervision: An effective, efficient, low-intensity strategy to support student success. Beyond Behavior, 27(3), 153-159.
For more information, contact Chris Frawley (cdfrawley@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Resources for equity and school discipline: Addressing discipline disproportionality
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Many school and division teams meet regularly to review their discipline data. Their analysis assists them to identify what is working well and what/who might need additional behavior support. Sometimes, the teams determine there are increasing rates of discipline disproportionality. They notice that certain groups of students are receiving more office referrals than other students. How can the teams begin to address this issue? The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an excellent source for resources related to equity and school discipline.These resources can assist teams with developing a plan of action to address discipline disproportionality and create more culturally responsive schools. Practice guides, videos and presentations are provided to guide schools and divisions to implement evidence-based practices for data analysis, problem solving and effective instruction.
These four practice guides are resources a school or division team may find useful for addressing discipline disproportionality:
If discipline disproportionality is an area your school or division needs to address, then visit http://www.pbis.org/school/equity-pbis to access and make use of these practice guides and the other resources provided.
For more information, contact Chris Frawley (cdfrawley@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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