Culturally Responsive

Teaching
Ben Hullerus
Center-Based Special Education Coordinator
Jonathan Elementary School
Learning Targets

• I can identify the 4 agreements to have Courageous Conversations.

• I can assess my personal use of the Courageous Conversations

Compass.

• I can identify culturally relevant teaching practices within the

classroom.
“Culture is to humans as water is to fish.”
Dr. Wade Nobles
Think-Pair-Share: Find a same dot partner
• What is your Nationality?
• What is your Ethnicity?
• What is your Race?
Differentiating The Three C’s

Nationality (corner)

Ethnicity (culture)
*Heritage is your ancestry

Race (color)
What is Culture?

• Culture refers to the ways of living; shared

behaviors, beliefs, customs, values, and ways of
knowing that guide groups of people in their
daily life and are transmitted from one
generation to the next.

• Culture affects how people learn, remember,

reason, solve problems, and communicate; thus,
culture is part and parcel of students’
intellectual and social development.
Understanding how aspects of culture can vary
sheds light on variation in how students learn.
Ethnicity
• Ethnicity – An intersection of ancestry, color, culture,
and nationality. This is usually reflected by such
factors as religious practices, food choices,
language/dialect, and musical expressions.
 Race

• Race - It is important to
define race as a social
construct that means skin
color. In some cases,
groups are identified by
ethnicity (i.e. Asian
American). There is no
scientific evidence or
support for placing human
beings into different racial
categories.
 Privilege
• Privilege – A package of Example: In the United States, people
assets and advantages can have the ability to see racism as
which can be counted on something which puts people of color
but can remain oblivious to at a disadvantage but not see one of its
corollary aspects, White privilege.
groups who have such
advantages. Examples
include dominant cultural
groups such as
heterosexual males,
Whites, able bodied, etc.
Discussion: Find an opposite dot partner

• What did you hear?

Ch. 4 Agreeing to talk about race

From Courageous Conversations by Glenn E. Singleton

 Chapter 4, Agreeing to Talk About Race

• Concentric Circles
• Who are you? After reading the chapter, what does racial
consciousness mean to you?
• What can you glean, personally from the stages of racial
consciousness?
• When it comes to teaching and holding courageous conversations,
what meaning can you offer about the agreement,“Speak your Truth”?
• When it comes to teaching and holding courageous conversations,
what is the meaning of the agreement, “Stay engaged”?
• When it comes to teaching and holding courageous conversations,
what is the meaning of the agreement, “Experience Discomfort”?
• When it comes to teaching and holding courageous conversations,
what is the meaning of the agreement, “Expect and accept non-
closure”?
 4 Agreements
• Stay Engaged
• Speak Your Truth.
• Experience Discomfort
• Expect and Accept Non-
Closure
Clint Smith
• Clint Smith- Danger of Silence
The Iceberg
White Culture in the United States
Some Aspects & Assumptions

• Rugged Individualism • Time

• Competition • Future Orientation
• Justice • Family Structures
• Communication • Aesthetics
• Holidays • Religion
• History • Scientific Method
• Protestant Work Ethic

• Status, Power, Authority

(Katz 1990)
So what IS culturally responsive
teaching?
1. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a “bag of tricks” that
minimizes the difficulty of teaching some students of
color.

2. Culturally responsive teaching is simply a technical

process of applying best practices.

3. Culturally responsive pedagogy requires teachers to

master the details of all the cultures of students
represented in the classroom.

4. Cooperative group learning and peer coaching are

examples of culturally responsive instruction.

5. PBIS is an example of a culturally responsive practice.

Culturally Responsive Teaching
 The Culturally Responsive Classroom
• Print Rich (70% authentic/30% commercially produced)
• Learning Centers (reading, writing, listening, math, science, and cultural)
• Culturally Colorful (ethnic cloths, prints, art work, and artifacts)
• Arranged Optimally (presentations, movement, teacher space)
• Multiple Libraries (cultural, multicultural, content specific, reading level, and
signature literature)
• Technology (utilization and prominently displayed)
• Relevant Bulletin Boards (cultural, student work, current unit, current events,
content area oriented)
• STUDENT WORK Everywhere (current, ample, unit-related)

Dr. Sharroky Hollie

Lisa - 6th Grade
Kaleah - 2nd Grade
Culturally Responsive Strategies
Resources
• S. Hollie: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching &
Learning
• B. Davis: How to Teach Students Who Don’t Look Like You
• Y. Jackson: Pedagogy of Confidence
• A. Mann: Touching the Spirit Teaching Strategies
• D. Hyerle: Thinking Maps
• Nessel & Graham: Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement
• E. Rothstein: Writing as Learning
• E. Rothstein: Write for Mathematics
• Gould & Gould: Four Square Writing Method
• D. Nessel: The Comprehension Experience
• NUA (National Urban Alliance): Strategies & Materials
• PEG (Pacific Educational Group): Collaborative Action Research for
Equity
 Hope has a human
face.
The most powerful
fuel for sustaining the
initiative to improve a
school is not the
desire to raise test
scores but rather the
moral imperative that
comes with the desire
to fulfill the hopes of
those we serve and
those with whom we
work.
Richard DuFour, Whatever It Takes, 2004
Know Thy Impact
•Hattie identified as a success
• Peer Tutoring=.55
• Cooperative vs. Competitive Learning=.54
• Teacher & Student Relationships=.72
• Meaningful Feedback=.75

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC_8_EdydbY
TotalMale

TotalFemale 1802,
16% Total Students of
Color
4618, 48%
4915, 52%
TotalStudents
9533,
84%
 221, 2%
23, 0% 225, 3%
25, 0%
441, 5%
435, 5%
220, 2% AMI_M
AMI_F
212,
2% API_M
3723, 39% API_F
HIS_M
HIS_F
BLK_M
4008, 42% BLK_F
WHT_M
Enrollment 2016 WHT_F
 Gr. 11 Math 2015
80.00%
75.00%
73.40%

70.00% 67.10%
66.70%

62.80%

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

33.30%

30.00% 27.30%

19.10%
20.00%
16.20%

10.00%

0.00%
CHS-API CHAN-API CHS-HIS CHAN-HIS CHS BLK CHAN-BLK CHS-WHT CHAN-WHT District-Gr 11
 Gr. 10 Reading 2015
100.00%
92.90%

90.00%
80.60%
80.00%
75.20%
72.90%
70.60%
70.00%

60.00%

50.00%
43.40%

40.00%
31.80%
30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
CHS-API CHAN-API CHS-HIS CHAN-HIS CHS BLK CHAN-BLK CHS-WHT CHAN-WHT District-Gr
10
 Students of Color in Special Education
11, 1% 62, 5%

1243, 13%

174, 14% AMI in Sped

Total Students in API in Sped

Special Education 87, 7% HIS in Sped
Total General BLK in Sped
Students
8290, 87% 907, 73% WHT in Sped
 Comparing Percents for Students of Color
90.00%
81%
80.00%
72%
70.00%

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%
14%
9%
10.00% 7%
5% 4.68% 5%
0.09% 0.05%
0.00%
AMI in AMI API in API HIS in HIS BLK in BLK WHT in WHT
Sped District Sped District Sped District Sped District Sped District
Rita Person: Every kid needs a champion