Curriculum and Instruction—Culturally Responsive Teaching

CLED students may not have had experiences and exposure to stimulating cognitive activities that help build the language structure necessary for later academic success. Classroom studies and educator interviews indicate that students make greater improvement in reading comprehension when teachers combine instructional engagement approaches with students’ cultural and linguistic knowledge. The curriculum and classroom environment should “honor and reflect the lives of the students” (Kaplan 2019).

Other characteristics of culturally responsive teaching include the following:

• Engaging in conversation with parents through in-person, email, and newsletters to understand parents' needs and desires for the education of their children, inform them of school happenings, and to understand cultural backgrounds.
• Having consistent communication of high student expectations.
• Learning with cultural context so students have lessons and activities presented in ways that are familiar to them. Teachers should also acknowledge that cultural differences exist and are embraced in the classroom so all students are able to maximize learning.
• Ensuring student-centered instruction to enable students to direct their own learning. Opportunities are provided for students to work on culturally and socially relevant assignments/projects.
• Offering culturally relevant instruction that includes diverse ways of knowing, understanding, and doing that encourages multiple viewpoints. Educational environments should embrace and encourage students to share cultural knowledge, beliefs, and actions.
• Providing integrated, meaningful, and student-centered curriculum that relates to issues and topics of the students’ various backgrounds and cultures.
• Assuring teacher familiarity with his/her students’ backgrounds and who can use that information to better help students develop knowledge and skills, and facilitate the transfer of that knowledge in meaningful ways. Encourage students to share cultural information such as traditions and artifacts. Invite members of the community to speak to the class or deliver a lesson.

Carol Ann Tomlinson developed The Equalizer to assist teachers in differentiation content, process, and/or product for students. By sliding a lever on any number of continuums, anything can be differentiated based on students' readiness, interest or learning profile. In their book Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom (2nd edition), Sousa and Tomlinson recreate a table illustrating cultural tendencies and beliefs that may influence a student’s learning. Just like the Equalizer, any one of these levers may slide in one direction or the other to modify instruction or activities based on a student’s cultural background. 

Dr. Donna Ford has created a gifted cultural education model based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and James Banks’ levels of integrating multicultural content; contributions, additive; transformation, and social action.