Student achievement is higher when the Essential Components of Powerful Teaching and Learning are evident in classroom practices. These components include Skills, Knowledge, Thinking, Application, and Relationships. In observations I have conducted, Application has usually been the lowest scoring component. This means that students are often not given the opportunity to make relevant and meaningful personal connections to their learning. Teachers can quite easily provide opportunities for students to make these connections by incorporating student culture into the classroom.
S | Skills and/or Knowledge are manifested as the teacher provides opportunities for students to develop rigorous conceptual understanding, not just recall. |
T | Thinking is evident as the teacher provides opportunities for students to respond to open-ended questions, to explain their thinking processes, and to reflect to create personal meaning. |
A | Application of skills, knowledge, and thinking is evident as the teacher provides opportunities for students to make meaningful personal connections and to extend their learning within and beyond the classroom. |
R | Relationships are positive as the teacher creates optimal conditions for learning, maintains high expectations, and provides social support and differentiation of instruction based on student needs. |
Students are more engaged when they believe lessons are relevant to their lives. By providing relevant, challenging activities that require students to share knowledge about their cultures, teachers provide opportunities for students to see themselves, not only as learners, but as teachers who have something to offer. Also, when teachers show a genuine interest in their students’ cultures, students feel respected and cared for. This creates a supportive, caring, and respectful atmosphere in the classroom.
With that in mind, you may be asking, “How do we do it? How do we incorporate each of our students’ cultures into the classroom?” Let’s start by understanding what culture is. A common misunderstanding is that culture is a person’s race or nationality, when, in fact, this is not entirely accurate. Culture consists of the values, traditions, social relationships, and worldview shared by a group of people bound together by a common history, geographic location, language, social class, and/or religion (Nieto & Bode, 2011). Yes, it can include shared holidays, religious traditions, or language, but it also includes less tangible things like communication styles, attitudes, and values. Another key point about culture is that each person experiences their culture in a unique way. This means that for teachers to effectively incorporate elements of their students’ cultures into the classroom, they need to know and understand their individual students, rather than rely on stereotypes or past experiences with children of a similar background. Teachers can learn about students’ cultures through conversations, journals, parent meetings, or even home visits. They can also provide opportunities for students to bring in items to class and share how they represent an aspect of their culture (a show and tell, of sorts). This kind of activity is easy to incorporate into a multitude of content areas, such as social studies, English, or art. Some teachers establish a check-in time at the beginning of the day or class to acknowledge and learn more about the students’ experiences. Teachers can also take this time to share aspects of their own culture, modeling behavior that communicates that the classroom is a safe space to share and to learn. Another way teachers can build their understanding of students’ cultures is to have them provide personal narratives describing what has shaped them as a person. Students can also do research on their families’ culture, interview a family member, or invite a relative to talk to the class about the history of how their family arrived in the country. The information these activities can provide will be invaluable.
With that in mind, you may be asking, “How do we do it? How do we incorporate each of our students’ cultures into the classroom?” Let’s start by understanding what culture is. A common misunderstanding is that culture is a person’s race or nationality, when, in fact, this is not entirely accurate. Culture consists of the values, traditions, social relationships, and worldview shared by a group of people bound together by a common history, geographic location, language, social class, and/or religion (Nieto & Bode, 2011). Yes, it can include shared holidays, religious traditions, or language, but it also includes less tangible things like communication styles, attitudes, and values. Another key point about culture is that each person experiences their culture in a unique way. This means that for teachers to effectively incorporate elements of their students’ cultures into the classroom, they need to know and understand their individual students, rather than rely on stereotypes or past experiences with children of a similar background. Teachers can learn about students’ cultures through conversations, journals, parent meetings, or even home visits. They can also provide opportunities for students to bring in items to class and share how they represent an aspect of their culture (a show and tell, of sorts). This kind of activity is easy to incorporate into a multitude of content areas, such as social studies, English, or art. Some teachers establish a check-in time at the beginning of the day or class to acknowledge and learn more about the students’ experiences. Teachers can also take this time to share aspects of their own culture, modeling behavior that communicates that the classroom is a safe space to share and to learn. Another way teachers can build their understanding of students’ cultures is to have them provide personal narratives describing what has shaped them as a person. Students can also do research on their families’ culture, interview a family member, or invite a relative to talk to the class about the history of how their family arrived in the country. The information these activities can provide will be invaluable.
Application
Did students extend their learning into relevant contexts?
| 10. Teacher relates lesson content to other subject areas, personal experiences and/or contexts
| 11. Students demonstrate a meaningful personal connection by extending learning activities in the classroom
| 12. Students produce a product and/or performance for an audience beyond the classroom
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It is also crucial for teachers to pick curriculum materials and textbooks that reflect the language, history, and values of a diverse range of people and perspectives. Students can learn about events in history from multiple vantage points or study scientists or inventors from all over the world. When students hear multiple voices and different ways of understanding life they can find value in their own voices, histories, and cultures. Rather than textbooks, teachers can also draw on excerpts from novels, newspapers, magazines, and video clips that relate to students’ lives. Students can then reflect on what they have learned and share their thoughts. This encourages students to understand each other and make personal connections.
Classrooms today are growing more and more diverse. It is impossible for teachers to succeed with all students without exploring how students are influenced by their own culture. So I ask you to reflect on your own practice. How do you think your students perceive your understanding of their culture? What are some steps you have taken to understand their cultures? How can you incorporate their cultures into their learning?
Reference
- Nieto , S. & Bode, P. (2011). Affirming diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education. Boston: Pearson
Want to reflect on your own classroom?
Rachel Gremillion, M.Ed. Research Assistant
Rachel Gremillion holds a Master's of Education in School Counseling from Seattle Pacific University (SPU) and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Louisiana. Her experience working with youth includes a 600-hour school counseling internship at a K-8 school in Seattle Public School District and a 200-hour practicum at an alternative high school in Lake Washington School District. During this time, she tracked data on multiple students with regard to attendance, discipline, grades, at-risk factors, and standardized test scores within a Response to Intervention model. She also has three years of experience working as a language arts, math, and AVID tutor in multiple high-needs public schools throughout Seattle. As a student at SPU, she co-led a presentation at the 2011 WSCA conference on the research that supports the importance of a school counselor’s role as a social justice advocate. Rachel is looking forward to being involved in educational research at the BERC Group and working with schools to increase student learning.
