Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies Chart
A. Strategies for Getting to Know StudentsB. Creating a Positive, Safe, & Inclusive Classroom Environment
C. Instructional Strategies for Engaging ALL Students During Class D. CRT Processing Strategies
E. CRT Assessment Strategies
Know Student NamesA,B / Know all student prefered names and how to pronounce them correctly. Also, knowing the prefered pronouns.
Letter
A,B / Write your students a letter about yourself and ask them to write one back to you.
Possible accommodations
/modifications:
-If a student struggles with writing, possible options for access could be: Use speech to text software, record a video of them
Greet Students
A,B,C / Greet students each day at the door with a smile and a “hello” as they walk in your classroom.
Reach Out
A,B,C / Identify students who are not engaged regularly in your class and invite them to eat lunch with you one day or to come in before/after school to get help. When you do meet, get to know them better and also ask what you can do differently in class to meet their learning needs.
1:1 Conversations
A,B,C / Engage in 1:1 conversations with individual students before, during, and after class on a regular basis. Ask about their weekend, their job, or simply how they are doing. This extra effort to get to know students lets them know you care.
Use Student Names
B,C / Use student names when you call on them or interact with them.
Mindsets
B,C / Encourage growth mindsets where students are willing to take a chance (look up resources for growth vs. fixed Mindsets for more details).
Shifting Mindsets
B,C / Rebuild mindsets by helping students notice their own progress and reframe negative statements about learning into positive statements. This creates a positive, safe environment for learning.
For students with IEP goals, meet with them regarding their IEP goals and the progress they have made with them.
Effective Feedback
B,C,D,E / Find ways for students to be actively involved in keeping track of their own progress by having them keep charts or tally sheets to track their progress. Students cannot push themselves academically or tackle more complex work if they are unaware of specifics about where they are struggling or how to fix it. Giving feedback alone does not impact learning. Students must DO something with the feedback. Effective feedback should be instructive, specific, timely, and provide opportunity to apply feedback. When students are struggling, have meta-cognitive conversations about their learning. See Chapter 6 of CRT & The Brain by Hammond for more details. By doing this, teachers create a safe environment where students feel they can take risks and stretch their learning.
Classroom Norms
B,C / Teachers and students create classroom norms together. Norms should outline the specific attributes for an optimal learning environment. ALL students contribute ideas and all students sign the norms poster at the end. It should be visible in the classroom.
Classroom Walls
B,C,D,E / Use “Word Walls” or “I Wonder Walls” to bring multiple perspectives to the classroom environment or to allow students to post high use words from the content in their own language on the wall. Put up a “Parking Lot” poster where students can put sticky notes with questions about the lesson. Then respond to them at the end of class or the next day.
Positive Images
A,B / Ensure that there are culturally diverse and positive images represented in classroom posters and curriculum. For example, if you teach in a math classroom, showcase prominent figures in the math realm from as many diverse cultures as possible. Also, use curriculum from a variety of sources and perspectives, so that all students see themselves in your curriculum throughout the school year.
Invite and Use Student Feedback
B / Invite students to provide feedback on the classroom environment, class content, and activities. Then, use this feedback to drive future classroom decisions and instruction. This affirms that all student voices are important and are heard.
Struggling Students
B / When students are misbehaving, disruptive or failing your class, consider what changes could be made in the classroom environment and teaching strategies to engage these students. Look for areas of fault in the classroom, not just with the student.
Silly Sports & Goofy Games
B
Class building activities
B / Build a sense of community within your classroom by incorporating class building activities at least one time a week. Class building activities should get students up and moving, interacting with others.
Team Building activities
B / Help students feel safe within their team by providing opportunities for teams to bond at least twice a week. Team building activities should be fun, non-academic and easy for all. These should also be short.
Call and Response
C / Students actively respond in unison (as a class) to the speaker/teacher to a pre-taught “call.” This can be used to get students’ attention or to engage all students in a class discussion. This can be verbal and/or nonverbal. Examples: using thumbs-up or down to express understanding or agreement. Teacher says, “we are learning” and students respond “all the time.” You can also combine claps, snaps, and movement with verbal call and responses. Example: “are you focused?” with one clap and students respond, “yes I am” with two claps.
Think-Pair-Share
Based on Kagan Timed-Pair-Share
C / Students each consider their own answers, then discuss them with a partner. Their combined response is shared with the class by one of the partners.
Kagan Steps:
- Teacher gives question, tells how long they will have to talk, then gives think time
- Have one student in a pair share their answer while other listens
- Listener gives some sort of feedback (praise, question, paraphrase, etc.)
- Students switch roles
Four Corners
Based
on Kagan Corners
C / Four topics are posted in each corner of the room. Have students move to the corner that represents their feelings or answer. Then, they should discuss their feelings/answers within their group. Each group reports findings to whole group.
Kagan Steps:
Students with Functional Needs: The student is stationed at one of the corners of the room. When the other students move to that specific corner, each student gives the student with functional needs a high five. When a response is said out loud, the para/staff will give the student a tangible small object (i.e.coin) to put into a slotted box or basket (just an example), the student is prompted to deposit the “talking coin” when another student makes a statement. At the end of the “four corners lesson”, the student gives the box to the teacher. The teacher can use this box of “talking coins” to count the number of responses students gave. This will give the teacher some data on number of student responses too!
Numbered Heads Together
Based on Kagan Structure
C / Students discuss topics or answers to a question in a group BEFORE the teacher calls on specific students for answers. This allows students who are struggling to prepare an answer before they are called on. With this strategy, any student should expect to be called on.
Kagan Steps:
- Students each write their own answer to a question
- Teammates put their heads together to ensure that all can answer the question, comparing what they wrote and coaching those who need help
- The teachers calls on a random person from each team who has to share their answer.
Graffiti
C / Each small group responds to a topic on one paper by writing words or phrases. Groups presents their graffiti to the class.
Use Movement
C / Use movement to promote engagement in classrooms. For example, have students move around the classroom until the teacher says stop, then have students huddle with two other students to answer a question posed by the teacher, explain what they have learned to each other, or ask questions they still have about the lesson. Have students repeat this process a few times before sitting back down. This strategy is great for long class periods.
Talking Chips
Kagan
C / Have students write their name on three sticky notes or give them three talking chips (marbles, whatever you have). Then, during small group or whole class discussions, students must place one of their sticky notes/talking chips in middle of the table when they speak. When a student has run out of talking chips, they need to wait for all other students to run out before they can talk again. All talking chips must be used before the conversation ends. This ensures all voices are heard and accountability is in place for all students to engage.
Choice
C / When possible, provide student choice in the activities, curriculum, and readings that students engage in. Include a variety of ways that students can show mastery of content. Examples: Tic-Tac-Toe Assignment Board, Layered Curriculum, or keep it simple by providing a list of options.
Round Robin
Kagan
C / In teams, students take turns responding orally. Each student may share for a specific amount of time, share multiple times (going around group multiple times), or just one thought.
Rally Robin
Kagan
C / In pairs, students generate answers (orally or written) back and forth with each other.
Scaffold Learning
C / Teach information more than one way in a single setting: graphs, visuals, charts, notes, verbal, on paper, examples, etc. This scaffolds learning for students and encourages engagement. .53 effect size impact on student achievement from John Hattie - Scaffolding”.
Partner-Teach
C / If you can teach it, you know it! Have students pair up and teach each other.
Graphic Organizers
C / When teaching a new concept or topic, offer writing templates, sentence starters, and graphic organizers for all students, not just those who you think might need them.
T-G-I
C / Together, Group, Individual. Teach concepts to the whole group, then have small groups work through the content together, then provide individual practice. This combination makes it safer for diverse learners to engage.
Critical Thinking/Inquiry
C / Encourage students to ask questions and think critically about content to increase engagement. Use Costa’s level of Questions or the “Promoting Rigor Through Higher Level Prompts” AVID resource. Philosophical Chairs or Socratic Seminars also encourage engagement through critical thinking and inquiry. To ensure all voices are heard in these activities, use strategies such as “co-pilot” or “three before me.” Allow students to engage in quick writes and small group discussions before these whole group activities to increase engagement levels. The more prepared students are, the safer they feel as they try to contribute.
Debrief Circles
C / A strategy that combines metacognition with whole group reflection. See the example video from a math classroom below for more details.
Video:
Whip Around
C / A strategy to invite all students to participate in a collaborative discussion. Place students in groups, each participant in the group gets one minute (or another designated amount of time) to discuss, react, reflect, or answer a question. After each one minute increment is announced, “whip around” to the next person until all have a turn to discuss. Then, have one person from the group summarize the learning to the class. Some teachers allow students to pass if they do not want to speak during the whip around.
Sketch Note
D / Using this strategy activates left and right hemisphere of the brain and promotes higher level thinking. It also forces students to think through content as they engage in note-taking. This is a powerful strategy to use with new terms, processes, concepts, or vocabulary.
• Title in center
• Sketch: Key Ideas, Quotes, Ah ha! Moments, Recurring themes
• Start black and white, add color later
• Create common images for common words and use each time
• Limit to ONE Slide / ONE Side of paper
• Tips for Teachers:
– Visualize as a class / brainstorm as a class
– Teachers should model imperfect drawings and mistakes showing students that Sketch Note do not need to be perfect
Interactions in Notes
D / According to brain research, students must have opportunities to revisit new learning and interact with it multiple times within the first 48 hours of learning it in order to cement the learning that occurred (CRT & the Brain by Z. Hammond). Having students interact with their notes from class is one way to ensure that students are learning. It is helpful to have students use different colors each time they interact with their notes to provide them with a visual of how many interactions they have completed.
A few examples of interaction strategies students can use in class:
· Review and revise notes
· Collaborate with a peer by exchanging ideas and adding missing content
· Use textbooks, videos, websites, etc. to find gaps in notes and fill them in
· Add visuals and diagrams to notes
· Ask questions in notes and then add answers later
· Predict test questions
· Circle key words
· Define unknown words
· Add practice problems or examples from the text
· Summarize learning at the bottom
Pause to Process
D / Allow students time during challenging content to pause and process what they are learning individually through quick writes, partner discussions, reflective questions, etc.
CRT Assessment Strategies
Pre-Assessments
E / Students will demonstrate where they are with the content in your class.
Personalized Assessment
E / Format and type of assessments are based on the student’s performance on the pre-assessment. Here the student is applying knowledge gained.
Rubrics
E / The purpose of a rubric is to focus on specific feedback (not the grade earned). The use of rubrics will provide students specific feedback about their performance on assessments. Feedback provided should be instructive rather than evaluative. It should be specific and not overwhelming for the student to process. Feedback should be provided in a timely manner when it is still meaningful and relevant for the student. The environment should be supportive and welcoming so the feedback does not produce anxiety for the student. (CRT & the Brain by Hammond, 103-104)
Common Assessments
E / Within the same courses that students are enrolled, there are commonly assessed learning targets and skills to demonstrate mastery of content.
Portfolios
E / Having students use multiple projects, assignments, essays and assessments to document and reflect on growth. This allows students to reflect on their growth over time showing that learning is an ongoing process and not a one-time event.
Skills Based Assessments
E / In this type of assessment, students apply the knowledge or skills they have learned. For example, in a math class students could use their knowledge of angles to draw a real life blueprint or schematic of a city block. Another example: in an English class, students could use their knowledge of persuasive techniques they have identified in the text and use them in their own writing or speeches.
Self-Assessment
E / A process where students monitor, evaluate, and reflect on their learning targets by responding to questions about the quality of their learning, thinking and understanding of skills. This helps them move from their current performance to their desired performance (Educational Research Data Base – McMillan and Hearn).
Peer Feedback
E / A structured process where students provide specific feedback or advice to other students about what has been done well (according to learning targets), what needs to be improved, and suggestions for how to improve.
Student Led Discussions
E / Student led discussions that empower students to take charge of their learning by developing their own questions and discussing them based on readings provided by the teacher. Examples: Socratic seminars, Fishbowls, World Cafes, etc. This is a CRT strategy because it allows for peer-to-peer connections and students are exposed to multiple perspectives.
Quick Writes
E / This strategy can be used to informally assess student learning by providing students with 2 to 15 minutes to answer an open-ended teacher directed prompt.
Student Led Discussions (Socratic Seminar, Philosophical Chairs)
E / Using provided readings, students engage in conversations where they lead the discussion with questions that are asked.
Learning Logs
E / A strategy that can be used to informally assess student learning by asking students to summarize their learning in three to four sentences, ask questions they still have or higher level questions for later discussion, and engaging in a metacognitive reflection demonstrating why they were successful or not successful during the learning process.
Behavior Specific Praise/Feedback
E
Chalk Talk / Steps: 1) write the topic on a large paper or on the board. 2) invite students to respond to the topic with definitions, quotations, questions and even pictures-this should be timed and done silently. 3) After students are finished, reflect on what they’ve created-pose guiding questions to the class.
Close Reading / Steps: 1) Select a short, meaningful text for repeated readings. 2) Read through the text. 3) Read again with a pencil in hard to annotate the text (highlight key ideas, ask questions, underline important words/phrases) 4) Ask questions/have a discussion: general questions, key detail questions, vocabulary and text structure questions, author’s purpose questions, inferential questions, opinion and intertextual questions
-Might need to reread the text many times
Reciprocal Teaching / .74 effect size impact on student achievement from John Hattie - “Reciprocal teaching”.
Self Questioning / .64 effect size impact on student achievement from John Hattie - “Self Questioning”.
Concept Mapping / ..64 effect size impact on student achievement from John Hattie - “Concept Mapping”.
The strategies above can be easily embedded into the framework of