Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Teaching Like Our Students' Lives Matter (Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching)

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: TEACHING LIKE OUR STUDENTS’ LIVES MATTER

INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING VOLUME 4

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: TEACHING LIKE OUR STUDENTS’ LIVES MATTER SHERYL V. TAYLOR University of Colorado Denver

DONNA M. SOBEL University of Colorado Denver

United Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Group Publishing Limited Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2011 Copyright r 2011 Emerald Group Publishing Limited Reprints and permission service Contact: [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Editor or the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-78052-030-8 ISSN: 2041-272X (Series)

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CONTENTS PREFACE

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FOREWORD

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PART ONE: CONCEPTUALIZING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY CHAPTER ONE

CURRENT CHALLENGES AND FRAMEWORKS

CHAPTER TWO

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND RESEARCH

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CHAPTER THREE

CONTEXTUALIZING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND TEACHER EDUCATION

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PART TWO: PERSPECTIVES AND SUPPORTS CHAPTER FOUR

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: THE STANCE FROM PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

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CHAPTER FIVE

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: NATIONAL AND STATE-LEVELS

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CHAPTER SIX

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: EFFECTIVE TEACHING

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CHAPTER SEVEN

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEVELS

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PART THREE: CLASSROOMS IMPLEMENTING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY CHAPTER EIGHT

GRADE 3 LITERACY LESSON WITH A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FOCUS

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CHAPTER NINE

GRADE 5 MATHEMATICS LESSON WITH A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FOCUS

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CHAPTER TEN

GRADE 9 SCIENCE LESSON WITH A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FOCUS

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PART FOUR: SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ GROWTH IN CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY CHAPTER ELEVEN MENTORING AND SUPPORTING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING PRACTICES

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REFERENCES

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APPENDICES

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PREFACE This book is the result of many years of combined teaching experience within U.S. public schools, Mexican public and private schools, and U.S. university settings by both authors. Yet the impetus for this work began during a faculty retreat, when the authors were encouraged to discuss a research topic of interest with a fellow faculty member whom we did not know well at that time and who was from a specialization area different from our own. We recall looking around for a discussion partner and finding ourselves sitting across the table from each other! At the time, we were new assistant professors embarking on the journey of tenure, and as we began sharing ideas, we immediately saw commonalities in our interests. We both were keenly interested in examining ways that students with a diversity of linguistic, cultural, and ability backgrounds could be meaningfully included in public schools and general education classrooms. As teacher educators, we were both particularly interested in teachers’ cognition and behaviors relevant to their preparation to work with a student population coming from a broad cultural diversity of backgrounds and abilities. After brainstorming on several ways to research these areas, Sobel remarked that those initial plans for a study laid the groundwork for a collaborative writing project. Taylor quickly responded, ‘‘Actually, I think we have the makings for a long-term research agenda that will include a series of studies for a longitudinal investigation.’’ That afternoon in the mid-1990s signaled the start of a valued personal friendship as well as our mutually beneficial and trusted professional collaboration. We wrote this book to provide a seamless harmony between the theoretical and research foundation of culturally responsive pedagogy coupled with practical applications of this pedagogy. In part, the book is motivated by our desire to attend to our teacher education students’ questions about how to ‘‘do’’ culturally responsive pedagogy. Understanding that culturally responsive pedagogy cannot be simplified as a set of tools or teaching methods, our hope is that this book will provide a complex and comprehensive mix of theory, research, and a conceptual framework for reflecting on culturally responsive to students. That said, we do not anticipate that this book will offer final answers to current questions being asked. Instead, we look forward to this book generating discussion, critical thinking, and further examinations on the part of practitioners, teacher educators, administrators, professional staff developers, and researchers. vii

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Three years have passed since we first received an email inquiry from the series editor, Martha Pennington, introducing herself and asking about our interest in submitting a manuscript for consideration as a book that could contribute to the Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching series. We seized upon the opportunity for a chance to participate in this stimulating global discussion and we are profoundly grateful for the acceptance of our work as well as the keen insights Martha has provided us in our first book project. We extend our sincere and heartfelt thanks to Martha for her patience, guidance, and humor. We are quite sure that the phrase, ‘‘The devil is the details’’ was created for an editor and professional author such as Martha, whose dedicated editorial skills have been indispensable to us. She has been our ‘‘guardian angel’’ as we journeyed through the process of writing this book. We are appreciative for Martha’s never-tiring encouragement that our work needed to be shared with international audiences in the field of English language teaching, innovation, and leadership. We also wish to thank and acknowledge the principals who allowed us entry into their schools and the educators who have welcomed us into their classrooms and allowed us to conduct our research. The teachers graciously agreed to our multiple observations in their classrooms and took time to reflect with us about their daily practice. To those novice and veteran teachers who allowed us to photograph their classrooms, to observe countless hours, and to involve them in interviews and discussions, we owe you an immense debt of gratitude. We are deeply appreciative of the permission you granted us to spend time in your classrooms and use the photographs taken in those teaching and learning contexts. In addition, we each individually wish to acknowledge some special people in our lives: I wish to acknowledge Grace, Rick, Sara, Greg, Dan, my step-mom-Barb, my Dad, and my Mom, who have taught me so much about life, love, forgiveness, and crossing cultural boundaries large and small. And to Neal, who lives in our hearts always. This book is for each of you. – Sheryl V. Taylor I’m one of the lucky ones in life. That is why my first individual acknowledgement goes to my husband Alan, our son David, and our daughter Meg, who are the inspiration in everything I do and every choice I make. I also want to acknowledge and dedicate this book to the students and educators in public schools whose lives give me insight and encouragement. Every time I walk into a school, I’m reminded of what really matters and how fortunate I am to learn from so many gifted educators who strive daily to include students in ways that genuinely support, respect and create a sense of belonging. – Donna M. Sobel

FOREWORD AIMS OF THIS BOOK This book addresses the gnawing question frequently voiced by preservice and experienced teachers alike who assert, ‘‘I want to be effective in my teaching of culturally and linguistically diverse students; I want to be inclusive of all learners. I’m committed to a culturally responsive pedagogy, but how do I start? Could you just show me how to do it?’’ Such assertions reveal a simplified view of culturally responsive pedagogy as a teaching method or a defined set of practices, which it is not. On the other hand, we commend these teachers for recognizing the broad heterogeneity they can anticipate in today’s classrooms, which include students with a wide diversity of language, culture, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic resources, ability levels, and life experiences. This book is also for teachers who contend, ‘‘I teach literacy and language to English language learners (ELL students); there’s not time to consider culture.’’ Or, perhaps like us, you have also heard teachers say, ‘‘I teach math; I don’t need to be concerned with culture! That is for social studies teachers.’’ Regardless of their content area, teachers are conduits of culture. When culture is coupled with pedagogy, the result involves a complex and comprehensive mix of knowledge and skills for teachers to use to engage a diverse student population. Howard (2010) clarifies that culturally responsive teaching is situated in a framework that recognizes the rich and varied cultural wealth, knowledge, and skills that students from diverse groups bring to schools, and seeks to develop dynamic teaching practices, multicultural content, multiple means of assessment, and a philosophical view of teaching that is dedicated to nurturing student academic, social, emotional, cultural psychological, and physiological well being (pp. 67–68). Grounded in sociocultural learning theory, culturally responsive teaching is a contextual and situational process for both learners and teachers. At its core, it represents a professional philosophy that is based on a teacher’s fundamental commitment to students’ success—all students— including students who are from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and ix

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life experiences as well as students who are members of the society’s ‘‘mainstream’’ cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic group or groups. Teachers who are committed to culturally responsive pedagogy recognize the structural inequalities in society that are reflected in its schools and acknowledge that schools have a history of failing to serve students who are outside of the ‘‘mainstream’’ culture. In the case of teachers committed to culturally responsive teaching who are members of the ‘‘mainstream’’ culture in their society, they recognize the sociopolitical nature of education which includes the role their own cultural background and privilege play in their work as a professional educator. Moreover, they comprehend the harmful devastation that results from deficit-based explanations of the disparate educational outcomes by a diverse student population. For those teachers who are new to culturally responsive pedagogy or to the concept of culture being central to learning, language, literacy, and teaching, they will find a solid blend of theory, research, and practical information here. Many teachers stand by the view that ‘‘good teaching, is good teaching,’’ yet our individual beliefs about what is ‘‘good’’ in teaching and learning are culturally influenced. Beliefs about what is ‘‘good’’ will vary across cultural groups. Education is a sociocultural activity grounded in sociopolitical contexts with teaching and learning as situational, contextual, and personal processes. Removing teaching and learning from their contexts does not offer a realistic view of education. When we decontextualize teaching and learning, we risk disregarding and dismissing students’ broad cultural backgrounds and life experiences. And, when we do this, we risk minimizing students’ chances to achieve their potential. This book is intended as a guide and practical discussion for K-12 teachers who are involved in general education, including the teaching of English language learners; teacher educators; and administrators who wish to deepen their own understandings and support teachers’ professional development about the foundations and applications of a culturally responsive pedagogy in multilingual, multicultural, inclusive classrooms. Although they may not have a clear path for the journey, these individuals understand that schools today need teachers who can teach ‘‘to and through the strengths of these students’’ (Gay, 2010a, p. 31). Schools need teachers who can create and manage rigorous learning environments that maximize learners’ opportunities to learn. That is, schools need teachers who can make school learning relevant and effective for all learners by using students’ cultural knowledge, frames of reference, life experiences, language experiences, and language varieties as resources.

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The aims of this book are to:  Provide a practical overview of theoretical underpinnings of culturally responsive pedagogy.  Establish a rationale for the importance of this pedagogy using the current sociocultural context of schools and report on students’ performance in schools.  Review the research regarding the preparation of teachers for multicultural, multilingual, inclusive school contexts, that is, the extent to which teacher education programs are preparing teachers to work in schools with diverse student populations.  Describe the current professional directives, supports, and teaching standards in place to guide teachers’ knowledge and skills to effectively teach a diverse student population that includes English language learners.  Highlight classrooms where teachers have effectively operationalized their commitment, knowledge, and skills of a culturally responsive pedagogy in multilingual, multicultural, inclusive classrooms.  Incorporate findings from our classroom-based research, including exemplars addressed successfully by teachers committed to culturally responsive pedagogy for teaching a diverse student population. These exemplars are organized around the 12 components of: classroom environment or environmental print, grouping strategies, instructional materials, instructional adaptations, distribution of attention, evidence of student understanding, classroom behavior, teacher’s personal/professional growth, and teacher’s interactions with students’ families and community.  Provide practical supports for professional development and mentoring of teachers to implement a culturally responsive pedagogy, including an observation protocol that can be used by teachers, teacher educators, administrators, or staff developers. Components of this book are conceptual and practical, and they build on the work of several scholars and practitioners who have been committed to equity in education and creating schools that effectively meet the needs of all students regardless of their cultural, racial/ethnic, linguistic, religious, ability, socioeconomic or gender backgrounds (e.g., Banks, 2007; Garcia, 2002; Gay, 2010b; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Howard, 2010; Irvine, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Nieto, 2002; Sleeter, 2001; Sleeter & Grant, 2003). In this book we also share data from studies we have conducted during the past 10 years that document: (1) preservice teachers’ cognition and behaviors relevant to their preparation to work with a diverse student

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population; (2) preservice teachers’ self study of their beliefs and classroom practices relevant to using broad cultural diversity as a resource when working with a diverse student population; (3) teacher preparation in a professional development school model; and (4) experienced teachers’ cognition and behaviors associated with high-quality teaching in schools with diverse student populations. These studies were situated in classroom contexts with students from a range of cultural, racial/ethnic, linguistic, religious, ability levels, socioeconomic backgrounds, and life experiences. This book also incorporates perspectives from sociocultural theory and critical pedagogy, two theoretical frameworks that provide key structures for this effort concerned with culture, language, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in educational contexts.

OUR ORIENTATIONS We have written this book from three perspectives that have shaped our efforts; first, as European American researchers and teacher educators; second, as European American professional educators committed to teaching in multicultural, multilingual, inclusive classroom contexts; and third, as European American women engaged in the multicultural dialogue and committed to social change and transformation. We both entered the realm of teacher education research after having taught in U.S. public schools in Midwestern and Western states (Sobel & Taylor), and in Mexican public and private schools (Taylor). We have done our best to keep one foot firmly ‘‘rooted’’ in public school classrooms as we consider the classroom learners to be the ultimate stakeholders that influence our work. We view the critical dialogue and candid examination of structural inequity, White privilege, and idealized perspectives of meritocracy to be essential and ongoing. Joining our students who are preservice and inservice teachers in the hard work is one aspect of our positions we embrace. We cannot dialogue and then dismiss the urgency of this work and be genuinely involved in our teaching and research. We acknowledge that teacher education persists in a predominance of European American students and instructors. We therefore advocate for students, families, teachers, and communities of diverse backgrounds to demand the right to be acknowledged and educated for ‘‘who they are’’ rather than abandoning their identity to be replaced with Eurocentric cultural norms and expectations in order to access a high-quality education and opportunities (Gay, 2010a).

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Who are we? What brought us to this journey? Here’s a bit of our stories. As a European American female raised in a very large, working class Irish Catholic family, I (Sobel) am aware of and appreciative of my rich cultural heritage. Many of my early family traditions were connected to events at the neighboring church; however, experiences celebrating large family gatherings after mass on Sundays have been replaced by a Passover Seder after I embraced many Jewish customs from my husband’s upbringing. Concerted efforts at blending our lives have provided ongoing life lessons. Pondering what influenced my choice of a career working with individuals with disabilities, I’m reminded of a story that my mother recalled for me. As the story goes, I was 11 years old and had just returned home after joining a neighborhood friend and her father on a visit to an elderly relative in a facility for the mentally ill. My mother asked how the trip went and how I felt about what I saw. Supposedly, I looked her in the eye and said, ‘‘It is a sad, sad place, but at least I know what I’ll do when I grow up. I don’t know how, but I have to help think of better ways to help people live.’’ With that aim cemented in my being, I’ve been committed to working in communities, public schools, and higher education settings to improve inclusive education. My early experiences working in state mental institutions taught me some dismal and profound lessons about unfair, inhumane practices. Over and again, I saw that people were warehoused and were most often cared for by inexperienced and underpaid, though well-meaning, staff. As I began working in urban public schools, the disparities of educational services for students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs became glaringly apparent. I see educators today struggle in their efforts to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse urban learners, as evidenced by the achievement and graduation gaps, and other indicators of school success. I have come to more strongly believe that efforts must be made to align the theoretical basis of evolving understandings of the disproportionality problem with realistic work. Indeed, supporting all educators to teach students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse academic needs is one of the most compelling challenges facing teacher educators today. This situation calls for a correspondingly urgent need to attend to school practices that will support educators in minimizing the effects of disabilities while also reducing the risk status of students in vulnerable groups. It’s a long journey coming to terms with one’s identity and hopefully it is never-ending. This book is an important part of that journey for me (Taylor). Broad cultural diversity is something I became aware of at an early age. Having grown up in East Saint Louis, Illinois, where the diversity of the population was vast—with a large population of African Americans,

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German Americans, Italian Americans, Armenians, Orthodox Jews, Catholics, and Protestant Christians—issues of racial/ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity have been ‘‘hitting me in the face’’ since I was a kid. At the time, I did not always know how to make sense of this diversity, but I understood that it caused contention for others—in particular, the adults in my life. Intrigued by the different points of view, religious routines, and cultural practices of childhood friends, I looked for opportunities to enter into different frames of reference. In high school, a two-week language study in an industrial city in Northern Mexico with the Spanish Club ignited a keen interest in language and culture. After that trip, my plan became to return to Mexico to live and work. While my experiences there were limited to several three- and six-month teaching assignments over several years, living and working in Mexico put me in situations where I participated as a cultural and linguistic minority on a regular basis. There were numerous times I misread cultural nuances, misunderstood how to negotiate social and political structures, and desperately wanted to explain that I really was intelligent despite having limited proficiency in Spanish. Daily I gained an understanding of living outside of the mainstream and not fitting in due to my native language and physical appearance. The cultural capital I had did not jive with what was valued in the majority culture of Mexico. I had female work friends whose parents were cautious about letting their daughters befriend an ‘‘Americana.’’ However, none of these experiences prepared me for the harsh reality I met when I traveled to southern Mexico near the border of Guatemala, where there had been political uprisings. The public disdain for American influences was obvious in the graffiti and in the reactions of people on the street. I was not welcome because of how I looked and the country I represented. When I began working in urban schools and rural school districts with urban issues, it did not take long for the inequities in educational structures and resources to become obvious to me. Simultaneously, the efforts of committed teachers and deeply hopeful parents to support their students towards educational success often fell short as a result of historically embedded biases that existed in the school community or a mismatch. A mismatch existed between the cultural capital held by students and the cultural capital valued in the school context. Whether I was teaching children from migrant farm families or urban middle school youth or immigrant/ refugee teenagers whose parents enrolled them into an affluent high school with the goal of achieving admission into a top-notch university, the risk of marginalization and ease of overlooking students’ linguistic and broad

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cultural funds of knowledge (Moll, 2004) were impossible for me to overlook. These experiences have fueled my commitment to work collaboratively with educators and community members to improve educational opportunities for all learners—in particular, students from diverse backgrounds including English language learners.

TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Language is reflective of the current priorities in education and present sociopolitical contexts of education. Just as society, politics, and economics evolve, so does the language we use. Terminology is particularly important relevant to how schools are addressing the broad cultural diversity represented in the student and teacher populations. We think it is important to identify key concepts and terminology that are integral to this book. In this section, we clarify definitions and explain our thinking with respect to decisions we made about terminology. Culture We begin with the definition of culture derived from anthropological understandings; culture is the complex whole that consists of the knowledge, beliefs, morals, habits, customs, art, law, and other capabilities we acquire as members of a society (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1963). That is, culture is multifaceted, dynamic, shared, learned, and can be transmitted from generation to generation or group to group. Culture reveals an interconnectedness of key elements and responses to fundamental changes in the conditions and circumstances of life. Nieto (2002) defined culture as ‘‘the ever-changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created, shared, and transformed by a group of people bound together by a combination of factors that can include a common history, geographic location, language, social class and religion’’ (p. 48). Furthermore, culture indicates a dynamic system of social values, cognitive codes, behavioral standards, worldviews, and beliefs used to give order and meaning to one’s life (Delgado-Gaitan & Trueba, 1991). As we consider culture in relation to the context of schools, it is important to note that culture is situated within and influenced by sociopolitical, historical, and economic contexts, which are in turn influenced by factors of power and privilege. Culture is central to teaching and learning, schooling, and formal education.

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English Language Learners There are a variety of terms used in the field of education to describe students who are learning English as an additional language. One commonly used term is Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. This term—used in the federal legislation and relevant official documents—generally refers to young students at the beginner to intermediate level. Throughout this book, we refer to those students who are learning English in addition to their native language as English language learners or ELL students. We concur with Uribe and Nathenson-Mejia’s (2008) stance that referring to students using acronyms— such as ELLs or LEPs—seems dehumanizing, so we will always refer to students or learners as such and only use ELL as a modifier of student. At times, we will use the acronym ELL alone to stand for English language learning and the acronym ELT as an abbreviation of English language teaching. In the field of education, other terms are used in relation to students learning English, including English as an additional language (EAL), English as a second language (ESL or L2 English), Linguistically diverse education (LDE), English language acquisition (ELA), and English language development (ELD). Each of these terms is also commonly used to refer to curriculum and materials designed specifically for students learning English as an additional language. When we consider English language learners, we recognize that there is broad diversity within this group. For example, some ELL students are learning English as a foreign language in a context where a language other than English is the majority language of society. For these students, they may share the mainstream culture and language of the society. Others are learning English as an additional or second language, thereby adding English to their linguistic repertoire. In this case, ELL students may be recent immigrants having arrived in a country where English is the majority language. Or they may have been born in a country where English is the predominant language and raised in a household with a primary language different from English, similar to the situation of many immigrants in the United States. Their home may integrate a blend of languages and varieties of one language. For these individuals, their cultural perspectives may be a blend of their family’s primary culture and society’s mainstream culture.

Race/Ethnicity Throughout the book, we have attempted to be consistent in our reference to racial/ethnic groups of peoples. Also, we have purposely avoided identifying groups of people solely by skin tone, but instead have used terms

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to designate broad ethnic background. We recognize that using a label to categorize groups of people risks reducing the breadth and depth of diversity within one’s particular ethnic background; however, there are times when in order to report demographic data we have needed to identify specific groups of people. For example, terms we have used include African American, Asian American, and Native American. When reporting census data, we used the term Hispanic, a term used by the U.S. government, although we have a preference for the term Latino to refer to people of Latin American and Caribbean heritage. We also generally use the term European American rather than White, to avoid labeling by skin tone, for those people who represent the majority population in U.S. society. Albeit a small feature, we concur with Nieto and Bode’s (2011) stance to emphasize the cultural background of the group of people who have a tendency to not think of themselves as having a culture. Yet, as noted by Nieto and Bode, just like all terms, European American (or European American Caucasian) has shortcomings as well since it can serve as a ‘‘catch-all’’ for individuals whose background may be a mixture of a great many ethnic backgrounds. When we consider race relevant to culture and cultural differences, we are working from the standpoint that race and racial differences are socially constructed. Understanding that racial differences are mainly constructed by the larger society, we believe it is important to remember that it is not race that makes a difference in people’s attitudes, behaviors, and values. Rather what makes a difference in people’s perspectives is how particular racial groups are valued or devalued by society (Nieto, 2002). Furthermore, we recognize that when considering race in the context of education and schooling, there is a risk of allowing the singular focus of race to overshadow the effects of issues like poor conditions, unqualified teachers, or minimal educational resources in the school context. When students do not achieve academically, it may not simply be because of cultural dissonance between the students’ primary culture and the school culture. Such issues are critical to comprehend because it is not only the devaluing of students and their cultural differences that can put students at risk. Deplorable physical conditions, poor resources and equipment, or a predominance of inexperienced teachers can also be what places students at risk.

Diverse Student Population We generally use terms related to specific ethnic backgrounds or refer to students who are from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and life

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experiences. When we needed to use an overarching term, we tend to use the term, diverse student population. Another overarching term we occasionally employ is students of diverse backgrounds and abilities. We prefer to avoid the term minority students for the reason that it can be and has been used to imply a lesser status. Additionally, these terms tend to be employed not to represent numerical minorities in society, but rather to highlight students as part of a non-White racial category or as racial minorities.

Preservice Teachers We use the term preservice teachers to refer to those teachers who are working towards attaining a teaching license whether they are involved in a traditional Baccalaureate program, an alternative ‘‘teacher in residence’’ program, or a post-Baccalaureate licensure program. While we consistently make use of the term, preservice teacher, these individuals are also commonly referred to as teacher candidates or teacher interns in the professional literature.

Inservice Teachers The term inservice teachers refers to licensed, experienced teachers who may continue their professional development or teacher education by participating in university graduate courses, masters level graduate programs, or continuing education workshops.

Teacher Education Teacher education is employed by us broadly to refer to university-based teacher preparation programs as well as graduate programs that focus on the professional learning and advancement of experienced teachers. When relevant, we specify whether we are referring to initial teacher licensure programs at the baccalaureate level, initial teacher licensure programs with a professional development school (PDS) model, or Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) programs. The PDS model offers preservice teachers extended residencies in schools with expert clinical teachers.

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Inclusive The term inclusive as defined by Merriam-Webster means ‘‘open to everyone; not limited to certain people’’ when used as an adjective before a noun. We use the term inclusive in reference to culturally responsive pedagogy, education, and schools which are broadly grounded in ideals for a democratic and equitable society that includes students’ full participation in the education process (Dewey, 1933). With respect to a diverse student population, we advocate for students’ access to a curriculum that is relevant and to instruction that accommodates their learning interests, abilities, and needs. We build on Banks’ (2007) concept of content integration, whereby curriculum includes and addresses content from a variety of cultures, groups, and perspectives; a curriculum that is representative of a comprehensive society and its authentic history. We suggest instructional planning and practices in line with pedagogy that is inclusive and equitable (Banks, 2007) in order to facilitate the academic achievement of all students. The term inclusive education is an element of U.S. schooling dating back to the 1974 mandates of Public Law (P.L.) 94-142, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Action (IDEA). Critical language in the law calls for the supplementary aids and services needed to effectively include students with varying abilities. Falvey and Givner (2005) explain that inclusion benefits not only students with disabilities, but also all students, educators, parents, and community members. However, even with attempts to operationally define inclusive education, it remains an elusive term. That confusion stems from assumptions associated with inclusive education— that it is a program or a particular classroom in a school or that it is an instructional accommodation. The essential supposition, however, is that inclusion is a way of life—a way of working, studying, and living together— that is based on a genuine belief that each individual is supported, respected, valued, and belongs.

Disproportionality The term disproportionality refers to the overrepresentation or disproportionate number of learners from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in special education programs (Artiles & Ortiz, 2002). In the U.S. context, there are existing policies, laws, and judicial decisions designed to ensure that students of diverse backgrounds and abilities receive an appropriate education. These laws exist to protect the rights of learners

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from culturally, racial/ethnic, and linguistically diverse backgrounds and to ensure that individuals receive special education services only when these are needed. Yet, in the United States, ethnically and linguistically diverse students continue to be overrepresented in special education programs and underrepresented in gifted education (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). Global Context While we have attempted to provide a global or international perspective relevant to the ways schools are addressing broad cultural diversity, we acknowledge that the available data were limited to a few countries, most of which are part of Western cultural societies and where English is the dominant language. We recognize that many of the countries from which data sources in educational studies are drawn have a heritage in European traditions of scholarship (e.g., in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) and so do not provide a truly international perspective. Despite this limitation, there are valuable insights to be gained from the scholarship conducted in countries beyond the United States that also have highly diverse societies and populations. United States Context We purposefully refer to our country as the United States, not as America. The term America or the Americas refers to not only the United States but all of North, Central, and South America. When referring to U.S. citizens, we have intentionally not used the term Americans since this usage is inaccurate and even offensive to those individuals living in Central and South America as well as in North America (Canadians) who also consider themselves to be Americans.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK This book is divided into 11 chapters. Chapter One provides a three-part overview that addresses: (a) current shifting demographics both globally and in the context of the United States; (b) challenges resulting from the changing societal and school contexts; and (c) broad directives and frameworks for preparing and retaining high-quality teachers to work effectively with a diverse student population that includes English language learners. Chapter Two

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provides an overview of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of culturally responsive teaching. Chapter Three establishes a rationale for culturally responsive pedagogy using an examination of students’ performance in schools and studies of teachers’ preparation to effectively teach a diverse student population in multicultural, multilingual, inclusive school contexts. Chapter Four offers a descriptive overview of broad professional directives, supports, and teaching standards currently in place in international professional organizations to guide teachers’ knowledge and skills to effectively teach a diverse student population that included English language learners. Then in Chapter Five we narrow our view to a U.S.-based context and we address national directives and state-level teaching priorities and standards to gain an understanding of guidelines and supports to guide teachers at these levels. In Chapter Six, we discuss culturally responsive pedagogy as effective teaching. We propose the questions, ‘‘Will I know it if I see it?’’ and ‘‘Can I do it?’’ Given that culturally responsive teaching is not a simple set of practices or materials, what are ways to approach it from the teacher’s perspective? We address essential elements that factor into the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy. Integrating results from our classroom-based research, we provide an organizational framework we have developed for contemplating and planning culturally responsive pedagogy. Components included in the organizational framework are highlighted and further explained in the subsequent classroom scenarios. In Chapter Seven we provide an overview of district and school contexts—two large-scale districts where there is an emphasis on narrowing the achievement gap and ensuring that all ELL students achieve high academic standards in an environment that values linguistic and cultural diversity. Describing two composite school district contexts allows us to provide a backdrop for the classroom scenarios that follow. In Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten, we take readers on a ‘‘tour’’ through three classroom instructional scenarios in two composite schools each located in a distinct U.S.-based school district. The classroom scenarios take place in classrooms where teachers have operationalized their commitment to a culturally responsive pedagogy by developing relevant knowledge and skills in the students and themselves. The classroom instructional scenarios include a 3rd grade literacy lesson, a 5th grade mathematics lesson, and a 9th grade science lesson. As a final topic, Chapter Eleven addresses practical guidelines and supports for professional development and mentoring of teachers to implement a culturally responsive pedagogy. In that chapter, we also describe an observation tool that can be used by teachers, teacher educators, or administrators for reflecting on one’s application of a culturally responsive pedagogy.

PART ONE CONCEPTUALIZING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY

Photo 1.

Tree of life and roots of our ancestors.

CHAPTER ONE CURRENT CHALLENGES AND FRAMEWORKS

INTRODUCTION This book explores ways teachers can make content meaningful and provide effective, inclusive instruction for all students especially students who are from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and life experiences. We give added attention here to those students of diverse backgrounds who are also ELL students. When teachers understand that learning and teaching are culturally and linguistically impacted, they recognize that instruction is more effective when the learner’s broad cultural backgrounds, racial/ethnic identity, and life experiences are integrated within the curriculum. Teachers who make themselves aware of the learners’ backgrounds and life experiences are better prepared to adapt instruction in responsive ways and demonstrate that they can teach like their students’ lives really do matter. Chapter One provides a broad overview of key concepts and challenges facing teachers, administrators, and teacher educators relevant to a diverse student population. To begin with, we address the changing demographics for school-age learners, teachers, and preservice teachers. Next we present a brief summary of structures provided by international professional organizations intended to guide teachers’ professional activities, followed by a focused view of policy directives and professional teaching standards highlighted in the U.S. context. We conclude the chapter with a comprehensive summary of the conceptual framework of culturally responsive teaching. 3

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A CHANGING WORLD FOR EDUCATION In a variety of global contexts today, migration—due to globalization—has resulted in students from many countries of origin settling into local schools. In 2009, more then 3% of the world’s population, which is slightly more than 190 million people, lived in a country different from their country of birth (Zhao, 2010). Globalization has contributed to transformations and expansions in our travel and migration, our communication and business negotiations, and our political and cultural interactions. Such expansion is due to the growth of international trade, advances in transportation, and communication technologies, including the broadening use of the Internet during the past several decades (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2010). As a result of globalization, educational systems are challenged to provide teachers who are equipped to prepare learners to be ready to live in a global society (Garcia, Arias, Murri, & Serna, 2010; Graddol, 2006). Whereas education was once ‘‘the traditionally local social institution,’’ the educational system now faces significant strains to teach and prepare students for the society they will face as adults (Zhao, 2010, p. 423). Across the United Kingdom, Australia, United Arab Emirates, the United States, and points beyond, school classrooms consist of students from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and life experiences. Even countries that traditionally were not destination points of migration have begun to see an influx of immigrant children in their schools because of their parents’ movement. During the mid-2000s, in the United Kingdom, approximately 9% of the student population consisted of immigrants who are in need of English language instruction; and, in England, the percentage of minority ethnic children averaged 12.5% in primary and secondary schools (McEachron & Bhatti, 2005). In Australia, 25% of the population was born outside of Australia and 15% speak a language other than English at home (Dinham, 2008). Schools are welcoming children from homes across Australia, where more than 10 different languages besides English are commonly spoken (Dinham, 2008). In the United Arab Emirates, slightly more than 80% of the population consists of expatriates (Habboush, 2010). In the United States, students from diverse cultural, linguistic, and racial/ ethnic backgrounds comprise 30% of the K-12 school-age population, representing a substantial increase in the percentage of public school students in U.S. schools (Gay, 2010a; National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). As institutions within a global society, schools are expected to take the lead in socializing students and helping them to gain the knowledge and

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skills they need to be successful in life. To teach children from diverse backgrounds effectively, schools need teachers who understand the impact of students’ home and community cultures on their educational experience and who have the skills to interact with students from a range of backgrounds. Thus, the sociocultural lens which teachers bring to the classroom is an important factor in ensuring effective teaching and learning for a diverse population of students. For many teachers, the ways they teach, learn, communicate, and interact link directly to lessons and values experienced in their primary culture. Moreover, teachers’ cultural perspectives and belief systems have a significant impact on their instructional delivery and decisions (Knopp & Smith, 2005). In short, teachers are social and cultural transmitters. On the other hand, learners also arrive at school with their own cultural perspective in place. For some learners, school culture can be so different from their home and primary cultures that learning at school is challenging at best and alienating or exclusionary at worst. In the U.S. educational context, Gay (2010b) asserts that ‘‘Eurocentric orientations and emphases are more inappropriate now than ever before for students from culturally, racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds’’ (p. 143). While European Americans continue to prevail as preservice and inservice teachers, the students in public schools represent a wide range of diverse cultural, racial/ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. Given the current demographics, many students in U.S. schools have been raised with values, expectations, and habits of learning that follow diverse cultural norms, hence they experience school in markedly different ways from their teachers (Banks et al., 2005). While the teaching profession includes some educators from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, reports reveal a highly homogeneous teaching pool. From a global perspective, a striking cultural mismatch between teachers and the school-age population exists. For example, while reports from England indicate a national goal of having a teaching force that represents the social and ethnic composition of the students, trends from the mid-2000s show that this was not the case. In 2006, the proportion of teachers in England who were classified as ‘‘non-minority White’’ was higher than 95%, and minority ethnic teachers were underrepresented in comparison to the school-age population (Greater London Authority, 2006). In Australia, teacher demographics revealed that females made up nearly 80% of primary teachers and 55% of secondary teachers, while a shortage was reported for teachers of languages other than English (Dinham, 2008).

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In the U.S. context, the core population of classroom teachers and preservice teachers continues to consist of individuals who share the culture, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds of their country’s mainstream culture (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). In 2006, 85% of U.S. public school teachers were European American Caucasian, primarily of the middle class, and 75% female. In contrast, only 7.8% of U.S. public school teachers were African American, 5.7% Latino, 1.6% Asian American, and .8% Native American (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010). Several studies reveal that preservice teachers in this mainly homogeneous group have negative attitudes towards individuals from diverse cultural, linguistic, and racial/ethnic backgrounds (Case & Hemmings, 2005; Good & Brophy, 2003). On the contrary, in today’s context, schools and students need teachers who accept cultural diversity as a positive attribute and a valuable resource in the teaching and learning processes. Schools need teachers who understand the key role of culture in teaching and learning. They need teachers who can effectively use ‘‘the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and performance styles of students to make learning encounters [more] relevant and effective for them’’ (Gay, 2010a, p. 29). Schools need teachers who have embraced and mastered the pedagogy of cultural responsiveness. Foundational to a culturally responsive pedagogy implemented by teachers who have English language learners (ELL students) in their classrooms is the teacher’s ability to recognize and draw on students’ native languages and cultures (Banks et al., 2005). An important starting point for teachers is to understand the value of all languages and realize that a student’s native language provides a useful base and tool for accessing the new language being added to the learner’s linguistic repertoire. Coupled with knowledge about language development and acquisition, effective teaching practices characterized by culturally responsive and appropriate instruction can support teachers’ effective work with ELL students. With the number of school-age children who speak languages other than English growing, the need is great to ensure that teachers gain the knowledge and skills to be responsive to all students in their classrooms.

THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF U.S. EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS Given that schools globally are welcoming a number of students who bring with them diverse racial/ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and academic

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experiences as well as varied life experiences, the contexts of schools are shifting dramatically. This is particularly true in the United States, where an estimated 1.04 million individuals immigrate to the country yearly (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). One out of every five children ages 5 to 17 years old in the United States has a foreign-born parent (Capps et al., 2005). In addition to those immigrants arriving in the United States with legal documentation, a large yet undetermined number of undocumented immigrants enter the country annually. As continued immigration of racial/ethnic minorities is apparent, it is predicted that 50% of the U.S. population will be made up of racial/ethnic minorities by the year 2050 (Banks, 2006; Nieto, 2007). Looking beyond immigration activity, the U.S. demographic data confirm that 70% of the student population consists of students of color in the 20 largest U.S. school districts, and by 2025, 40% of the U.S. school-age population will be students of color (Irvine, 2001). Currently in the United States, nearly five million ELL students attend school. By the year 2025, one in every four students will initially be classified as an ELL student (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). As a reflection on academic diversity, it can be noted that in the United States some ethnic groups are overrepresented in special education programs and alarmingly underrepresented in programs for gifted learners—a disparity which has resulted in careful review of assessment and placement of diverse student population (Burnette, 2000; Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). Recent reports indicate that approximately 95% of 6- to 21-year-old students with disabilities were served in regular schools; 3% were served in a separate school for students with disabilities; and 1% were placed in regular private schools by their parents (National Center of Educational Statistics, 2010). Migration brings children from a variety of countries to local schools. In the early- to mid-2000s, the majority of ELL students in the United States arrived from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America (about 77% during the 2000–2001 school year) with another 10% each from East Asia and Europe (Capps et al., 2005). Another 6% came from Indochina and the same percentage from West Asia, and about 3% came from the former Soviet Union and Africa each (Hopstock & Stephenson, 2003). Prior to the late 1990s, the western United States had a large concentration of ELL students. However, between the years 1990 and 2000, new populations of students arrived in the central and eastern parts of the country, as North Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska, Arkansas, and South Dakota experienced more than a 100% increase in the number of children of immigrant families attending pre-K through 5th grade in their public

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schools (Capps et al., 2005). In sum the new ‘‘norm’’ of the U.S. educational context is a school-age population that represents broadly diverse cultural, racial/ethnic, linguistic, and ability backgrounds with students from a wide range of countries of origin (Commins & Miramontes, 2006; Gay, 2010b). What do the demographics of ELL students mean relevant to the context of school classrooms? In the United States in 2007, one out of every six school-age children was reported as having a home language other than English (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2007). While more than half of these children were reported as not yet having sufficient proficiency in English to be successful academically in traditional all-English language classrooms (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2007), Garcia et al. (2010) cautioned that ELL students and children from immigrant families are not necessarily synonymous populations. For example, in 2000, the U.S. Census reported that 74% of the school-age children from immigrant families spoke English proficiently or exclusively. Looking to 2025, one in every four students in U.S. schools will be initially classified as an English language learner, thereby intensifying the challenge facing teachers who will be responsible for developing students’ English skills during their K-12 school years (DiazRico & Weed, 2010). At the same time that the school-age population is diversifying, as previously mentioned, the demographics of the teaching population is static in the U.S. context and globally. In the U.S. public schools, the disparity between student and teacher racial/ethnic backgrounds is indicative of the overall ethnic gap in the country. In the early- to mid-2000s, national trends indicated that well over 86% of the current teaching force was Caucasian, European-American, monolingual, and female (Darling-Hammond, French, & Garcia-Lopez, 2002), with the remaining proportion being approximately 7.8% African American, 5.7% Hispanic, 1.6% Asian American, and 8% Native American (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). Banks (2006) predicts that this trend will continue for some time due to the enrollment of primarily European American Caucasian, female teachers being prepared in teacher education programs. The reality in today’s schools—within the United States and globally, in urban and suburban settings—is that teachers face the strong probability of greeting a classroom of students with whom they have little in common regarding language, culture, racial/ethnic background, religion, socioeconomic resources, and life experiences.

Current Challenges and Frameworks

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STANDARDS AND STRUCTURES FOR SUPPORTING TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS WITH ALL STUDENTS A re-occurring question echoes from experienced teachers, preservice teachers, and administrators alike, ‘‘Good teaching is good teaching. Isn’t good teaching enough?’’ According to teachers’ feedback ‘‘good teaching’’ is decidedly not enough to understand and address the needs of all students. In the U.S. educational context, many teachers reported feeling ill-equipped to work with diverse student populations (Futrell, Gomez, & Bedden, 2003). Teachers reported that they struggle to meet students’ needs relevant to differences in culture, language, ability, and family makeup (Nieto, 2007). Some novice teachers pinpointed their lack of skills in addressing difference and cross-cultural teaching issues as the source of their struggles in the classroom (Darling-Hammond, 2010). This concern extends beyond the U.S. context to England and Australia, where the teacher workforce also expressed a feeling of insufficient preparation to support a diverse student population (Dinham, 2008). The overall diversification of the student population in schools calls for an urgent response from teacher educators and professional developers to ensure that teachers are empowered to meet the sociocultural learning needs of the ethnically diverse student population (Banks, 2006; Banks et al. 2005). What structures are in place to guide teachers’ practice towards being responsive to students’ broad cultural backgrounds and life experience, in particular, those students who are English language learners? Currently, many professional education organizations, both global and in the United States, have adopted standards for preparing and retaining highquality teachers to work effectively with students from a diversity of backgrounds. Taking a global perspective first, the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and International Reading Association each provide guidelines for engaging teachers in instructional practices that demonstrate a valuing of cultural diversity, which includes language, racial/ethnic background, religion, ability, gender, and socioeconomic status. Chapter Four provides a thorough overview of the stance taken by several major professional educational organizations about supporting teachers to respond to students’ diverse backgrounds. Presently, we will focus on the TESOL standards relevant to teachers addressing students’ primary culture and language. The TESOL organization, incorporated in 1966, holds as its mission that of developing and maintaining professional expertise in English language teaching and

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learning for speakers of other languages around the world. TESOL is affiliated with more than 100 associations worldwide, including locations in Asia, Eurasia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and North America, with a global membership of more than 52,000 professionals. In 1999, TESOL published performance-based standards for educators of ELL students (grades P-12). Revised in 2001 and approved by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the TESOL standards (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, 2010) address the need for consistency in the United States regarding how teachers are prepared to teach English to students who are speakers of other languages within P-12 schools. Divided into five domains, the TESOL teaching standards address language, culture, instruction, assessment, and professionalism. In order for teachers of ELL students to implement effective instruction, they must understand that: 1. Language is systematic including the processes of first language development and second language acquisition; 2. Effective instruction is culturally appropriate instruction, and interrelationships between language, culture, and race can result in potential cultural conflicts between school and home, including negative effects of racism and stereotyping on teaching and learning; 3. Assessment of ELL students, including factors that distinguish between the student’s language proficiency and her/his competence of the content matter; 4. Effective instruction of ELL students, which involves planning and implementing instruction and using technology and other resources effectively when teaching content and language objectives; 5. Professionalism is centrally linked with the teacher’s ability to demonstrate expertise in the above four domains. (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, 2010). In the changing U.S. context, the Obama Blueprint for Reform (2010), which revised the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB Act, 2001) established by former President George W. Bush, presented a vision for a federal role in education that included a priority of supporting and strengthening programs for ELL students and renovated the pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, 2001). The blueprint built on four key priorities, one of which included ‘‘Equity and Opportunity for All Students: Meeting the Needs of English Learners and Other Diverse Learners,’’ taking a broader view than the TESOL Standards. Situating responsibility within U.S. schools for meeting the

Current Challenges and Frameworks

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educational needs of a diverse student population, the blueprint commits to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed in college and a career. Specific to ELL students, the blueprint proposal is committed to supporting and strengthening programs that implement effective language instruction for them, but stopped short of articulating specific teacher qualifications or teaching practices effective with ELL students. The proposal also acknowledged that ‘‘regular’’ classroom or general education teachers lack the professional development needed for effectively teaching ELL students. In fact, school districts projected a shortage of nearly 56,000 qualified English language teachers for the years 2009 through 2014 (Honawar, 2009). Previous U.S. requirements articulated in the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) mandated an equal educational opportunity for all students as articulated in Brown versus the Board of Education in 1954 and in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004). The No Child Left Behind Act (2001), which was a reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, stated that teachers of ELL students must:    

be fluent in English; be highly qualified in the subjects they teach; understand how students acquire a second language; and understand how to provide instruction that accelerates the acquisition of language, literacy, and diverse content knowledge.

About the same time that the international TESOL organization revised the performance-based standards for teachers of ELL students, in the U.S. context the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) adopted new standards, which continue to be revised every seven years in the Professional Standards for the Accreditation of Schools, Colleges and Departments of Education (NCATE, 2007). NCATE provides a performance-based accreditation system used by colleges of education in the United States to ensure that teacher candidates know their subject and how to teach it effectively. A nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, founded in 1954, NCATE consists of more than 30 national associations that contribute towards the standards, policies, and procedures. The U.S. Department of Education recognizes NCATE as a professional accrediting body for colleges and universities that prepare teachers and other professional personnel for work in elementary and secondary schools. As of 2009, 25 states adopted or adapted NCATE unit standards as the state

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unit standards which influence teacher preparation in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The NCATE standards for teacher learning and professional development are centered around inquiry focused on P-12 student needs. Tightly connected and often overlapping, the five standards address the characteristics of pre-service teachers’ learning experiences illustrated in professional development schools and teacher education programs. These standards include: 1. A learning community that is inclusive of student and teacher, learnercentered, and supports the integrated learning and development of preservice teachers through inquiry-based practice. 2. Accountability and quality assurance, so that all preservice teachers and stakeholders involved are accountable to themselves and to the public for upholding professional standards for teaching and learning; and all preservice teachers define clear criteria and collaboratively develop assessments, collect information, and use results to systematically examine their practices and establish outcome goals. 3. Collaboration, in which all preservice teachers and stakeholders involved move from independent to interdependent then use the results of their shared work to improve outcomes. 4. Equity and diversity, such that all preservice teachers and stakeholders develop and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions resulting in learning for all P–12 students; and all preservice teachers and stakeholders develop and demonstrate equitable learning outcomes for all involved, in particular, for diverse participants and diverse learning communities. 5. Structures, resources, and roles are used to support the learning and development of all teacher candidates and stakeholders; and adjustments are made as needed to create new roles and modify existing roles (NCATE, 2007). Not long after the revision of the NCATE standards, controversy erupted about Standard 4, which addresses equity, diversity, and equitable learning outcomes, with specific debate focused on the role and definition of dispositions in teacher education (Borko, Liston, & Whitcomb, 2007). Of particular concern was the phrase included in the glossary definition, ‘‘Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice’’ (NCATE, 2006, p. 53). Arguments raged for and against the role of dispositions, the inclusion of dispositions in the standards, and the topic of social justice

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relevant to teachers’ dispositions. Opponents argued that there is not a body of evidence linking dispositions to teacher effectiveness. Opponents claimed that a disposition standard for social justice could be used to reject applicants based on ideological beliefs in conflict with the university’s school of education. Supporters, on the other hand, asserted that teachers’ dispositions are crucial to effective teaching. They charged that teachers with knowledge and skill also must have the disposition to act on their knowledge and skill when teaching learners, in particular, learners of diverse backgrounds (Wilkerson, 2006). Proponents argued that the moral dimension of teaching directly links to the need to inquire about a teacher’s disposition to teach all learners fairly and equitably (Villegas, 2007). Ultimately, it became clear that all involved in the debate about dispositions found common ground in their agreement that teacher education programs need to prepare teachers who can effectively teach all learners fairly and equitably. In what ways has teacher education adapted in order to prepare teachers to teach all students, in particular, students from diverse backgrounds and abilities, including ELL students? In Chapter Three, we provide a concise overview of the research on teacher education to prepare teachers to effectively teach and interact with a diverse student population. For purposes of overview here, in the U.S. context, many schools of education used the standards movement to transform and redesign their programs. In the early- to mid-1990s, teacher education curricula in the United States were revised to include ‘‘stand alone’’ courses to support intercultural teaching competence or redesigned to include course content and field experiences to support teachers’ development of sociocultural consciousness (Sleeter, 2001). During this time, numerous teacher education programs also merged general education and special education programs. By the early2000s, teacher education programs widely emphasized the goal of ‘‘social justice teacher education’’—to the point that most U.S. teacher education programs claimed to have a program that prepared teachers for social justice (Zeichner, 2006). Despite the promising changes put into place by teacher education programs, the goal of preparing teachers to effectively teach all students continues to remain illusive. In early 2010, the inaugural issue for a new editorial team of the U.S.-based Journal of Teacher Education (JTE), asserted that ‘‘Teacher education has been struggling with the central challenge of preparing and retaining sufficient numbers of high-quality teachers who can work effectively with students from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds’’ (Wang, Spalding, Odell, Klecka, & Lin, 2010, p. 3).

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The need for teachers who can provide a diverse student population with effective instruction persists, and so does the commitment to make sure this occurs. In the same commentary, the JTE editors further maintained that, ‘‘It is vitally important for teacher educators to help teacher education students [preservice teachers] develop a deeper understanding of the prior knowledge of students from diverse backgrounds as well as how they learn’’ (p. 9). There is no question of the profession’s goal, but clearly the task of preparing teachers for a diverse student population is an arduous and elusive one. On the global front, recent changes have been made in teacher education in response to current contexts and the cultural incongruence between the global teaching population and the population of school-age learners. Similar to the demands in the United States, there is a pressing need globally for teachers to interact effectively with students and their parents who speak a different language and have different value systems, cultural norms, and religious beliefs. According to Futrell (2010), many countries outside of the United States have begun to restructure their teacher education programs to better prepare teachers for the current context and demands. For example, as previously noted, efforts are underway in London to increase the number of teachers from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, teacher education reform has been launched to ensure that all of London’s teachers are equipped with the skills to teach diverse student populations. Redesign of teacher education addressed in the Bologna Accord articulated that teachers must now have the equivalent of a master’s degree for initial certification ‘‘in hand’’ by 2010 (Walther & Boetticher, 2008) and demonstrate the ability to use technology to enrich the teaching and learning in their classrooms. In Finland, which is known for having one of the outstanding educational systems in the world, the teacher education curriculum has been redesigned to focus on communication and language, pedagogical studies, academic disciplines, research studies, and technology studies. Additionally, the redesign includes specific content to ensure that teachers gained knowledge about changes new to Finnish society (Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen, 2006). What do we know about teachers’ readiness to teach a diverse student population with diverse needs, and ELL students in particular? Teachers self-report an uncertainty and discomfort in teaching students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, in a survey completed by Villa and Thousand (2005), researchers reported that nearly 80% of the teachers surveyed stated they did not feel adequately prepared to meet academic and behavioral needs of a diverse student population. Irvine (2009) maintained that while many teachers have a cursory understanding of culturally relevant

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pedagogy and a desire to see it succeed in their classrooms, their efforts to meaningfully bridge cultural gaps fall short. Also alarming are findings that European-American preservice teachers admit to having limited knowledge of historical contributions made by individuals whose backgrounds differ from those of the dominant, mainstream U.S. culture (Taylor & Sobel, 2001). What’s more, teacher education researchers report a growing body of evidence that teachers hold negative perceptions towards the students they teach who are of diverse cultural backgrounds (Gay, 2010a) and deficitbased explanations of students of color and low-income students (Howard, 2010). We further report on teachers’ attitudes and beliefs in Chapter Three. With respect to English language learner students, reports indicate that the majority of teachers who work with students learning English as an additional language have had limited or no professional development for teaching them, thereby substantiating teachers’ views about being illprepared to teach ELL students (Ga´ndara, Maxwell-Jolly, & Driscoll, 2005; NCES, 2002). Te´llez and Waxman (2006) reported that almost 50% of the teachers in the United States who teach ELL students lack preparation in how to teach them. Given these reports, it is not surprising that there is a scarcity of teachers prepared to respond to the needs of ELL students (Wong-Fillmore & Snow, 2002). This shortage includes general education teachers instructing in ‘‘mainstream’’ classrooms who have had little or no preparation for supporting ELL students to successfully learn content while also learning English (Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008). This disparity is not surprising, considering that only about 16% of the institutions of higher education require that general education elementary and secondary teachers be prepared to teach ELL students (Antunez & Menken, 2001). Besides a large percentage of the teaching pool missing extensive professional preparation in linguistics and cross-cultural issues, teachers do not share common cultural and life experiences with the diverse student population. Moreover, there is growing evidence that teachers have negative biases and deficit views towards students whose cultural, racial/ethnic backgrounds, and life realities are different from their own (Nieto, 2005; Walker-Dalhouse & Dalhouse, 2006; Trent, Kea, & Oh, 2008). An increasing body of research during the past 15 years shows that preservice teachers enter teacher education programs believing that cultural diversity is a problem to be overcome and that students of color are deficient in some fundamental way. A study by Schultz, Neyhart, and Reck (1996) revealed that preservice teachers expect students of color to have low ability and a limited potential for success. Not surprising, many of these teachers report that they would prefer to teach

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in suburban settings in classrooms with students who are White, middle-class youth (Terrill & Mark, 2000; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996). Such limitations in teachers’ backgrounds, coupled with their biases and negative attitudes about students’ potential and ability, can poison teachers’ expectations of students’ ability. Teachers’ views can have long-lasting negative effects on students’ self-concepts and futures (Villegas, 2007). These discrepancies raise serious concerns about the quality of services teachers are able to provide students from diverse backgrounds and students with diverse needs including ELL students.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING Culturally responsive pedagogy, inspired by principles of social justice and advocates of multiculturalism, is generally defined as ‘‘using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them’’ (Gay, 2010a, p. 31). This instructional practice of culturally responsive pedagogy—often used interchangeably with culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally compatible teaching—involves teachers responding to students by including elements of the students’ culture and life experiences in their implementation of curriculum and instruction. In essence, teachers find meaningful ways to make the curriculum relevant to the learner. ‘‘Culturally responsive pedagogy is situated in a framework that recognizes the rich and varied cultural wealth, knowledge, and skills that students from diverse groups bring to schools’’ (Howard, 2010, pp. 67–68). At its core, culturally responsive pedagogy includes the ways teachers thoughtfully and carefully design instruction and act in their classrooms, lessons, and behaviors in order to recognize the uniqueness of majority and minority students with the goal of preparing students to live in a world of increasing diversity (Cartledge, Gardner, & Ford, 2009). Yet responsive teaching is not intended only for students of diverse backgrounds and needs. Culturally responsive pedagogy exemplifies a commitment to reach all learners, including those from varied cultural, racial/ethnic, linguistic, religious, ability, and socioeconomic backgrounds as well as those students who are of Western, European-American backgrounds raised in the mainstream U.S. English-speaking culture. Grounded in sociocultural learning theory, culturally responsive pedagogy is seen as a contextual and situational process for both the learner and

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the teacher. Drawing heavily on the works of Vygotsky (1978), sociocultural theory provides insights for how culture contributes to learning and human behavior. This theoretical perspective (1) views learning as a process of appropriating tools for thinking; and (2) assumes that children’s development cannot be understood by solely observing the individual. Instead, we must study the context of children’s participation in activities that involve cognitive and communicative functions. This situational and contextual learning prompts our attention towards the cognitive and communicative processes that occur in authentic situations and activities similar to those that learners experience and make sense of on a daily basis, such as problemsolving, expressing likes and dislikes, and making sense of new and existing knowledge (Brown, Collines, & Duguid, 1989). Pertinent factors such as context, setting, resources, participants, interactions, intercommunications all contribute towards one’s understanding of the learning and behavior. In Chapter Two, we provide a thorough overview of sociocultural learning theory and its underlying assumptions that reflect the theoretical, practical, and research knowledge on which this book is grounded.

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION Several educational reforms served as precursors to culturally responsive pedagogy, one of which is social justice education. Not without controversies relevant to socially just teaching and teacher education, social justice is a central element of a democracy and calls for all persons to be treated equitably and with dignity. With its roots in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and links to movements for freedom and democracy in countries beyond the United States, social justice education addresses social and structural inequities in society and argues for a strong commitment to democracy in education. Grounded in ideals asserted by Dewey (1933) and revitalized by Freire’s work to build a democratic, participatory society, social justice education promotes respecting the students’ cultural knowledge and prior life experiences that they bring to the classroom (Freire, 1970). Historically, elements such as race, ethnicity, social class, and gender have been strong predictors of what benefits students may or may not gain from their experience in schools. Social justice education concentrates on the resources, or ‘‘funds of knowledge’’ (Moll, 1994), that individuals, families, and communities bring to daily life and social change. In school contexts, social justice education asserts that ‘‘schools provide equal access to and equal receipt of a quality education for all students’’ (Sirotnik, 1993, p. 130).

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Advocates of social justice education are motivated to address the injustices caused by society’s inequitable structures that limit people’s access to goods and opportunities, including positive learning experiences and potential academic success (McLaren, 2003). Teaching inspired by social justice is an expansive approach to education with the end goal being for all students to reach high levels of learning that will prepare them for full participation in a democracy (Villegas, 2007).

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION Subsequent to Dewey’s (1933) ideals of democracy, educational reforms initiated nearly 40 years ago attempted to influence teachers to be responsive and respectful of students’ individual differences. While the terminology has changed over the years and teaching approaches have evolved over time, all of these reforms share common goals and practices. In the early 1970s, an educational emphasis on multiculturalism emerged. This transition initiated a departure from what Banks (1993) called an ‘‘assimilationist ideology’’ which viewed good teaching as being effective with all types of students regardless of factors such as students’ race, social class, or ethnicity. Then as today, many agreed that the view ‘‘good teaching is good teaching’’ presents a color-blind approach to instruction. Such a view dismisses that a learner’s culture, language, ethnicity, race, religion, ability, gender, sexual orientation, and social status influence the individual’s frame of reference as well as the perceptions of others—including teachers—who interact with that learner. Teachers who support a color-blind approach claim that they ‘‘don’t see color; they only see kids,’’ which again negates much of the individual’s life experiences as a person of color. Moreover, color-blind teachers assert that they treat all learners the same, which often means that students are treated as if they are (or should be) White and middle-class (Irvine, 2003). In Lorde’s (1982) noteworthy study, results showed that individuals who adopt color-blind perspective believe that if they ignore feelings and actions of racism and discrimination, they will overcome them. Such alarming outcomes support the view that we overlook what we do not value or that with which we are uncomfortable. Or, to paraphrase: ‘‘What goes unacknowledged ultimately becomes invisible’’ (Trent et al., 2008, p. 346). Given our current understanding of how culture affects learning and teaching, condoning such a view of invisibility would be unconscionable. The shift towards multiculturalism questioned the appropriateness of assimilation as the goal for every cultural group, and it linked race,

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language, culture, gender, ability, and social class, with the goal of instilling a celebration of human diversity and equal opportunity for all learners. Advocates of multiculturalism articulated an approach called multicultural education (Banks, 1993; Nieto, 1999; Sleeter & Grant, 2008; Suzuki, 1984), based on the rise in awareness of diversity and acceptance of multiculturalism in the 1970s. Key goals of multicultural education include: 1. Help individuals gain greater self-understanding by viewing themselves from the perspective of other cultures; 2. Provide students with cultural and ethnic alternatives; 3. Provide all students with the skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to function within their ethnic culture, within the mainstream culture, and within and across other ethnic cultures; 4. Reduce the pain and discrimination that members of some ethnic and racial groups experience because of their unique racial, physical, and cultural characteristics; and 5. Help students to master essential reading, writing, and math skills. (Banks, 2007). A reform effort designed to bring major changes to the education of all students, multicultural education outlined several key goals but did not assert a defined method or curriculum. Instead, it suggested organizing curriculum and instruction around common themes to avoid a pre-packaged curriculum or ‘‘one size fits all’’ program. These common themes included an inclusive education of culturally different students that taught learners about cultural differences, cross-cultural understandings, and cultural pluralism with the aim of instilling a competency that allowed one to function comfortably across multiple cultural contexts. Banks (2007) described five dimensions of multicultural education, including content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and empowering school culture and social structure. To effectively implement multicultural education, a teacher must attend to each of the five dimensions of multicultural education. In order to do so, teachers need to: 1. Use content and examples from a variety of cultures and diverse groups to illustrate key concepts and skills; 2. Help students understand, investigate, and determine the ways implicit cultural assumptions influence how knowledge is constructed and archived in history; 3. Prompt students to examine racial attitudes and perspectives with a goal of reducing their own tendency to prejudge;

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4. Modify their teaching to include a variety of teaching styles that are consistent with those styles used within various ethnic and cultural groups; 5. Create a school culture that empowers students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. (Banks, 2007). An overarching goal of multicultural education is to help individual learners gain a deeper self-awareness by viewing themselves from the perspective of other cultures (Banks, 2002). More recently, Sleeter and Grant (2008) expanded the conceptualization of multicultural education towards a vision of social justice, calling it education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist. This view of multicultural education builds on Freire’s work to emphasize the need to prepare future citizens to question and reconstruct society so that it better serves the interests of all groups through democratic decision-making, taking action to work towards social and structural equality.

CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY In Ladson-Billings’ (1994b/2009) book, The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, the author advanced the conversation about educating students who are culturally, ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse. She articulated her conceptualization of a culturally relevant pedagogy which supports African American students to choose academic excellence and still identify with African and African American culture. ‘‘Culturally relevant teaching uses student culture in order to maintain it and to transcend the negative effects of the dominant culture y brought about, for example, by not seeing one’s history, culture, or background represented in the textbook or curriculum or by seeing that history, culture, or background distorted’’ (Ladson-Billings, 2009, p. 17). Grounded in critical theory, culturally relevant instruction assists with the development of a relevant Black personality and aims for African American students to choose academic excellence and effect change in society instead of just trying to fit into society (McLaren, 1989). Teachers who adhere to culturally relevant pedagogy: 1. Capitalize on their students’ home and community culture; 2. Empower students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes;

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3. Urge collective action grounded in cultural understanding, experiences, and ways of knowing the world. (McLaren, 1989, pp. 117–118). In Ladson-Billings’ (1994b) seminal three-year study, students’ standardized test scores alone were not the primary indicator of ‘‘good teaching.’’ Instead the researcher began with principals and parents—whom she referred to as the ‘‘consumers’’ in education. After asking principals and parents at one school to identify teachers who demonstrated effective teaching with African American students and met educational standards, Ladson-Billings then studied the instructional practices of this set of eight teachers. Not surprisingly, principals used test scores, student performance and behavior, and student attendance and satisfaction as their selection criteria. Parents, on the other hand, focused on teachers who helped their children excel at traditional academic tasks and who instilled a respect for and connection to home, primary culture, and community. The eight teachers comprised five African Americans and three European-American Caucasians who were all female, with a range of teaching experiences from 12 to 40 years. Of the eight teachers, six had a culture of reference as African American culture, one had a European-American culture of reference, and one had a bicultural orientation. Ladson-Billings found that teachers who employ culturally relevant teaching methods keep the classroom focused on instruction and use methods that suggest to students that they are capable of learning. ‘‘When students are treated as competent, they are likely to demonstrate competence’’ (LadsonBillings, 2009, p. 133). Teachers who support students to move from what they know towards what they need to know, provide instructional ‘‘scaffolding’’ that allows students to build on their knowledge and life experiences. Rather than ‘‘drill and kill,’’ the teachers find opportunities to extend students’ thinking and abilities. Moreover, these teachers were able to provide culturally relevant instruction from the start because of the time they took to get to know the students in the classroom and the subject matter they taught. Teachers who know about the students and students who know about the teacher develop a strong commitment to learning because of their commitment to each other. Ladson-Billings (2009) contends that culturally relevant teaching is a pedagogy intended to empower students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using meaningful cultural referents to disclose knowledge, skills, and attitudes. While similarities certainly exist between culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive pedagogy, they are distinguished by the researcher’s specific focus. Ladson-Billings (2009) asserted the primary aim of culturally relevant teaching to be assisting

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in the development of a ‘‘relevant black personality’’ that allows African American students to identify with African and African American culture while opting for academic excellence.

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY Situated within a sociocultural perspective, culturally responsive pedagogy grew out of the cultural difference paradigm, developed in the 1970s and 1980s, as a critique of the cultural deficit paradigm. Deficit-based perspectives focus on students (1) being devoid of culture; (2) coming from a culture that is oppositional, meaning that educators grounded in the dominant ‘‘mainstream’’ culture perceive students from cultures outside of the mainstream to be oppositional if they maintain cultural pluralism and reject cultural assimilation; (3) having a language that is a ‘‘deficient’’ variant of Standard English; (4) not being suited for academic success or having a disdain for it; and/or (5) having parents who lack concern for their children’s academic achievement (Alim & Baugh, 2007; Howard, 2010; McWhorter, 2000; Ogbu, 1987). Deficit-based perspectives often make it challenging for teachers to use students’ prior knowledge, cultural schemas, and life experiences that they bring as a source of strength and potential in the learning environment. When teachers take on a deficit-based perspective, they can easily perceive students as deficient and disadvantaged culturally (Milner, 2010). In the mid-1970s, Aragon (1973) presented a counterargument to this view, asserting that it was teachers who were ‘‘culturally deprived’’ because they did not comprehend or value the culture of students whose primary cultures were different from the U.S. mainstream culture, and that therefore teacher limitations were negatively impacting students’ achievement. Contrary to the cultural deficit paradigm, culturally responsive pedagogy concentrates on recognizing the knowledge, skills, and rich cultural experiences that students from diverse backgrounds bring to school. It is a philosophical view of teaching grounded in nurturing students’ welfare, including their academic, psychological, social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing. Culturally responsive pedagogy focuses on developing vibrant teaching practices, multicultural content reflective of students’ cultural and life experiences, and multiple approaches to assessment (Howard, 2010). In the first edition of her luminous book, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (2000), Geneva Gay called into question the overarching declaration that education has nothing to do with cultures and heritages. She asserted that the Eurocentric frameworks that shape school

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practice are not appropriate for all students and reflect an attitude of ‘‘cultural blindness’’ (p. 21). Gay defines culturally responsive teaching as ‘‘using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of culturally diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them’’ (Gay, 2010b, p. 31). She called for a pedagogy that would take curriculum and instruction and filter the content and teaching strategies through all students’ cultural frames of reference in order to make both of these meaningful and relevant for all students much like what has occurred long-term for EuropeanAmerican, English-speaking, middle-class students. In what has become a seminal synthesis of the research on culturally responsive pedagogy (Gay, 2000, 2010a, 2010b), Geneva Gay centers her work within the contextual and situational process of teaching. She asserts that instruction is more effective when students’ and teachers’ prior experiences, community settings, cultural backgrounds, and ethnic identities are considered and integrated in curriculum and instruction. Gay vehemently argues against the view many teachers hold that ‘‘good teaching transcends place, people, time, and context’’ (Gay, 2010b, p. 23). Alternatively, Gay asserts that good teaching is intricately tied to the class, race, gender, ethnicity, and/or culture of teachers and students. She warns against teachers’ tendency to declare that ‘‘respecting the individual differences of students is what really counts in effective teaching, not race, ethnicity, culture or gender’’ (Gay, 2010a, p. 24). While mutual respect between teacher and student is certainly important, Gay (2010b) states that a student’s individuality is deeply intertwined with her/his ethnicity and cultural socialization; and teachers need to understand both ethnicity and culture in order to avoid compromising the student’s individuality. Essentially, culturally responsive pedagogy avoids decontextualizing teaching and learning from the reality of the learner’s context, which includes the learner’s ethnicity and culture. When we decontextualize teaching and learning, we risk creating a schism between the learner’s background knowledge and its potential connection to the content being taught which results in reducing the chance that students’ will achieve. Villegas and Lucas (2002) advanced the conceptualization of culturally responsive pedagogy by describing features of culturally responsive teachers as teachers who: 1. Understand how learners construct knowledge and have the skills to assist learners to do this; 2. Take time to learn about the cultures and lives of their students;

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3. Use their knowledge about students to design instruction that builds on students’ cultural perspectives and what students already know, then expand the content and learning to depths beyond the starting point; 4. Affirm students from diverse backgrounds and recognize differences as resources, not as problems to overcome; 5. Are socioculturally conscious, meaning they recognize that there are multiple ways of perceiving reality; 6. See the self as responsible for and capable of bringing about educational change that will make schools more responsive to all students. With nearly three decades of theoretical and empirical work on culturally responsive pedagogy, there exists a growing comprehensive and concrete knowledge base. Howard (2010) articulates five key principles grounding the research and theory of culturally responsive pedagogy: 1. A recognition of the complexity of culture and an acceptance and allowance by educators for students to use their personal culture to enhance their quest for educational excellence. 2. An authentic and culturally informed notion of care [emphasis in original] for students, wherein their academic, social, emotional, psychological, and cultural well-being is supported and nurtured. 3. A critical consciousness and sociopolitical awareness that reflects an ongoing commitment to challenge injustice and to disrupt inequities and oppression directed at any group of people. 4. Disruption and challenging of the idea that Eurocentric or middle-class forms of discourse, knowledge, language, culture, and historical interpretations are normative. 5. The eradication of deficit-based ideologies targeted to culturally diverse students. Embedded in culturally relevant teaching is the teacher’s goal and commitment to actively improve the academic performance of all students. As such, culturally responsive pedagogy is not limited to teachers of color, a myth that persists among experienced and preservice teachers alike. More important than the teacher’s racial/ethnic background is the teacher’s willingness to deeply examine and get to know self and students, family, and community. Also important is the teacher’s sincere belief in the student’s ability to achieve academically and be successful. Equally important is the teachers’ knowledge of the subject content and skill set required for delivering effective instruction that utilizes students’ cultural knowledge and

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life schema, coupled with the teacher’s commitment to effectively teaching all students. When teachers who are committed to culturally responsive pedagogy teach students who are English language learners, it is important for teachers to understand that students do not learn language in a vacuum, but rather by interacting with others (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). Language learning occurs in social and cultural contexts. In fact, culture is integral to language, literacy, learning, and communication. Teachers who are committed to culturally responsive pedagogy take time to learn about ELL students’ cultures and lives, and to use this knowledge to engage them in meaningful learning. Building a healthy rapport with learners can assist teachers as they guide students towards successful school experiences.

CONCLUSION In this chapter, we have addressed the overarching concepts and contexts relevant to culturally responsive pedagogy and the related educational movements. Research shows that teachers play a central role in providing effective practices that enhance achievement for students (Slavin, Karweit, & Madden, 1989) and influence students’ self-concept and attitude (Irvine, 2003). Moreover, research indicates that students from diverse backgrounds rely substantially on their teachers. While teachers can increase their knowledge and skills of effective instruction for students of diverse backgrounds, if they hold negative stereotypes about students or doubt their ability to achieve, their knowledge is worthless. Culturally responsive teachers are committed to recognizing the knowledge, skills, and rich cultural experiences that students from diverse backgrounds bring to school and nurturing students’ welfare, including their academic, psychological, social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing. In Chapter Two we address the research and theoretical frameworks that lay the groundwork for culturally responsive pedagogy.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Select a school district and one school within the district as your focus. 1. Locate and examine demographic data for the student population in the district. To what extent do the student demographics reflect the larger community demographics where the district is located?

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2. Locate and examine demographic data for the student population at one school of interest. Compare and contrast the district demographics with the demographics of the school’s student population. What trends do you observe? To what extent do the school demographic data match the district demographic data? Which demographic data are similar between the district and school, and which are different? Develop a rationale for why the similarities and differences between district demographics and the school demographics may exist. 3. Consider teacher demographics at the school context. Which demographic factors do the teachers share in common with the students in that school? Which factors contrast between teachers and students? 4. Reflect on and list the funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 1994) that students in this classroom bring with them to the school context. Consider students’ life experiences and practices, areas of resilience, strengths, and broad abilities as you develop this list. In what ways might students’ personal and cultural resources—in essence their funds of knowledge—connect to curricular concepts and provide real-world examples of curricular concepts applied within their daily life? 5. Consider the behavioral and communication practices expected of students attending this school of interest. How are students expected to enter the building? The classroom? How are students expected to pass from class to class? What are the expectations around communication and interpersonal interaction between students and teacher? How are students expected to ask questions, relay personal connections with content, and demonstrate their understandings in class? To what extent do these school and classroom expectations reveal students’ strengths, broad abilities, and funds of knowledge experienced in their home and daily lives?

CHAPTER TWO THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION Global migration and globalization—as mentioned in Chapter One—have contributed to a ‘‘demographic divide’’ (Gay & Howard, 2000) that presently exists between teacher and student populations in schools across a variety of geographic contexts. As schools welcome students from broad cultural diverse backgrounds, the characteristics of effective schooling beckon reexamination. Whether educators realize it or not, culture becomes an invisible road map that directs their personal and professional lives. With much of the school-age population having developed values, expectations, and habits of learning aligned with diverse cultural norms (Banks et al., 2005), teachers and their students may have distinctly different reactions to the public school experience. It is not uncommon to find teachers unintentionally teaching in ways that do not serve well their students who are from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and life experiences. In this chapter, we outline the theoretical framework that provides a foundation for culturally responsive pedagogy. Additionally, we articulate the underlying assumptions which reflect the position we have taken and provide the foundation for our research that establishes a basis for this book. We believe that decisions about effective instruction for all students— including those students who are from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and life experiences—require a firm grounding in theoretical, research, and practical knowledge relevant to teaching and learning. Our own research in responsive pedagogy began in the 1990s. Motivated by a keen interest to support classroom learners who are from diverse linguistic, racial/ethnic, 27

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cultural, religious, gender, socioeconomic backgrounds, and abilities, we were heartened to find a sizeable amount of research on the effects of preparing teachers to effectively instruct diverse student populations in the preliminary research review that we conducted at that time. However, we were dismayed to find few studies that examined the impact of (1) professional development on student achievement; and (2) teachers’ preparation relevant to teachers’ classroom instruction interactions with learners of diverse backgrounds. Spurred by this missing work in the field at that time and by our commitment to children and teachers in public school classrooms, we generated a research agenda focused on investigating the relation between teachers’ cognition and behaviors associated with highquality teaching in schools with diverse student populations. Our goal has been to gain an understanding of how teachers adapt pedagogy and curriculum, and how they adjust their beliefs towards multicultural, multilingual, and inclusive classrooms in ways that assist the academic achievement of all learners.

CULTURE Pivotal to our work is the perspective that culture is central to school learning (Hollins, 2008). A plethora of definitions exist for the concept of culture generated by a range of fields of study, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, and education to mention only a few. An early definition grounded in the field of anthropology states that culture is a ‘‘complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and other capabilities and habits’’ that are acquired by members of a society (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1963, p. 81). While somewhat limiting, this definition emphasizes the widely accepted view that culture is something learned and transmitted across generations. Furthermore, culture serves as a guide for interpreting reality. The anthropological construct of culture is an important place to begin, yet it overlooks the way that culture is realized in educational contexts and how it influences the learning process for individual learners. The social science field integrates sociocultural and historical perspectives in its construction of culture. This stance enhances the definition of culture pertinent to education as we consider the situation of students who have not achieved academically and whose needs have not been met in school contexts (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003). A generally accepted conceptualization of culture in the social science field is the values, beliefs, behaviors, learned

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norms, and ways of knowing that people use and act upon in response to their environment (Trumball, 2001). Evident in this perspective is the complexity and pervasiveness of culture. Moreover, culture and cultural factors are situated in and influenced by social, historical, political, and economic conditions, thereby incorporating the presence of power and privilege. We support and advocate for this pervasive and inclusive view of culture. We favor Nieto and Bode’s (2011) broad definition of culture as comprising the ever-changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created, shared, and transformed by a group of people who are bound together by a combination of factors. These factors can include—but are not limited to—a common history, geographic location, language, race/ethnicity, social class, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and other circumstances related to one’s experience. We have observed that it is not uncommon for European American native-English speaking middle-class students and teachers in the U.S. context to assert that they have no culture. In reality, these individuals tend not to notice the all-encompassing nature of ‘‘American mainstream culture’’ since their primary culture is the over-arching, dominant culture practiced and accepted by U.S. society. Nieto and Bode’s (2011) expansive definition clarifies four key points: 1. 2. 3. 4.

no one is excluded from participating in a culture; multiple factors simultaneously influence an individual’s cultural identity; culture is socially constructed; and culture does not exist in a vacuum.

In the context of education, culture is at the center of all we do, including curriculum, instruction, interactions, and assessment (Gay, 2010b). As previously mentioned, culture influences how we think, perceive, behave, and communicate—all of which affect how we teach and how we learn. The schooling process—whether it is situated globally or in the United States— consists of an intricate cultural tapestry. According to Boykin (1994, p. 244), this cultural tapestry ‘‘is profound and inescapable’’ and is grounded in European and middle-class origins that are so ingrained in school structures, programs, and behavioral expectations that they have become the yardstick of what is considered to be ‘‘normal’’ conduct. Pai, Adler, and Shadiow (2006) contend that an examination of the role of culture in human life is essential to one’s understanding of the educational process. Erickson (2002) asserts that everything in education relates to culture. Culture shapes learning in significant ways. Culture provides insights about

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learners’ tendencies or preferred learning styles, but culture and cultural characteristics do not determine discrete attributes that can be assigned to individuals from particular cultural groups. Research on connections between culture and learning proved to be a valuable response that countered cultural deficit theories developed during the 1960s and 1970s. Theories of cultural deficiency described students of diverse backgrounds as being ‘‘deficient,’’ lacking in culture or ‘‘disadvantaged’’ by their culture. Constructed by progressive social scientists in the 1960s, the cultural deficit theory commonly ‘‘blamed the victim’’ for low academic achievement and overlooked historical and societal structural inequities manifested in public schools (Bloom, Davis, & Hess, 1965). In the case of the U.S. context, public schools have historically failed to adequately serve students who are outside of the European American, native English speaking, middle-class, nondisabled, mainstream culture (Zollers, Albert, & Cochran-Smith, 2000). Structural inequalities that exist in U.S. society are evidenced in the disparate levels of academic success and the scarcity of resources in the schools located in low-income communities with a high percentage of school-age learners from a wide range of diverse backgrounds. The tendency within schools is for students to experience less academic success, to be the recipients of more severe disciplinary actions, to experience an overrepresentation in special education program, and to be taught by less educated and less experienced teachers compared to schools located in middle-class communities (Agarwal, Epstein, Oppenheim, Oyler, & Sonu, 2010). We further discuss these topics and relevant data in Chapter Three. Building on the ideals asserted by Dewey (1933) and revitalized by Freire’s work to create a democratic, participatory society (Freire, 1970), a group of scholars rejected the cultural deficit paradigm and developed the cultural difference theory in the 1970s and 1980s in order to provide an alternative explanation. The cultural deficit perspective situates poor school achievement squarely on students’ alleged cognitive deficits, suggesting that because students are from a nonmainstream or diverse background, they are intellectually deficient (Riessman, 1962; Hall & Moats, 1999). In its early development, the cultural difference theory attempted to bring to light the strengths and resilience of students, families, and communities from diverse cultural, racial/ethnic, and linguistic groups (Wang & Gordon, 1994). Additionally, this theory focused on the discontinuities or differences that exist between the culture of the school and the cultures at home or in the community of students from diverse backgrounds. The theory of cultural difference acknowledges that students of culturally diverse backgrounds

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bring valuable cultural knowledge, worldviews, and life experiences to school. However, in the early years, the tendency was for schools to simplify the concept of cultural differences, thereby reducing culture to a list of behavioral traits and learning styles which teachers could attribute to students of certain backgrounds. While culture certainly influences one’s worldview, values, beliefs, behaviors, and learned norms, it does not prescribe a predetermined list of behavioral traits or learning styles shared by individuals of a particular cultural group. Taken to the extreme, descriptions of cultural traits can have an echo of blatant stereotypes. Moreover, in its early stages of development, the cultural difference theory did little to dispel the misconception held by many individuals who are members of U.S. mainstream culture that it is only ‘‘others’’ who possess culture, or who possess the ‘‘wrong’’ culture. In recent years, a new generation of cultural difference theorists and scholars have conducted research and constructed theories in response to concerns about the academic achievement of students from diverse backgrounds as compared to their middle-class peers from the European American, native English speaking mainstream culture. These scholars contributed to a theory of culturally responsive teaching—also called ‘‘culturally relevant teaching’’ by Ladson-Billings (1994b[2009]) or ‘‘education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist’’ by Grant and Sleeter (2007)—which asserts that the differences between school culture and students’ home and community cultures are significant factors relevant to their academic achievement (Au, 1993; Banks, 1994; Delpit, 1995; Gay, 2002; Grant & Sleeter, 1996; Irvine, 2003; King, 1991; Kozol, 1991; Ladson-Billings, 1994b/2009; Moll & Gonzalez, 2004; Nieto, 2010). This theory lends optimism and guidance to educators who are committed to improving the academic experience and achievement of students from diverse cultural, racial/ethnic, linguistic, religious, economic, academic backgrounds, and life experiences. Moreover, it has resulted in valuable research about how students’ cultural knowledge can inform teachers’ instructional practices. When teachers primarily conduct instruction from their own cultural perspective, the organizational and interactional structures can seem unfamiliar to students from diverse backgrounds that are different from the teachers’. In the view of Irvine (2009): ‘‘When teachers and students bring varying, and often conflicting, cultural experiences to the classroom, there is the possibility of cultural discontinuity’’ (p. 7). Similar to the theory of cultural difference, it is believed that cultural discontinuity can interfere with students’ academic achievement and interactions at school. Studies

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focused on cultural discontinuity (Delpit, 1995) have provided insights about contrasts between school and home cultures, finding that the core of the conflicts between teacher and student revolved around their views of what it means to be ‘‘normal.’’ All things considered, culture is complicated and when situated in sociopolitical contexts, not all cultures or cultural knowledge are ‘‘created equal.’’ In his theory of cultural capital, Bourdieu (1986) describes cultural capital as those intangibles such as the knowledge, skills, education, or experiences in life that do or do not facilitate success. Bourdieu’s theory explains how different types of cultural capital or cultural knowledge help to maintain one’s economic privilege and link to social class. Such cultural knowledge is subtle, often unspoken, and hard to grasp, especially without role models who make use of it in their daily life. Such cultural knowledge is valued and esteemed by members of the mainstream culture in society. For example, in the current U.S. context, cultural capital might include familiarity with traveling by plane, visiting museums, attending concerts or other cultural events, and accessing the latest technology product (Howard, 2010). Not surprisingly, the cultural capital most valued in U.S. schools tends to be that which is esteemed by members of European American, English speaking, middle-class, ‘‘mainstream’’ culture—including mainstream students and teachers (Yosso, 2005). Because schools reflect the knowledge and values (cultural capital) of the mainstream culture, they reinforce this knowledge throughout most activities that occur at school, including instruction, curriculum, and assessment. For those students who are European American, middle-class, and native English speakers, school aligns with what is familiar and consonant with their home culture. On the other hand, for students with diverse backgrounds, they have a wealth of cultural capital (knowledge), but it may not correspond with the unspoken and subtle expectations of school.

SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY Sociocultural theory views culture not as an individual construct situated in an individual’s mind, but as a larger construct that is impacted by external factors which shape human cognition (Cole, 1996). Firmly grounded in the works of Vygotsky (1978), sociocultural theory assumes that children’s development is better understood through the context of participation in activities which require cognitive processing and communication, instead of focusing solely on the individual. As discussed by Howard (2010),

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sociocultural theorists suggest studying culture as a construct that influences cognition as well as motivation, interactions, everyday practices, worldviews, and negotiating our place in the world (Cole, 1996; Guitierrez & Rogoff, 2003; Lee, 2007). By observing one’s thinking, communication, and problem-solving within situated learning, we can focus on the individual’s processing of information that occurs in authentic situations. This is true when observing learners and teachers in their authentic contexts of learning and instruction. Language and communication are integral to culture; the role they play is pivotal in socializing children into their linguistic and cultural communities. Nieto (2002) extends this link and contends that language, literacy, and culture intersect and provide a richer, more complete view of learning. Flippo and colleagues (Flippo, 2003; Flippo, Hetzel, Gribouski, & Armstrong, 1997) assert that the relationship between culture and literacy is bidirectional, meaning that culture acts as a mediator in one’s acquisition and expression of literacy. Literacy learning shapes an individual’s cultural identity, and cultural identity influences one’s interpretation, acquisition, and expression of literacy. Each of these examples draws attention to the striking significance and integral nature of culture, language, and literacy in relation to the performance of learners and their teachers in the school context. Beyond cognition and communication, the sociocultural theory supports examining culture as a broader construct that influences one’s forms of interaction, motivation, everyday practices, finding one’s place in the world, and the lens one uses to view the world (Lee, 2004, 2007). Teachers and learners enter school as rich cultural beings with their own personal cultural backgrounds that influence their perceptions, values, language, and expectations about what seems right and ‘‘normal.’’ As noted by Delpit (1995), ‘‘We all interpret behaviors, information, and situations through our own cultural lenses; these lenses operate involuntarily, below the level of conscious awareness, making is seem that our view is simply ‘the way it is’’’ (p. 151). Given that the majority of schools in the United States are grounded in U.S. mainstream culture and the English language, it is not surprising that the cultural patterns practiced by individuals from European American, English-speaking, middle-class backgrounds are deeply ingrained in schools’ structures and programs to the point that these practices are considered the ‘‘right way to do school.’’ Sociocultural and sociopolitical perspectives are firmly grounded on the notion that ‘‘social relationships and political realities are at the heart of teaching and learning’’ (Nieto, 2002, p. 5). The lack of common ground and

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familiar referents which result in cultural conflicts can cause negative consequences beyond academics for students whose culture is different from the teacher’s. Gay (2010b) states that test scores are only a symptom for the problems, not the cause. She contends that scores on standardized tests do not fully explain students’ performance. Beyond academics, one only needs to review school disciplinary referral accounts to gain insights into conflicts linked to cultural discontinuity (Monroe, 2005). Conversely, Irvine and Armento (2001) contend that there is a longstanding practice of culturally congruent pedagogy implemented in the United States. They assert that U.S. schools have a history of successfully providing culturally congruent and responsive curriculum, instruction, assessment methods, and behavioral expectations for centuries, but these have been responsive primarily to one group of students—those students who are U.S.-born, European American, English-speaking, middle-class individuals. Given such a strong cultural congruence between school and home cultures, it is not surprising that this group of students has shown higher achievement scores and positive behavioral records than other student groups. In Howard’s (2010) thorough discussion of sociocultural theory, he stresses the important emphasis that cultural historical activity theory asserts within the sociocultural paradigm. The use of ‘‘cultural tools’’ that include artifacts such as language, beliefs, symbols, and cultural knowledge are essential to the learning process according to the cultural historical activity theorists. These ‘‘cultural tools’’ and artifacts are used by individuals to represent their experience as a cultural being and participant. For example, ‘‘cultural tools’’ and artifacts might include words, pictures, letters, numbers, or books that are all used in one’s daily expression and involvement within a cultural context. Building on Warofsky’s (1973) conceptualization of a three-level hierarchy of artifacts, Howard (2010) provides a clear explanation of the various rankings of artifacts included in the human cultural experience. At the simplest level are words, writing instruments, and communication structures which humans use for concrete expression and production. These are called primary artifacts. Secondary artifacts are less concrete exemplars of culture, such as beliefs and norms. Primary artifacts (e.g., words, writing instruments, etc.) are used in order to express or represent the secondary artifacts. Tertiary artifacts are used for the purpose of making meaning of the other two types of artifacts. In essence, tertiary artifacts provide an interpretive lens we use to understand the practices and beliefs of others. In the context of the classroom, when teachers understand that as cultural beings, we use words (primary artifact)

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to express our beliefs or norms (secondary artifact), they can make sense of these ‘‘artifacts’’ in relation to student learning and thinking (tertiary artifact); and can enhance their pedagogical practices for all students. For example, in some collectivist cultures where the needs of the group hold priority over the needs of the individual, students tend not to initiate questions or responses in class unless they are called on by the teacher. This communication structure of not initiating communication with the teacher in class is an example of a primary artifact. If the student is called on repeatedly by the teacher in a single class session, the student may experience discomfort as a result of the highlighted attention. Being noticed or ‘‘standing out’’ from one’s peers or the group is in conflict with the norms and beliefs of many collectivist cultures and illustrates an example of a secondary artifact. A tertiary artifact is demonstrated when the teacher makes meaning of these classroom dynamics on her/his own accord or as the teacher gains insights about cultural beliefs and norms attached to the in-class communication structures described here. Perhaps the teacher gains further insights from a conversation with the student who stops by after class to explain that she is uncomfortable being called on so often due to the highlighted attention this brings her. If, by chance, the teacher still does not comprehend her concern, the student’s point becomes painfully clear when she reveals to the teacher that if the in-class highlighting continues she risks being ostracized by her cultural peers outside of class. The teacher can now make meaning of the student’s request that she not be called on so often. Simply put, teachers with this knowledge of culture and an understanding of ‘‘cultural tools’’ can apply the tertiary artifact (an interpretive lens) to begin to make sense of culturally based communication, behaviors, and interactions. With this conceptual understanding, teachers can thoughtfully dissect students’ words, meanings, and intentions as situated within cultural confines. For example, in the context of an English language teacher responding to a student’s question, instead of taking offense to the student’s close physical proximity (‘‘in your face’’) and confident stance, or her directive (‘‘I need to be dis-enrolled from this class. I already speak English.’’), the teacher paused and reflected on this student from Spain. He contemplated the student’s words, delivery, and message. Despite his discomfort, he reflected on his basic knowledge of Spanish culture, and concluded that the students’ question and delivery were consistent with her cultural norms that encourage self-advocacy, confidence, direct requests, and use of close personal space in face-to-face interpersonal communication.

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UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS The following underlying assumptions reflect the beliefs on which this book is grounded and the positions we have taken: 1. Culture is central to learning, language, literacy, and education; it is pervasive in people’s ways of knowing and responding to life; it influences teachers’ and students’ decisions and mutual interactions. 2. Children arrive at school having been socialized at home in how to use language to acquire the knowledge their community has judged appropriate for someone at their age. 3. Learning is socially constructed and mutually negotiated, not transmitted; learning is influenced by learners’ background knowledge, life experiences, and cultural knowledge. 4. Language, literacy, and culture are interrelated and intersect with the learning process. 5. All children deserve the opportunity to an equitable and quality education. 6. All students deserve access to a curriculum that is relevant and to instruction that accommodates for their learning interests, abilities, and needs. This includes instructional planning and practices aligned with a pedagogy that is inclusive and equitable in order to facilitate the academic achievement of all students. 7. Education is not politically neutral; sociopolitical and historical contexts influence educational policies, schools, curricular decisions, administrators, teachers, and students. 8. While English is becoming a common language used globally, there is value in all languages. Multilingualism is valued and promotes mutual understanding; maintenance of one’s native language is a basic human right. 9. One’s native language is a valuable resource and a useful tool. This is particularly so when a speaker is adding a new language to her/his linguistic repertoire. 10. Individuals in today’s world need to be prepared to function in a multicultural, inclusive society within the United States and globally. In the following section, we underscore the underlying assumptions and their implications for instruction. 1. Culture is central to learning, language, literacy, and education; it is pervasive in people’s ways of knowing and responding to life; it influences teachers’ and students’ decisions and mutual interactions.

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Culture influences how we think, perceive, behave, and communicate—in spoken language, writing, and reading—all of which affect how we teach and how we learn. Understanding cultural components of learning is crucial for effective teaching; in the educational context, culture is pivotal to instruction, interactions between teachers and learners, curriculum, and assessment (Gay, 2010b). 2. Children arrive at school having been socialized at home in how to use language to acquire the knowledge their community has judged appropriate for someone at their age. Humans begin learning language, learning about language, and learning through language from the moment of birth (Galda, Cullinan, & Strickland, 1997). By the age of five, children are eager to learn new things and are asking innumerable questions about their environment. By the age of five or six, children have mastered most of the conventions of oral language, barring any language delays or conditions that interfere with language development. 3. Learning is socially constructed and mutually negotiated, not transmitted; learning is influenced by learners’ background knowledge, life experiences and cultural knowledge. Vygotsky (1978) emphasized the social nature of language and learning, arguing that children learn language in a social context. He contended that learning and language development are influenced by interactions with competent peers and adults. Often called, communicative competence, children’s develop the ability to use language in order to function in the speech community where they are raised (Heath, 1983). Even at a young age, children develop the ability to vary their language use in order to use the language appropriate to a particular social context. 4. Language, literacy, and culture are interrelated and intersect with the learning process. The development of competence in oral language lays the foundation for the development of reading and writing, which are also systems of language. There is strong consensus among experts in language development that children y ‘‘need a foundation in oral or sign language before they can be expected to learn to read or to benefit from formal reading instruction’’ (Harp & Brewer, 2005, p. 14).

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5. All children deserve the opportunity to an equitable and quality education. Relying on the ideals asserted by Dewey (1933) as foundational, public and formal education is essential to support a complex and democratic society. Public schools are a common denominator throughout the United States. 6. All students deserve access to a curriculum that is relevant and to instruction that accommodates for their learning interests, abilities, and needs. This includes instructional planning and practices aligned with a pedagogy that is inclusive and equitable in order to facilitate the academic achievement of all students. We support the view of culture as a construct situated in and impacted by external factors such as sociopolitical and sociohistorical factors in relation to culture’s influence on language and thought. From the stance asserted by Erickson (2002) that everything in education relates to culture, culture influences cognition as well as motivation, interactions, and learning (Cole, 1996; Guitierrez & Rogoff, 2003; Lee, 2007). When teaching and learning are decontextualized from students’ life experiences which include their culture, students’ chances of achievement and potential for success are minimized (Gay, 2010b). 7. Education is not politically neutral; sociopolitical and historical contexts influence educational policies, schools, curricular decisions, administrators, teachers, and students. Structural inequalities in society are reflected in our schools. Fewer resources and substandard education are documented elements found in low-income communities (Kozol, 1991; Rothstein, 2004). Students of nonmainstream racial/ethnic and linguistic backgrounds are overrepresented in special education services and underrepresented in gifted education (Losen & Orfield, 2002). These historical patterns have long pointed to structural inequities. 8. While English is becoming a common language used globally, there is value in all languages. Multilingualism is valued and promotes mutual understanding; maintenance of one’s native language is a basic human right. While the international TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) organization holds as it mission the advancement of excellence in English language teaching, it simultaneously ‘‘values and encourages multilingualism in all learners at every age and level.’’ Additionally, TESOL

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advocates for individual language rights for all peoples and supports programs that foster skills in both the learner’s native language and additional languages (TESOL, 2004). 9. One’s native language is a valuable resource and a useful tool. This is especially so when a speaker is adding a new language to her/his linguistic repertoire. A crucial and fundamental feature of culturally responsive teaching is that teachers recognize students’ native languages and cultures as resources on which to draw in classroom instruction and interactions (Jimenez & Rose, 2010). In today’s global society, being able to speak, understand, and think in a language—beyond English—contributes towards one’s global competence that is necessary to function in the globalized world (Zhao, 2010). 10. Individuals in today’s world need to be prepared to function in a multicultural society within the United States and globally. During the past 30 years, the modern workplace has changed. The demands for those transitioning from the classroom to the workplace have risen as students around the world now compete with each other for jobs as noted in the Fact Sheet, How does the United States Stack up? (Alliance for Excellent Education, March 2008). A well-prepared and globally competent workforce is crucial for the future success of every country.

CONCLUSION In Chapter Two we have provided a foundation of the theory supporting culturally responsive pedagogy. We also described the underlying assumptions reflecting our position on culture in learning, language, literacy, teaching, and education. We support examining culture from a broad construct, understanding that culture influences an individual’s perspectives, interactions, daily motivations, communication, and worldview. In the context of the classroom, teachers’ and learners’ cultures are essential contributing factors in the social construction of learning, which is continually influenced by teachers’ and students’ background knowledge, life experiences, cultural knowledge, and commitment to an equitable and quality education for all. In Chapter Three we address the current contexts of students’ academic achievement and teacher education programs.

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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. As you reflect on the various conceptualizations of culture presented in Chapter Two, select the descriptors and features of culture that resonate with your view of culture. 2. What is your definition of culture? Develop a preliminary draft of your own definition of culture and discuss it with a friend or colleague. Describe the process you went through to determine the features of culture included in the definition. 3. Explain the ways culture influences your perspective on family, learning, teaching, schooling, and success. 4. Compare and contract your definition and view on culture with the broad values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms recognized as central to the societal dominant ‘‘mainstream’’ culture. 5. Examine and discuss the underlying assumptions presented in Chapter Two. Construct your own set of assumptions about culture, learning, the learner, language, literacy, education, and equity.

CHAPTER THREE CONTEXTUALIZING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND TEACHER EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION Culture impacts how we teach, process learning, solve problems, and interact with each other. As teachers recognize the ways in which culture influences how one thinks, believes, and behaves, they begin to understand the ways in which culture affects their own teaching and expectations about teaching as well as students’ learning and classroom interactions. In Chapter Two we discussed a theoretical foundation for culturally responsive pedagogy which addressed the pervasiveness of culture along with the influence it has on one’s cognition, motivation, worldviews, and everyday practices situated within authentic contexts of teaching and learning. Given that culture is pivotal to all that we do in education, what does the research about student achievement indicate? What research focus has been given to student achievement when teachers do attend to cultural congruence between the students’ families and school? Is student performance impacted when cultural links are made to content and instruction? In Chapter Three we present data on student achievement and the relation between teachers’ preparation and student achievement. Regarding student achievement, we consider factors that impact the disparity in educational outcomes of various groups of students, including those from diverse backgrounds and those from the U.S. cultural mainstream backgrounds. Additionally, in Chapter Three, we address the current structures in place to prepare teachers to teach diverse student populations and the research on the impact of teacher education to prepare teachers to effectively teach students of diverse backgrounds. 41

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As previously noted, the U.S. school-age population is growing more diverse across culture, race/ethnicity, language, academic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds. As a result of such broad cultural diversity, U.S. schools are more diverse than they have been since the early 1900s, when a large influx of immigrants arrived from various parts of Europe (Gay, 2010b). Of the 50 million students enrolled in U.S. public schools, 45% were identified as part of a racial/ethnic group (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). Students enrolled in U.S. schools who speak a language other than English at home number 10.6 million, approximately 20% of the total enrollment. This is a notable increase from data reported in 1995 when 2.1 million of the public school students were identified as Limited English Proficient (LEP), thereby accounting for only 5% of all public school students at that time (Ga´ndara, 1995). Data relevant to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975) show that of the total number of students enrolled in public schools, 6.7 million received special education services. Among those students served 20% are African American, 16% are Latino, 1% are Native American, 2% are Asian American, and 60% are European American (Caucasian). Regarding the economic status of students and their families, the U.S. Census Bureau (2004) reported that 23.7% of African Americans, 21.9 of Latinos, 23.2% of Native Americans live in poverty, while only 10.8% of Asian Americans and 10.2% of European Americans do. On the topic of religion, the United States is quickly becoming one of the most religiously diverse nations, with 18.1% Mainline Protestant, 26.3% Evangelical Protestant, 23.9% Catholic, 1.7% Jewish, .6% Muslim, and 16.1% unaffiliated. As these demographic changes occur across the entire country, the impact and numbers vary within different regions. In the Western United States, school enrollments have been noticeably influenced by the increase in demographic diversity. For example, enrollment by European American native English speakers in Western states hovered at 43% in 2007, while the enrollment by diverse student populations reached 57% (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007a). This pattern is typical of districts in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area, including districts to the immediate north of the city. For example, sample data compiled from five school districts in the Denver metropolitan area show the following demographics of students enrolled:     

18% are African American; 52% are Latino; 1% are Native American; 4% are Asian American; 25% are European American.

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Two of the Denver metropolitan area school districts will provide the backdrop for classroom-based instructional scenarios that illustrate culturally responsive pedagogy to be highlighted in Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten. When considering statewide demographics for Colorado, data given in a recent news release from the Colorado Department of Education (2010b) show a slightly different view. The CDE data indicate that among students enrolled statewide in Colorado public schools, 4.8% are African American, 31.6% are Latino, 9% are Native American, 2.9% Asian American, and 56.8% are European American.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Reading Recognizing that students from diverse backgrounds bring to school a wealth of cultural knowledge, what are the achievement outcomes for students in U.S. public schools? Using student performance data made available through the ‘‘Nation’s Report Card’’ published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the ‘‘The Condition of Education’’ produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (2007b), we report on national achievement data for reading and math at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels. Current data in reading achievement provide important insights about the evolving discrepancies that exist across the student population in the United States. For consistency purposes, we use the terminology and labels included by the NCES report in the figures below. In the narrative, we continue with the terms and labels identified in the introduction of this book. NAEP classifies four levels of student proficiency in reading using the following descriptors: 1. Below basic: Students who are at below basic level are able to follow brief written directions and carry out simple, discrete reading tasks. 2. Basic: Students who are at a basic level are able to understand, combine ideas, and make inferences based on short uncomplicated. 3. Proficient: Students who are at a proficient level are able to search for specific information, interrelated ideas, and make generalizations about literature, science, and social studies materials. 4. Advanced: Students who are at an advanced level are able to find, understand summarize, and explain relatively complicated literature and informational material. At the basic proficiency level, scores show a similar distribution across racial/ethnic groups for 4th grade readers. Among 4th graders, 29% of

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African American, 30% of Latino, 32% of Asian American, 30% of Native American, and 35% of European American (White) students are reading at the basic proficiency level (see Fig. 3.1). Moving beyond basic proficiency in reading, discrepancies among groups become more pronounced. Scores at below basic proficiency reveal a sharp discrepancy between reading levels of racial/ethnic student groups. Among students reading at the below basic proficiency, 58% are African American, 54% are Latino, and 52% are Native American students compared to much lower percentages of Asian American and European American students (27% and 24%, respectively). When proficient and advanced reading levels are examined, data show that among 4th graders, 13% of African American, 16% of Latino, and 18% of Native American students score proficient to advanced levels. In contrast, 42% of Asian American and 41% of European American 4th grade students scored at proficient to advanced in reading. These percentages remain constant for 8th grade students (see Fig. 3.2) and continue steady for 12th grade readers (see Fig. 3.3). Reading is essential to students’ academic success. Reading achievement scores of students in the 4th and 8th grades appear to hold steady; however,

Fig. 3.1. Fourth Grade Readers: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Reading Achievement Levels by Race/Ethnicity (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

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Fig. 3.2. Eighth Grade Readers: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Reading Achievement Levels by Race/Ethnicity (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

the scores of 12th grade students decline. Given the pattern of time spent on direct reading instruction and time dedicated to actual reading in schools, students’ chances of improving their reading skills decrease as they progress through the grades. Reading instruction diminishes once students leave 4th grade. Results to a survey reported in The Nation’s Report Card (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009) indicate that teachers’ responses about time spent on reading instruction reveal that:  3% of 4th graders received less than three hours of language arts instruction per week;  30% of 4th graders received a minimum of 7 hours of language arts instruction per week; and  47% of 4th graders received 10 hours or more of language arts instruction. On the other hand, at the 8th grade level, teachers’ responses reveal that:  2% of 8th graders received less than 3 hours of language arts instruction per week;

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Fig. 3.3. Twelfth Grade Readers: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Reading Achievement Levels by Race/Ethnicity (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

 44% of 8th graders received a minimum of 3 hours of language arts instruction per week; and  30% of 8th graders received a minimum of 5 hours of language arts instruction per week. Math In mathematics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) classifies four levels of student proficiency using the following descriptors: 1. Below basic: Students who are at a below basic proficiency level have demonstrated basic addition and subtraction facts; recognize simple situations in which addition and subtraction apply; and most at this level can add two-digit numbers without regrouping. 2. Basic: Students who are at basic proficiency have demonstrated a considerable understanding of two-digit numbers and knowledge of some basic multiplication and division facts.

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3. Proficient: Students who are at the proficient level have demonstrated an initial understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (the four basic operations). They can compare information from graphs and charts; and are developing an ability to analyze simple logical relations. 4. Advanced: Students who are at the advanced proficiency level have demonstrated an ability to compute decimals, simple fractions, and percents. They can identify geometric figures, measure lengths and angles, and calculate areas of rectangles. They are also developing skills to operate with signed numbers, exponents, and square roots. In mathematics, the distribution of students’ achievement does not vary substantially across racial/ethnic groups for 4th grade math students. Among 4th graders, 47% of African American, 49% of Latino, 35% of Asian American, 47% of Native American, and 42% of European American students demonstrated basic proficiency in math (see Fig. 3.4). At below basic proficiency in math, a discrepancy in achievement distributions becomes more noticeable. Among 4th grade students who demonstrated

Fig. 3.4. Fourth Grade Math Students: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Math Achievement Levels by Race/Ethnicity (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

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below basic proficiency level in math, 40% are African American, 32% are Latino, and 32% are Native American students compared to much lower percentages of European American and Asian American students (10% in both cases). This divergence in achievement continues for those students who demonstrate proficiency in math. Among 4th graders who scored at proficient, 12% of African American, 18% Latino, and 19% of Native American students demonstrated proficiency. Conversely, 41% of Asian American students and 40% of European American students demonstrated proficiency at math. At the advanced level, the distribution diverges again. Among 4th graders, 1% of African American, 1% of Latino, and 2% of Native American demonstrated advanced proficiency in math. On the contrary, 14% of Asian American students and 7% of European American students demonstrated advanced proficiency in math. A similar distribution remains constant for 8th grade students (see Fig. 3.5) and continues steady for 12th grade students (see Fig. 3.6). The percentage of students scoring at the ‘‘basic’’ level of proficiency tended to be similar across student groups, whereas the percentage of

Fig. 3.5. Eighth Grade Math Students: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Math Achievement Levels by Race/Ethnicity (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

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students scoring at proficient and advance levels diverged noticeably by racial/ethnic groups. This divide was also true at the below basic level. These data are distressing, given that math is a strong predictor of academic success and a requirement for college preparation. While there are clearly students of all groups who demonstrate success in math, such findings prompt questions of ‘‘why?’’ We again look to The Nation’s Report Card (NCES, 2009) and survey results about teaching time spent on math. Survey results reveal that: 85% of 4th grade students received four to five hours of math instruction per week. On the other hand, 8th grade teachers indicated that the percentage of 8th graders receiving weekly math instruction decreases to 36%. What courses replaced math for so many students? What classes did these students take in place of math? For the students whose math achievement scores fall below basic proficiency at the 4th grade level, their days of direct instruction are limited as are their chances for enhancing their math proficiency.

Fig. 3.6. Twelfth Grade Math Students: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Math Achievement Levels by Race/Ethnicity (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ ACHIEVEMENT Reading As noted, ELL students constitute 20% of the total number of enrolled students in U.S. public schools. How have English language learners (ELL students) fared in U.S. public schools? With respect to reading achievement, ELL students at the 4th-, 8th-, and 12th grade levels who are reading at the basic proficiency level, show similar results across grade levels and across all groups reported in the previous section (see Fig. 3.7):  27% of 4th graders are reading at a basic proficiency;  29% of 8th graders are reading at a basic proficiency;  31% of 12th graders are reading at a basic proficiency. In this case, the number of students whose achievement is at basic proficiency increased slightly with each grade level. At below basic

Fig. 3.7. ELL Students at 4th, 8th, and 12th Grades: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Reading Achievement Levels (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

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proficiency, scores show a slight decrease across the three grade levels ranging from 73% of 4th graders to 71% of 8th graders and 69% of 12th graders reading below proficient meaning fewer 12th grade students than 4th grade students demonstrated below basic reading proficiency. The percentage of ELL students reading at proficient to advanced is small regardless of students’ grade level. ELL students who scored proficient or advanced at reading were limited to 7% of 4th graders, 4% of 8th graders, and 5% of 12th graders. Achievement levels for ELL students at the basic level tend to be congruent with other 4th graders who are from diverse backgrounds as well as with European American students. Among all 4th grade student groups reported here, about 30% were reading at basic proficiency. Conversely, the distribution of reading achievement levels for ELL students at below basic proficiency deviated notably from the student groups reported previously. Approximately 70% of ELL students were at below basic proficiency regardless of their grade level. This is nearly 10 to 15% more ELL students at below basic proficiency than the other student groups previously reported. This discrepancy is magnified when comparing ELL students with the subgroup of Asian American and European American students. Nearly 40% fewer Asian American students and European American students than ELL students read at the below basic proficiency level. The percentage of ELL students whose reading achievement was at proficient and advanced levels was 5 to 7%. Of the students previously reported, each group had 10 to 35% more students achieving at the proficient to advanced levels than identified in the ELL student group.

Math In the area of mathematics, the distribution of achievement varies between 4th grade English language learners and ELL students in 8th grade and 12th grade (see Fig. 3.8). Among 4th graders:  54% demonstrated basic proficiency;  46% demonstrated below basic proficiency; and  .12% demonstrated proficient or advanced achievement in math. The distribution of achievement for English language learners in 8th- and 12th grade is noticeably different from the 4th grade students. Among English language learners in 8th and 12 grades, 26 to 29% demonstrated

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Fig. 3.8. ELL Students at 4th, 8th, and 12th Grades: Percentage Distribution of NAEP Mathematics Achievement Levels (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006b).

basic proficiency while 71 to 74% demonstrated below basic proficiency in math which is nearly .25% more 8th and 12th graders demonstrating below basis proficiency compared to 4th graders. Similar to the 4th grade ELL students, 3 to 12% of the 8th- and 12th graders demonstrated proficient to advanced proficiency level in math. Regardless of students’ grade level, the percentage of ELL students demonstrating proficiency and advanced proficiency in math is low. Also, as ELL students advance through the grade levels, the data support that mathematics becomes an increasingly difficult challenge. This is especially true for students moving towards 12th grade. For these students, the percentage of ELL students who achieve at below basic proficiency in math, reaches nearly 75%. Given the reduced number of bilingual programs which began to diminish in the 1980s (Lucas & Grinberg, 2008), ELL students are spending more

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time with nonspecialist, general education teachers and less time with a specialist in English as a second language (ESL). Costs associated with providing services by a specialist in ESL frequently drive school district decisions to transition ELL students more quickly out of ESL support services and into the regular classroom. Lucas and Grinberg suggest that as a result of these changes, ELL students are spending much of their time in general education classrooms with teachers who have limited or no professional expertise in ESL.

ACHIEVEMENT GAP Much has been written about the achievement gap. Trends reveal that in 4th grade a similar percentage of students across all groups achieve basic proficiency in reading and math. After 4th grade, however, students’ achievement levels noticeably diverge. Do curricular concepts become less concrete and more abstract? Does content become more challenging? Are instructional practices different at the secondary level? When school structures, curriculum, and teachers’ instructional practices align with the cultural norms and values of society’s mainstream culture, how does a diverse student population fare in U.S. public schools? A number of factors influence students’ decisions to stay in school or drop out. During the 2003–2004 school year, 74.3% of high school students graduated. What do we know about the 25.7% of the students—nearly one-fourth—who dropped out? Relying on levels of academic success or failure relevant to drop-out rates, can risk oversimplification of the issue. In reality, students may stop attending school for reasons beyond academics. Pulled by family needs, students may drop out in order to assist their family at home (e.g., care for younger siblings or an ill family member) or to support their family finances by securing a job. The information reported in Fig. 3.9 provides a more complete picture of recent data distributed across student groups regarding the drop-out rates for U.S. public high schools (see Fig. 3.9).

TEACHERS AND TEACHER EDUCATION Presently in the United States, there are approximately 3.7 million K-12 teachers with an estimated 300,000 new teachers being added each year (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). As previously noted, while the student population becomes increasingly diverse, the demographic diversity

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Fig. 3.9. High School Drop-Out Rates (For Students 16–24 Years Old) (2005). Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2006c).

of the teaching population is not. According to data gathered from the U.S. Department of Education’s (2008) National Center for Education Statistics (2008) in the Schools and Staffing Survey, the teaching force in public schools is predominately female (75%), native English speaking, from a White (non-Hispanic) background (83%) with an average age of 40. An increasing number of teachers are coming from a higher socioeconomic background (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005). Regarding racial/ethnic background, of the remaining proportion of teachers, 7.8% were African American, 5.7% Hispanic, 1% Asian American, and .8% Native American. The percentage of teachers from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds increased from 13% in 1993–1994 to 17% in 2003–2004. With little in common regarding culture, race/ethnicity, language, socioeconomic background, and life experience, how are teachers prepared to engage a diverse student population in today’s classrooms? Most teachers continue to be prepared in Baccalaureate programs at public institutions, despite an increasing number of alternative programs that are enrolling a rising number of prospective teachers (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005). Nevertheless, with requirements changing at the state and institutional levels, it is becoming more common for teachers to graduate with an undergraduate major in a content area rather than with a major in education. However, while they are more likely to have a major in a content area, graduates are not necessarily more likely to end up teaching that content.

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The preparation of teachers typically follows one of three paths: (a) the traditional model of on-campus university coursework culminating in a multi-week student teaching experience; (b) an alternative ‘‘teacher in residence’’ program in which college graduates complete a short course before moving immediately into their own classroom, with subsequent supervision provided; and (c) a professional development school (PDS) model focusing on a structured sequence of internships that are aligned with professional courses collaboratively developed by university and P-12 school faculty. As a result of updated standards and work towards transformation, many teacher education programs—in particular, those based on a PDS model—now include a core focus for teachers to advocate for the elimination of societal inequities and delivering effective responsive and inclusive instruction that informs and empowers all students. Historically, teacher education programs have been organized around coursework and field experiences. Key components of preparation include subject matter, learner development, foundations of education, teaching methods, and classroom teaching. In their extensive review of research on teacher education, Cochran-Smith and Zeichner (2005) stated that methods courses and fieldwork tend to be closely linked with preservice teachers’ preliminary field experiences. Frequently, methods courses include assignments structured to link theory with practice that necessitate classroom-based interactions with teachers and learners. During preliminary coursework and field experiences, teacher educators typically prompt preservice teachers to examine their beliefs when these run counter to the research on student learning. The structure and duration of field experiences vary according to the model of the teacher education program. In traditional programs, field experiences consist of an introductory classroom observation and 10–15 weeks of student teaching to culminate one’s preparation. In the past two decades, both alternative licensure programs and PDS initiatives have transformed teacher education. Alternative licensure programs were created to offer options to four-year undergraduate programs and to allow high-need districts to attract recruits directly into their district. In alternative licensure programs, coursework is usually offered in a condensed format or in an intense summer ‘‘boot camp’’ model after which intern teachers enter the classroom to teach. During their first year as ‘‘teacher in residence,’’ interns receive on-the-job supervision and mentoring. The professional development school (PDS) model builds on collaborative relationships between universities and school district partners. A structured sequence of internship experiences begin at the onset of the teacher education program and are aligned with professional coursework.

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The goal of the PDS model is to provide an authentic context where preservice teachers can make connections between educational principles and classroom application. A consistent and pressing issue in teacher education has been the preparation and retention of high-quality teachers who can work effectively with a diverse student population, particularly in urban school contexts (Wang et al., 2010). In the past two decades, teacher educators have debated the conceptualization of teaching for social justice and the approaches for preparing teachers to make a difference. While researchers have proposed lists of needed dispositions, attitudes, experiences, knowledge, skill sets needed for teachers to work effectively with a diverse student population (Grant & Sleeter, 2007; Gay, 2010a; Milner, 2010), in the recent review of research on preparing teachers for diverse populations prepared for the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the authors clarify that few changes have been made in teacher education for cultural diversity (Hollins & Guzman, 2005). Simultaneously, racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students, families, communities, and their advocates are insisting on being respected and educated for who they are, and having the opportunity for a high-quality education (Garcia, 2002; Gay, 2010a). How are teachers prepared for a culturally and linguistically diverse student population? Reviews of the literature note that issues of diversity in teacher education curricula have generally been delivered in separate courses as optional or as an ‘‘add-on’’ diversity or multicultural course (Grant & Secada, 1990; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Sleeter, 2001). Aside from the ‘‘add-on’’ content or isolated course, the rest of the teacher education curricula have remained mostly unchanged relevant to issues of cultural diversity. The coursework focused on cultural diversity typically begins with learning experiences which are centered on reducing prejudice and which are intended to increase teachers’ awareness and sensitivity to diversity (Hollins & Guzman, 2005). Learning experiences often involve teachers in a study of culture, an investigation of their cultural and life experiences, and an examination of their racial identity development. Teachers reconsider historical explanations for racial inequality and examine their own biases or misinformation towards students and families of diverse cultural backgrounds. There’s limited information about attention in coursework to students of diverse linguistic backgrounds or issues of language acquisition. Coursework also includes a focus on creating curriculum and instruction based on students’ backgrounds using what Banks (2006) calls ‘‘equity pedagogy.’’ Equity pedagogy involves teachers modifying their teaching styles in ways that will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse

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racial, cultural, and social class groups. Additionally, field experiences are often organized in ways to enhance preservice teachers’ experiences with and understanding of diverse populations. Examples of field experiences include community-based experiences such as working with community agencies, offering tutoring to low-income children, or working as participant-observers in a community study. What does the research indicate about preparing teachers for a diverse student population? One area of research centers on teachers’ dispositions towards and knowledge about culture. Studies point to preservice teachers having limited knowledge about culture or cross-cultural communication and limited interactions with students from diverse broad cultural backgrounds (Taylor & Sobel, 2001, 2003; Terrill & Mark, 2000). Additionally, studies show that (a) many teachers hold lower expectations for English language learners and students of other diverse backgrounds (Marx, 2000; Terrill & Mark, 2000), and (b) preservice teachers hold negative beliefs about individuals who are different from them (Hollins & Guzman, 2005). Research further shows that when teachers hold low expectations for their students or believe that cultural diversity is a deficit to be ‘‘overcome,’’ they often have difficulty teaching in ways that are both culturally responsive and academically challenging (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Third, research suggests that when teachers approach students from a ‘‘color-blind’’ perspective (e.g., ‘‘I don’t see color, I only see kids’’), they overlook important features of students, features that impact students’ life experiences and self identity (Johnson, 2002; Milner, 2010). Studies suggest that European American education students and preservice teachers express reluctance to accept responsibility for addressing inequities in curricula or schooling (Case & Hemmings, 2005; Sleeter, 2001; Trent et al., 2008). Another area of research focuses on reducing prejudice of preservice teachers in teacher education. Studies in this area examined teacher education practices aimed at reducing teachers’ prejudice or increasing teachers’ sensitivity to cultural diversity. In the recent review of research (Hollins & Guzman, 2005), the majority of studies reported positive shortterm impacts of prejudice reduction activities grounded in coursework. Prejudice reduction activities involved using literacy narratives as teaching cases; examining cultural identity development; and written reflections to readings, discussions, and films. Nathenson-Mejia and Escamilla (2003) studied the impact of using multicultural children’s literature in a fieldwork seminar that spanned a three-year period and that was situated in a PDS model of teacher education. The children’s literature was used to ground preservice teachers’ discussions on cultural diversity. The researchers found

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that preservice teachers used the books in their classroom to make connections with their students’ lives and to extend students’ verbal, reading, and writing skills. Results also indicated that preservice teachers’ attitudes towards their students changed during the three years and that they became motivated to teach in multicultural classrooms. Research examining pedagogy investigated the extent to which teachers implemented their learning in the classroom context. With a focus on equity pedagogy, Banks (2006) asserts that this type of pedagogy exists when teachers use methods and materials that support the academic achievement of students from diverse backgrounds. In the AERA review of research (Hollins & Guzman, 2005), many of the studies that were reviewed investigated aspects of teacher education courses intended to prepare preservice teachers to provide equity pedagogy in the K-12 classroom. Examples of data sources used in these studies consisted of transcriptions of class discussions, journal entries, individual reading logs, interviews with preservice teachers, lesson plans, case-based teaching, unit plans, interviews with classroom learners, field notes, videotaped lessons, and email conversations. Two studies, in particular, investigated preservice teachers’ ability to plan lessons using information from students’ cultural and experiential backgrounds. In a study centered on a literacy course with an eight-week field experience in a school with a diverse student population, Xu (2000) found that 20 European American middle-class preservice teachers learned to plan instruction that integrated students’ learning styles, background knowledge, and life experiences. Of the 20 teachers, four self-identified as ethnic minorities and four as being from a low socioeconomic background. These preservice teachers effectively used strategies such as multicultural integration and cooperative learning during reading and writing instruction with students. In a second study focused on 23 preservice teachers from diverse backgrounds who were taking a course on developmentally appropriate practices, Morales (2000) found that they (a) acquired an understanding of cultural and experiential differences; (b) were able to construct developmentally appropriate strategies for young children; and (c) gained increased confidence to work with children and families different from themselves. Moreover, these preservice teachers reported an increased awareness of the need to critically examine cultural diversity issues. In an investigation focused on the extent to which teachers implemented their learning in the classroom context (Sobel, Taylor, Kalisher, & WeddleSteinberg, 2003), we conducted a study of seven preservice teachers during a year-long internship situated in urban elementary schools with diverse student populations. Housed in a teacher education program grounded in a

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Professional Development School (PDS) model, the internship followed two semesters of coursework that addressed teaching and learning theory, teaching methods, linguistically diverse education, and inclusionary practices. Using principles of action research, the preservice teachers were engaged in reflective journaling aimed at self-study of how their beliefs about diversity issues were revealed in their classroom interactions, practices, and observations. Results indicated common themes among the ways participants took action on their beliefs, including the value of: (a) Equity in classroom instruction and practices: for example, preservice teachers’ journal entries revealed insights about their strategic planning efforts aimed at meeting the unique language and learning needs of students using differentiated instruction. (b) Family involvement and interactions: for example, several preservice teachers revealed new-found appreciation for the demands faced by the parents of the children and the need for parent-teacher conferences to accommodate a parent’s double shift and work schedule. (c) Cultural sensitivity and understanding in classroom instruction and interactions: for example, one preservice teacher designed a simple survey for students to complete with their parents about the family routine and special days celebrated by their family. Her purpose was to deepen her understanding of students’ background knowledge and lived experiences. This study prompted preservice teachers to pause, reflect on, and articulate their beliefs as connected to culturally responsive pedagogy. Preservice teachers critically examined the ways they took action on their beliefs within the educational structures and contexts where they taught. The results of this study were consistent with research that emphasizes reflective practice as an effective tool to stimulate thinking, discussion, and productive action. The reflective journaling provided a structure for preservice teachers to address their beliefs and actions about diversity issues in a meaningful way. What feedback do teachers offer about their preparation? What needs, knowledge, and skill sets do they identify as valuable in their preparation to work effectively with diverse student populations? The extensive review of research supported by the American Educational Research Association on preparing teachers for diverse populations (Hollins & Guzman, 2005) reported on several evaluation studies of teacher education programs. In a study focused on determining the impact of the program on 26 preservice teachers’ readiness and willingness to teach in culturally diverse schools, researchers used a questionnaire and interviews at different stages during the

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program to gather data (Wiggins & Follo, 1999). Results indicated that while preservice teachers perceived that the program had prepared them with instructional skills for teaching diverse student populations, they were not in fact comfortable teaching in culturally diverse classrooms and did not understand the cultural norms and expectations of diverse communities. In a study which we carried out (Taylor & Sobel, 2003), we asked 62 preservice teachers who were predominantly European American, native English speaking females from middle- to upper-middle-class homes to reflect on their preparation, based in a PDS model of teacher education, to effectively teach students in multicultural, multilingual, inclusive classrooms. All 62 participants responded anonymously to two questions which were one part of a series of studies within a longitudinal investigation. Preservice teachers were asked: (1) What elements of the teacher education curriculum and pedagogy affected your knowledge and understanding related to classroom contexts that are multicultural, multilingual, and inclusive? (2) What elements of the teacher education curriculum and pedagogy affected your knowledge and understanding regarding how to provide effective instruction for learners in multicultural, multilingual, and inclusive classroom contexts? Results indicated that preservice teachers found value in: (a) guided exposure to ‘‘real-world’’ broad cultural diversity and cross-cultural interactions situated in the context of the Professional Development School (PDS); (b) observations of the theory-practice applications addressed in the coursework and manifested in classrooms in the PDS context; and (c) observations of and interactions with the clinical classroom teacher, who often provided positive examples or, in some cases, negative or nonexamples of how to provide effective culturally responsive instruction in a multicultural, multilingual, and inclusive classroom. In addition, preservice teachers voiced a resounding request for more, that is, they specifically articulated a need for more (a) guided exposure to realities and perspectives different from their own, (b) explicit demonstrations of pedagogical strategies presented in university coursework, and (c) candid discussions about issues of race and the impact of the diversity on learners and school systems.

THE RELATION BETWEEN TEACHING AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT As it shifts from conceptual theory to grounded practice, culturally responsive pedagogy has been examined in numerous instructional settings

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with a focus on the instruction of several content areas. Research evidence demonstrates that culturally responsive pedagogy does enhance student achievement (Gay, 2010b). This is especially true when achievement measures involve a body of evidence that includes but is not limited to standardized test scores. Extensive research has been conducted that has focused on teachers implementing culturally responsive instruction in classroom contexts where the student population is predominantly African American. In the area of mathematics, we address two studies, one by Nasir (2000) and one by Ensign (2003). Nasir (2000) investigated the construction of identity, culture, and learning to find the relationship between the learner’s identity and learning integral in math proficiency for African American adolescents. Building on the students’ life and cultural knowledge of the game of dominoes, the researcher found that when students’ manipulated key math concepts within the context of this culturally familiar game, their understandings of the math goals were reached. Ensign (2003) investigated a teacher’s lesson on price comparison that had direct connections to familiar contexts and cultural experiences. The teacher prompted students to collect prices of similar products within the context of familiar neighborhood stores. Afterward, students used the information collected to conduct price comparisons. Results indicated students’ enhanced comprehension of the math concepts taught. For further findings on mathematical achievement, we refer you to Martin’s (2000) analysis on the mathematical experiences of African American students that is grounded in sociocultural, sociohistorical, community, family, school, and intrapersonal contexts. In the area of literacy, we highlight two special projects, one of which is the Multicultural Literacy Program that was implemented in grades K-8 in three school districts during a four-year period in Michigan (Ann Arbor, Inkster, and Ypsilanti). This project included multiethnic literature with wholelanguage approaches and a socioculturally sensitive learning environment (Diamond & Moore, 1995). Whole-language approaches emphasize language, reading and writing as meaning-making systems. These approaches integrate the teaching of letters and sounds, that is, graphophonics, along with syntactic, semantics and semantic aspects within reading and writing using authentic texts for authentic purposes. The selected literature used in the Multicultural Literacy Program drew attention to contributions of main characters from a range of backgrounds, including African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Hawaiians and a variety of genre such as folk tales, poetry, fiction, essays, biographies, autobiographies, and song lyrics. Program designers opted to use the medium of literature to ground the program in order to provide

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readers with opportunities to: (a) make life connections with issues shared by the main characters, (b) find solutions to similar problems they have experienced, (c) confront social injustices, (d) visualize racial inequities, and (e) live vicariously through the characters. As explained by Gay (2010b) using literature in this way resonates with readers’ creative ways of thinking and recognizing common human experiences shared by individuals of racially/ ethnically diverse backgrounds. The program was structured to create a supportive community of learners with a variety of group arrangements and social settings for learning such as learning centers, dyads, cooperative learning groups, and reality-based reading opportunities. Instructional strategies used by teachers in the program included read-and think-alouds, directed-reading-listening-thinking activity, readers’ theater, choral reading, reader response, and dramatizations. Indicators of students’ achievement included their:        

Increased interest and enjoyment in reading multicultural texts; Increased positive attitude towards reading and writing; Increased knowledge about forms, structure, functions, and uses of language; Expanded vocabulary, sentence patterns, and decoding abilities; Improved reading comprehension and fluency; Improved writing performance; Improved self-confidence and self-esteem; and Increased appreciation of their own culture and others’ cultures. (Diamond & Moore, 1995).

The second literature-based literacy project, called The Webster Grove Writing Project, focused on grades 6–12 in a small suburban economically and racially diverse (25% African American and 75% European American) school district in Missouri (Webster Groves, Rock Hills, Warson Woods, Glendale, and parts of Shrewsbury). The project integrated mentor literature, serving as exemplary texts of distinct writing styles and life stories from the lives of African American writers. These mentor texts were written by authors such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Toni Morrison to mention a few (Krater, Zeni, & Carson, 1994). The project was organized around eight key principles which combined African American cultural characteristics and contributions with process and literature approaches to writing. These principles included:  building on students’ strengths;  encouraging cooperative learning;

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using computers; individualizing and personalizing instruction; increasing control of language; building cultural bridges; enhancing personal involvement with literacy; expanding personal horizons.

Effects of the project were measured in part by students’ achievement on standardized tests. At the end of the first year, students’ scores on the district writing assessment increased by an average of two points (the mean increase was 1.6). Scores for African American middle school students increased by 2.3 points. Scores for African American high schools students increased by 1.7 points. Writing assessment scores from the past had shown increases limited to 1.0 points from grade to grade during an academic year (Krater et al., 1994). The Webster Grove Writing Project continued for nearly five years. During the fifth year, the project used the state writing text to assess student performance. In addition to the writing assessment, measures used to assess students’ progress included students’ writing samples and teachers’ observation of student behaviors. At then end of year five, 67% of the 8th graders involved in the project scored above the state mean. Overall success of this project prompted the Webster Grove school district to adapt its principles and methods to mathematics instruction at the kindergarten to 9th grade levels (Krater et al., 1994).

CONCLUSION It makes simple sense that a relationship exists between teaching and student achievement. The work on effective teaching practices indicates that starting with the learner is pivotal to effective teaching. In fact, a foundational part of effective teaching involves teachers placing the learner at the center of their design for the classroom environment, plans for curriculum and decisions about instructional strategies. We provide more detail on effective teaching in Chapter Six. In Chapter Four we turn our direction to priorities set and supports provided by professional organizations for teachers to be prepared for a diverse student population. Taking a global and U.S.-based perspective, we overview of how professional organizations provide leadership towards the goal of supporting teachers to equitably prepare all students for successful participation in school and to become involved, active citizens.

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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. Collect the most recent available data on students’ reading achievement scores distributed across racial/ethnic groups and for English language learners at the school of interest. Examine these data for distinguishing features and trends. 2. Collect the most recent available data on students’ mathematics achievement scores distributed across racial/ethnic groups and for English language learners at the school of interest. Examine these data for distinguishing features and trends. 3. With respect to English language learners’ data, inquire about the type, amount and duration of ESL services these students receive. For those students no longer receiving ESL services, investigate when ELL students were transitioned out of ESL support services. Compare and contrast these findings with trends you noted in students’ reading and mathematics achievement scores. 4. What type of teacher education program are you affiliated with, or did you experience in your teacher preparation? Describe the coursework, readings, and learning experiences used by this program to prepare teachers for a diverse student population, in particular English language learners. To what extent and in what areas did these experiences prepare you to teach a diverse student population? 5. What do you know about the cultures represented in the student population at the school of interest? Identify the cultural knowledge you have about the three to four predominant racial/ethnic/cultural groups represented in the school of interest. List the values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms held by each of these groups. 6. Consider and articulate what you know or can learn about the cultures’ patterns of communication and interactions including how questions are asked and answered. Discuss and reflect on your findings relevant to the possible ways these students’ cultures may influence their learning experiences at the school of interest.

PART TWO PERSPECTIVES AND SUPPORTS

Photo 2.

Hallway Flag Celebration.

CHAPTER FOUR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: THE STANCE FROM PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

INTRODUCTION Building on an overview of teacher preparation structures and research impacting teachers’ ability to effectively teach students of diverse backgrounds in Chapter Three, we shift our focus to an examination of the influences of key professional organizations. We examine the work of professional organizations that provide guidance while concurrently influencing and advocating for the specific learners who are the focus of the organization and their members’ work. Given that culture is pervasive in human society, no one is excluded from participating in culture. In the context of education, culture is at the center of all we do, including curriculum, instruction, interactions, and assessment (Gay, 2010b). In the case of students, they arrive at school with developed cultural norms, values, expectations, and habits of learning. Teachers also approach schooling from a cultural framework, but their cultural norms, values, expectations, and habits may look very different from those of their students. With a deep understanding of culture and the role it plays in life, learning, and teaching, teachers can begin to make sense of culturally based communications, behaviors, and interactions. Teachers can then use students’ cultural frames of reference and background knowledge to guide their instruction and implementation of curriculum in ways to maximize relevance for all students. As educators, our understanding of the individual needs of each student involves learning and thinking deeply about the influences of national policies, local school issues, and individual student strengths, needs, and differences that impact our responsibilities as educators. In this 67

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chapter, we examine how professional organizations lead national, state, district, and, ultimately, individual teachers’ capacities to equitably prepare all students for successful participation in school and active citizenship.

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Professional organizations are often the first place people turn to when seeking employment and/or new opportunities (Raines, 2009). Professional organizations provide platforms for involvement with others committed to the same cause or sharing the same passion. Many organizations offer professional development opportunities in the form of workshops, resource banks, and technical assistance. Membership in professional associations allows for individuals to make an impact and give back to their field. Many organizations work hard on behalf of their members to affect practice at governmental or social levels, allowing for members to have a larger influence on their field. The primary aim for professional organizations is to assert a mission that advocates for working on common issues and contributing to a unified voice. The experience of working on shared concerns that help members value and promote their profession and their individual careers are primary aims for professional organizations. For no matter what the organization, Raines (2009) points out, it is much easier for an organization comprised of 200 members to affect change and leadership than it is for just one individual. This chapter provides a discussion of the stance that global and U.S.-based professional educational organizations take by highlighting the leading initiatives and standards they have put forth to guide and support the preparation, professional development, and retention of high-quality teachers to work effectively with diverse student populations. Building on an overview of TESOL performance-based standards and NCATE standards for teacher learning and professional development (addressed in Chapter One), we present here an overview of global and U.S.-based professional education organizations. To provide a broad yet focused look into the important work that leading professional organizations do, we have structured Chapter Four to include an overview of 12 global and U.S. associations. Since the work that happens in a classroom directly and indirectly links to the work of a professional educational group, we want to highlight:  What that organization claims to stand for;  How those organizations supports all learners, with a focus on ELL students; and

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 The supports provided to educators working with students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs. Specific professional associations and centers are profiled as they represent both global and U.S.-based perspectives that advocate for equitable and effective education of students in today’s multicultural, multilingual, and inclusive classrooms. The professional organizations we overview include:         

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL); National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME); National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE); National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE); International Reading Association (IRA); Council for Exceptional Children (CEC); Association for Supervision, Curriculum, and Development (ASCD); American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE); and Learning Forward.

For organizational purposes, the discussion of those nine professional associations is presented within two subgroups: those of (1) teacher-focused membership and (2) professional development, supervision, and teacher education (Table 4.1). The authors acknowledge the existence of vast professional resources and supports available from private and federally funded agencies and institutions of higher education at national and regional levels that strive to build the capacity of state and local school systems to better serve students from diverse background and with diverse needs. Three professional centers (the Equity Alliance, the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence-CREDE, and the Bueno Center) are highlighted as representative organizations that support such important efforts (Table 4.2).

TEACHER-FOCUSED MEMBERSHIP The Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages organization (TESOL) is committed to ensuring that teachers know, understand, and use major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to the nature and role of culture and cultural groups to construct supportive learning environments for ELL students. TESOL holds that all pre-K–12 educators need to receive specialized training and preparation in the skills necessary to

NCTE promotes the development of literacy, the use of language to attain full participation in society, through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language. NABE’s mission is to advocate for Bilingual and English language learners and families and to nurture a multilingual multicultural society by supporting and promoting policy, programs, pedagogy, research, and professional development. IRA is committed to promoting reading by continuously advancing the quality of literacy instruction and research worldwide.

NCTE—National Council of Teachers of English

IRA—International Reading Association

NABE—National Association for Bilingual Education

Audience

Asian & Pacific Islanders, Dual language immersion, ELL newcomers and recent immigrants, ESL in bilingual education, Indigenous bilingual education, World languages and cultures Educators of African American students, Deaf and hard of hearing readers, Readers with disabilities, and Indigenous peoples

International literacy professionals

English as a second language assembly, Gay straight educators’ alliance, Women in literacy and life assembly

Bilingual education, Intercultural education, Nonnative English speakers in TESOL, Refugee concerns, Social responsibility, and Teacher education U.S.-based headquarters serves as a resource and clearinghouse for consultant services to assist with multicultural training, research, inservice programs, curriculum development, and collaborative problem-solving

Activities Related to Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and English Language Teaching

Bilingual learners and bilingual education professionals primarily from the United States

Educators, specialists, business professionals and individuals affiliated with cultural centers and institutions that emphasize multiculturalism Educators in English, Literacy, and Language Arts primarily from the United States.

International English Language Teachers

Teacher-Focused Membership

TESOL’s mission is to develop and maintain professional expertise in English language teaching and learning for speakers of other languages worldwide. NAME is dedicated to reforming education to reflect the authentic histories, cultures, and conditions of the global community.

Mission

Professional Organizations for Educators.

TESOL—Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages NAME—National Association for Multicultural Education

Professional Organizations

Table 4.1.

AACTE—The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

ASCD— Association for Supervision, Curriculum & Development Learning Forward

CEC—Council for Exceptional Children

International teachers, administrators, students, parents, paraprofessionals and related support service providers. Initiatives related to diversity and English language teaching: Children and Youth Action Network (CAN); Legislative Action Center; Caucuses: Native American, Asian/ Pacific Islander, African American, Canadian, Educators with Disabilities, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender, and Hispanic

ASCD Action center initiative; The whole child initiative; Professional interest communities include: African American, Global education, Hispanic/Latino American, and Women’s leadership issues Partnership with the School renewal network at Stanford University; Active engagement with U.S. congress members to introduce legislation to support effective professional learning

The Southern Poverty Law Center, NCATE

Professional educators from all levels and subject areas primarily from the United States Professional educators from all levels and subject areas primarily from the United States

Teacher educators, teachers, and school leaders primarily from the United States.

ASCD develops programs, products, and services for educators.

Learning Forward believes that staff development improves the learning of all students and prepares educators to understand and value all students, create safe, and supportive learning environments, and hold high expectations for all students’ academic achievement. AACTE promotes the learning of all PK-12 students through high-quality, evidencebased preparation and continuing education for all school personnel.

Professional Development, Supervision, and Teacher Education

CEC is committed to improving the quality of life for individuals with exceptionalities and their families through advocacy and exemplary professional practices.

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Table 4.2. Professional Center Equity Alliance

CREDE—Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence The Bueno Center for Multicultural Education

Professional Centers for Educators. Center Overview

Equity Alliance at Arizona State University represents a set of funded programs that promote equity, access, participation and outcomes for all students. The Equity Alliance focuses on supporting the capacity of state and local school systems to provide high-quality, effective opportunities to learn for all students, and to reduce disparities in academic achievement. The Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence at the University of California Berkeley is committed to improving the education of students whose ability to reach their potential is impacted by language or cultural barriers, race, geographic location, or poverty. CREDE’s five standards for effective pedagogy establish ideals for best teaching practices for all learners. The BUENO Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Colorado Boulder provides a comprehensive range of research, training, and service projects that emphasize cultural pluralism.

effectively manage culturally and linguistically diverse present in today’s classrooms (http://www.tesol.org). The TESOL Standards for the Accreditation of Initial Programs in P-12 ESL Teacher Education provide guidance for teacher preparation programs seeking to incorporate content into their courses. The principles conveyed in those standards are recommended reading for administrators and teachers committed to understanding the basic issues of second language acquisition, bilingualism, the difference between social and academic language proficiency, and the roles that language and culture play in learning. This professional organization maintains all pre-K–12 educators need to understand the ways native language impacts academic and social situations English language learners face when dealing with the demands of mainstream education. TESOL upholds that the academic achievement and school completion are significantly enhanced when students are able to use their native languages to learn in school (http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/ index.asp). In addition to workshops and international conference meetings, TESOL recommends the use of practical resources such as the Classroom Practice series. A representative example of this rich resource bank showcases practical strategies for creating classroom environment and management plans that are culturally responsive in multilingual and multicultural inclusive classrooms (Taylor & Sobel, 2008) and practices that take into account the unique needs and characteristics of adolescents

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(Dantas-Whitney & Rilling, 2010) that are reflective of a wide range of educational contexts across classrooms in the United States, Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) holds that genuine respect and appreciation of cultural diversity lies at the foundation of educational practices. NAME works to promote the understanding of unique cultural and ethnic heritage and the development of culturally responsible and responsive curricula. Members of this professional organization are committed to working towards the elimination of racism and discrimination in society in effort to achieve social, political, economic, and educational equity (http://www.nameorg.org). To facilitate acquisition of the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to function in various cultures, NAME publishes a quarterly journal, Multicultural Perspectives, which includes feature articles, reviews, program descriptions, and other pieces by and for multicultural educators and activists around the world. Additionally, the NAME clearinghouse serves as a diverse and rich resource that catalogues books, journals, magazines, parent resources, poetry, stories, speeches, and videos to aid in creating classrooms and communities that maximize the potential of all students. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is committed to preserving a student’s first language and its cultural ties, since the first language is considered a base upon which the student adds control of English and some familiarity with its literature and the culture within which that literature developed (http://www.ncte.org). This organization believes that educators need to model culturally responsive and socially responsible practices for students by crossing traditional personal and professional boundaries in pursuit of social justice and equity. NCTE further advocates for supporting linguistically and culturally diverse learners in English language by providing professional development supports that help educators respect all learners and incorporating student’s knowledge and experience into classroom practice. NCTE supports teachers in delivering instruction to meet these aims with resources such as, ReadWriteThink (http://www.readwritethink.org), an electronic warehouse for educators, parents, and afterschool professionals with access to high-quality practices in reading and language arts instruction. A vast professional library is available to help inform teaching with the latest research and practical teaching tips. The wide selection of books, journals, and position statements is recommended by both the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association.

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The National Association for Bilingual Education organization (NABE) believes that when schools provide children quality education in their primary language, they give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The organization believes knowledge that students get through their first language helps make the English they hear and read more comprehensible and that literacy developed in the primary language transfers to the second language. NABE believes the combination of first language subject matter teaching and literacy development that characterizes good bilingual programs indirectly but powerfully aids students as they strive for English proficiency (http://www.nabe.org). Acknowledging the rapidly increasing numbers of English language learners in U.S. schools today, NABE supports the publication of practical guides to understanding and addressing the impact of special education referral and classification processes for English language learners. One such resource, Determining Appropriate Referral of English Language Learners to Special Education (McLeod, 2002), provides realistic guidance in using student data to determine if a school has an overrepresentation (or underrepresentation) of English language learners in special education and ways to improve communication with English language learners and their families. The International Reading Association (IRA) through its professional meetings, conferences, publications, and collaboration efforts with concerned organizations and national constituencies assists in promoting cultural diversity and its direct connection to literacy development. Professional development resources and events help teachers access and use a variety of instructional materials that foster acceptance and appreciation of students and family members from varied socioeconomic, gender, and religious backgrounds. This professional organization supports educators to understand how the issues of power and privilege affect academic opportunities and outcomes that often exist among groups (http:// www.reading.org). This organization supports the stance that literacy learning is easiest when initial instruction in the child’s home language is provided and affirms the right of families to choose the language in which their children receive initial literacy instruction. IRA has set a standard on teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students grounded in a set of principles and understandings that reflect a vision for a democratic and just society and inform the effective preparation of educators privileged to provide literacy instruction. The dynamic IRA chapters worldwide support small and largescale professional development workshops and conferences where a

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commitment to diversity as a potential source of strength of a society is modeled. Representative resource materials such as ‘‘Choices Reading Lists’’ are just one example of how the IRA professional organization encourages the creation of curriculum that values diversity and helps teacher educators and teachers step outside their personal experiences within a particular linguistic, ethnic, religious, or cultural group to experience the offerings of others. Each year, thousands of students, teachers, and librarians around the United States select their favorite recently published books for the ‘‘Choices’’ reading lists. These lists help educators access books that meet the unique abilities, interests, and backgrounds of their students. The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) organization believes in equitable access to and meaningful participation in quality educational opportunities for individuals with exceptionalities. Their dedicated efforts to work with educators and policy makers at all levels to develop programs, policies, and initiatives help to ensure students with disabilities and/or gifts and talents from diverse cultures receive high-quality educational services. CEC is committed to efforts that promote educational practices that appropriately identify students from diverse cultures who receive special education and/or gifted services; assessment practices that accurately reflect cultural differences; educational services that provide effective interventions for students from diverse cultures; and increase the number of teachers, administrators, and university faculty from diverse cultures (http:// www.cec.sped.org). The increasing number of students identified with a disability must be considered in light of the corresponding increases in overall diversity demographics. Cartledge, Gardner, and Ford (2009) stress this situation calls for an urgent need to attend to school practices that will support educators in minimizing the effects of disabilities in an effort to reduce the risk status for those most vulnerable students. Though active membership chapters worldwide, CEC supports professional development to improve the cultural competence of all educators through conferences, webinars, and resource materials such as What Every Teacher Should Know About Diverse Learners (Walker Tileston, 2010). This compact volume covers influences of student diversity; understanding diversity in terms of modalities, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, gender and religion; recognizing the signs of bias, including linguistic bias, stereotyping, exclusion, selectivity, and isolation; choosing the teaching strategies that make the most difference by focusing on the learner’s attention, cognition and memory; and setting high expectations for learners.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SUPERVISION, AND TEACHER EDUCATION The Association for Supervision, Curriculum and Development (ASCD) provides the educational community access to high-quality learning, curriculum, and instruction. This professional organization believes that individuals are obligated to understanding the grave consequences of persistent gaps in student achievement and demand that addressing these gaps becomes a top policy and funding priority. ASCD believes that to close the achievement gap, all underserved populations—high-poverty students, students with disabilities, and students of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds—must have access to research-based, engaging, and challenging coursework that builds on the strengths and interests of each learner (http://www.ascd.org). This organization advocates for high-quality teachers that are meaningfully supported by ongoing professional development and provides resources for those supports as well as additional materials for strengthening schools, families, and communities. Those professional development supports include no-cost webinars such ‘‘Myths of Second Language Acquisition’’ which addresses many of the misassumptions that are made about second language acquisition that lead teachers to have unrealistic expectations of ELL students. Whether through printed resource materials, conferences or online training formats, ASCD professional developers ensure that evidence-based, practical suggestions are provided to educators to more effectively teach ELL students. Learning Forward formerly known as National Staff Development Council (NSDC) is committed to supporting every educator engage in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves. Acknowledging that schools’ most complex problems are best solved by educators collaborating and learning together, Learning Forward believes that professional learning decisions are strengthened by diversity. This organization addresses equity in education from the perspective of professional development by articulating national standards that have been adopted or adapted in 35 states (http://www.learningforward.org). Learning Forwards’ ambitious five-year strategic plan is designed to guide its work in the area of equity issues and narrowing the achievement gap by launching a national movement to enlist schools, particularly those serving students performing below expectations, to embrace research-based staff development supports. In addition to hosting U.S. conferences, Learning Forward members influence thought through discussions with national advisors, membership

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in the Learning First Alliance, frequent blog postings, webinar trainings, onsite technical assistance, and interviews with leaders in their publication Journal of Staff Development and a bimonthly newsletter. Representative Learning Forward resources include work by Caro-Bruce, Flessner, Klehr, and Zeichner (2007) which confronts the challenges of educational inequity through the use of action research as a mechanism for raising student achievement and strengthening instructional leadership. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) advocates for issues of culturally responsive pedagogy and diversity across the organizations broad scope of teacher education. This professional organization espouses that institutions of higher education play a major role in shaping the attitudes and beliefs of the nation’s youth as these institutions bear the heavy task of preparing each generation to assume the rights and responsibilities of adult life. AACTE believes that educational institutions must provide needed leadership for the development of individual commitment to a social system where individual worth and dignity are fundamental tenets (http://aacte.org). To realize those aims, the organization stresses resources must be provided where all teachers and students are helped to understand that being different connotes neither superiority nor inferiority and programs that help students advocate for themselves. AACTE’s stance on the use of the ELL students’ native languages stresses the use and development of state and local assessments in content areas that take linguistic strengths and needs into account. AACTE’s commitment to culturally and linguistically responsive education is reflected through important efforts such as the collaborative partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Diverse Students Initiative (http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/ teaching-tolerance). Other professional development supports include resources that provide insights into both common and unique educational needs of students. Brisk’s (2007) edited text Language, Culture, and Community in Teacher Education addresses an integrated approach to the preparation of English-as-a-second-language or bilingual teachers and the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students.

PROFESSIONAL CENTERS FOR EDUCATORS The Equity Alliance supports the capacity of state and local school systems to provide high-quality, effective opportunities for all students and to reduce disparities in academic achievement. This professional center is committed to

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inclusive education, valuing diversity, pushing the boundaries of traditional thinking, and leading by example. The center’s comprehensive professional learning resources includes print, multimedia, workshops, and leading experts that work to create the conditions necessary for change to occur and inclusive practices to take hold (http://www.equityallianceatasu.org/). As a part of the Equity Alliance, the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt) has lead initiatives to address the disturbing patterns of disproportionality by providing technical assistance and professional development to close the achievement gap between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their peers. NCCRESt’s work is designed to increase the use of prevention and early intervention strategies; decrease unsubstantiated referrals to special education; and increase the number of schools using effective literacy and positive behavior supports for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. NCCRESt has developed a vast library of evidencebased publications designed to assist students, families, school professionals, researchers and policy makers increase equity for all students and understand and develop solutions to disproportionality. Tools such as the Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment Guide for Culturally Responsive Practice (Richards, Artiles, Klingner, & Brown, 2005) provide direction to assist educators in creating schools that are culturally responsive in their programming and instruction so that optimal achievement might occur for all students. This resources aids educators in the critical examination and systematic development of improvement plans that encompass: (a) school governance, organization, policy, and climate; (b) family involvement; (c) curriculum; (d) organization of learning; and (e) special education referral process and programs. The Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) is focused on improving the education of students whose ability to reach their potential is challenged by language or cultural barriers, race, geographic location, or poverty. CREDE believes all children can learn when challenged by high standards (http://crede.berkeley.edu/). The center promotes the ideals that English proficiency is an attainable goal for all students, that bilingual proficiency is desirable for all students, and that language and cultural diversity can be assets for teaching and learning. An important facet of CREDE’s work is the development of a pedagogy that has been proven to be effective in educating all students. The center’s Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy do not endorse a specific curriculum but rather establish ideals for best teaching practices that can be used in any classroom environment. Those standards articulate both philosophical and

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pragmatic guidelines for effective education and include (1) Teachers and students producing together: facilitate learning through joint productive activity among teachers and students; (2) Developing language and literacy across the curriculum: develop students’ competence in the language and literacy of instruction throughout all instructional activities; (3) Making lessons meaningful: connect curriculum to experience and skills of students’ home and community; (4) Teaching complex thinking: challenge students towards cognitive complexity; and (5) Teaching through conversation: engage students through dialogue, especially instructional conversation. CREDE promotes research and provides educators with a range of tools to help them implement best practices in the classroom. CREDE’s resource center includes books with evidence-based strategies; multimedia presentations showcasing ways the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy can be customized in lessons; interactive workshops, online courses designed to help teachers improve practices; and a speakers series where work is shared and policy and practice recommendations are made. The Bueno Center for Multicultural Education is committed to facilitating equal educational opportunities for cultural and linguistically diverse students through the promotion of a wide range of research and training programs. Unique features of the BUENO Center are the implementation of comprehensive multicultural, bilingual, and special education research and training projects that support individuals attempting to earn a highschool equivalency, undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree. Each of those programs emphasizes advocacy and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity (http://www.colorado.edu/education/bueno/). In addition to teacher licensure and outreach programs, research projects at the Bueno Center include the Literacy Squared program that provides for literacy intervention for Spanish-speaking elementary students. Representative resources available through the Bueno Center include the professional development series, Educating culturally and linguistically diverse students, which provides current training resources for administrators and staff developers, including suggested interactive activities, handouts, electronic presentation slides (e.g., PowerPoint), video episodes, and evidence-based reference materials.

CONCLUSION Well-educated and well-supported educators are at the heart of educational equity; yet getting at that heart is challenging work. As Kozleski, Sobel, and

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Taylor (2003) explain: ‘‘This work is difficult since it requires an in-depth look at individual and collective practices that may be unconscious of their biases and preferences for certain forms of knowing, being, learning and behavior’’ (p. 84). Ensuring that teachers are able to effectively teach like their students’ lives matter calls for educational leaders to draw upon and maximize the benefits of professional organizations to build capacity at all levels in order to bring about sustainable change that delivers positive outcomes for all students. School communities need professional learning resources that encourage substantive discussions about the realities of culturally responsive teaching and evidence-based tools that can guide administrators and teachers to consider what aspects of their program warrants strengthening and changing. Educators, policy makers, and the public rely on professional organizations for direction and sources of support. Help can come in many ways, but the bottom line is that for educators striving to make a positive difference for students in multilingual, multicultural, inclusive classrooms they need answers to the following questions:  What stance does an organization take on ‘‘diversity’’?  What leadership and advocacy does the organization provide for equitable education of a diverse student population?  What guidance and support does the organization offer to teachers to maximize their effectiveness with a diverse student population? Powerfully articulated missions accompanied by rich resources from the varied professional organizations and centers help to establish high and rigorous standards for what novice and veteran teachers should know and be able to do; to support teachers and school leaders in meeting the ongoing challenges of educating all learners; to advance related educational reforms for the purpose of improving student learning; and to provide an arena for individuals to make an impact and give back to their field.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. What professional development resources would you suggest be used to support all teachers in working with students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire?

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2. What supports will school administrators and staff developers need to enhance professional development processes in order to improve instruction for students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire? 3. Administer a tool such as Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment Guide for Culturally Responsive Practice. What do the results of such a self-assessment reveal about your schools’ ability to ensure equitable access to and meaningful participation in quality educational opportunities for individuals with exceptionalities?

CHAPTER FIVE CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: NATIONAL AND STATE-LEVELS

INTRODUCTION In Chapter Four, we addressed the importance of what professional organizations do and the standards they have put forward about teachers’ knowing and providing culturally responsive pedagogy. Professional organizations have set forth visions and guidelines regarding cultural responsiveness to guide teachers’ knowledge and skills in this area. This chapter will provide a focus on U.S.-based examples of national educational directives that address issues in culturally responsive pedagogy. Our U.S.based focus will then move to the state-level with an overview of teaching standards that address teacher competence in valuing an understanding of diversity. The state of Colorado is highlighted to provide a realistic context of ways national directives move from professional organizational levels, to national-level and to district and community levels and ultimately into today’s classrooms. Moreover, Colorado is the context in which the authors work and conduct research which was highlighted in Chapters Two and Three.

NATIONAL-LEVEL DIRECTIVES The law known as ‘‘No Child Left Behind’’ (NCLB) (U.S. Department of Education, 2001) is the primary statute governing the U.S. federal government’s role in education. Initially passed in 1965 as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, 1995) it was rebranded as part of its last major overhaul in 2001, to make its focus the use of standardized test 83

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scores in schools, particularly those serving students with diverse linguistic, broad cultural experiences, and academic backgrounds. NCLB focused the U.S. educational community’s attention on closing achievement gaps between students from diverse backgrounds (including European American), but it included many provisions that created what U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called ‘‘perverse incentives’’ (Dillon & Lewin, 2010). Duncan maintains that in an effort to meet NCLB requirements for passing grades, many states began ‘‘dumbing down’’ student performance standards, and teachers began focusing on test preparation rather than on engaging class work. In 2010, the U.S. administration called for a broad overhaul of NCLB legislation, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing. The Obama administration proposed a Blueprint for Reform (U.S. Department of Education, 2010) to replace the NCLB’s pass-fail school grading system with one that would measure individual students’ academic growth and rate schools based on indicators like pupil attendance, graduation rates, and learning climate, in addition to test scores. The new national target is for all students to graduate from high school prepared for college and/or a career. In addition to calls for more vigorous interventions in failing and low performing schools, this legislation would also reward top performers and lessen federal interference in tens of thousands of reasonably well-run schools in the middle. Instead of measuring only the number of students who perform proficiently at each grade level, this new reform aims to assess each student’s academic growth, regardless of their beginning performance level. An innovative aspect of this reform holds schools accountable for closing achievement gaps between poor and affluent students, as no sanctions exist now for schools that fall short in this area. Under the new proposals, states would be required to intervene even in seemingly high-performing schools in affluent districts where test scores and other indicators identify groups of students who are lagging or stagnating (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). The new reform calls for U.S. states to use annual tests and other indicators to classify the nation’s nearly 100,000 public schools into several categories: approximately 10,000 to 15,000 high-performing schools will receive rewards and recognition; approximately 10,000 failing or consistently low performing schools will require varying degrees of strategic and vigorous intervention from the State Department of Education in which they reside; approximately 5,000 schools will be required to address unacceptably wide student achievement gaps; and approximately 70,000

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adequately performing schools will be encouraged to figure out on their own how to improve. Issues regarding teacher-quality provisions are also proposed, requiring states to develop teacher evaluation procedures to distinguish effective educators, based in part on how their students are performing. These would replace the law’s current emphasis on certifying that all teachers have valid credentials, which some argue (Dillon, 2010) has produced enormous logistical roadblocks with little student achievement benefits. Another key aspect of the proposed reforms aims to tackle the issue of student learning standards. The NCLB law requires states to adopt ‘‘challenging academic standards’’ to receive federal money for students in low socioeconomic areas under a section known as Title I. However, states are allowed to define ‘‘challenging,’’ and some maintain that standards have been set at weak and mediocre levels. New plans proposed requiring states to adopt ‘‘college- and career-ready standards’’ to qualify under federal financial programs (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). In putting forth those sweeping reforms, President Obama declared, ‘‘Every child in America deserves a world-class education. Today, more than ever, a world-class education is a prerequisite for success’’ (U.S. Department of Education, 2010, p. 2). To achieve this goal, the realities of addressing the diverse student population in America’s schools is prominently acknowledged: ‘‘The proposal will help ensure that teachers and leaders are better prepared to meet the needs of diverse learners, that assessments more accurately and appropriately measure the performance of students with disabilities, and that more districts and schools implement high-quality, stateand locally determined curricula and instructional supports that incorporate the principles of universal design for learning to meet all students’ needs’’ (U.S. Department of Education, 2010, p. 2). Commitments from a national-level are given to continue and strengthen the federal assistance to ‘‘help schools meet the special educational needs of children working to learn the English language, students with disabilities, Native American students, homeless students, the children of migrant workers, and neglected or delinquent students’’ (U.S. Department of Education, p. 1). The reauthorization proposal will provide federal financial support to states and school districts to support the development of innovative programs that enhance the knowledge base about evidence-based practices, and to scale up those practices to improve the achievement of ELL students. These financial incentives are designed to help states and school districts implement highquality language instruction programs that strategically address issues related to dual-language, transitional bilingual education, sheltered English immersion, and newcomer transitions to the community.

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Leadership at the national-level challenges local U.S. educational communities to embrace educational standards in order to be positioned on a path to global leadership. The national leadership of the education sector provides incentives for states to adopt academic standards that better prepare students and creates accountability systems that measure student growth towards meeting the goal of success for all children. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nationwide organization that brings together the top education leaders from every state in the nation to lead the important work of national policy implementation. CCSSO is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in all 50 states and the U.S. Territories. CCSSO’s promise is to help school leaders and their organizations create a public education system that prepares every child for lifelong learning, work, and citizenship by focusing on issues that are identified as important to individual states (http://www.ccsso.org/). CCSSO provides thoughtful, pragmatic, analysis of the implications and opportunities which federal education policies have for state education agencies. CCSSO prepares testimony for congressional committees, analyzes proposed federal regulations, form coalitions with other national education organizations, and educates federal policy makers on the education policy needs of states. Through encouraging collective state action, CCSSO strengthens the influence and impact each state has over federal education by unifying states around common principles, themes, and policies. Recent CCSSO efforts have included the release of a set of state-led education standards, which include the English-language arts and mathematics standards for grades K-12 developed in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, including content experts, states, teachers, school administrators, and parents. These professional practice standards are an update of the 1992 Interstate new Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium model standards for licensing new teachers and reflect a standard for performance that is intended to look different at different developmental stages of a teacher’s career (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). Common Core State Standards establish goals for learning that will prepare America’s children for success by providing a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them learn. The standards were designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. The CCSSO Model Core Teaching Standards articulates principles of professional practice for all teachers. Hill, Stumbo, Paliokas, Hansen, and

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McWalters (2010) explain that revising the core teaching standards was prompted by new understandings of learners and learning and represents the collaborative work of practicing teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, agency officials, and CCSSO staff. The standards articulate what teachers should know and be able to do to help each and every student reach the goal of being college and career ready. A hallmark of this new vision for teaching includes a focus on personalized learning for learners with diverse needs and from diverse backgrounds. Hill et al. (2010) acknowledge that ‘‘Inequitable experiences and outcomes persist for entire subgroups of students, especially students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, and English language learners’’ (p. 2). In addition to not only recognizing but highlighting those inequities, developers of the new standards further stress that teachers need the knowledge and skills to individualize learning for learners with a range of differences, cultural and linguistic diversity, and the specific needs of students for whom English is a new (second or additional) language. As team developers further stress, ‘‘Teachers must have a deeper understanding of their own frames of reference (e.g., culture, gender, language, abilities, ways of knowing), the potential biases in these frames, and their impact on expectations for and relationships with students and their families’’ (p. 3). This stance mirrors key concepts emphasizing the need for teacher to use culturally responsive pedagogy as noted in Chapter One. Taking U.S. national-level policy work to each of the states is the next crucial step in ensuring the realities of practice. The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (http://www.tqsource.org/) is a national resource designed to be just such a bridge. Since 2002, CCSSO has partnered with the Teacher Quality (TQ) Center to support collaboration between state departments of education and higher education institutions to improve the preparation, licensing, and professional development of all teachers to work with students who have disabilities, both teachers in general and those in special education. The mission of the TQ Center is to develop exemplary models for how to build an effective statewide system of preparation, licensure, and professional development for general and special education teachers of students with disabilities. Funded through the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education, the TQ Center provides states a means through which they can examine their current system of teacher preparation, licensure, and professional development; identify areas for improvement; and make initial commitments to a focused reform effort using the national model standards and state standards as road maps for reform. The TQ Center also collects, articulates, and disseminates

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common state challenges, promising approaches, and successful strategies related to reform and alignment of state teacher preparation, licensure, and professional development systems. They assist states in customizing successful strategies to their unique contexts while promoting state strategies of reform that recognize the contribution of and involvement of multiple stakeholders in creating a coherent, responsive, and sustainable system within and across given states. With over 5 million ELL students attending school in the United States (Ballantyne, Sanderman, & Levy, 2008), the TQ Center has produced an array of ELL resources to support teacher preparation programs and inservice professional development to work effectively with ELL students. McGraner and Saenz (2009) describe the key features of effective instructional practices for ensuring that ELL students’ learning of academic content is support by empirical evidence and offer the ‘‘Innovation Configuration for Preparing Mainstream Teachers of ELL Students,’’ a tool for evaluating training efforts. Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, and Rivera (2006) expand on evidence-based recommendations for policymakers, administrators, and K-12 teachers who seek to make informed decision about instruction and academic interventions for ELL students. These researchers provide individualized and class-wide interventions in reading and mathematics for students with second language needs. Given the complexities of teacher licensure and the corresponding ELL program models, many districts across the U.S. struggle to find enough teachers who are qualified to teach ELL students (Garcia & Potemski, 2009), hence the TQ Center has supported work to enhance teacher recruitment and retention efforts. Garcia and Potemski (2009) discuss creative and comprehensive recruitment strategies for education leaders that includes professional development focused on enhancing familiarity with the language and culture of the ELL students, training general education teachers on evidence-based, practical instructional strategies, recruiting paraprofessionals, developing alternative certification programs, extending teacher recruitment efforts globally, and providing financial incentives to educators to implement these efforts.

STATE-LEVEL DIRECTIVES Given the varied and unique contexts across the United States, individual states take national charges and operationalize them in ways that best match and complement the social, political, and economic needs of the given state. Historically, school districts across the United States have yielded policymaking discretion to their state legislatures and Departments of Education

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(Hadderman, 1988). States’ efforts to improve student achievement and teacher performance have diminished local school district controls over funding, standards, and curricular content. However, local control of the ways in which many policies are implemented often rests in the hands of the Boards of Education (a body of elected representatives) within local school districts (Land, 2002). It is those local boards that are charged with directing administrators’ supervisory and management functions, implementing state and federal mandates, and setting standards for academic excellence. Since 1994, ten U.S. states (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee) have had over 200% growth in their ELL student population (Office of Language, Culture and Equity, 2010). With this growth has come a myriad of educational changes. A profile of Colorado, one of those states with rapidly changing demographic patterns, is provided to further contextualize the United States educational landscape. Colorado is being highlighted because the authors’ research and work are here—which include the classroom scenarios to be addressed in later chapters.

STATE-LEVEL CONTEXT: A FOCUS ON COLORADO To begin with, Colorado comprises a large geographic area ranking 8th in the United States in terms of total land area, measuring 269,837 square kilometers, or 104,185 square miles. Also known as the ‘‘Centennial State,’’ Colorado is situated in the Rocky Mountain region, surrounded by Utah to the west, Kansas and Nebraska to the east, and Oklahoma and New Mexico to the south. The area is famous for the magnificent scenery produced by the plains, rivers, and mountains. The estimated population of Colorado is approximately 5 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004). Denver is both the largest city and the state capital. Important contributors to the state’s economy include the agricultural industry, tourism, federal facilities, and a growing technology field (Colorado, 2011). Official educational leadership began in 1858 when a territorial provision was made for a superintendent of public instruction to be elected by popular vote. The responsibilities of the territorial superintendent at that time included the general supervision of schools, making recommendations for uniform texts, reporting to the legislature on the condition of the schools, and preparing a plan of study. When Colorado became a state in 1876, the first superintendent of public instruction was appointed; however, the duties changed very little from the days of the territorial superintendency.

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In 1948 the Colorado State Constitution was amended to provide for an elected state board of education with powers to set up qualifications for and selection of the Commissioner of Education and a professional staff for the Department of Education. The first Colorado State Board of Education was elected in November 1950, with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) serving as the administrative arm of the Colorado State Board of Education. CDE serves Colorado’s 178 local school districts, providing them with leadership, consultation, and administrative services on a statewide and regional basis. CDE is comprised of over 40 units, 25 different programs, and 300-plus staff members, all pursuing the Department’s mission to provide all Colorado children equal access to quality, thorough, uniform, well-rounded educational opportunities in a safe and civil environment (Colorado Department of Education, 2011). CDE strives to create a purpose-driven and dynamic system of educational leadership, service, and support that focuses on the learning of all students. Since 2007, CDE has used a ‘‘Forward Thinking’’ model, which provides a roadmap for the state department’s work and which includes goals that are aligned with national reform initiatives and are focused to accomplish the work at hand. The organization is designed in ways that provide: (1) technical assistance to meet district and school needs; (2) professional development in best practices; (3) evidence-based resources to increase achievement for all students; (4) a seamless, collaborative leadership system; (5) efficient and effective use of federal, state, and private funds; (6) an accessible and useful source for research, data, and analysis; and (7) a model for building expanded leadership capacity. The Colorado Department of Education is dedicated to increasing achievement levels for all students through comprehensive, educational reform programs. As part of CDE’s ongoing efforts to be more responsive to all students, teams of experts in specialized areas (Academic Standards, Literacy, Special Education, Language, Culture and Equity, Educational Technology, and Early Childhood) provide consultative supports across the state. With over 100,000 students in grades K-12 identified as ELL students (Escamilla, 2009), this population has grown by over 250% since 1995, while the overall K-12 population in Colorado has only grown by 12%. The vast majority of this population is Spanish speakers; however, there are over 100 language groups represented in this populace (Colorado Department of Education, English Language Acquisition Unit, 2007). With this changing demographic, school districts look to CDE for guidance that will help them to best support English learners. CDE’s Language, Culture and Equity team is committed to providing support to all ELL students, linguistically,

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socially, and academically, by providing educational leadership for teachers, parents/guardians, students, and Colorado communities. Needed support is provided through an array of initiatives, such as the development of a guidebook for Colorado educators working with ELL students (Waterman, 2006), a resource that provides realistic information to the field without being overly prescriptive with respect to any one specific program model. Given that individual school districts have control over the types of programs they offer, it is essential that the state department provide stateof-the-art best practices adaptable to variations of program design. The guidebook provides solid suggestions about how to begin in program development, assessment, and evaluation. Based on the leadership and work created by leaders at national resource centers such as CCSO and The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education (http://ceee.gwu.edu/), the CDE Language Culture and Equity team spearheaded the cross-unit development of a manual to inform Colorado’s school districts about appropriate ELL accommodations (Colorado Department of Education, 2009). This resource provides a five-step process for the English Language Acquisition (ELA) Plan that district and school supervisors, general education and English as a Second Language (ESL)/Bi-lingual Education (BIED) teachers, administrators, and district level assessment staff can use in the selection, administration, and evaluation of instructional and assessment accommodations by ELL students. This resource document is regularly updated and disseminated state-wide to support professional development. The Educator Licensing Unit at Colorado’s Department of Education is responsible for issuing educator licenses and reviewing the content of educator preparation program across the state. Guided by the teaching standards created by professional organizations (e.g., TESOL, IRA, CEC) the department works with the Board of Education and local stakeholders (e.g., advocacy groups, faculty in higher education) in formalizing state teaching standards and corresponding licensure approvals. In Colorado all teachers are held to rigorous standards that are strategically aligned with the content and skill sets associated with domain areas (e.g., elementary education, science education, special education, linguistically diverse, etc.). With respect to a focus on culture and valuing of diversity, all teachers regardless of licensure area must be knowledgeable of individualization of instruction. This performance-based standard calls for Colorado teachers ‘‘to be responsive to the needs and experiences children bring to the classroom, including those based on culture, community, ethnicity, economics, linguistics, and innate learning abilities. The teacher is

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knowledgeable about learning exceptionalities and conditions that affect the rate and extent of student learning, and is able to adapt instruction for all learners’’ (Colorado Department of Education, Professional Standards, 2000). For teachers holding a general education teaching license, if they opt to add an endorsement in the content of area of Linguistically Diverse Education, they must complete college coursework (i.e., in areas of linguistics, knowledge of English, first and second language acquisition, cross-cultural communication, and other languages) and successfully pass the state Linguistically Diverse Education (LDE) exam. Teachers pursuing more specialized licensure in the area of Linguistically Diverse Specialist: Bilingual Education must first hold an endorsement in Linguistically Diverse Education (LDE), complete more advance college coursework in the areas highlighted above, successfully pass the state Bilingual Education exam, and hold a foreign language teaching license (Colorado Department of Education, Linguistically Diverse Specialist, 2004). Academic reform efforts in Colorado parallel the federal initiatives and include newly adopted state model content standards that add 21st century skills, incorporating early childhood, postsecondary, and workforce readiness expectations, with plans underway to develop a new teacher evaluation system in addition to a statewide assessment plan (Jones, 2010). Across the state, expanded sets of indicators are being applied, including student academic growth (as measured by the Colorado Growth Model), student achievement levels (as measured by the percent of students scoring at advanced, proficient, partially proficient, and unsatisfactory levels), the extent of achievement gaps based on income and ethnicity, and postsecondary readiness (as measured by graduation rates and results of collegeplacement tests). In addition, Colorado set in motion new core requirements and uses for educator evaluations with expectations of student growth being taken into consideration for factors such as student mobility and numbers of students identified with linguistic, academic, and behavioral needs.

CONCLUSION As national policies, legislation, and mandates are formed and moved to state and district levels, collaborative dialogue is essential to determine how practices must change to support and advance dedicated visions that relate to learners with diverse needs. The complexities and variations of implementation call for the engagement and the voices of the many stakeholders that will be impacted by important reform initiatives. Content

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in this chapter has provided a ‘‘real-world’’ view—from national, state, community, and school levels—of mandating and operationalizing culturally responsive pedagogy with special attention to ELL students. In Chapter Six, we examine characteristics and qualities of effective teachers and provide practical illustrations with application to the classroom of ways that the principles of culturally responsive pedagogy are realized.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. What financial incentives are available or already exist within your educational community (state-level, district level) to support the development of innovative programs that enhance the knowledge base about evidence-based practices, and to scale up those practices to improve the achievement for students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire? 2. What supports will school administrators and staff developers need to implement evaluation processes (e.g., daily progress monitoring, running records, etc.) that improve student instruction? 3. How might the increased interest and mandates to use formative and summative student achievement data inform the realities of the teacher workday? How will insights from collaborative data meetings inform teachers’ planning? How might meetings be structured? How might teacher evaluation processes be tied to teachers analyzing and using student data? 4. What recruitment strategies does your educational community use to secure highly qualified teachers of students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and ELL learners? 5. What instructional strategies would you suggest be used to support all teachers (across content and grade levels) who have English language learners in their classrooms?

CHAPTER SIX CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: EFFECTIVE TEACHING Will I know it if I see it? Can I do it?

INTRODUCTION The influences that sociopolitical, cultural, and historical contexts have on educational policies, standards, and curricular decisions are reflected in our schools. As Freire (1994) taught, no education is politically neutral. School policies, instructional practices, curricular content, and culture play interrelated roles in the education of students in the classroom. We agree with Erickson’s (2002) assertion that everything in education relates to culture which in turn shapes aspects surrounding teaching and learning. In Chapter Five, we provided an overview of influences on education at the national and state levels, including directives intended to guide effective teaching for students of diverse backgrounds and teachers’ competence to demonstrate a valuing of diversity. At the state level, Colorado served as a realistic context and provided insights to the ways national directives influence state level initiatives. In this chapter, we turn our sights to the classroom and effective teaching—in particular, teaching that is effective for a diverse student population with specific attention to English language learners. We begin by taking a glimpse at the practices of highly effective classroom teachers. What practices have been identified as essential to highly effective teaching for classroom teachers? How do the practices for highly effective teaching compare with culturally responsive teaching practices? Which of these practices are effective and responsive to English language learners? Before we turn our focus to teaching that is effective for a diverse student population with specific attention to English language learners, we look to the comprehensive work on effective teaching models that 95

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generate meaningful student understanding. In Darling-Hammond’s (2008) discussion of principles of learning for effective teaching, she asserts that in order to focus on teaching, we need to consider what we know about learning and the learner. She references the National Academy of Sciences report (Donovan & Bransford, 2005), which addresses how students learn. The report articulates three fundamental principles of learning that are especially important for effective teaching. These principles include: 1. Students arrive to the classroom with prior knowledge that must be addressed by the teacher for teaching to be effective; 2. Students need to organize and use knowledge conceptually if they are to apply it beyond the classroom, thereby transferring it to new content or situations in meaningful ways; 3. Students learn more effectively if they understand (a) how they learn and what learning strategies they tend to use; and (b) how to manage their own learning and what learning strategies work best for them in different content areas. In other words, starting with the learner is pivotal to effective teaching. Teachers who inquire about students’ prior knowledge and use this information to engage learners as they deliver instruction can effectively support learners’ grasp of new concepts and content in ways to ensure real learning. A foundational part of effective teaching includes the need for teachers to gather and use learners’ background knowledge and prior experiences as they:  plan to implement curriculum;  make decisions about instructional strategies; and  design the classroom environment for a particular group of learners to engage as a community of learning where the teachers’ instruction can be effective. With respect to the learner, what elements contribute to a students’ background knowledge and prior experiences? Home life? Language? Cultural values and expectations? Gender roles? Racial/ethnic membership? How society receives and reacts to students based on their racial/ethnic membership? Socioeconomic background? Religion? Community and neighborhood experiences and practices? All of the above?

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In her text on ‘‘power learning’’ and effective teaching, Darling-Hammond (2008) states: When students from a variety of cultural contexts and language backgrounds come to school with their own experiences, they present distinct preconceptions and knowledge bases that teachers must learn about and take into account in designing instruction. Teachers who are successful with all learners must be able to address their many ways of learning, prior experiences, and knowledge, and cultural and linguistic capital. (p. 4)

Undoubtedly, for effective teaching to occur, teachers grasp that all of the aforementioned elements contribute to the learner’s background knowledge and prior experiences. This preliminary information-gathering effort, which is crucial to effective teaching, may prove to be a less complex process when the teacher shares the learner’s native language, primary culture, cultural values and expectations, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, religion, and community practices compared to when teacher and learner are from disparate backgrounds and cultural frames of reference. However, when a teacher’s goal is to provide effective teaching, taking time to inquire and learn about the learner’s background knowledge, lived experiences and frames of reference are essential preparations.

TAKING STEPS TOWARDS A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY Much has been written about the dispositions, knowledge, practices, interactions, and expectations needed by teachers to be culturally responsive and prepared to teach a diverse student population that includes English language learners (Garcia, 2002; Garcia, Arias, Murri, & Serna, 2010; Wong-Fillmore & Snow, 2002). Culturally responsive pedagogy is not a simple set of practices or materials to be secured and readily implemented. Gay (2010b) defines it as ‘‘using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of culturally diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them’’ (p. 31). How do the practices of culturally responsive pedagogy compare with those of effective teaching? As noted in Irvine and Armento’s (2001) discussion of culturally responsive teaching, the research on effective teaching is compatible with the principles of culturally responsive teaching. In fact, attributes suggested for culturally responsive teachers are congruent with

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what we know about effective teaching. In a review of the literature, Cruickshank, Metcalf, and Jenkins (2011) indicate that effective teachers are identified by: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Their character traits; What they know; What they teach; How they teach; What they expect from their students; How their students react to them; and How they manage the classroom.

Before we address the fundamental principles of learning that are important for culturally responsive teaching, we begin by focusing on a different sort of learner, the teacher. The teacher is certainly pivotal to all that occurs in the classroom from what is taught, how it is taught, and what is expected. Teachers’ knowledge and character influence each of the above along with how the classroom is managed. All of these contribute towards how students react to their teacher. What would we recognize about a teacher who implements culturally responsive pedagogy? As we reflect on culturally responsive pedagogy situated within the overarching framework of effective teaching, we turn our focus to the attributes that are characteristic of teachers who embrace the ideology grounding culturally responsive teaching. Nieto (2005) describes five qualities that she considers to be evident in teachers who have an affinity for culturally responsive pedagogy. Such teachers have:  A solidarity with and a valuing of students, including students’ lives, development, human dignity, culture, and future success. We recognize these individuals as teachers who entered teaching because of their commitment to children and to those children’s futures.  A passion for equality and social justice. We recognize these individuals as teachers who entered teaching in order to make a difference in children’s lives and in the future that awaits them. Simply put, these are individuals who see teaching as a way to make the world a better place for the children in it. At a more complex level, these are teachers who when prompted to reflect on the absence of social justice—that is, social injustice—see a society in which children’s and family’s access to opportunities and essential human rights is denied or obstructed. We recognize these individuals as teachers who would loath the thought of supporting unjust schools or an unjust society, whether they entered

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teaching with this passion or developed it after entering the profession (Chubbuck, 2010; Wise, 2005).  A sense of mission to serve all children, in particular, children from diverse backgrounds, to the best of their abilities. Our hope is that all teachers come to teaching with this mission. Whether or not teachers entered teaching with this mission intact, are from a diverse background or have been transformed by coming to terms with their identity, biases, and beliefs, they are deeply committed to serving all students. We recognize these individuals as individuals who may be grappling with issues of privilege, racism, and structural inequities that impact students’ education; and are committed to serving all students—in particular, students from diverse backgrounds.  The courage to question mainstream school knowledge along with the conventional way of doing things and viewing the actions of others. We recognize these individuals as teachers who have the courage to question their beliefs and assumptions about students, families, and communities of diverse backgrounds. They have the courage to examine the status quo regarding school’s policies and practices, examine the extent to which these are equitable for all students, and take steps to prompt change when inequity exists.  The willingness to go beyond established and familiar frameworks, to not shy away from taking on a new practice that may be more successful with all students. We recognize these individuals as teachers who take the risk to look, listen, and learn about the experiences and needs of all students— especially students of diverse backgrounds. Using newfound insights, these teachers attempt to teach in ways to deliver effective instruction to all students, in particular, students from diverse backgrounds and English language learners. Do you recognize yourself in these characteristics? Do you share all or some of the characteristics? Do you recognize these characteristics in a teacher or colleague? Are you uncertain or anxious about your views of these characteristics? Have you taken time to reflect on what you believe and what drives your work with learners? Much has been written and researched about teachers’ attitudes and beliefs. There is no question that our beliefs influence the decisions we make about instructional behaviors, implementation of curriculum, and interactions with classroom learners. As a result, many teacher education programs recognize the importance of attending to their students’ background knowledge and life experiences. Their students—that is, the

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preservice and inservice teachers involved in the teacher education program—have arrived to teaching with prior knowledge; and they need to organize and use knowledge conceptually in order to apply it to the classroom in ways that are effective and responsive to the learners in their classrooms. In the case of teachers from a European American background, their recognition of cultural differences and the role these have played in their lives may be limited or nonexistent. For teachers from diverse backgrounds, most are well aware of the interplay of cultural differences in their lives in educational and other kinds of sociopolitical educational contexts. The professional literature is very clear about the need for individuals who currently teach or who are entering the profession to engage in thoughtful and honest examination of broad cultural diversity issues. The research suggests that issues of diversity relevant to education warrant an examination and in-depth understanding by teachers (Milner, 2010). Teachers need to participate in an examination of the following:  Their own racial/ethnic and cultural identity and development;  The ways societal structures have shaped their lives and educational experiences as well as those of their students;  The role of meritocracy in U.S. mainstream culture and education;  Their own attitudes and beliefs about broad cultural diversity in aspects of race/ethnicity, culture, and language that are relevant to their work with classroom learners.

RACIAL/ETHNIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY In order to understand the role of race/ethnicity and culture in the classroom, it is important for teachers to understand the interplay these have had in their own life. Racial identity is defined as ‘‘a sense of group or collective identity with a particular racial group’’ (Helms, 1990, p. 3). Working from the perspective that race and racial differences are socially constructed, we understand that racial differences are primarily constructed by the larger society and the ways particular racial groups are valued or devalued is determined within a sociopolitical context (Nieto, 2002). Regarding racial identity, it is interesting to note that European Americans are not used to seeing themselves as racial beings (Carter, 1995; Howard, 2006). Additionally, these teachers will sometimes adopt color-blind beliefs (‘‘I don’t see color, I only see kids’’) in an attempt to

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avoid their fear of racial issues. Instead, by taking a color-blind perspective, teachers risk avoiding or overlooking essential parts of a student’s identity. Several well-established theories of racial identity development (Cross, 1991; Helms, 1994) are addressed in an overview provided by Howard (2006) which covers stages of racial identity development and offers an in-depth introduction to stages of White racial identity development.

SOCIETAL STRUCTURES It is not uncommon for teachers who are from European American English speaking middle-class backgrounds to overlook the inequitable distribution of power and privilege to various groups of people (Darling-Hammond, 2004). In cases where opportunities seemed effortless, such as university application and admissions, it is easy for individuals to overlook the numerous supports and support systems that steered them through multiple steps and mounds of paperwork. It is not until we pause to consider how accessible the application information and resources are distributed and made available to all members of society—or not—that we recognize the inequity that exists (Chubbuck, 2010).

MERITOCRACY IN U.S. CULTURE AND EDUCATION The concept and role of meritocracy is easy to see if it has impacted you negatively; however, it is a struggle to recognize if you have benefitted from privilege. Working hard and getting ahead is the American dream, but it is elusive to many, and not for lack of hard work or persistence. For teachers who have benefitted from how their race and culture have been constructed by the larger society, they have most likely experienced a range of unearned privileges, benefits, and consequences as have their families. Reflecting again on university admissions, family income—not merit—is the best predictor of who attends college. If the United States were a truly meritocratic society, admissions to the university would be based solely on the applicant’s merit. Instead, the higher the family income, the more likely those children are to go to college (Henslin, 2004; Milner, 2010).

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ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT CULTURAL DIVERSITY In addition to a self-examination of the constructs of race/ethnicity and culture, it is essential for teachers to candidly reflect on their views of broad cultural diversity relevant to classroom learners, including students’ language competence or proficiency and other aspects of their ability. When teachers approach their work from the standpoint of what they observe or believe students to be lacking (e.g., English proficiency, strong academic skills, experience with middle-class culture, socioeconomic resources, etc.), their focus is on the ways students are ‘‘deficient’’ and on the need for remediation. Teachers with a deficit perspective tend not to recognize or pursue the knowledge, language, abilities, or experiences which students do bring to classroom learning. Consequently, teachers may lower their expectations of what students can achieve, thereby stunting students’ opportunities and learning potential (Milner, 2010; Gay, 2010a). While such reflections and analyses require candid soul-searching, the values of growth and positive development are at the core of these examinations of broad cultural diversity issues. In our roles as teachers, we need to start with ourselves and our views before we can launch into effective teaching that is compatible with the principles of culturally responsive teaching. Trent and colleagues warn that ‘‘What goes unacknowledged ultimately becomes invisible’’ (Trent et al., 2008, p. 346); certainly teachers’ and students’ cultural diversity is a positive resource not to be overlooked or avoided in education. Teachers committed to culturally responsive pedagogy take time to learn about students’ cultures and lives. They understand the value and importance of building relationship with students, in particular, English language learners (Jimenez & Rose, 2010). Even more so, they recognize the crucial component that the learner’s background knowledge plays in learning, language, and literacy development. Without solid comprehension of the learner’s frames of reference, life experiences, and cultural values and norms, the teacher will not be able to effectively activate this knowledge and build on it to engage students in meaningful learning experiences. Culturally responsive teaching implements what research has shown to be effective instruction, while employing a cultural lens to situate the content through students’ existing mental schemas, prior knowledge, and cultural perspectives. Gay (2010b) recommends a number of ways that teachers can design their instruction to be culturally responsive, as detailed in the bullet points below.

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 Legitimize students’ cultures and life experiences, that is, become familiar with their cultures, read, ask questions, and learn some basic facts. Move beyond understanding surface level culture, such as foods, dances, and holidays for the cultural groups present in your classroom. Gain a deeper understanding of variance within a cultural group. For example, educators can naively assume homogeneity within a cultural group. Yet students who share cultural, racial/ethnic, cultural, linguistic, or religious backgrounds can vary dramatically in their cultural perspectives, physical features, educational backgrounds, particular language variety, lexicon, and pronunciation. For example, it is not unusual for two individuals who are both Spanish speakers from the same country in Latin America to misunderstand each other when communicating in their native language to the point of offending one another. It is also not uncommon for two individuals who share the same native language and country of origin to have divergent experiences with language, literacy, and formal schooling. For instance, while one individual may be literate and formally educated, the other individual may have limited or no experience with reading, writing, or formal education. Additionally, educators may be surprised to find that students of certain cultural backgrounds or countries of origin may have strong biases towards one another. National or cultural ancestry may result in predispositions or biases towards each other. Cultural norms may also influence students’ tolerance towards in-class groupings relevant to gender or marital status. Such cultural dynamics warrant the teacher’s persistent inquiry into cultural information as students representing new cultures join the class. At the local level, take time to become familiar with the local culture. Teachers who don’t live in the school community, can take time to become familiar with the local stores, restaurants, recreation building, and parks. Content will be made more meaningful when the teacher uses that which is familiar to students and connects it to the curriculum.  Use the cultural legacies, traits, and orientations of students as filters through which to teach them academic knowledge, thereby teaching ‘‘to and through’’ students’ frames of reference. For example, math teachers who have students from Mexico or of Mexican culture may refer to the Mayan concept of math. The Mayan number system is very sophisticated and was ahead of its time.  Include more significant and comprehensive information about different cultures and their contributions in school subject content. For science

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teachers, take time to research names of scientists who made important contributions to the fields and locate resources about them.  Make learning an active, participatory endeavor in which students are assisted in making meaning and giving personal meaning to new ideas. For students to apply new learning beyond the classroom, they need to organize and use the knowledge conceptually in ways that are meaningful to them. Culturally responsive teaching takes the stance that when teachers make connections between students’ home cultural knowledge, beliefs, and practices to the content, pedagogy, or language used in the classroom, then the academic performance and school experience of learners from culturally diverse groups will significantly improve. In order to begin to support a connection between students’ background knowledge and the content, Gay (2010b) further recommends that teachers design their instruction to:  Teach the students style-shifting (code-switching) skills so that they can maneuver between home and school languages and cultures with ease. We all shift language registers as we move from one context to another. Most people shift between using different varieties of language. Part of learning language is understanding the social environment of a conversation and making choices about which register (e.g., informal, formal, slang, titles of address to show respect, etc.) or variety (e.g., formal or informal) to use. The issue of language form and use in context is known as pragmatics. Language, culture, and the values attached to these are acquired at home and in the community; and are integral to family life. Students arrive at school with some knowledge about what language is and how to use it, but teachers can teach students style-shifting so they can build on their linguistic repertoire not reduce it. We make similar shifts with our behavior based on cultural norms and expectations. Our behavior and how we conduct ourselves shifts by context. Conduct at church and grandma’s house will tend towards the careful and ‘‘best behavior’’ as compared to time with friends at the park. Bringing these adjustments to the forefront and conscious level helps students understand the influence of sociocultural contexts on one’s language and behavior.  Build the moral commitment, critical consciousness, and political competence that students need to consider their role in promoting social justice and social transformation. Teach students the language and actions of possibility by encouraging them to ask questions and take thoughtful action; support their participation in critical thinking. With teacher guidance, support students’ steps towards self-advocacy.

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Each of these recommendations involves teachers taking time to get to know the individual learner’s prior knowledge, background, learning preferences, and life experiences. Such knowledge provides teachers with invaluable insights about the learner’s cultural background, language and literacy knowledge, and life experiences. Using a cultural lens to situate the content through students’ existing prior knowledge and cultural perspectives, teachers can effectively activate and build on this knowledge and use it to engage students in learning that is meaningful. Culturally responsive pedagogy involves teachers using effective teaching practices—much like those described above—to help students find relevance in the curriculum, content, and learning experiences at school. ‘‘All teachers are teachers of English language learners’’ is a statement commonly heard in schools with large enrollments of English language learners (ELL students). In fact, ELL students spend the majority of the school day in classes taught by mainstream teachers many of whom have had limited or no preparation for supporting ELL students to successfully learn academic content through English while concurrently developing proficiency in English (Antunez & Menken, 2001; Te´llez & Waxman, 2006).Teachers of English language learners need to understand that ELL students ‘‘come to school with knowledge of what language is, how it works, and what it is used for’’ (Garcia, 2002, p. 138). English language learners have acquired their native language in the home and community along with their primary culture and cultural values. At school, as English language learners engage in socially meaningful interactions they learn higher level cognitive and communicative skills. Their interactions in small groups provide them with language exposure and meaningful language directed at them. For ELL students who are learning in a language that is new to them, their learning is enhanced when it occurs in contexts that are socioculturally and linguistically meaningful. Lucas and colleagues (Lucas et al., 2008) gleaned six highly relevant principles for responsive teachers of ELL students from a review of the literature on second language learning. Coupled with each of the six principles is a practical illustration with application to the classroom. 1. ELL students need a safe, welcoming classroom environment where it is safe for them to take risks using the new language in order to learn the new language. If teachers want to provide ELL students with the opportunity for optimal learning, they can consciously create a safe, anxiety-free classroom environment.

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Practical illustration. Studies have shown that ELL students feel unwelcome, ignored, and anxious in U.S. classroom (Valdes, 2001). Such anxiety can thwart ELL students’ interactions centered on language, thought, and learning, and even cause them to withdraw (Pappamihiel, 2002). These findings link directly with Krashen’s (2003) affective filter hypothesis about second language learners’ linguistic input or output being negatively influenced by fear or anxiety. ELL students will take more risks to communicate in English when the learning environment is safe and welcoming. 2. Conversational language proficiency is fundamentally different from academic language proficiency, and it takes many more years for ELL students to become fluent in academic language than conversational language. Practical illustration. If you have chatted informally with ELL students in English after school or in the hallway then later found them to be ‘‘tonguetied’’ and stumbling over their words when talking about U.S. history in English, you have observed this principle in action. Conversational proficiency can develop within two years of initial exposure to a language, but academic proficiency comparable to that of a native speaker of a similar age can easily take five to seven years to develop. 3. The opportunity for social interaction, including in-class interactions in which ELL students are actively engaged, can foster the development of conversational and academic language. Practical illustration. Grounded in the sociocultural theory of learning (Vygotsky, 1978), learners’ social interaction and dialogue serve as a foundation for the development of language and thought. When interacting in groups of peer learners, ELL students are met with more exposure to English, more meaningful language directed towards them, and increased opportunities to produce more language (Gibbons, 2002). Furthermore, learners’ interaction with other more capable peers—more capable in the content and/or the language—supports learners’ successful completion of tasks. The supportive scaffolding provided by the more capable learner is an important element of Vygotsky’s theory of learning (1978) called the zone of proximal development. 4. Second language learners who have strong native language and literacy skills are more likely to achieve an equivalent level of skill as their peers who are native speakers of the target language.

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Practical illustration. Strong native language and literacy skills are generally the result of formal schooling in the primary language. This learning provides ELL students with a solid foundation for understanding and manipulating language, reading, and writing for communication and learning purposes in their native language and a new language. These learners have a solid understanding of how language, reading, and writing ‘‘work’’ for communication and in formal school contexts. Such factors are usually associated with successful second learning and academic achievement (Thomas & Collier, 2002). Moreover, learners who already have a strong foundation in academic content they have learned in their native language in school, bring a robust background knowledge, thereby easing the burden of the ELL learner having to learn new subject matter while simultaneously learning in a second language. Given the critical nature of these factors particular to each individual learner, schools run the risk of failing if they provide ELL students with a ‘‘one-size-fits-all’’ curricular and instructional approach. It is essential that teachers ascertain the students’ native-language and literacy abilities as well as their formal schooling and academic preparation in their native language, then use this information to steer curricular and instructional decisions. 5. Second language learners must have access to comprehensible input (Krashen, 1982)—content that is accessible—just above their current level of language proficiency. They also need the opportunity to produce output in the second language for meaningful communication and purposes. Practical illustration. Having significant exposure to a sizeable amount of English will not nurture language learning if the ELL student cannot understand the language. To make sense of the academic content and the English language, the ELL student needs to be able to comprehend both. Hence, the quality and the nature of the input are both essential when one is learning content in one’s second language. Organizational structures like advance organizers and outlines can help a learner access the content and the language. Furthermore, the ELL student’s output of language and content is also important. The type of language produced by the ELL student—spoken language or written language—impacts the difficulty of the task. Spoken language is generally more difficult. The immediacy and spontaneity of spoken language can be very challenging for individuals communicating in a language they are learning, while written language generally allows time for the learner to think, plan, process, and revise before putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard.

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6. Second language learning is facilitated by explicit attention to linguistic form and function. In other words, exposure to and interaction with a second language is not enough to result in the learner’s proficiency in academic language and literacy (Harper & deJong, 2004). Practical illustration. While content area teachers are not expected to explicitly teach language, they can support the language forms and functions that are characteristic of specific academic disciplines. For example, given its emphasis on past events, the history curriculum frequently uses past tense. History teachers who can emphasize this language tense with ELL students to help students recognize this tense used within a meaningful text. The language used in science texts emphasizes objectivity and procedures while the language of math serves to articulate precise relationships and procedures involving numbers. Teachers can emphasize the language forms and functions used in written texts and spoken discourse to help make their content area accessible to students, in particular, ELL students (Lucas et al., 2008).

PLANNING FOR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: AN ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK In our research focused on the relation between teachers’ cognition and behaviors associated with high-quality teaching in schools with diverse populations, we have attempted to study the ways teachers’ beliefs inform their classroom practice (Taylor & Sobel 2001, 2003; Sobel et al., 2003). Specifically, we have investigated the various ways teachers’ have operationalized their commitment to culturally responsive pedagogy in the classroom. Using data sets generated by written narratives, in-class observations, written reflections of implemented lessons, and post-lesson interviews, we used interpretive content analysis to examine and code data for common themes (Baxter, 1993).The identification of common themes has resulted in an organization framework to support teachers as they contemplate their efforts to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy. The organizational framework provides a simple yet comprehensive structure to support teachers’ thinking about their plans and preparation towards teaching that is responsive to students’ broad cultural background. We have adapted the original framework (Sobel & Taylor, 2006) to allow for a more comprehensive lens with which to reflect on the classroom and instruction from the perspective of culturally responsive pedagogy. The following 12 components provide an organizational framework for planning and reflecting in the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy.

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1. Considering the Learner: Who is the learner?  Name, age, gender, grade, family members at home, home context  Native language, primary culture, racial/ethnic background  Previous experience with school, literacy and learning, academic success;  Self esteem, attitudes towards reading and school, preferences for learning;  Background knowledge, broad cultural background, lived experiences. Starting with the learner is pivotal to implementing instruction that is culturally responsive. Effective teachers understand that a foundational part of effective teaching involves using information about the learner in their planning of how to implement curriculum, making decisions about the instructional strategies to employ in a lesson, and designing a classroom environment that will allow students to thrive and take risks as learners. When teachers recognize that culture is at the center of all we do in education—including curriculum, instruction, interactions, and assessment—they understand the importance of addressing students’ many ways of learning, prior experiences, and background knowledge, along with their valued cultural and linguistic capital (Darling-Hammond, 2008). 2. Environment/Environmental Print: How has the teacher used the environment to create a context that signals a valuing of diverse cultures and perspectives; a commitment to equity; and a community of learners? Does the environment serve as an additional ‘‘teacher’’ and reinforce student learning in active ways?  Learners thrive in a safe, supportive classroom environment;  Students need to know that they are welcome and safe from negative repercussions in the classroom;  Students will thrive when their attributes, strengths, cultures, languages, and experiences are recognized, viewed as resources, and used as a foundation for future learning (Bridges, 1995). Teachers have the opportunity to create a classroom context that signals a valuing of broad cultural diversity and a commitment to equity. Teachers can nurture a classroom climate where a cohesive and respectful group identity is fostered within a community of learners. If asked, would the teacher respond in the affirmative to the question, ‘‘Would I want to be a student in my classroom?’’ (Williams, 2001).

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Print-rich environments strongly correlate with literacy development, including math literacy. Environmental print can include text displays on the classroom walls, collaborative posters developed by teacher and students, word walls that evolve with added input of teacher and students, and printed guidelines about what good readers do or steps involved in the writing process. In other cases, displays may include students’ work, visuals that support content studies or key concepts and that provide concrete referents when students need supplemental supports during class time. Environmental print and displays can become an additional ‘‘teacher’’ who supports students’ learning. Environmental print and displays provide a way for students to literally see themselves and their broad culture reflected in the classroom context and values. Displays and print in the classroom can be used to reflect students’ broad culture, including their racial/ethnic background, heritage culture, language, and religion, as well as their individual abilities or talents, gender orientation, socioeconomic status, and other characteristics. 3. Curriculum Considerations: How can the teacher implement the curriculum in a way that is meaningful to this group of learners?  Content standards and benchmarks;  Potential links to learners’ perspectives or cultural lens of students in class;  Potential links to students’ reality and local culture;  Potential links to cultural legacies and/or contributions of individuals who share; primary culture of students in class. Culturally responsive pedagogy does not come as packaged curricular materials, and rightfully so. What is appropriate and culturally responsive will vary with each group of students and the evolving student population. The issue of reflection and reflecting on curriculum becomes very important for teachers to teach in culturally responsive ways. Teachers will want to examine the interplay of curriculum, content, and culture reflected in the classroom of learners, along with their own talents, behaviors, and preferences (Irvine & Armento, 2001), then make decisions about how to organize content in ways that will be meaningful for the classroom learners. The standards and benchmarks describe what content and concepts need to be taught, but how these are implemented, and from what perspectives the decision of the teacher is made. 4. Language Objective: What language forms and functions are characteristic of specific academic disciplines?

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 Content lexis;  Language forms characteristic of a certain academic discipline;  Language functions characteristic of a certain academic discipline. Each academic discipline has specific language demands. As teachers consider the learning experiences that students (language users) need to engage in, they can then consider the vocabulary necessary for learners to grasp the content as well as the language functions and discourse of the discipline. Additionally, teachers need to consider if all four language modes are included; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In some cases, teachers may want to consider the sequencing of the language modes. Spoken language involves spontaneity and thinking on ‘‘one’s feet,’’ which impacts the difficulty of the task. For example, in a social studies unit on World War II in which students will be asked to examine the causes of the war, the language objectives may involve students selecting appropriate information through reading research and speaking with other; connecting the information, and explaining their findings (first in a ‘‘think-pair share’’ in triads, then in a quick-write followed by an informal sharing in small groups of five or six; this sequence allows students to ‘‘rehearse’’ their understandings first by thinking, then sharing with a peer, then writing, then speaking with others). While all teachers are not teachers of language, all teachers can support the teaching of language forms and functions relevant to the content area they teach. 5. Social Context for Learning/Grouping Strategies: What consideration does the teacher give to designing the opportunity for learners to interact, talk, and confer?  Social interaction fosters development of language and thought;  Learners’ interactions with more capable peers supports learning;  Exposure to English increases in structured interactions. The guidelines used by a teacher for constituting student groups may center on how to group, why to group, and when to group, or on how and when to reconstitute groups. Working from the research-based findings that learning involves meaningful conversation and collaborations, teachers understand the importance and rationale for the various ways of grouping students (Routman, 1999). Teachers understand that the learners’ social interaction and dialogue in the classroom serve as a foundation for the development of language and thought (Vygotsky, 1978). Strategic grouping is essential for teachers committed to being responsive to students acquiring English as an additional language. Teachers who understand this know that

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having the chance to express oneself and one’s understandings of new content within multiple groupings in a community of learners is vitally important for ELL students. Strategies about structuring small-group interactions link directly to enhancing student achievement, at both individual and class levels. 6. Content/Instructional Materials: From what cultural lens or perspective can the content be presented in order to enhance a meaningful learning experience?  Selection of content in alignment with students’ prior knowledge and cultural perspectives;  Consider materials that build on students’ background knowledge and expand their frames of reference;  Consider instructional materials that are age-appropriate and support students’ preferred learning strategies;  Consider instructional materials that support ELL students’ use of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As teachers find meaningful ways to make the curriculum relevant to students, their choice of materials influences the depth of students’ connections and learning, and the success of the instruction. Once teachers have gained insights and information about the learners’ backgrounds, the materials they select can create connections to the learners’ cultural perspective and be used to support inclusive teaching practices. Frequently faced with a set curriculum, teachers’ choices about supplemental materials allow them to connect content to students’ cultural knowledge, life experiences, frames of reference, and interests. The choices teachers make about multicultural literature titles or the examples they use to illustrate key concepts are pivotal since each offers potential ways for teachers to make content meaningful and relevant by linking it to the learner’s cultural filter. 7. Scaffolding/Instructional Adaptations: In what ways is the teacher helping to make the content accessible to learners so that they can develop understandings they could not do independently?  Determine students’ preferred learning strategies;  Determine students’ strengths and needs;  Consider and select adaptations or supports that will allow student to engage in the content or learning experience. Once teachers have gained knowledge about students’ cultures, what is meaningful to them, and the learning preferences they tend to use to

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successfully access content, teachers can accommodate individual learners by adapting instruction so that it builds on students’ individual strengths and needs. Scaffolding or adapting the instruction does not involve simplifying the curriculum; rather, the essential concept is presented and high levels of strategic support are provided to the learner. This allows for teachers to help students move from what they know to what they need to know in ways that are meaningful for them. Examples of scaffolding or adaptations may include using organizational structures during the lesson (e.g., two-column notes) or advance organizer before the lesson is taught (e.g., preview key concepts, main idea, and details). At the end of a lesson with ‘‘scaffolding’’ or an adaptation integrated, the learners should be able to transfer their understanding to new tasks with added independence. Additionally, instructional adaptations may involve differentiating the instructional mode and/or the learning task. Depending on the learner’s preferred learning style, the teacher may decide to deliver the content using a visual, auditory, or tactile mode or a combination of modes. Again, using information about the learners, the teacher may decide to scaffold the content materials for the classroom by teaching the same content and concepts using a range of materials written for a variety of reading abilities so all students can access the content. 8. Distribution of Attention: What are the strategies the teacher uses to attend to each student in ways that are equitable and respectful of students’ cultural background and needs?  Learn about the background and personality of each learner;  Maximize opportunities to allow learners to use their preferred modes of learning to demonstrate their understandings. Teachers generally use a variety of ways to purposefully and consistently interact with students. Besides the importance of regularly distributing attention to an individual student, the various ways teachers go about this is an important consideration in a culturally responsive classroom. Depending on students’ cultural backgrounds, the teacher will want to select interaction styles that are compatible with the cultural frameworks of the students. The teacher’s knowledge about students’ cultures and backgrounds will allow them to attend to students in a manner that demonstrates respect for students and is effective in the overall interactions of the classroom culture. Part of this learning involves the teacher finding out about the discourse styles of individual students in the classroom, especially ELL students. As the teacher’s knowledge base about cultural discourse styles deepens, the teacher will need to decide whether or not to adapt her/his discourse style to

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match that of the students or explain the discourse styles used in U.S. American Standard English within the broader linguistic-cultural context. For example, if students have learned in their primary culture that it is disrespectful to make eye contact with an adult, the teacher needs to allow for this when interacting with this student. Overtime the teacher may want to help the learner understand social and cultural views about eye contact in the current context. Checking students’ understanding, assessing students’ knowledge, redirecting students’ behavior, and asking for students’ ideas are all reasons teachers may interact with students. 9. Checking for Evidence of Student Understanding: What are the strategies the teacher uses to ascertain if students understand the content and learning task?  Learn about the background and personality of each learner;  Gather information about cultural norms for interactions, communication, and adult-student norms. With all students, teachers are looking for multiple ways to find evidence of students’ understandings. What are ways teachers can ensure that all students understand the content and can successfully carry out procedures for learning experiences and tasks? For all students, teachers want to have more than one way and mode to provide them attention and for students to demonstrate their understandings. For students learning English as an additional language, having multiples ways and modes to demonstrate their understandings is crucial. Providing students the opportunity to demonstrate understanding verbally, with physical response, through visual media, written form, or dramatic response keeps the focus on their comprehension of content. Otherwise, when students’ understanding is checked using a language mode where they lack proficiency, the evidence is not reliable. Left to only verbal or written response puts all students, especially ELL students, at risk if they are not proficient communicators or writers in English. Teachers may distribute their attention nonverbally by roving about the classroom observing students’ interactions and applications (e.g., watching, making eye contact, and listening in while students are talking among themselves). The teacher may interact by asking questions and prompting responses (e.g., one-on-one with an individual student, small group or whole class understanding that students’ comfort level will vary with each grouping configuration). At the core of teachers’ plan for distributing attention is consideration to a variety of factors such as the student’s culture, language, gender, ability, personality to mention a few.

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10. Classroom Behavior/Managing the Classroom: What are the strategies the teacher uses to structure the classroom for learners to engage as in a community of learning where teaching can be effective?  Learn about the background and personality of each learner;  Gather information about cultural norms for interactions, communication, and adult-student norms;  Anticipate and plan for students to be active learners in a learning community. Students depend on consistent, positive standards for classroom behavior that are equitable for all students. Effective teachers are aware of this and plan carefully how they will set up their classroom routines. Knowing that students use the classroom as their ‘‘learning laboratory’’ teachers encourage them to make connections with their learning inside and outside of the classroom. Students learn best when they are active participants in planning, monitoring, and controlling their own learning. For this active learning to function in a classroom with 25 or more students, effective teachers understand the essential nature of designing classroom routines and norms with consideration of who the students are. With behavior and language being culturally bound, teachers know to accommodate students from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds while still establishing effective communication practices and clear behavioral expectations. Teachers who are knowledgeable about culturally responsive pedagogy know to question how and why their own culturally based expectations of appropriate behavior and disciplinary practices might allow them to misinterpret students’ behaviors that are incompatible with teachers’ expectations (Monroe, 2005). By bringing unspoken cultural biases to a conscious level for examination, teachers are less likely to misinterpret the language and actions of students from diverse backgrounds and react in a discriminatory manner. 11. Connecting with Family, Community, Local Culture: What strategies does the teacher uses to build rapport with students’ families and learn about their local community culture?  Learn about the background and family of each learner;  Gather information about the local community (if teacher does not reside there);  Complete a community/neighborhood walk or drive where the school is located and/or where the students live.  Periodically frequent community/local establishments where students and their families participate.

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The research about school and family connections indicates a high correlation to learners’ achievement when this relation is strong. Effective teachers know that building relationships with students and their families allows them to provide more meaningful instruction by integrating relevance and helping students make real-world connections. To do this requires learning more about students, their communities, and their cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Jimenez & Rose, 2010). Our recent research with novice and veteran teachers who are committed to culturally responsive pedagogy also showed strong results supporting teachers’ beliefs that nurturing positive interactions with the learner’s family is a critical part of their work as a teacher. Teacher participants in our studies revealed a genuine commitment to establishing and maintaining positive family connections. While not always simple or easy, a strong relationship with the learner’s family is recognized as a worthwhile effort by teachers committed to culturally responsive teaching. Yet no formula works all the time. Teachers must try a variety of efforts and ground these in their knowledge of individual learners and learner groups. Teachers report trying a variety of ways to connect with families, such as home visits, in-class teas, adult–child buddy relationships linked to reading and writing, and parentled math small-group interactions, to mention only a few. Teachers’ commitment to culturally responsive teaching is often raised to a higher level of consciousness when they articulate the ways they have involved or advocated for parents and families of the students they teach. 12. Teacher’s Personal/Professional Growth: What steps does the teacher take to continue learning and growing as a cultural being? What opportunities does the teacher take (or make) for professional development?  Deepen understandings of cultural features and perspectives;  Continue learning about the cultural backgrounds represented in the diverse student population;  Set professional goal and locate related professional development opportunity. Throughout their professional lives, teachers committed to culturally responsive teaching often continue to reflect on the ways they demonstrate and act on this commitment. Such a commitment tends to be realized in one’s philosophy of life both in the professional and personal arenas. Teachers committed to culturally responsive pedagogy can single out what choices they have made or actions they have taken that demonstrate their commitment to principles of equity and cultural understandings. It is not

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uncommon for these teachers to put themselves in situations where they continue learning about culture, themselves as a cultural being, and cultural pedagogy. Sometimes teachers become involved in teaching others about principles of equity. In some cases, they may craft intentional travel and study programs. In other cases, they may strategically select professional readings to discuss in professional learning communities or professional development opportunities in which to participate.

CONCLUSION Culturally responsive teachers concentrate on recognizing, acknowledging, and building on the background knowledge, skills, and life experiences that students bring to school in their planning of instruction and implementation of curriculum. They understand that the classroom needs to be a validating learning community for all students, especially students from diverse backgrounds and English language learners. Culturally responsive teachers also realize that there is a human tendency to gravitate towards that which is familiar to us when selecting visual displays, reading selections, teaching and learning strategies, literature, environmental print for the classroom, and instructional materials. When teacher and students do not share the same primary culture or life experiences, the result can be a learning environment that is incongruent with the reality of the students. Looking ahead to Part Three (Classrooms Implementing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy), we turn our focus to two composite school districts located in a large metropolitan area of the state of Colorado. In each district we highlight two schools that provide the backdrop for illustrations of how state level standards and directives are operationalized at the local level. In each school site we will ‘‘visit’’ at least one classroom where the teacher is committed to culturally responsive pedagogy and actively taking steps to put it in place within a given sociocultural context.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. What reasons led you to choose education as your profession? What interests and life experiences influenced your choice of an area of specialization and the age group of learners you currently teach? What are your goals and commitments towards each student’s future?

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2. Consider the racial/ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, socioeconomic factors—to mention a few key factors—that have significantly influenced the groups with whom you identify. What practices and values of each of these groups influence your perspectives on life and your cultural identity? 3. Using Howard’s (2006) overview on stages of racial identity development that is grounded in Helms’ (1994) approach, study each of the six stages then examine your own life experiences and racial development. Prepare a written narrative regarding your journey and reflections as you determined your stage of development according to Helm’s framework. 4. As you focus on a school context of interest, focus on a group of students in one classroom. Consider and list the life experiences, abilities, and funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 1994) that these students bring to the school context, especially students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire. What are students’ interests and after-school activities? In what contexts or activities are students’ abilities and strengths revealed? In what ways do students apply their interests and life experiences to concepts taught in the school curriculum? In what ways could curricular concepts be linked with students’ interests, life experiences, and cultural heritage? 5. Consider students in this classroom, who come to school with a repertoire of languages or language variations. What are the students’ abilities in their native language and in English, if their native language is different from English? To what extent are the students bilingual and biliterate? In what ways and in which contexts do students use their linguistic repertoire in school and outside of the school context? What types of structures could be employed in the classroom to support a social context that fosters students’ development of language and thought through dyad, small group, and whole group interactions? 6. Reflect on the classroom of interest, what aspects of the classroom environment and displays signal a valuing of diverse perspectives, a variety of cultures, and a community of learners? In what ways does the classroom environment function as an additional ‘‘teacher’’ or reinforcement of student learning?

CHAPTER SEVEN CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY: DISTRICT AND SCHOOL LEVELS

INTRODUCTION The overarching guidelines provided by the Federal government and State of Colorado provide a direction to the each of the 178 districts spread across the state. In this chapter, we will examine how districts take state guidelines and act on them within the district context and what impact the state and district levels have at the school level. We focus on two composite district and school contexts to provide an overview of the ways culturally responsive pedagogy is implemented and integrated in various the school contexts. In the case of the two districts and two schools, we have used pseudonyms in place of the actual district and school names. We begin by providing a brief overview of pertinent elements at the district level (e.g., mission, values, and attention to culture) and descriptive data on the district demographics. Our intent is to give a brief overview of the district in order to provide the reader with ‘‘big picture’’ background information that will allow them to situate the highlighted school settings within the larger district context. Within those two schools, we provide examples of the actions they have taken to act on their valuing of culture and culturally responsive pedagogy.

SETTING THE LARGER CONTEXT: DISTRICT OVERVIEWS Mountain View School District The mission of the Mountain View School District is to realize a vision for the new century by graduating students who have the knowledge, skills, and 119

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personal characteristics that will make this world a safer, more thoughtful, and more inclusive place in which to live. In order to reach this vision, the school community approved three five-year goals for the district that relate to equity, achievement, and climate. Mountain View School District aims to achieve academic excellence for all students, to produce equitable results that reduce persistent patterns of inequity, and to create a culturally proficient and welcoming school climate through the following goals:  Achievement Goal: Increase measurable student achievement in specific content areas through curriculum and instruction that is rigorous and relevant;  Equity Goal: Narrow the achievement gap in all content areas as measured by state testing results, district graduation rates, and curriculum-based assessments; and  Climate Goal: Create and sustain a safe and positive learning environment that protects and respects the rights of all individuals as measured by specific results from the annual School Climate Survey. Mountain View School District is committed to creating partnerships with schools, community organizations, and state policy makers to ensure that all English language learners receive an appropriate education and achieve high academic standards in an environment that values linguistic and cultural diversity. In compliance with federal and state guidelines that require school districts to assess English language proficiency of all students who speak and/or understand a language other than English and to provide special English language instruction to all students who enter school not yet proficient in English, all Mountain View School District families complete a Home Language Survey as part of the registration process. Specially trained assessors from the district’s Department of Literacy and Language follow up with phone interviews and/or assessments to determine whether or not students qualify for an alternative reading and writing program. In Mountain View School District, alternative language arts instruction is provided through the ESL (English as a Second Language) program and for some Spanish speakers, through the Bilingual Education program. Mountain View School District offers differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students. The schools with an ESL program offer specific instruction on English language acquisition. Students who qualify to enter an ESL program school may also opt out from this choice and may attend a nonprogram school. Efforts to achieve the aims of academic excellence for all students, equitable results that reduce persistent patterns of inequity and foster a culturally proficient and welcoming school climate, led district and community leaders

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to create and adopt the following performance and evaluation standards for all of Mountain View School District’s classroom teachers:  The teacher shall demonstrate a knowledge of subject matter and effective instructional skills;  The teacher shall demonstrate competency in valuing and promoting understanding of diversity;  The teacher shall demonstrate effective management of the learning environment;  The teacher shall demonstrate commitment to education as a profession; and  The teacher shall demonstrate effective interpersonal skills. To support teachers in meeting those standards, individual district departments (e.g., ESL or Special Education) offer formalized professional development workshops to all teachers and on-demand training to schools as needed. The Mountain View School District includes 61 schools across a geographic area of 495 square miles spanning six communities. Table 7.1 provides a profile of Mountain View School District (Colorado Department of Education 2010a). Dalby Heights School District The Dalby Heights School District is located on the northern tier of Colorado’s largest metropolitan area, and serves five cities. This area ranks among the state’s top five largest counties and is projected to be the fastest growing county in the metropolitan area over the next two decades. The school district is committed to the excellence of successful students, to supporting a highly skilled staff and partnering with a caring community. The district articulates a vision, mission, and purpose that provide a clear focus for the district. Their vision is that Dalby Heights School District exists so the students it serves are well-prepared for the next stage of their lives and obtain the skills, knowledge, and expertise to thrive in our world, at a level that justifies the resources used. Their mission is to accelerate student academic performance and nurture their social development and their purpose is to engage in core work that directly results in students meeting or exceeding grade level standards in reading, writing, and math while demonstrating the behaviors associated with citizenship, ethics, integrity, creativity, productivity, and healthy lifestyles.

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Table 7.1.

Mountain View School District Profile.

Student Numbers Enrollment Students with limited English proficiency Languages spoken Students served through special education Students on free or reduced priced lunch Graduation rate

29,320 2,499 (8.5%) 22 2,683 (9.3%) 5,377 (18.4%) 89.2%

Student Demographics European American Hispanic Asian African-American Native American Native Hawaiian Multiracial

20,814 (71%) 5,099 (17.4%) 1,660 (5.7%) 252 (.9%) 154 (.5) 27 (.1%) 1,314 (4.5%)

Number of Schools Elementary Middle High Charter Alternative schools

34 14 9 2 2

Engaging the community in providing educational experiences to ensure Dalby Heights students reach their full potential is a priority for the school district. To reach that aim, district leadership is committed to partnering with stakeholder groups; fostering communication between parents and educators; providing tools and resources to empower parents to effectively engage in their local schools; advocating for parents and community members who have questions or concerns; and mentoring parents and community members interested in leadership positions within their schools. Parent and community involvement is an additional priority at Dalby Heights Schools. Aware of the critical role parents play in the success of not only their own children but all students in their community, the District School Improvement Team (DSIT) is a driving force in parent and community engagement and an example for similar groups in the region. The Dalby Heights School District wants to see all students succeed in school and has focused resources on a number of unique academic programs geared at tapping into the individual needs of their students. The district serves students from 68 different language backgrounds (see Table 7.2), The majority of whom are native Spanish speakers. To serve the needs of these students,

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Table 7.2.

Dalby Heights School District Profile.

Student Numbers Enrollment Students with limited English proficiency Languages spoken Students served through special education Students on free or reduced priced lunch Graduation rate

42,077 6,083 (14.2%) 68 3,515 (8.0%) 13,380 (32%) 68%

Student Demographics White Hispanic Asian African-American Native American

25,326 (60.19%) 12,960 (30.80%) 2,289 (5.44%) 1,145 (2.72%) 362 (.86%)

Number of Schools Elementary Middle High Charter Alternative schools

30 8 5 5 2

many of the district’s schools offer English as a Second Language services. Students with limited English proficiency receive support in language development so they’ll be able to more easily transition into mainstream classrooms. All ESL teachers are required to hold or be able to obtain an ESL or bilingual endorsement. The Transitional Language Services (TLS) is an early exit bilingual model which uses Spanish instruction in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades, gradually increasing the amount of time in English instruction until students are fully transitioned to English by 3rd grade. TLS is available as an alternative to traditional English as a Second Language (ESL) services for native Spanish-speaking students. Teachers in the program are highly qualified, holding either a Linguistically Diverse: Bilingual endorsement or a Linguistically Diverse endorsement with a passing score on the District’s Spanish Language Proficiency Exam. Each year professionals from key district departments (e.g., Gifted and Talented, Curriculum/Instruction, Staff Development, Special Education, Assessment, Language Acquisition) work with the district leaders and school principals to develop a strategic plan that includes prioritized professional development efforts. All schools and every teacher across the Dalby Heights District must align their professional development needs with the district

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strategic plan as it is not the prerogative of an individual school to set a unique or individual agenda for staff development. A recent district initiative requires every teacher complete an online ESL training package. Teachers in Dalby Heights are held to high teaching standards (see Table 7.2).

SCHOOL CONTEXTS Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School, which is in the far eastern portion of the Mountain View School District and is located in the downtown section of a community with mining and farming roots, now serves as the home for multiple Mexican restaurants and small ethnic groceries. Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School is a focus school and all students enroll through the district open enrollment process. The student population is made up of approximately 50% Spanish speakers and 50% English speakers. There is considerable range of socioeconomic status among Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School families, with 60% of the students on free and reduced lunch. Table 7.3 provides a profile of Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School (Colorado Education Department, 2010a). Table 7.3.

Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School Profile.

Student Numbers Enrollment Students with limited English proficiency Languages spoken Talented and gifted Students served through special education Students supported with a supplemental literacy plan Students supported with a behavior plan Students on free or reduced priced lunch

726 186 (42.7%) 3 37 (8.5%) 35 (15%) 86 (20%) 12 (2.8%) 348 (48%)

Student Demographics African-American Asian European American Hispanic

6 (1.4%) 3 (.7%) 166 (38%) 259 (59.4%)

Faculty Numbers Faculty members Advanced degrees Average years of teaching experience

98 67 (68.2%) 10.3

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The unique focus of Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School is their dual immersion program, where students learn to read and write in their first language, in small groups with the support of literacy specialists. Students also receive daily structured second language instruction and math and content area instruction, through hands on, experiential activities. All students develop language proficiency in both Spanish and English in a truly multicultural diverse school community with a multicultural perspective infused throughout the curriculum. Parents and families are a critical part of the Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School community. Parent volunteerism strong and participation of both English and Spanish speakers in the decision-making process and at social events is central. Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School articulates a mission committed to providing challenging academics within a multicultural, dual language program. Staff members strive to build bridges that bring their community together. They express a dedication to a deliberately designed curriculum, aligned with Mountain View District academic standards, that meets the needs of all learners. They commit to empowering their bilingual students to be thoughtful and caring individuals who are able to meet the challenges of the future and positively contribute to our diverse world. To attain that mission, Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School faculty see their vision as a course that requires them to strive towards excellence, expecting high academic achievement from all students, nurturing bilingual and biliterate graduates, and to serve as a model dual language program for other schools and their community. The Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School vision articulates a genuine value of parents as active partners in education, strong partnerships with their community, and using their school as a community center. Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School faculty and staff strive to promote a harmonious, nurturing environment, safety at all times, responsibility and mutual respect while celebrating cross-cultural friendships, pride in diversity, and the promise of bilingualism. Touring the hallways, classrooms, and offices at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School reveals multiple displays that are reflective of students’ families, their lives, and their cultures, such as photographs, artifacts, and special student and family treasures, realia and props, student names, and family trees with family roots. Bilingual flyers advertising the family lending library and upcoming community events are prominently displayed in the front hallway. Not long ago, an after-school club focused on youth advocating for social action at the community level read children’s literature centered on Martin Luther King, Jr. The children raised concerns about the school and town

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having no celebration for Martin Luther King Day. The group of 10 children decided to write a letter to the city council requesting that a community march be established. With parent and community support, children hand-delivered their letters to the upcoming city council meeting where they shared it with the mayor and council. This year—thanks to the school-community connection—the town celebrated the sixth annual community Martin Luther King march. After the march, a culminating presentation of music, poetry, and speeches was led by local youth many of whom used to be members of the after school club at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School. The principal and staff at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School are innovative, committed, and persistent in their effort to create a welcoming and inclusive context. Nonetheless, periodically parents and faculty members observe that cross-cultural parent interactions can wane. Additionally, with few parents who are bilingual at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary, the reality is that interactions between parents can truly be constrained by language. After noticing parents’ routines and patterns during pick-up and drop-off, a plan was devised to support cross-cultural interactions for parents. Two parents—one of whom was bilingual and bicultural—volunteered to start a one hour morning coffee right after drop-off when many Spanish-speaking parents were lingering at the school waiting for an ESL class to begin on site. Using ‘‘ice-breaker’’ activities that built on parents’ shared background knowledge (e.g., school, kids, community, family), visuals, games, and manipulatives that did not require a reliance on a common language, the two parents planned structures to support interactions between Spanish-speaking and English-speaking parents. The morning coffee, known as ‘‘Una visita entre padres’’ (a visit among parents), prompted parents to come together, take risks, and get out of their comfort zone with the goal of crossing cultural boundaries and avoiding segregation. While the two original parents have moved on, other parents have continued the effort. With a strong pot of coffee and some ‘‘cafe´ con leche,’’ the visit among parents still continues bringing parents together once a month. Each year, all students are screened using district mandated reading and mathematics assessments. Data derived from the tests inform how students are grouped and who receives support or enrichment. Weekly data-review meetings are held across grade levels and the special education teachers and a guidance counselor collaborate with content instructors to place students in pull-out interventions and plan push-in activities. Student progress is monitored throughout the year and some students test out of their original placements. In order to create an intentional, positive culture, Cha´vez Elementary School teachers and staff members (e.g., school secretary,

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custodians, lunch room personnel) have instituted a positive behavior support program called DREAM (the acronym stands for Discover, Respect, Empathize, Achieve, Motivate). Visible features of DREAM are bilingual posters describing appropriate behavior for various situations and a stamp book which stores earned stamps that are redeemed for rewards.

Willow Creek High School Willow Creek is the largest of Dalby Height’s five high schools and is located in a highly industrial area, surrounded by shopping centers and fastfood restaurants. Faculty and staff at Willow Creek High School have a mission to accelerate our student’s academic achievement and nurture their social development by providing high-quality instruction for every student, in every classroom, every day! Faculty believe that diversity is a unique strength of Willow Creek High School and take pride in the wealth of clubs, activities, and athletics that is offered to students. Willow Creek is a school that is strong in academic and extracurricular traditions maintaining their number one priority is their student’s academic success—both now and for their future. Pennants representing faculty alma maters and banners announcing the years each class will graduate from college line the halls. Willow Creek provides students a spectrum of high school credit gaining strategies. The high school and district together with a local community college forged an exciting partnership to challenge students by designing career pathways to increase the number of high school students earning college credit. The program allows eligible juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn college credit while in high school. In addition to students being able to earn 30 credit hours per trimester in regular daily classes, two additional credits are available from an after-school study skills class or students that enroll in night school can earn up to an additional 10 credits per trimester. A credit recovery program is also in place for students in danger of not graduating on schedule. Parent and family member involvement in students’ academic career is extremely important and that valued involvement is sought-after in daily school practices. The administration team at Willow Creek has a requirement that five parents are a part of the school recruitment team. There are also parent–teacher calls, two parent conferences, and a back-toschool night when parents have a chance to meet teachers and to gain a better understanding of school and class expectations. Willow Creek

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maintains a Community Room with bilingual staff and resources for families, and it provides a leadership training course for new parents. A student tracking system links students and parents to their classes electronically and allows both to follow assignments and schedules for each. Staff members are aware that many families lack computer and Internet access, and they attempt to reach parents via telephone and written correspondence with translation services when available. The administration has taken into account community changes, so that the Media Center at Willow Creek now has extended hours after several area libraries were closed due to service cutbacks throughout the city. The school has a ‘‘late start’’ on Tuesdays (school begins at 9:00 A.M. instead of 7:45 A.M.) to allow faculty to participate in data teams, content planning, professional development opportunities, and intervention meetings. This precious school-wide planning and meeting block is continually revised to manage the multiple demands of faculty. Willow Creek uses the three-tier Response to Intervention model (RtI) with 80 to 90% of the students in Tier 1 in the general education classroom working in large or small groups. Willow Creek’s Tier 2 interventions are focused on reading and writing skills and target an array of students. Given that learners identified as ELL students make up 29% of the student body with Spanish being the most common language followed by Russian, five levels of English Language Acquisition classes are offered. A Tier 3 level of intervention that consists of intensive small group instruction or even one-on-one instruction is also available for students needing such services. There are special tutorial times for students who need additional help, including an after school program called ‘‘Math Cafe´.’’ Failure Is Not An Option (FINAO) is Willow Creek’s tutorial program designed to provide support for students across all subject areas. Teachers assign students who did not show proficiency on an assignment or did not accomplish the assigned task before or after school tutorials. Many students choose to attend when they are in need of homework support or review. Students who arrive at Willow Creek having already been placed in special education generally continue with those recommended previous programs. Those who manifest special needs after arriving at Willow Creek are not placed in special education until at least six weeks of intervention has proven to be unsuccessful. The pattern of student performance must be supported by a minimum of six distinct data points as well as the advice of a Special Intervention Team. If the student has a second language need, additional evidence is required to ensure that language issues are not impacting the misdiagnosis of a learning or behavioral disability (Table 7.4).

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: District and School Levels

Table 7.4.

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Willow Creek School Profile.

Student Numbers Enrollment Students with limited English proficiency Languages spoken Talented and gifted Students served through special education Students supported with a supplemental literacy plan Students supported with a behavior plan Students on free or reduced priced lunch

1,819 532 (29%) 12 97 (.05%) 168 (.09%) 102 (.06%) 41 (.02%) 539 (29.43%)

Student Demographics African-American Asian European American Hispanic Native American

63 (3.46%) 84 (4.6%) 771 (42.39%) 878 (48.27%) 22 (1.21%)

Faculty Numbers Faculty members Advanced degrees Average years of teaching experience

98 67 (68.2%) 10.3

CONCLUSION As seen in the profiles within this chapter, school professional development alignment structures vary across districts. In our profiles, Mountain View allows schools to identify needs and complements professional development efforts at the district level, while Dalby Heights more closely controls staff development in schools requiring schools to engage in only those professional development initiatives that are directly aligned with the district strategic plan. During a recent National Staff Development Conference (NSDC), Mizell (2010) claimed, ‘‘Unfortunately, the misuse of professional development is so widespread that educators accept it as the norm,’’ explaining that school systems typically use precious professional development time for information dissemination, briefings on new laws and regulations, instructions for administering standardized tests, and passive, lecture-focused assemblies. To avoid squandering precious training time, Mizell (2010) calls for an effective course of action cautioning that contextual factors must be central to all planning to ensure that teachers see professional development as worthy of their time.

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With a contextual understanding of two representative school districts and a school within each of those districts, we will now move into an array of classrooms. In Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten, we will ‘‘tour’’ three different classes where teaches are taking steps to put into place culturally responsive pedagogy. Each teacher is at a different point in this process and all are still deepening their understandings of what it means to respond and instruct in culturally appropriate ways.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. Collect or review demographic and program data focused on ‘‘broad cultural diversity’’ of students, families, and faculty/staff that are similar to the types of data which we have presented in this chapter. What are the current demographics and context of your school and district? 2. Examine your district and school mission statements. How do those missions complement each other? How do they differ? Identify examples of how those missions regarding broad cultural diversity are realized in your school. 3. Consider the ways that academic supports vary across school districts and individual schools. How do support programs and interventions in academic courses vary among K-12 schools in your area? 4. Identify three to five ways that you communicate with parents and families. Which of your practices have been most effective especially with family members whose native language is different from the language spoken at school? What are ways to enhance your communications with parents and families? 5. Look closely at possible examples of access inequities. How do you help families access school and district resources when they do not have computer or Internet access?

PART THREE CLASSROOMS IMPLEMENTING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY

Photo 3.

The Peace Place.

CHAPTER EIGHT GRADE 3 LITERACY LESSON WITH A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FOCUS

INTRODUCTION In the previous chapter, we examined the ways in which state guidelines are manifested and acted upon at the district and school level. Having provided an overview of two districts and a school housed within each district, we will now focus on the instruction occurring on classrooms within each school. Our intention is to describe the actions taken by three teachers who are committed to teaching and reaching all students and who are taking steps to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy. Understanding that there is no simple method or program to follow, these teachers have attempted to use learner information to guide their decisions about the classroom environment, curriculum, materials, instruction, learning, language, and building rapport with their students’ families. The scenarios describe the outcomes of steps taken by each teacher to teach on culturally responsive way; however, the scenarios are not a recipe for how to ‘‘do’’ culturally responsive pedagogy. The sites described in Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten are composite classrooms crafted from the sociocultural contexts where we have based our classroom research. The teachers, students, and names are pseudonyms; any similarity to actual individuals, districts, or schools is entirely coincidental. The composite classrooms and teachers are grounded in a range of data, and represent exemplary to satisfactory practices. In each scenario, you will most likely find elements of strong pedagogy as well as practices that could be enhanced by the teachers. The classroom highlighted in this scenario is located at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School, which houses preschool through 8th grade and mirrors the 133

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realities present in many of today’s U.S. urban and suburban schools. The school is committed to the Mountain View district mission of creating partnerships with community organizations and supporting students’ towards making the community a more inclusive place to live. The school houses an English as a Second Language (ESL) program on site, offers differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students, and provides periodic professional development for teachers on English language acquisition. In the literacy scenario, we observe a teacher who is taking steps to emphasize content and instruction from students’ cultural frames of reference, use students’ background knowledge and life experiences to guide her instructional plans and delivery, and accommodate a range of students’ preferred learning strategies.

TEACHER PROFILE Having grown up with four siblings and surrounded by extended family in the San Luı´s Valley in southern Colorado, I was used to helping with my two younger brothers and being around kids. After high school, I opted to work for a few years before entering the university and making a decision to teach. Having worked odd jobs at local coffee shops and restaurants with lots of people contact, I was enthralled with my coursework in sociology and educational psychology. Many aspects of human behavior and development were brought to life in the readings and I could pull from the interactions I had experience with people at my jobs and with my younger family members. When I was done with general studies courses, I knew I wanted to become a professional educator working with children. Once admitted to the teacher preparation program at a nearby university, I was thrilled to find out that it was a teacher education program with a professional development school model (PDS). This would get me what I wanted which was as much time as possible to learn on site in the classroom during my time as a preservice teacher before I would take full responsibility for a class full of children. It’s been enlightening teaching at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School with such a diverse group of kids. The student population is diverse in race and ethnicity, but also in religious background, language, and socioeconomic background. I had a lot to learn about the various ethnic groups here, but especially the Latino population because their background differs from mine despite sharing some commonalities. Whereas my family ancestors settled in the San Luı´s Valley in the early 1800s when it was part of the Spanish province, Nuevo Mexico, most of the families at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School are recent immigrants from Mexico. I grew up speaking what is considered today to be an archaic form of

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Spanish brought to the area by the Spanish conquistadors, and I learned English at school. Most people who meet me when I am speaking English, think my native language is English. It isn’t until we start to share stories about growing up, that they find out that my family spoke mostly Spanish at home when I was a child and that some of my family customs and holiday traditions are a mixture of Spanish and Mexican cultures. Many of the Latino families at Ce´sar Cha´vez have a language, customs, and cultural frame of reference that are quite different from mine. Of course, we can understand each other when we speak Spanish, but we sometimes have to clarify word meanings and phrases. Several of our traditions and holiday celebrations are different, too. It’s been fun learning more about their ways of life. More than anyone thing, I have learned that I cannot assume. I have also learned the value of finding out all that I can about my students, their families, and their lives as this can inform decisions about what I teach and how I teach it in ways that ‘‘click’’ for the children. – Reni Ruı´ z, Third grade teacher, Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School

SOCIOCULTURAL CLASSROOM CONTEXT Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School mirrors the realities present in many of today’s urban schools. Of the 726 students, 61% are from minority backgrounds; 48% receive free or reduced lunch (an indicator of socioeconomic background); 42.7% of the students qualify for English Language Learner (ELL) services (native languages include, English, Spanish, Russian); 108 students (15%) are identified with special education needs; the school has a 29% student mobility rate and a 91% attendance rate, falling below the state attendance goal for Colorado schools of 95%. Ms. Ruı´ z’s class currently contains 27 students, 14 females and 13 males. Of the 27 students, 11 have an individualized literacy plan. Eight students have been identified as English language learners. The four students with an identified special education need include I speech/language (who is not an ELL student), 2 students with a learning disorder, and 1 emotional/ behavioral disorder. The range of reading abilities represented in Ms. Ruı´ z’s class is 1st grade reading level to 6th grade reading ability.

RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS IN LITERACY INSTRUCTION FOR ELL STUDENTS Language learning is directly linked with reading and writing. All three elements involve an individual being able to use language to communicate in

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a variety of forms. Language is defined as a system of communication used by human beings and produced either orally or by signs. Language development lays the groundwork for children’s success as readers and writers (Harp & Brewer, 2005). Most experts agree that children need a foundation in oral or sign language in the case of deaf children prior to being expected to learn to read or to benefit from formal reading instruction, but there is no clear indication that they must have a vocabulary of a certain number of words or know specific patterns of language before they begin reading. The same is true for students learning English as a second or additional language (Drucker, 2005). To optimize oral language development at school, teachers need to make time daily for students to talk to each other while interacting about a variety of content. Such interactions may include pair-shares, small group discussion, brainstorming topics, or research projects. While these communication activities may seem simple and obviously needed, research indicates that teachers tend to do 65 to 95% of the talking in most classrooms not students (Lowery, 1980). For reading and writing development, all learners must learn the forms of print—which include the letters of the alphabet, how the letters are sequenced into words, sentences, and paragraphs—in order to create stories, notes, letters, and many other forms of communication. Moreover, all learners—whether native English speakers or English language learners students—eventually apply their developing English language knowledge, their world knowledge, background knowledge, and understanding of print conventions to make sense of the written text when reading (Peregoy & Boyle, 2008). In writing, all learners use their developing knowledge of English, background knowledge, life experiences, and understandings of print conventions to begin to record their ideas on paper in written form. There is no question that reading and writing are complex processes. These processes can go on for a quite a while before the learner gains proficiency in either reading or writing. The learner needs to grasp the forms of print in English, the letters of the alphabet, and how these are sequenced into words in reading and writing. Eventually learners learn how letters and words are sequenced into sentences and paragraphs to result in stories, letters, email messages, essays, and reports. While many similarities exist between the literacy development of native English speakers compared with English language learners, there are some important differences. For those students who are at the beginning stages of acquiring English as an additional language, they are still acquiring basic

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knowledge of English during the time that they are concurrently learning to read and write in English at school. In essence, they are learning to learn in a new language while learning to read and write in that new language. Research indicates that English language learners can benefit from instruction in English reading and writing long before they have fully developed their oral language. Teachers do not need to wait for ELL students to become proficient in spoken English before providing reading and writing instruction in English (Hudelson, 1987). When English language learners are literate in their native language, they bring knowledge and skills about reading and writing in their first language that will transfer to their learning of English reading and writing. There is much research to support the teaching of literacy in the student’s first language whenever possible due to the fact that this is the language the learners know and that makes sense to them. Moreover, literacy skills transfer readily from one’s native language to English during the time that English language proficiency develops (Cummins, 1981; Peregoy, 1989).

CLASSROOM TOUR Ms. Ruı´ z is always looking for more and different ways to reach her students, As we approach her room, it’s clear that her class is involved in a study that has caught students’ interest since they are lingering around the entrance to the room taking time to look at a colorful quilt that covers the entire door to the classroom. Approaching the classroom, you can see that the creative quilt does, in fact, cover the entire door. Composed of individual student quilt pieces united to form a bold numeral 3, the quilt tells the story of students’ families, favorite foods, hobbies and interests. Book covers of multicultural children’s literature border the quilt display. Some of the book titles include: Dia’s Story Cloth (Cha, 1994) and Whispering Cloth (Deitz Shea, 1996) (both books are about story-telling quilts from the Hmong culture); Shota’s Star Quilt (Bateson Hill, 2001) (the power of quilting and community activism as told by a young Lakota girl); Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Hopkinson, 2003) (quilts used as maps to guide African American slaves to the Underground Railroad); and The Keeping Quilt (Polacco, 2001) (a Russian family’s quilt used for the Sabbath table cloth, a wedding canopy, and a baby blanket).

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BEING RESPONSIVE TO STUDENTS’ CULTURE Curriculum and Content The multicolored quilt in the shape of the numeral ‘‘3’’ provides a visually stimulating and welcoming entrance to greet 3rd grade students as they approach the teacher’s classroom at the start of the school year. During the initial lesson used to launch this unit, students were welcomed by the numeral 3 shape on the classroom door with the colorful border consisting of book covers. Students then created and contributed individual squares to complete the classroom quilt. Ms. Ruı´ z rooted the individual quilt-making in a language/literacy experience that students to inquire, discuss, write, and share about aspects of their family history, cultural history, life experiences, and personal attributes (see Fig. 8.1). Moreover, the teacher used the artand literacy-based sharing experience to gain valuable knowledge about the students, their cultural backgrounds, and their families (Kottler & Kottler, 2002; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, & Curran, 2004). Throughout the first week of this unit, students’ interest in the book covers peaked. During this time, Ms. Ruı´ z began to read from the individual books as part of her regular ‘‘shared reading’’ time with students. These carefully selected titles have provided multiple opportunities for students to locate themselves, their life and learning experiences, their culture, values, language, and physical characteristics within the literature shared in the classroom (Taylor, 2000). Moreover, as the students hear and read about the life experiences of the main characters, they have had the chance to enter into someone else’s reality, share in their lives, and feelings. Ms Ruı´ z has used this multicultural children’s literature as a means for her students to have the opportunity to understand the pluralism of today’s world, respect the diversity of today’s society, and see them in a positive light (Bishop, 1997). Come on. Let’s enter Ms. Ruı´ z’s room. Walking past the quilt display, you will immediately notice that student desks are arranged in groups of four and compose seven seating clusters (with four desks in each cluster). Book boxes are positioned in the center of each desk cluster. Used for independent reading, the book selections are changed weekly and represent 5 different levels of reading representative of the reading abilities of the students who sit at that cluster of desks. Looking to the front of the room, you see a large, brightly colored bulletin board labeled ‘‘Our Schedules.’’ Accented with a commercial border

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Investigating and Sharing Our Stories, Families and Cultures Directions: Using the prompt in each box below, take time to reflect on an image or experience from your life including early childhood up to present time. In each box, write a key word, name, memory or draw an image that illustrates your recollection of the prompt. Think about the words you will use to explain each one to a friend or classmate. 1. A favorite food or family meal

2. A childhood game you used to play

3. A wedding custom

4. A special holiday or a celebration you recall

5. A family ritual or tradition

6. A family saying or proverb

7. A craft or art activity

8. A story shared by your grandparents or older family member

9. A special song that links to a family or cultural memory

10. An old family remedy or folk medicine used

11. A traditional costume or dress

12. A family “taboo” or “no-no”

Fig. 8.1.

Exploring Our Cultures.

depicting children of different racial ethnicities, the sign ‘‘National Women’s History Month’’ is hung over the month of March. Color photographs of Maya Angelou, Susan B. Anthony, Anne Sullivan and Ellen Ochoa are posted near the sign to support an author study that focuses on the stories of important, strong women in U.S. History. To the left, you see a 3u  4u chart labeled, ‘‘CENTERS: Where I Go & What I Do When I Get There.’’ The chart is organized with color-coded pockets each containing the name of a center and an accompanying picture cue. Each pocket contains a 5  7 index card detailing the expectations of

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the center. Directions are provided in English, Russian, and Spanish. Student name cards are prepared with Velcro backing for ease in organizing heterogeneous groupings. Beneath the centers chart, a student chant is displayed. Created during an interactive writing activity, the chant is verbally recited after directions have been discussed and modeled, before students move to centers. The class-generated chant is, ‘‘Centers are great. Our volume is at one. When we are done, we will clean up, go to our desks and read.’’ Beside the centers area, you will see a poster labeled, ‘‘Options for Providing Feedback’’ that displays three symbols with an accompanying word and sentence starter. A visual of a star indicates that one option for providing feedback is for students to give a compliment about the work that their peers share (e.g., I like your ________. I like how you ________.’’). Another option (identified on the display as a question mark) indicates students could provide feedback to a peer in the form of a question (e.g., ‘‘Why did you choose________? Where did you get the idea for ________?’’). And the third option for providing feedback (identified on the display as a birthday cake with lit candles stand for ‘‘wishes’’) indicates that students could provide feedback to a peer in the form of a suggestion (e.g., ‘‘Maybe next time you could y’’. Next time use more ________ in your writing.’’) (see Fig. 8.2).

Social Contexts and Scaffolding In accordance with the research-based view that meaningful conversation and collaboration are critical to learning, this teacher has structured the seating arrangement and classroom design so that students are encouraged Stars provide a compliment about the work that was just shared

?

Question mark means to ask a question about what you just heard Wishes provide a suggestion or recommendation for the work you just heard

Fig. 8.2.

Options for Providing Feedback.

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to talk and confer with each other (Routman, 1999). As students sit in groups of 4, they are encouraged to interact. Ms. Ruı´ z demonstrates an understanding of the social nature of learning and language development, which is especially relevant to developing academic language in contentspecific discussions. Perhaps Ms. Ruı´ z adheres to Vygotsky’s theory about the social nature of thinking and language development? She structures her classroom so that children’s development can be understood and observed through the context of their participation in activities that integrate communication and cognitive processing. As noted, Ms. Ruı´ z understands that young readers need a variety of engaging books suitable for their reading level to stimulate and support their learning and reading; hence, the book boxes at each cluster of desks. The teacher has conferred with individual learners around book selection and modeled how to determine if a book is at their appropriate reading level. Readers have practiced these strategies for selecting books at their own level. Proactive planning efforts such as these demonstrate the teacher’s grounded beliefs in differentiation (Peregoy & Boyle, 2008; Tomlinson, 1999). It appears that Ms. Ruı´ z recognizes the importance of surrounding students with visually pleasing and colorful displays. In addition, the visual displays highlight and include a series of notable, celebrated women who represent a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, thereby presenting positive role models for young female 3rd grade learners. This nonfiction literature about key historical characters richly complements the multicultural fiction which highlights main characters also from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. In the future, Ms. Ruı´ z will read aloud in ‘‘shared reading’’ excerpts from the nonfiction texts about the notable women in history. In turn, she will ask students to investigate and write about an important person in their lives. Incorporating instruction through center arrangements is highly effective and efficient if managed well. Ms. Ruı´ z knows that merely modeling or discussing the ‘‘center expectations’’ as a single event on one day will not ensure that particular students are able to independently practice it. Multiple, differentiated opportunities for students to practice this skill are stressed. Such opportunities allow for additional oral language and pronunciation use for those students with learning and language differences. The visuals accompanying each center are culturally respectful (e.g., photos of children from the classroom who represent a range of diverse backgrounds demonstrate the center procedures) and support the learning styles of the students. This teacher’s use of the chant created during an interactive writing

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activity reinforces the value of student-generated work, writing for authentic purposes, and ultimately contributes to increased student ownership. Another way Ms. Ruı´ z supports students’ oral language development is through the teacher-made display that provides options for students’ feedback, which is displayed in visual and text forms. The posters (e.g., star, question mark, birthday cake with candles) offer a visual cue linked to each type of feedback and the text form provides sample sentence-starters to assist ELL students craft their feedback. When students are prompted to provide feedback or opt to share spontaneously, this display incorporates guidance for language use and instructional reinforcement. As we continue to maneuver through Ms. Ruı´ z’s classroom, we look to the left side of the room where we see centered above the windows that run along the side of the room a sign that says, ‘‘Friends look for all kinds of ways to be kind to each other’’ and a poster with the word ‘‘Friends’’ translated in a variety of languages representative of the school community. Along each side of the sign, you see a creative display of self-portraits of classroom friends with student-generated descriptions responding to ‘‘Who are we? Who am I today?’’ This description will be revisited and revised at key times throughout the year so that students can update ‘‘Who they are’’ to support the notion that we all change as does our cultural identity. Under the windows a small couch, two bean bags and an assortment of pillows forms the ‘‘Buddy Reading’’ area. A small crate of themed books on bugs/insects compliments the current science unit. A bookshelf labeled ‘‘Class Library’’ divides the ‘‘Buddy’’ area from the guided reading table. Collaboratively students decided how to catalog the materials at the start of the school year. Materials were sorted into colorful crates labeled: Magic, Fiction, Clifford, Dr. Suess, Jokes, Animals, Science, Who We Are and How We Live (sample texts of contemporary stories and narratives about cultural pluralism and different views of the world). Tucked comfortably in the far left-hand corner to the left of the class library is the listening center. On the table, two tape-recorders and a vertical file with cataloged cassette tapes are positioned between small stacks of accompanying books. Two headsets hang from hooks above each tape-recorder. The wall behind the guided reading table holds several illustrated posters, which read: (a) Ask three before me; (b) When I’m done—

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ways to maximize my time; (c) Hints for punctuation and checking my work; and (d) I’m going to give it all I’ve got everyday. These four positively worded classroom guidelines were created collaboratively by the students and teacher at the start of the year. They are revisited periodically and revised when a need for change is determined by the class as a whole.

Managing the Classroom and Scaffolding Once again, we observe Ms. Ruı´ z to demonstrate a management approach that emphasizes the importance of community building and social decisionmaking. In a caring, supportive, culturally rich community of learners, teacher and learners need to find ways to interact, get to know each other, and advocate for oneself. Also, the teacher encourages learners to find value in looking for their commonalities and differences. At the same time, the teacher recognizes that we all change as individuals and cultural beings. The creation of this classroom display on ‘‘Friends’’ can accomplish several tasks: (1) it can provide the teacher with information about each learner (experiences, family, self-concept, cultural heritage); (2) it allows the learner to reflect on the changes she/he has experienced during the school year; and (3) it encourages classmates to revisit their opinions of each other and reflect on how they demonstrate friendly, respectful interactions in the classroom community (Kottler & Kottler, 2002; Sobel, Taylor, & Wortman, 2006; Weinstein et al., 2004). Ms. Ruı´ z has found a way to encourage and support meaningful conversation and collaboration among students in the context of the ‘‘Buddy Reading’’ area. Students have the chance to expand their reading and interests related to the science unit. The teacher has found another venue for providing a range of engaging books at a variety of genre and reading levels with the goal of stimulating and motivating students to read for enjoyment. Ms. Ruı´ z’s beliefs in differentiation continue to drive her decision-making around classroom environment (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005; Tomlinson, 1999). Her decision to maintain a listening center links to Ms. Ruı´ z’s belief that listening offers a potentially rich resource for providing supplemental strategies to meet the needs of individual learners. A listening center offers multiple opportunities to support struggling readers and encourage learners to make sense of what they have heard. For readers who have difficulty focusing, this teacher knows that simultaneously hearing and seeing the text can help them to concentrate. Moreover, listening and viewing a book

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promotes fluency and reading for enjoyment (Routman, 1999). Additionally, in terms of second language learning, listening provides a strong link to language development. Providing learners with a variety of focused listening tasks via audio devices allows them to listen and replay as needed. This teacher knows that understanding what is said helps to provide important models for language use. In this listening center, learners will participate in one-way tasks where the listener is asked to respond (verbally or in writing) either about everyday conversational topics or informational topics. In daily life, one-way listening is generally very difficult because the listener doesn’t have the opportunity to ask for clarification (e.g., listening to the news). However, the center is structured so that the learner can replay the message as needed. As a follow-up activity in class, the teacher will guide students through two-way listening activities where they have a chance to ask for clarification, signal that they do not understand and self-advocate (Gibbons, 2002). Issues of large class size, increasing numbers of students who experience emotional and/or behavioral challenges and classes with vast ability differences create a heightened need for increased effectiveness in managing classroom behaviors (Sobel, Taylor, & Wortman, 2006). Ms. Ruı´ z favors a classroom management approach that emphasizes the importance of selfregulation, community building, and social decision-making (Weinstein et al., 2004). With expectations of what is ‘‘appropriate behavior’’ being culturally influenced, potential conflicts are likely to occur when teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds and share distinct life experiences. Teachers will continue to face greater instructional, behavioral, and classroom management challenges as they strive to accommodate the increasing diversity of students’ learning styles and behavioral needs (Larrivee, 2005). These issues are further magnified by insufficient opportunities to learn and practice the necessary social competencies and communication skills under the typical management routines found in today’s demanding classrooms (Harriott & Martin, 2004). This classroom teacher understands these concerns and has planned to ensure that the school-wide social skills initiative is reinforced in her classroom. She appreciates that classroom rules need to be positively worded and personalized by students to ensure their ownership. Rather than focusing on students’ negative behaviors or characteristics, this teacher emphasizes students’ strengths and progress. Well, the morning bell has rung, class has begun, and Ms. Ruı´ z is transitioning to her literacy block. As we shift our focus to the lesson, take note of the bulletin board up front that is labeled ‘‘Our Schedules’’ and the calendar display with the daily classroom routine.

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To the right of the calendar, a small digital and analog clock (with movable hands) is displayed. To the left of the calendar is a threepocket plastic pouch labeled, ‘‘Days-in-School.’’ Drinking straws are placed in each pocket to depict the ones-tens- and hundreds. A black and white number line runs the length of the front of the room and a small school shaped magnet is placed on the number corresponding to the current days-in-school. An erase board lists today’s schedule for all academics and specials. Recognizing the strong correlation between print-rich environments and literacy development as shown in the research, this teacher is strategically using the environment print in the classroom to support both reading and math literacy (Krashen, 1996). Students are presented with authentic purposes for reading (e.g., the schedule and the calendar) and for manipulating the analog clock, the calendar, and the numerals corresponding with the dates of the month (figuring out the time, the number of days spent in school, etc.). Real reading and real numeracy seem to abound in this classroom. In this case, the environmental print is much more than decorative; it serves as supplemental reinforcement of current curricular content. Back in the classroom, we notice that just below today’s schedule, is the focus for today’s lesson:  Today’s focus: Story elements  Essential Question: What are key elements to literature? How do elements of literature engage and hold the attention of readers? What connections can you make to the character and events in the literature?  Standard: Third grade language arts standard 6—Students read, understand, and interpret literature as a record and expression of human experience. And 3rd grade history standard 3—Students understand that societies are diverse and have changed over time.  How does this lesson fit into unit content? This content supports our continued study of literature as an expression of human experience situated within a diverse and changing society.  Language Objective: Students will be able to describe the main character using their spoken and written language.  Learner Outcome: Students will be able to record in writing descriptors of the main character’s personality, appearance, and personal situation.

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The Learner and the Curriculum In literacy, students have been focused on recognizing and applying story elements in their reading and writing. Using multicultural children’s literature, students have read and discussed several books with the theme of quilts to support their reflection of family and cultural history, life experiences, and personal attributes. Shortly after the start of the school year, the teacher introduced the concept of quilts in a read-aloud of The Keeping Quilt (Polacco, 2001). The story of a Russian family’s quilt that was used for the Sabbath table cloth, a wedding canopy, and a baby blanket, prompted students’ reflections and memories of their own life experiences. Throughout this unit, the teacher implemented a series of lessons integrating literature, literacy, and art which facilitated students’ preliminary verbal and written sharing about their lives, families, cultures, and special memories. As previously mentioned, students took home a handout on ‘‘Exploring our own cultures, families, and stories’’ and completed this with their family’s assistance (see Fig. 8.1). Eventually, each student created an individual quilt square that became part of a larger classroom quilt. Students shared orally and in writing about the design and significance of their quilt squares. These activities allowed the teacher and students to access a deeper understanding of each other’s backgrounds and experiences. Moreover, it prompted students to interact with their families, to recall and share interesting memories and life stories, and to read and respond to the children’s literature about life stories grounded in quilts. Last but not least, making a class quilt instilled a strong sense of community in the classroom. Let’s listen in to the classroom interactions. Ms. Ruı´ z is starting the lesson by prompting students to recall what it is that good readers do. ‘‘Hello good readers! Who remembers what good readers do? Marcos, I see your hand is raised, please tell us your idea. [Marcos responds.] Yes, you’re right on target! Marcos tells us that good readers make connections to what they know. They visualize and ask themselves questions. Can anyone add to Marcos’ information?’’ The teacher looks to Gabriela whose hand is raised, but when she calls on her, Gabby is speechless. ‘‘OK Gabby, take time to gather your ideas, and I’ll come back to you.’’ Another student shares that good readers predict and verify predictions. ‘‘Yes, very good. Let’s see if we can remember two more things that good readers do. Gabriela, have you remembered what you want to say?’’ This time Gabby speaks up and shares that good readers figure out what to do when they don’t

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understand and decide what is important about the parts they do understand. Ms. Ruı´ z replies, ‘‘Excellent, I like how you are remembering many of the thinking strategies that help our comprehension. Well, good readers, do you remember the story map we used last week with Shota’s Star Quilt?’’

Language Objective and Evidence of Student Understanding Recently, the class worked with elements of story using the picture book, Shota’s Star Quilt (Bateson Hill, 2001), the story about the power of quilting, family and cultural heritage, and community activism as revealed by a young Lakota girl, her family, and friends. Concurrently with the reading of this text, the teacher supported an embedded application of reading comprehension strategies (see Fig. 8.3). After the initial and followup reading aloud of the story, the teacher facilitated the completion of a story map graphic addressing: setting, main characters, problem, and resolution. While there are many formats of story maps, the format selected by students was a pinwheel-type visual. Jutting out from the center of the pinwheel are five spokes. At the end of each ‘‘spoke’’ were labels identifying each story element, such as setting, characters, main events, problem, and resolution (see Figs. 8.4 and 8.5 for Story Map choices). Ms. Ruı´ z chose to repeat what Marcos shared since he spoke in a quiet voice. She does not make a habit of repeating what students have said since she noticed earlier in the year that when she frequently repeated what students said, children stopped listening to each other and waited to hear what she said. She was pleased to see Grabiela’s hand raised since she is a student who rarely participates. Gabriela is an English language learner and is hesitant to speak up in a whole class discussion. So, when Gabriela raised her hand Ms. Ruı´ z was thrilled to call on her. Seeing that Gabriela froze and had nothing to say, Ms. Ruı´ z suspected with some additional time to think through her words and ideas, Gabby would be ready to share. For today’s lesson, the teacher has determined that the class was ready to be introduced to character development and characters descriptors supported with a graphic similar to the familiar story map visual. ‘‘So, tell me, good readers. What did the story map help you do?’’ (see Fig. 8.6 for completed story map). Students replied that the map helped them remember parts of the story, decide what was most important, and stay focused on the story elements, and summarize the

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Strategy Building background Knowledge (Text-to-self, Text-totext, Text-to-world)

Good thinkers….. Make connections to what they already know.

Prioritizing importance

Can key information from less important details.

Questioning

Are curious about what they are reading.

Predicting

Forecast and see what is coming.

Inferring

Make assumptions or suggestions based on the author’s clues or the pictures or their own experiences.

Summarizing

Select the main points and recap them in an organized way.

Visualizing

Think about pictures in their head.

Understanding

Recognize and are aware of the topic.

Fig. 8.3.

Visual Cue

Reading-Thinking Strategies.

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Story Map Title of Book ___________________________________________________________ Author(s) ___________________________________ Your Name________________ Setting: Main Characters:

Statement of the problem:

Event 1:

Event 2:

Event 3:

Event 4:

Event 5:

Statement of the solution:

Story theme (What is this story really about?):

Fig. 8.4.

Story Map Graphics, Example 1.

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Title of Book __________________________________________________________ Author(s) __________________________________ Your Name________________ Characters: Time/Place:

Problem/Goal:

Main Event:

Main Event:

Main Event:

Resolution:

Fig. 8.5.

Story Map Graphics, Example 2.

story. ‘‘Congratulations! That answer really demonstrates that you understand the parts of a story and how a story map supports our understandings. Now, let me tell you about what we are going to do today.’’

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Story Map

SETTING

Minneapolis PineRidge Reservation

SOLUTION PROBLEM

Redevelopment

TITLE

"Shota& theStar Quilt"

- Quilting - Solidarity - Friendship - Activism

MAIN CHARACTERS

- Shota - Esther - Unci - StarMan

Fig. 8.6.

Completed Story Map Graphic.

‘‘Today, we will focus on just one aspect of story elements and that is character. What are some words we might use to describe a character or a person?’’ Students’ replies included descriptors like nice, friendly, tall, strong, and fast runner. The teacher listed students’ preliminary responses on a poster paper for all students to see. ‘‘That is a great start! Now, just for a minute, let’s think back to other characters we have read about recently, and please help me describe them.’’ The teacher showed Clara from Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Hopkinson, 2003) and students generated descriptors about this familiar character such as seamstress, slave, smart, talented, patient, hopeful, brave, and risk-taker. The teacher added simplistic symbols along side each descriptor to support the 2 or 3 students who are reading at a primer level. This activity provided the teacher with a quick informal assessment of students’ understandings of character and personal descriptors. ‘‘Ok, now let’s return to Shota’s Star Quilt.

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I’d like for you to think about how we could describe three characters who we have come to know very well in this story.’’ Ms. Ruı´ z shows students visuals of three key characters in Shota’s Star Quilt (Bateson Hill, 2001)—Starman, Shota, and Unci (Shota’s grandmother, Rose Flying Eagle). Together with the class, they point out descriptors of each of these three characters. Then, using a blank character map, the Ms. Ruı´ z focuses on Shota as her model. ‘‘Ok, listen to me as I think aloud about the picture I have in my head of Shota. Help me think about descriptors about Shota and the role she plays in the story.’’ A couple of times, Ms. Ruı´ z talks about how she is having to infer personal attributes from Shota’s actions in the story. Here again, Ms. Ruı´ z adds simple symbols for each descriptor so all learners in the classroom are supported. For example, for Shota’s bravery, Ms. Ruı´ z uses the symbol of a ‘‘muscle arm.’’ She also distinguishes between examples and nonexamples to help students’ understanding of personal attributes and descriptors. Eventually, Ms. Ruı´ z asks students to use their individual dryerase boards. ‘‘Ok everyone, using your own whiteboard, write your own descriptor of Shota and hold it up when you are done!’’ Using students’ written responses as another informal assessment, Ms. Ruı´ z clarifies for the few students who need input, then she adds students’ descriptors to the character web visual she is creating with the input of the entire class. Ms. Ruı´ z recognizes the strength of a gradual release of responsibility. She understands the value of providing students with a model that involves guided-practice prior to students working independently on a similar task. Her approach to using symbols along with word descriptors for personal attributes provides support for all learners, including English language learners who may need the symbol to fully understand the descriptive word. By building from the familiar towards the new, Ms. Ruı´ z is supporting students’ conceptualization of new information so that they can apply it in a meaningful way. Her plan to have students ‘‘give it a try’’ using the white board provides her with an opportunity for informal formative assessment of individual’s understandings: ‘‘I can see from the words you have written on the white boards, what you understand about Shota’s personality traits. Nice work! Now, take a moment to reflect on two other characters from Shota’s Star Quilt, Star Man and Unci. Close your eyes for five seconds and think about everything you remember about those two characters. [five seconds pass.]

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Do you have some descriptors in mind that describe these two characters? Keep these in your mind and listen carefully now for your next steps.’’ Ms. Ruı´ z explained that students would be breaking into four cooperative learning groups with assigned responsibilities. ‘‘Materials managers, raise your hands. Ok, now listen carefully. When group work begins, your responsibility will be to pick up the color-coded clip board, which has a blank copy of the character map, a list of descriptor choices to get you started, and a marker. Each group will have 10–12 minutes to review the descriptor list, brainstorm additional descriptors, discuss and decide which descriptors describe the character assigned to your group, and complete the character map.’’ Before students divide into groups, Ms. Ruı´ z has a few reminders for the whole class. ‘‘Remember writers, if you finish before we are ready for group to share, you should choose how to maximize your time. Refer to the ‘When I’m Done’ poster if you need a reminder of what that should look like.’’ Students divide into four groups and begin working intently in small groups as the teacher circulates around the room to observe and support students’ progress. After groups have discussed for four to five minutes, the teacher interrupts, ‘‘Ladies and gentlemen, FREEZE! By now, each group should have at least one to two descriptors selected and written. Thank you!’’ As Ms. Ruı´ z continues to monitor each group’s progress, she places tokens in a plastic baggie that is positioned in the center of each group’s table. Group tokens are given for appropriate collaborative behaviors and can be redeemed at the end of the day for a motivator such as a ‘‘no homework’’ coupon. When time is up, the two ‘‘character alike’’ groups merge to discuss the descriptors they had selected for their character map. Next, a representative from each of the four groups is identified to serve as reporter to share the group’s character map to the whole class. But first, the teacher speaks up: ‘‘Readers and Writers, could I please have your attention? Before each reporter shares their group’s responses, I’d like them to select the type of follow-up feedback they are seeking from the other class members.’’ The teacher then motioned to the poster labeled, ‘‘Options for Providing Feedback’’ that displayed three symbols with an accompanying word and explanation (see Fig. 8.2). Each group selected their feedback choice and the sharing began.

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After each group had verbally shared, Ms. Ruı´ z told students to use their writing journal and proceed with their written response. ‘‘Remember students, the purpose of this part of the lesson is for each of you to create a character map and sentence describing four to five descriptors about your own character, that means YOU! Remember, you have now discussed and described several characters from stories we’ve read and you have a list of descriptors as well as strategies that can help you. You are welcome to refer to the character maps that your group created as well as the descriptor lists. If you are unsure about getting started, please see me and we will talk about a character pyramid that you could use in your writing journal (see Figs. 8.7 and 8.8). Last, please remember that after you have completed

Fig. 8.7.

Fig. 8.8.

Character Map.

Character Map of Clara.

Grade 3 Literacy Lesson with a Culturally Responsive Focus

Fig. 8.9.

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Feedback Symbols for Understanding.

your journal, include feedback about your level of understanding (an up arrow for ‘‘I get it,’’ a down arrow down for ‘‘I’m confused,’’ and a question mark for ‘‘I think I understand but I still have questions’’ (see Fig. 8.9). Learners thrive when they feel welcome, safe, and supported. In a learning community where anxiety is kept low, and motivation and selfesteem are kept high, students see their attributes, experiences, and strengths used as a foundation for future learning. Ms. Ruı´ z has set up the students for success using a carefully sequenced and scaffolded lesson based on content that is grounded in multicultural children’s literature where each student has the change to see some aspect of their lives reflected. Caring and a caring environment provide the ‘‘foundational pillar of effective teaching and learning’’ (Gay, 2010b, p. 62). In its absence, inequities soar in the area of educational opportunities and achievement results, in particular, for ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and/or academically diverse learners. As teachers attempt to create such an environment in the classroom, they must bring a commitment to the ethic of caring and to building a caring classroom community (Sergiovanni, 1994; Weinstein et al., 2004).

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CONCLUSION Culturally responsive teaching starts with the learners. Understanding that information about the learners can be used to inform decisions about planning and instruction, teachers have the opportunity to consider the interplay of curriculum, content, and the cultures reflected in the classroom of learners. As they use students’ cultural information, life experiences, interests, and preferred learning strategies, teachers come upon ways to make the curriculum relevant to their students. Working from a strengthbased perspective, teachers who acknowledge the resources students bring to the classroom can accommodate individual learners by adapting the instruction so that it builds on students’ strengths and needs. As such, teachers can help students move from what they know to what they need to know and do so in ways that are meaningful for student.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. What are examples of literature that you can incorporate into a lesson that would support students to understand the pluralism of today’s world, respect the diversity of today’s society, and see themselves in a positive light? 2. Building on the ‘‘Friendship’’ activities that Ms. Ruı´ z incorporates into her classroom, what sorts of things do you do to encourage learners to find value in looking for their commonalities and differences? 3. How is attention distributed in your classroom? How do you refer to the students in your classroom? Are first names, last names, or nicknames used, how often? Are whole group references to ‘‘ladies and gentleman’’ or ‘‘third graders’’ or ‘‘readers and writers’’ used? Record a typical lesson, then play back the recording and tally who was called on, for what purpose, and in what way. What does the teacher’s distribution of attention reveal and what will you do differently based on those results? 4. As a youth, were there students from a range of cultural, racial/ethnic or religious backgrounds, or students learning a second language or students with special needs in the classrooms you experienced as a student? How were these students treated? In what ways might these students have seen themselves reflected in the literature used in the classroom?

CHAPTER NINE GRADE 5 MATHEMATICS LESSON WITH A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FOCUS

INTRODUCTION In the previous chapter, explicit strategies such as (1) creating a classroom environment to support a social context that fosters language development, (2) selecting materials that build on and expand students’ cultural frames of reference, and (3) managing the classroom with strategies to engage learners and support their self-advocacy were illustrated in a 3rd grade literacy lesson. We will move now to a 5th grade classroom where students are involved in a mathematics lesson. The issue of teacher and student demographics is addressed and instructional strategies related to the language of mathematics. The teacher also incorporates environmental print, grouping arrangements, and materials rooted in community assets highlighted in mathematics instruction.

TEACHER PROFILE After graduating from college with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, I took a job at a small advertising agency as a junior account coordinator. I had the opportunity to work on campaigns for some big name clients. However, I found that dedicating 50–60 hours a week advancing pizza sales left me feeling exhausted and unfulfilled. Frequent conversations with my former roommate who was teaching in a local high school connected the dots for me about what might truly make me happy. After I completed my program in elementary education I was offered a position in a 5th grade classroom in a school that was struggling to make 157

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academic gains. While I felt as though my licensure program prepared me to teach the required content, I was nervous about the students and their families. The school community was very different from both the one I grew up in and the one where I completed my student teaching. I was raised in a Jewish community in the suburbs in a middle-class, two parent family with a sister and two brothers. I went to the neighbor elementary, middle and high school and genuinely appreciate the many opportunities that my parent provided. My father worked in the automobile industry and my mother worked part-time as a receptionist in a real estate office. They were able to financially help all of their kids with college and continue to play an active role in all of our lives. Certainly, the world I grew up in is not the same one that my students are growing-up in. I’m in my sixth year of teaching and just like in my previous years, I see that the students [in my class] come from very diverse backgrounds. In my current classroom, several are learning English, a few have special needs, while others are identified as gifted. I remember thinking that several of my teachers from elementary school were boring and I vowed to not be that sort of teacher. How are my desires to be that engaging, approachable teacher going to mesh with the realities of my classroom? – Ms. Jennings, Grade 5 teacher Just as Ms. Jennings expressed anxiety regarding the school community and her ability to create a nurturing and engaging classroom, she realized that beginning with the classroom environment provides a tangible starting place for teachers to consider what to include in their classroom designs and practices that will signal acceptance and support for a wide range of students’ diverse cultural backgrounds and abilities (Drucker, 2005). A variety of data-gathering measures were used to capture and critique Ms. Jennings conscious journey towards responsive teaching (Taylor & Sobel, 2003; Sobel, Taylor, & Wortman, 2006).

SOCIOCULTURAL CLASSROOM CONTEXT Ms. Jennings’ classroom provides a clear illustration of the rich diversity at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary School in the Mountain School District. In Ms. Jennings’ 5th grade class, a look at the 29 students reveals a fairly even distribution in gender, with 13 females and 16 males. Compiled ethnicity documentation submitted by students’ guardians lists two students as African American, 11 students as Hispanic, one student as Asian American, and 15 students as European American. Religious profile data identified two students as Jewish, one student as Buddhist, and 14 students as Christian,

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while 12 student files did not indicate a religious affiliation. This classroom is home to three students with identified gifted needs, of whom one is African American and two are European Americans. Of the five students identified with a disability, three are Hispanic (two are native English speakers and one is a native Spanish speaker) and two are European American. Those disabilities include one student with Autism Spectrum Disorder, three students with a learning disability, and one student with a behavioral disorder. A total of nine students have been identified as needing an individualized literacy plan, as they are reading below grade level, including one African American student, five Hispanic students (of whom four receive English language services and one has a learning disability), and four European American students. The needs of all of the nine students on individualized literacy plans in Ms. Jennings’ class are addressed in small-group guided reading instruction. Students with English language needs receive a combination of services, including ‘‘push-in’’ support, through which an ELL teacher provides smallgroup remedial instruction in writing. Reading instruction is provided on a limited, regular basis by the support of the ELL teacher or a bilingual paraeducator, a specially trained classroom aide who assists during literacy instruction, serving as a resource to support and reinforce students’ native language in their language development.

RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS IN MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTION FOR ELL STUDENTS Alarmingly English language learners not yet proficient in English are one of the lowest achieving populations in both reading and mathematics (Reardon & Galindo, 2009; Reardon & Robinson, 2008). Research efforts in both mathematics education and the intersections of schooling and culture have made important contributions towards the development of a more complex understanding of the relation between culture, race, and mathematics learning (Nasir, 2002). Understanding issues that contribute to poor mathematical performance outcomes of individuals from diverse backgrounds has led to the examination of factors related to differential treatment and denied opportunity in socioeconomic and educational contexts (Jones, 1993; Ladson-Billings, 1994a, 1995; Oakes, 1990a, 1990b; Tate, 1994, 1995). Orr (1987) sought to determine if cultural and linguistic barriers hinder African American students’ performance in mathematics by examining learning styles and the use of African American English. Perceived underperformance due to

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linguistic complexity has been determined to be a major contributing factor (Solano-Flores & Trumbull, 2008; Willner, Rivera, & Acosta, 2008). Rivera, Collum, Willner, and Sia (2006) have investigated needed ‘‘ELL-responsive’’ testing accommodations aimed at providing linguistic support intended to address unnecessary linguistic complexity. Robinson (2010) found that test translations provided ELL students with enhanced opportunities to demonstrate their mathematical knowledge and encouraged policy makers to add translations as a recommended accommodation. Important research efforts (e.g., Frankenstein, 1997; Ladson-Billings, 1994b, 1995) have focused attention on multicultural and culturally responsive pedagogy in mathematics by examining the compatibility of student academic needs and learning styles with current curriculum and pedagogical practices. Ladson-Billings (1994b/2009) found that successful teachers of African American students use students’ real-life experiences as a legitimate part of the official curriculum. Frankenstein’s (1997) investigations reveal that if mathematics curricula and pedagogy are not connected to the realities of student’s lives, students may not be able to fully engage as the learning is not seen as worthy or meaningful. Frankenstein (1997) clarifies, ‘‘Knowledge is not created and recreated in fragmented forms in which school subjects are presented, mathematics occurs in contexts integrated with other knowledge of the world’’ (p. 13). Ensign (2003) further recommends that encouraging students to write about the context in which their personal math occurs provides teachers the springboard to discuss societal influences on the math that students experience daily such as the value of goods and services. As Ensign (2003) maintains, ‘‘This can help extend mathematics beyond mechanically learning to solve school mathematics problems to include a critical approach to the culture in which mathematics occurs in their lives’’ (p. 422). Martin (2000) describes the concept of mathematical identity as an individual’s perceived competence about her/his mathematical capabilities, motivation to secure mathematics knowledge, and the belief about both opportunities and constraints that exist to participate in such learning. Martin (2000) argues that explanations for mathematics success and failure among African-American youth are directly linked to sociohistorical, community, family, school, and intrapersonal contexts.

CLASSROOM TOUR Envision now that you are walking through the 5th grade classroom at Ce´sar Cha´vez Elementary. You are greeted by Ms. Jennings, who is at the doorway welcoming students as they enter the room.

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As you enter the classroom, you see a large bulletin board with a calendar display calendar, and to the right of the calendar, a whiteboard lists today’s schedule for all academics and specials. Directly in the center of the whiteboard, a color poster of runners at the starting line of a race is posted near the heading, ‘‘Let’s get started. On your mark, get set, go!!!’’ is written within a colored border. Today the following prompt is provided: ‘‘I am a day of the week. I come right after and right before days that have the same number of letters in their names (English spelling) as each other. What day am I?’’ Students are seated at round tables that hold 4–5 students and there are 2 groupings of 3 desks that allow for two groups of 3 students to collaborate in a smaller grouping.

BEING RESPONSIVE TO STUDENTS’ CULTURE Environment/Environmental Print The 5th grade classroom offers a visually stimulating and welcoming environment that greets and engages students as they enter. Students’ gaze is immediately drawn to the daily schedule as they begin to independently preview the day’s activities. Students’ actions reveal that they know the routine of beginning each day with a ‘‘Let’s get started’’ activity as they begin referring to the calendar to decipher the problem-solving message. Scanning the room, your eyes are drawn to the brightly colored ‘‘Math Central’’ area that fills most of the side wall. As depicted in Fig. 9.1, a series of posters border the Math Central area. On the left, the top poster describes steps for problem-solving, another displays visual illustrations of fractions, and a third poster shows common measurements. A teacher-made poster focused on ‘‘place value’’ (i.e., The value of a digit as determined by its position in a number) is displayed in the center of the visual, along with a set of twelve color-coded homework folders. To the right, Ms. Jennings has posted a large probability chart. A number line runs the length of the wall and a bulletin board displays student work samples that have incorporated writing into math story problems. A rolling cart filled with multisensory materials is positioned in the Math Central area. The classroom environment and the environmental print provided in the Math Center areas serve important instructional purposes. Ms. Jennings

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Fig. 9.1.

Math Central.

stresses the importance of her students learning to attend to the language of mathematics as students attempt to derive meaning from that language. One problem that students with language differences or academic challenges wrestle with is the understanding of how words are used in mathematical word problems, and what specific operations are implied by those words. For example, a problem that states a specific overall quantity and requests unstated information regarding each one or for one, certainly seems to be implying some type of division operation, and students need to learn to use such cues in determining how to solve the problem. Ms. Jennings presented students with the following problem: Maria made 57 bracelets and wants to give the same number of bracelets to each of her six friends. How many bracelets did she give each friend? Did she have any left over? Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm (2006) recommend that problem-solving be taught, cautioning that explicit strategies and practice will require a considerable investment of time. Ms. Jennings has invested just such time by training her students to refer to the problem-solving poster for help with remembering to use a fourstep strategy to solve word problems: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Think about the problem; Create a plan by deciding which operation to use; Do the problem by first writing the math sentence; Check every step of your work.

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The prominently displayed poster provided to assist students with understanding place value serves as yet another example of the use of environmental print. Place value is a concept that is linked to our base 10 system, and students must learn this concept as they use numbers of more than one digit. The large color poster included on the Math Central wall helps students accurately group and identify numbers at multiple-digit levels (e.g., 6,000 þ 700 þ 50 þ 4 ¼ ?). Ms. Jennings’ chart illustrates the importance of organizing information in clear, sequential ways. Her laminated poster is designed as an interactive teaching tool where sample numbers can be written under the corresponding digit.

Instructional Adaptations Providing practice in key math concepts is paramount in Ms. Jennings’ planning, as she knows that practice is essential for students to exhibit high levels of accuracy consistently and across multiple problem types (Vaughn et al., 2006). In organizing math practice, the color-coded folders within the Math Central area house daily homework drills, with the top folder holding copies of work from yesterday’s lesson, the middle folder holding today’s work, and the bottom folder holding tomorrow’s work. To support individualized and independent math practice, each student is designated one of the four colors, which signify mathematics problems at different levels of difficulty that have been matched to students’ differentiated ability levels. Students have also been taught to access the folders and necessary material to make up work after any absences from school. Tomlinson (2001) cautions that teachers often expect far too little of students who are struggling with language and academic tasks. Ms. Jennings concurs with Tomlinson’s assertion that students, and, specifically, ELL students, are the ones who absolutely must be provided with supported activities for continued practice. For students with second language needs, Ms. Jennings follows Tomlinson’s suggestion that students be allowed to have ready access to information in their first language and provides strong support systems for translating, through use of bilingual dictionaries and online translation sites. Ms. Jennings uses math practice ‘‘assignment timelines’’ to allow students to initially express ideas in their first language and then to later express them into the second language. Helping students to move from concrete to abstract learning begins by providing manipulative and interactive opportunities to integrate new mathematical concepts (Peterson Miller, 2009). Ms. Jennings’ well-stocked

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cart of math manipulatives helps her promote the idea that mathematical operations have meaning. To help teach and reinforce important math concepts, Ms. Jennings’ cart is stocked with both commercially purchased and teacher-made resources, including: containers of simulated coins and bills (representing international currency), small digital and analog clocks (with movable hands), flash cards (all directions are translated into English and Spanish), a deck of cards, rulers, protractors, tape measures, measuring cups, a five-pound scale, graph paper, puzzles, games, and calculators (some designed with enlarged keys and very basic functions and others that perform more sophisticated calculations). In addition, Ms. Jennings’ cart contains arithmetic vocabulary elaboration cards (a set in English and Spanish), decimal squares, base 10 blocks, and fraction blocks and pegs. On the far wall that houses the Math Central materials, an observer will see a bulletin board with the title, ‘‘MY COMMUNITY IS FILLED WITH MATHEMATICS.’’ An array of color photographs of the local community (e.g., street signs, an arch over the door of a bakery, the roman numerals on a building of worship, equipment at a park) are displayed each within a creative geometrically designed border made of construction paper. To the left of the bulletin board hangs a teacher-made poster entitled, ‘‘Meet women mathematicians who overcame great odds’’ (see Fig. 9.2, note alterations have been done to classroom print artifacts).

Community Involvement For teachers to genuinely teach in culturally responsive ways, they must become familiar with their students’ communities in order to further incorporate relevant experiences and resources into school practices (Saifer, Edwards, Ellis Ko, & Stuczynski, 2011; Ford, 2004; Sleeter, 2001). Ms. Jennings is very forthright in acknowledging that the community in which she is teaching is dramatically different from the one she grew up in and the one where she currently resides. To aid her in beginning to know her students’ community, she committed to authentically spending time in the community by regularly shopping in the local markets, taking an exercise class at the recreation center, dining at nearby restaurants, and attending local events (e.g., fairs, speakers at the library, or sporting events). As she walked about the community, she took photographs of buildings, parks, and streets and then began to analyze how these community assets could be

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Meet women mathematicians who overcame great odds Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684) was an Italian mathematician and theologian. She was a child prodigy who studied many languages, composed music, sang and played many instruments, and learned philosophy, mathematics and theology. She was the first woman to have earned a doctoral degree. She was lecturer in mathematics at the University of Padua. Sophie Germain (1776–1830) was a French mathematician. After discovering geometry, she taught herself mathematics, and also Latin and Greek so that she could read the classical mathematics texts. Her parents opposed her study and tried to stop it, so she studied at night. They took away candles and forbid nighttime fires, even taking her clothes away, all so that she could not read at night. Her response: she smuggled candles, she wrapped herself in her bedclothes. She still found ways to study. Finally the family gave in to her mathematical study. Her work was foundational to the applied mathematics used in construction of skyscrapers today, and was important at the time to the new field of mathematical physics, especially to the study of acoustics and elasticity. Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780–1872) was a Scottish and British mathematician known as the “Queen of Nineteenth Century Science,” she fought family opposition to her study of math, and not only produced her own writings on theoretical and mathematical science, she produced the first geography text in England. Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891) was a Russian mathematician. She escaped her parents’ opposition to her advanced study by a marriage of convenience, moving from Russia to Germany and, eventually, to Sweden, where her research in mathematics included the Koalevskaya Top Theorem. Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) was a British mathematician. She was the only legitimate daughter of Byron, the poet. Her translation of an article on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine includes notations (three-fourths of the translation!) that describe what later became known as a computer and as software. In 1980, the Ada computer language was named for her. Amalie Emmy Noether (1882–1935) was a German, Jewish, American mathematician. Noether escaped Germany when the Nazis took over, and taught in America for several years. Albert Einstein called Noether the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began. Euphemia Haynes earned a doctorate degree in mathematics from Catholic University of America (CUA) in 1943, becoming the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. degree in mathematics. She had a distinguished career in Washington teaching in the public schools of Washington, DC for forty-seven years and serving as the first woman chair ofthe DC School Board where she was central to the integration of the public schools. She was a professor of mathematics at Miner Teachers College and at the District of Columbia Teachers College. Lenore Blum finished high school at the age of 16, after which she excitedly applied to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who turned her down for the first of several attempts to enroll. She began college at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh studying first architecture and then math, her real love. For her third year, she enrolled at Simmons, a women’s college in Boston, only to find the math courses not challenging enough. She cross-registered at MIT, her first successful foot-in-the-door attempt, and received her Ph.D. in mathematics from M.I.T. in 1968. Blum was one of the recipients of the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

Fig. 9.2.

Female Mathematicians.

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used within her classroom or with her students by their families. Her photographs of local stores, a local church, street signs, and an area park were hung on the wall and Ms. Jennings regularly uses those visuals as prompts in her instruction. For example, in a recent lesson on shapes she referred to the distinct angle on the steeple of the local church. Ms. Jennings appreciated the importance of planning for ways that her students can learn about and look up to mathematicians (Johnson, 2000; Saifer et al., 2011). To provide motivational messages about how mathematics has opened doors to professions and careers, Ms. Jennings has invited speakers who represent diverse linguistic and cultural groups into her classroom. The creation of the Meet Women Mathematicians poster is an effort on Ms. Jennings’ part to illustrate the numerous achievements of individuals who have traditionally been underrepresented in the field of mathematics. She researched books and Internet sites and captured key biographical profiles and positive contributions of women mathematicians, then synthesized the information onto laminated cards with velcro backing so she can easily change the profiles. During today’s lesson, Ms. Jennings conducted a math review lesson based on students’ performance on yesterday’s homework. After modeling the steps to solving a fractions problem, the teacher informed the students that they were to move to cooperative learning groups to work on a fractions word problem. Ms Jennings clarified, ‘‘Imagine you have just eaten pizza at Antonio’s’’ (here she moves to the color photograph of a local pizzeria). You are to work together to solve the problem: Five friends are eating personal pan pizzas. Juan has 3/5 left, Jack has 1/3 left, Danielle has 4/5 left, Maddie has 2/3 left, and Coleman has 2/5 left. Rank order who ate the most pizza. From a decorated coffee can, the teacher began to pull popsicle sticks on which students’ names were written, in order to determine the composition of the heterogeneous teams. Each of the five teams was provided with a clear overhead transparency and a colored marker. Next, Ms. Jennings stated, ‘‘Okay mathematicians, today you are to participate in a think-pair-share session. You must work together to figure out how to solve the problem with words, pictures, or symbols. You are all responsible for learning the strategy that your group selects for solving this problem, a spokesperson from your group needs to be ready to present to the entire class. In front of you, you will each find a different colored circle. Who can tell me in your own words the first three things your group needs to do?’’

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Ms. Jennings uses vocabulary elaboration in her teaching. In addition to number concepts, algorithms, and procedures, she knows that her students must also learn and apply many specialized terms (e.g., addend, sum, multiplier, quotient, difference, product, and divisor). Ms. Jennings has provided direct instruction tying mathematical vocabulary to the concepts they are intended to represent, using strategies described by Mastropieri and Scruggs (2009). For example, in the review of homework, to help students remember that the multiplier is the number on the bottom of a multiplication problem, next to the multiplication sign (when presented vertically), she has drawn the multiplication sign to represent a pair of pliers. The pliers show which number is the multiplier. For a division problem, quotation marks are placed on the quotient. These are examples of how Ms. Jennings increases both the memorability and the comprehensibility of input. Ms. Jennings makes a conscious effort to ensure that her instructions are always communicated in a clear, explicit manner and in more than one modality (e.g., verbal, visual (pictures), and textual (written words)).

Grouping Strategies Ms. Jennings has structured the classroom so that students are encouraged to talk and collaborate with each other. This teacher displayed high expectations in a respectful way when referring to her students as ‘‘mathematicians.’’ She uses the classroom environment to support student learning and interactions. She understands that heterogeneous groups are a potentially rich resource for providing supplemental strategies to meet the needs of individual learners. Such groupings offer multiple opportunities to support students and encourage learners to make sense of what they have heard. For students who have difficulty focusing, reading, or writing, this teacher knows that simultaneously hearing the discussions and seeing the work can help them to concentrate. In terms of students who are learning in their second language (English), Ms. Jennings knows it is crucial to provide models for language use. The cooperative learning model of think-pairshare (McTighe & Lynam, 1988) requires students to follow the three steps of: (a) think, (b) pair, and (c) share. During the think step, students listen to a question or presentation about a mathematical situation, then think about how they might solve the problem. This process time is essential for students with learning and language needs to allow them to sequence their thoughts and select vocabulary. During the pair step of the model, students can listen to and share their ideas regarding a solution with their peers, allowing

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students to practice vocabulary and skills in a safe and manageable, smallgroup environment. Finally, in the share step, students share their paired discussion within a larger group. During the presentation, Ms. Jennings reminds students that there is more than one way to solve a problem. Those experiences of students working together help reinforce her ongoing efforts to nurture a caring, supportive classroom environment where varied opinions and perspectives are valued. Two students paraphrase the directions provided in the following way: one repeats them in English, and another student paraphrases the directions in his native language and gestures to key areas around the room so that several speakers of the same native language integrated around the room benefit from his explanation. Then, Ms. Jennings continues: ‘‘Once each group has solved the problem, I’ll use my spinner to determine which group presents in what sequence. If you are selected to come to the overhead projector, your team members are welcomed to join you so that if you get stuck, you can ask a peer. Remember, though, everyone in your group must understand the strategy and be able to demonstrate their understanding verbally or visually.’’ Ms. Jennings again demonstrates a management approach that emphasizes the importance of community building and social decision-making. Cooperating learning provides students opportunities to interact with students across a range of diverse backgrounds and contributes towards building a greater sensitivity to students with special needs (Gay, 2010a). Cooperative learning has been found to promote relationships among students from diverse backgrounds, broaden students’ ability to see other perspectives, and promote self-esteem (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). These structured arrangements also helped students understand the reasons behind their decisions to implement a particular strategy to solve a problem. Implementing cooperative learning practices in mathematics requires that teachers structure the group to promote a group effort towards meeting the academic goal (Polloway, Patton, & Serna, 2008). The benefits of shared responsibility and rewards are another reason Ms. Jennings strategically maximized cooperative learning opportunities. This teacher knows that stating, modeling, and paraphrasing the steps to the math problem is crucial before students are able to independently practice it. Multiple, differentiated opportunities for students to practice this skill of reviewing the steps of a problem are stressed, allowing for additional oral language for those

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students with learning and language differences (Routman, 1999). This strategy is especially suited to supporting the language development of all students and specifically ELL students. Students eagerly engaged in the activity as the teacher moved about monitoring progress. After 10–15 minutes, she prompted students to move towards closure. Ms. Jennings then asked each group to designate which student was to come to the overhead projector as their team representative. She used the spinner to determine which group would present and in what order. After each team had verbally explained how they had solved the problem, students were told to use their math journal and to proceed in writing their response or displaying it visually with key concept words attached to each visual. The teacher clarified: ‘‘The purpose of this part of the lesson is for each of you to create your own short constructed written response or labeled visual. As you explain your strategy, you are also required to identify at least one example of when and where you might use this strategy out in the community. Take a look at our math in the community photos to remind you of where your strategy might be used. It is important to write in complete sentences. You have now heard and seen many different ideas and strategies that can help you. You are welcome to refer to the notes on your team’s overhead transparency if you need them. For those of you needing assistance with a sentence starter, please refer to the writing prompts posters.’’ This teacher shows that she values multiple means of evidence to ensure that her students understood the math problem by providing students opportunities to demonstrate their understanding through verbal expression, drawing, and/or writing. Providing choice in student-generated work allows for multiple modes of expression and ultimately contributes to increased student ownership. The teacher’s beliefs in differentiation continue to drive her decision-making around the instructional lesson. As Ms. Jennings concludes the lesson, she states, ‘‘Last, please remember that after you have completed your response, you are to provide your feedback and self-assess your work using the four-point rubric sheet that you will find in the folder on the supplies shelf. You’ll have time to discuss your feedback and self-assessment with me during conference time later this afternoon.’’

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Student self-assessments further support them in monitoring their own progress. Meeting individually with a student to discuss their work, behavior, or interests has a powerful and positive impact. The teacher favors a classroom management approach that emphasizes the importance of selfregulation, community building, and social decision-making. She appreciates that work products need to be personalized by students to ensure their ownership. Of equal importance, Ms. Jennings provides students with scaffolded supports and tools to ensure that they meet her high expectations.

CONCLUSION Responsive teaching calls for teachers to create respectful, inclusive, supportive environments in which authentic learning communities can be fostered. Such classroom communities support a climate for teaching and learning that is purposeful and caring and instills a set of values grounded in the principles of tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. Jones and Jones (2010) maintain that because building a positive classroom community and responding to student needs is heavily influenced by contextual factors as well as each teacher’s personal history, teacher reflection must be a priority. The compounding factors that involve teacher and student demographics illustrative by the disparity between student and teacher ethnicity is indicative of the overall ethnic gap within the U.S. public schools. National trends indicate that well over 86% of the current teaching force is White, monolingual, and female (Darling-Hammond et al., 2002). Banks (2006) predicts that this trend will continue for some time yet, due to the enrollment of primarily white, female teachers being prepared for classroom teaching positions. However, based on the overall diversification of the nation’s population, the diversity within the schools must be given urgent attention and response from educators to ensure that teachers are empowered to meet the sociocultural learning needs of their ethnically diverse student population (Banks, 2006; Banks et al., 2005). Delpit (1995) asks educators to engage in reflection to examine their own attitudes towards different ethnic, racial, gender, and social class groups. As a European American, Ms. Jennings has committed to such self-analysis as she continually strives to know each of her students and the richness of their community. Today’s teachers must advocate for the elimination of social inequities while also delivering effective, inclusive instruction that informs and empowers all students (Cummins, 1996). A powerful way for that advocacy to be realized is through the daily teaching practices and behaviors displayed

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in a strategically crafted classroom environment. Responsive teaching encompasses much more than the items displayed on a classroom wall, yet a keen awareness of specific exemplars of responsiveness is a beginning point in moving towards individual teaching excellence. As seen in this scenario, Ms. Jennings acknowledged the mismatch between herself and her students and carefully designed her classroom environment and planned her teaching practices in ways that demonstrated her acceptance and support for the wide range of students’ diverse cultural backgrounds and abilities.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. As a youth, what were your educational experiences in a math class? What were some of your most positive learning experiences in a math class and what were some of your most challenging learning experiences? 2. Do you have a favorite teacher from your early years in school? If so, what was it about that teacher that attached you to her/him? How has knowing that individual affected you? 3. What is an example of a lesson in which you used the student’s family culture to differentiate for that student? 4. What is one of your most successful math lessons? What could be done to enhance the lesson making it more responsive to your students’ broad cultural backgrounds? 5. Technological advances have changed learning in many of today’s classrooms. With Ms. Jennings’s classroom in mind, imagine that 12 of those 29 students have home computers. How would you plan for parent/ family communication and homework expectations? 6. How do you plan using cooperative learning arrangements? Consider how you might enhance your practices with specific recommended resources from The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (ERIC Digest; http://www.eric.edu.gov/PDFS/ED370881.pdf).

CHAPTER TEN GRADE 9 SCIENCE LESSON WITH A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE FOCUS

INTRODUCTION In the previous chapter, we illustrated explicit strategies such as (1) highlighting language forms, functions, and vocabulary elaboration characteristic of math content, (2) implementing the curriculum with links to learners’ cultural frames of reference, and (3) using community resources and local culture to meaningfully support students’ understanding of content in a 5th grade math lesson. We will move now to a 9th grade classroom where students are involved in a chemistry lesson. Issues related to positive relationships among students and between the teacher and students, grouping arrangements, checks for student understanding, and instructional materials that accommodate varied learning styles are highlighted to illustrate ways teachers can use students’ cultural frames of reference and background knowledge to guide their instruction and implementation of curriculum in ways to maximize science relevance for all students.

TEACHER PROFILE Chemistry is my passion. As kid, I spent hours creating experiments and trying to figure out why baking soda mixed with vinegar fizzes, so teaching science is the perfect fit for me. I completed my secondary science teaching licensure program as part of my undergraduate degree at a university in a large urban city in the eastern portion of the U.S. but I knew I didn’t want to start teaching before I had an opportunity to travel. I’ve been teaching in the United States for six years, with an additional five years of teaching experience in Peru and Ecuador during my time in the Peace Corps. I’m currently enrolled in an online 173

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graduate program where I’m working towards a Master’s degree in school administration. I’m hoping to move into a principal position within three to five years. In addition to working as a chemistry teacher, I serve as the science department chair and am the faculty advisor for the global learner club. Growing up in a large city, I feel very comfortable working in a school like Willow Creek High School but my experiences in the Peace Corps were truly life-changing. I returned home not only fluent in Spanish, but with a deep appreciation for the privileges I was raised with. I now appreciate the arduous task of learning a new language and how easy it is to get down on yourself when so many people in your world don’t understand you when you talk or write. I now understand that I have never worried about having enough food to eat, or clothes to wear. Indeed the only worries I ever had about my health dealt with trying to avoid going to a dentist. While my eyes were opened in the Peace Corps, they have been widened even more by working at Willow Creek High School. Here we are smack-dab in the middle of a major metropolitan area, but many of my students and their families struggle with basic needs like housing, food and health care. My job is demanding. There are days when I think I’m more of a therapist or social worker than a teacher. The increasing pressures related to students’ needs and school-wide accountability during a time of diminishing resources are high stress producers, yet I’m committed to the life of an educator. – Martin Avery, Chemistry teacher, Willow Creek High School

SOCIOCULTURAL CLASSROOM CONTEXT All classes at Willow Creek High School follow a ‘‘modified block’’ schedule in which classes meet for 55 minutes on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and for a 90-minute block with half of the classes meeting on Wednesday and the other half on Thursday. Mr. Avery typically reserves that weekly 90 block class for more involved labs and class presentations. The students in Mr. Avery’s 9th grade chemistry classes represent typical freshmen. His third period chemistry has 30 students, 18 males and 12 females. Compiled ethnicity documentation lists three students as African American, 10 students as Hispanic, and 17 students as European American. Religious profile data identifies three students as Jewish, and 11 students as Christian, while 16 student files did not indicate a religious affiliation. This classroom is home to two students with identified gifted needs, of whom one is Hispanic and one is European American. Of the six students identified with a disability, three are Hispanic and three are European American. Those

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disabilities include one student who uses a wheelchair for her physical disability, four students with a learning disability, and one student with a behavioral disorder.

RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS IN SCIENCE INSTRUCTION FOR ELL STUDENTS Science classrooms are places to build deep understandings about our world (Zimmerman & Stage, 2008); however, Duschl, Schweingruber, and Shouse (2007) uphold that science education in the United States does not leverage the knowledge and capabilities students bring to the classroom and this problem is even more profound for students from diverse backgrounds. Many teachers struggle to address science content while simultaneously planning for the needs of ELL students and unfortunately some teachers fail to even realize the importance of doing so (Bryan & Atwater, 2002; Rodriquez & Kitchen, 2005). As discussed earlier in Chapter Two, the social and cultural nature of learning is directly linked to student learning. Zimmerman and Stage (2008) stress that this theoretical premise applies directly to science education, ‘‘Teaching and learning science must take into account the social dynamics of classrooms (for example, teacher as authority figure, gender interactions), cultural expectations of the individuals and the teachers, religious backgrounds, school district policies, and even national views and expectations’’ (p. 182). Students’ self-perceptions about their identification as a science learner have been found to correlate to their understanding of science content. In a large, urban, largely minority-attended high school, Brown (2004) found individual students, though clearly on the verge of scientific understanding, purposefully chose not to use scientific language to avoid losing credibility with their peers. It is important for teachers to understand how factors such as social and cultural norms influence student’s engagement in science in the classroom. Buxton, Lee, and Santau (2008) examined this issue and demonstrated that focused professional development interventions had a positive effect on teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices in science instruction and English language development for ELL students. Their yearlong intervention consisted of curriculum materials for students and teachers, as well as workshops for teachers. The field of science offers vast opportunities to maximize the insights and perspectives of diverse cultures around the world. Miller-Lachmann and Taylor (1995) recommend initiating study on the topic of the origins of the

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universe and humankind with offering students creation myths from a variety of cultures. They further advocate for environmental issues being taught with a multicultural approach by exploring various cultures’ environmental controversies as they affect different cultures explaining that ‘‘Contemporary books about environmental issues as they relate to diverse cultures allow children to see how cultures have adapted traditional beliefs to the challenges of the present’’ (p. 335). Freeman, Freeman, and Mercuri Kerman’s (2001) examination of practices in one of the authors’ classrooms where newcomer Spanish-, Mexteco-, and Triqui-speaking students studied revealed key strategies integrated into the science curriculum. The authors contend that a teacher’s careful consideration of organizing curriculum around themes helps her use the content to draw on students’ backgrounds allowing them to make sense of content. Such a link to content results in students being more engaged which ultimately leads to successful learning experiences for them. In this multiage 4-5-6 grade classroom, the teacher began the school year with a unit on plants and seeds as a way of taking advantage of the fact that many of her migrant students had strong agricultural and farming backgrounds. She crafted a home interview form about plant growth and plant care in areas where families had lived and worked and found that the importance of this introductory activity could not be underestimated. Given that the four major language areas (vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and discourse features) are essential to the study of science, challenges related to ELL students learning scientific definitions and complex structures of scientific texts exist and must be planned for (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2010). Bravo, Hiebert, and Pearson (2007) explored the relationship between a set of Spanish/English cognates that have the potential for assisting Spanish/English bilinguals’ experiences with science texts. The researchers point out that Spanish and English share many cognates within science vocabulary, including some that are highly frequent in Spanish but less frequent in English. Consequently, Spanish/English bilinguals possess a linguistic resource that includes many words that, while commonplace in Spanish (e.g., enfermo), are reserved for scientific and academic registers in English (e.g., infirm). Bravo and colleagues (Bravo et al., 2007) found that for first language Spanish speakers these words might well aid students in accessing core English words and in gaining understandings of science texts. Additionally, an analysis of the frequency of key vocabulary in three science units revealed a substantial number of these frequency-imbalanced cognate pairs. Incorporating writing has been found to be an important way for students to connect with the language used in science content. Klentschy (2005) recommended the use of a science notebook for collecting facts, predictions,

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and conclusions. ‘‘A science notebook is a central place where language, data, and experience work together to form meaning for the student’’ (p. 24). Olson and Loucks-Horsley (2000) noted that ‘‘learner-centered environments in which teachers build new learning on the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that students bring to the classroom are critical to science learning of English language learners’’ (p. 122). Instructional strategies involving modeling, scaffolding, evaluation, and peer collaboration (Thornburg & Karp, 1992); hands-on curriculum (Stephens, 2001); and cooperative learning (Hirst & Slavik, 1990) for science instruction have proven to be effective in for ELL students, especially when knowledge of students’ home language and culture is incorporated. In a research report prepared for the Noyce Foundation in 2008, Cervetti, Bravo, Duong, Hernandez, and Tilson (2008) conducted an extensive review of research on effective and proven instruction for English language learners. Their report outlines a set of four principles that help make science instruction accessible for English language learners. These principles center on accommodations for vocabulary, discourse, writing, and reading. Reyhner and Davison’s (1993) investigations and a review of the literature yielded recommendations to improve the education of ELL students in science. They encourage teachers to (1) relate science instruction to the outof-school life of the students, (2) recognize and study how different cultures classify natural phenomena and have different scientific world views, (3) use teaching methodologies that contextualize science content (e.g., provide science terminology in native language and present science concepts so students have interest and familiarity), (4) present scientific concepts in ways that are consistent with the students’ learning style, (5) be aware of and attend to affective factors in their students’ lives (e.g., student relationships), and (6) provide writing development activities for their ELL students. Reyhner and Davisons’ (1993) recommendations align closely with principles of culturally responsive pedagogy.

CLASSROOM TOUR Although not originally built as a fully equipped lab classroom, Mr. Avery’s 9th grade chemistry class is an amply stocked, comfortable, and engaging setting. Entering the classroom, one’s gaze is drawn to a large science vocabulary word wall where arrays of individual index cards are

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positioned around colorful pictures of beakers and microscopes. Each card highlights one word with an accompanying definition in English and Spanish translations. Latin and Greek scientific terms (e.g., photosynthesis) are broken into words that students understand to aid them in making connections. Behind his desk is a ‘‘Meet Mr. Avery’’ bulletin board displaying photographs of his family, his travels, favorite quotes and comic strips, and cards from current and former students. Near his desk, Mr. Avery has a posted schedule of his availability to meet with students and a poster articulating beginning and end of class procedures. Other age-appropriate, colorful, sciencerelated posters are displayed about the room. In the front of the classroom, a chart labeled, Writing Tips provides guidelines for summarizing and editing. Five large rectangular shaped tables are arranged in the center of the room, six computers line the back wall of the classroom, a table for lab demonstration purposes is positioned in the front of the room and multiple built-in cabinets store texts with audio-recorded read-along books, science equipment and supplies. A listing of the key features of daily lessons is highlighted on the front board. The following information is provided:  Lesson Title: Periodic table designs  Essential Question: How can a periodic table be organized?  Standard: Ninth grade Chemistry science standard 2: Describing and explaining properties of substances (e.g., relationships in the periodic table).  How does this lesson fit into unit content? This content provides an introduction to a three-week unit on the periodic table.  Language Objective: The student will be able to describe the periodic table using science vocabulary (periodic table, element, scientist).  Learner Outcome: Students will articulate a sound rationale for their organizational design. As students enter the classroom, individual students are observed to pickup a ‘‘Team Members’’ file folder under the 3rd Period materials section of a box near Mr. Avery’s desk and lay it on a group table. Each folder contains cardboard name plates with each student’s name and picture. Students position their card in front of them. Mr. Avery begins class with taking attendance on his computer and signals for student attention by lowering the volume on prerecording music that has been playing. ‘‘Given that today is a Thursday, we’ll begin class with the selection of this week’s

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MVP award.’’ Reaching his hand into a fish bowl on his desk, Mr. Avery draws a slip of paper and announces, ‘‘Everyone, join me congratulating Mario on being selected as our Most Valued Player. As I set things up on the award board, please feel free to write a note of appreciation.’’ Mr. Avery grabs a file folder holding individual student photographs and moves to a bulletin board where a MVP Award sign is posted. As he pulls Mario’s photo and positions it in the center of the MVP sign, students take a sticky note from the supply baskets in the center of their tables and begin to write. Eight students move to the board and they read aloud their acknowledgement as they place their note on the sign.

BEING RESPONSIVE TO STUDENTS’ CULTURE Positive Standards for Classroom Behavior Mr. Avery uses the quick, five-minute weekly MVP award activity as a way to build community among his students. He believes that every student needs to be recognized in positive ways hence he has taught his students to acknowledge each other by providing personalized messages that applaud each other. In the words of Miller-Lachmann and Taylor (1995), ‘‘Linguistic diversity among students calls for attention to promoting positive relations between these students and others as well as between students and staff’’ (p. 187). Promoting those positive relationships while supporting students’ primary language and culture are factors that contribute to school success (Holt, 1993). Wong Fillmore (1991) reported that Latino students learned significantly more English in classrooms where reciprocal interaction with teacher and peers was promoted. Mr. Avery makes ample use of student photographs and management routines in activities such as the MVP as opportunities to support essential relationship building interactions. ‘‘I appreciated hearing that comment from Sam about Mario’s commitment on the school’s soccer team. Characteristics like dedication and determination are important in life. Sit back and listen as I read about the work of one dedicated chemist who is making a difference in world.’’ Today Mr. Avery used the book Real World Drug Discoveries: A Chemist’s Guide to Biotech (Rydzewski, 2008) from which he proceeds to read a selected interview with a well-known expert in the field where insightful comments about a cutting edge drug discovery were made.

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Instructional Materials To highlight the work of diverse scientists around the world, Mr. Avery frequently reads a section from a short story or biographical sketch to his students. Mr. Avery believes that reading aloud gives student an opportunity to hear a proficient reader, to get a sense of the content, and to listen to and see a teacher model thinking aloud about the reading. Anstrom (1999) clarifies that in a think-aloud, teachers can demonstrate how in reading they monitor a sequence of events, identify foreshadowing and flashback, visualize a setting, critique a character, comprehend the mood or theme, recognize symbols, and predict next steps. Mr. Avery created a ‘‘Scientists’’ poster on which an assortment of book covers is captured. Selected copies of those books are prominently displayed on the top shelf of a nearby bookshelf. Mr. Avery believes that keeping adolescents engaged requires him to use meaningful, age-appropriate material. He wants to demonstrate to his students that he is not only aware of the contributions of scientists from diverse backgrounds, but he values and respects the advances those individuals have made to science. To further engage his students, Mr. Avery believes in personalizing science and bringing it alive for his students by having them verbally communicate about current controversial issues so he structures debate-style formats to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. He thoughtfully selects content and uses read-aloud activities to frame an issue with an introduction, a summary, and a set of challenge questions to foster critical thinking. Saifer et al. (2011) maintain that when teachers make curriculum relevant to students they bring depth and breadth to learning by promoting critical thinking skills. Mr. Avery does this by using materials to build and connect schema, providing his students with an organizational structure to help them record and organize new concepts. Mr. Avery explains that the periodic table of elements is an important tool used in the science of chemistry and that today’s lesson will provide them with an introduction to its contents and organization. Distributing one language poster to each of the five table groups he explains, ‘‘Today we are going to discuss five elements. I want your group to use your assigned vocabulary poster to guide the discussion of your element. You will find the element name, its definition, an example of how the word could be used in a sentence, and a representation of the item. Discuss the card at your table. Share examples of where you see that element or how that element is used.’’ Each of the selected elements: aluminum, gold, silver, helium, and

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carbon was presented with an accompanying item(s) that the student could see and touch. For example a piece of foil was affixed to the aluminum card; a souvenir nugget of gold, a Mexican peso coin for silver, a balloon for helium, and a piece of charcoal for carbon. Following the small group team discussions, Mr. Avery had one member designated as the ‘‘reporter’’ verbally summarize the conversation at the table. Mr. Avery believes that opportunities for verbal discussion are critical to the oral language development supports for native speakers of English and ELL students. He appreciates the importance of students needing time to talk about a topic as focused conversations assist them in considering how they can use new vocabulary. Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010) discuss the need for matching instruction to students’ second language levels or academic abilities. In this lesson, Mr. Avery’s language cards are augmented by real objects and frequent repetition of the new vocabulary to help beginning level ELL students, while the activity itself is structured to engage all students in opportunities to speak with greater complexity. ‘‘Now that we’ve discussed five elements found on a periodic table, we’re going to take a look at a few periodic tables but first I’d like to introduce all of you to Mr. Dmitri Mendeleev who was born at Tobolsk, Siberia in 1834 and died in 1907.’’ Here Mr. Avery holds-up a black and white photograph he secured from the Internet of Mr. Mendeleev while clarifying, ‘‘Mr. Mendeleev studied science at St. Petersburg and graduated in 1856. Mr. Mendeleev was a university professor and is best known for his work on the periodic table. He actually created a number of different versions of periodic tables and arranged the elements in order of atomic weight and grouped them by similar properties. He thought that much was still to be learned in chemistry and predicted the existence and properties of new elements.’’ Mr. Avery went on to explain that Mr. Mendeleev’s perspectives were not always accepted and that he withstood criticism and ridicule for his innovative thinking. Pointing to a large periodic table hanging on the wall, Mr. Avery clarifies that the organization of such tables can happen in many different ways, ‘‘To appreciate that there are indeed many different types of periodic tables, I’d like to show you just a few that I recently found on the Internet’’. Mr. Avery hands a plastic model to one of the students with a learning disability, while he uses his computer and flashes a display of color pictures taken from the Internet depicting a wide assortment of periodic tables, such as one showing video game characters, 3D crystals, plastic

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tiles from a game board, and cupcakes decorated with coloredcoordinated frosting. Other illustrations included drawings in the shape of a galaxy, a pyramid, and a computer keyboard. Mr. Avery plans for ways that content can be delivered in multiple modes so it is accessible to his students with a wide range of abilities, disabilities, interests, and previous experiences. Audio-taped read-along books are available for check out. His clear communications and use of multiple visual examples help to ensure that content is understandable and complete. Also, his sensitive awareness to one student’s needs to feel or touch materials helps her maintain attention. Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010) explain that the realities of working with ELL students who may also have a special education need such as those with a learning disability add tremendous complexity to the second-language-acquisition challenges these learners already face. Those authors recommend the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) be incorporated to guide the instruction of ELL students. As described by Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010), the application of UDL goes beyond merely physical access for all students (e.g., wheelchair ramps or enlarged print) ensuring access to information, resources, and tools for students with a wide range of abilities, disabilities, ethnic backgrounds, language skills, and learning styles. Rose and Meyer (2002) clarify that the ‘‘universal’’ in universal design does not imply one most advantageous strategy for everyone, rather ‘‘The central practical premise of UDL is that a curriculum should include alternatives to make it accessible and appropriate for individuals with different backgrounds, learning styles, abilities, and disabilities in widely varied learning contexts’’ (p. 70). In this classroom, Mr. Avery designs multiple ways for chemistry students to access information at the onset as opposed to returning after the lesson to provided catch-up explanations. In today’s lesson, he incorporates what he calls the ‘‘back story’’ by having a pictures and biographical information about Dmitri Mendeleev ready. He wants his students to understand that there are important stories behind things (e.g., the periodic table) and that by understanding the individual, in this case Mr. Mendeleev, they will better appreciate the product that was created. ‘‘As you can see, there are multiple ways for a periodic table to be organized. I’d like all of you to work together to create your own organizational plan for a periodic table. After my directions, I want the materials manager to come up here and grab one of these baggies for their team.’’ Holding up a baggie, he continues ‘‘In each of the bags you will find 92 different colored and sized pieces. These are actually paint sample cards

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that I was given at the hardware store on Elmhurst Street. Teams are to determine how these paint samples can be organized. The ‘‘builder’’ in your team should be sorting and positioning the pieces. The ‘‘facilitator’’ needs to keep everyone on track as to ensure that all team member voices are heard. The ‘‘timekeeper’’ needs to keep things moving as you have only 20 minutes to create your team plan. The ‘‘note-taker’’ needs to observe and record key comments, questions or points of clarification that members are discussing so the ‘‘reporter’’ will be ready to verbally synthesize the information to the whole class. Following those report-outs, each of you will use your science notebooks to summarize your plan. Please refer to the Steps to Summarizing chart on the wall to ensure that you adequately express the message of your team. I want to encourage you to refer to the summarizing scoring rubric to ensure you have a complete response.’’ Mr. Avery moves to the summary chart and reviews the key summarizing components that have been taught in students’ language arts classes and are reinforced in all content classes: telling, describing, explaining, instructing, persuading, and recounting. ‘‘Alright, before the ‘‘materials managers’’ begin to move, turn to your neighbor on your right and review the directions I’ve just given for this activity.’’

Grouping Arrangements As seen in Ms. Jennings mathematics lesson, Mr. Avery values the benefits of cooperative learning arrangements. Jones (2011) points out that encouraging group inquiry through cooperative learning is beneficial for ELL students. It is imperative that students get to know each other early on, and unfortunately many students learning English are isolated from their English-speaking peers in early grades or during start of the year activities. One could only imagine the poor outcomes of the paint sample activity if team members did not feel comfortable with each other. As a classroom management strategy, the teacher appreciates that even high school students need to be taught the responsibilities associated with the specific cooperative learning roles and checks for student understanding must be embedded in the activity expectations. In today’s lesson, Mr. Avery strategically assigned the role of ‘‘builder’’ to a student with learning disabilities who needs added kinesthetic involvement to stay on task, while an ELL student who needs practice with verbal language has the role of scaffolded ‘‘reporter’’ where he can rely on notes to help with his class presentation.

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Mr. Avery believes that he can contribute to increased student motivation and success by responding effectively to their preferred approach to learning. Gardner (2006) has suggested that attention to the varied forms of intelligence (logical mathematical, body kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual special, musical rhythmic, and verbal linguistic) is essential in planning. Gardner points out that most individuals possess each of those intelligences but in different amounts and that teachers focus primarily on the verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences. He advocates that all students, especially those with linguistic and academic needs, will be better able to learn and demonstrate their knowledge using multiple forms of intelligence. With this in mind, Mr. Avery’s classroom and instructional lessons incorporate visual aids (posters, charts, highlighted color-coding, photographs, and realia, or real items) and opportunities for kinesthetic involvement through predetermined cooperative learning roles.

Evidence of Student Understanding A key feature of culturally responsive instruction for inclusion is continuous student assessment. Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010) recommend that testing be an integral part of a learning environment that encourages ELL students to seek meaning and use a second language to fulfill academic and personal goals. Mr. Avery is committed to planning for meaningful ways to check that his students’ understand and are able to demonstrate learning. His uses of authentic assessments that link directly from classroom activities allow his students to share in the process of critiquing their work. Mr. Avery incorporates multiple strategies (e.g., questioning, cooperative learning, written responses, turn-to-a-partner, and rubrics to guide student work) that are directly related to classroom performance; this permits him to provide mediation to students in need. Attention to the individual student needs of his learners is evident in the differentiated supports that were available for producing a written summary. Maximizing the benefits of science notebooks, Mr. Avery has created a number of ways for his students to demonstrate their learning. His required products have flexible requirements and expectations so that each student’s learning can be assessed as accurately as possible for that student (Tomlinson, Brinijoin, & Narvaez, 2008). While all are required to produce a summary, the actual product looks different. Some students merely provide a written response to the prompt on a blank sheet in their notebook. Others are provided with a notebook that contains bolded lines to guide their writing. One student’s notebook contains pages designed with

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three bullet points where he writes one-word responses, and another student’s notebook has large boxes in which she provides a drawing.

CONCLUSION Mr. Avery has made a concerted effort to embed important elements of culturally responsive teaching throughout his planning and instruction. His focus on building relationships is woven into his daily practice. He takes the time to learn about his students and structures activities where they can in turn learn about each other. Mr. Avery knows that one of the most important abilities of a well-educated student is to think critically so his planning is done in ways to promote logical inquiry and reasoning. Students are prompted to engage in artistic creation and problem-solving as fundamental parts of their learning. His commitment to supporting language development is evident in the ways he orchestrates opportunities for verbal communication while he also takes advantage of multicultural literature. Mr. Avery’s knowledge of and genuine appreciation for his students’ interests and learning styles are evident in the ways he incorporates assessment and reflection. As noted previously in Chapter Three, there are over 10.6 million school-age children whose primary language is not English (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). A disturbing fact in many schools across the United States is that students who are ethnic and racial minorities as well as ELL students are disproportionately placed in special education programs (Gargiulo & Metcalf, 2010). This concerning pattern has persisted for over 40 years with enduring and serious outcomes (Artiles & Zamora-Duran, 1997; Blanchett, Mumford, & Beachum, 2005). With an aim towards educating all students in the general education classroom coupled with U.S. legislative mandates that students with disabilities be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum, Gargiulo and Metcalf (2010) maintain that teachers are searching for ways to (1) adapt curriculum, (2) modify instructional strategies, and (3) assess students in ways that permit them to demonstrate their mastery of what they’ve been taught. They concur with Orkwis (2003) that UDL offers great promise as an educational model for designing instructional methods, materials, activities, and evaluation procedures in the quest to assist students with wide differences in their abilities to see, hear, speak, move, read, write, understand English, attend, organize, engage, and remember. Given the rich diversity of Willow Creek High School, Mr. Avery is committed to ensuring that his instructional practices are culturally affirming, sensitive, and reaffirming. As mentioned in Chapter One,

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some ethnic groups are overrepresented in special education programs. As such, Mr. Avery is committed to maximizing culturally responsive practices so every one of his students gets what they need; he knows some of his students are at-risk of a misidentification due to the language they speak or their ethnicity.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. Consider how Mr. Avery checks for students’ understanding. How is the use of checks for understanding reflected in your current teaching practices? 2. Describe a teacher that you most highly admire. Describe the things she/ he does that are culturally responsive. 3. Consider how you build relationships and a sense of community in the classroom. How do you show your students that their abilities, interests, and cultures are valued? 4. Consider how issues of positive behavior supports are managed in your selected school. Begin by identifying a classroom rule or procedure that truly benefits students as opposed to one that is primarily reflective of the teacher’s historical practices. What are different ways classroom freedom is encouraged without infringing on the rights of other students? What is an example of a specific intervention that has helped the student learn better, as opposed to just eliminating the disruptive behavior?

PART FOUR SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ GROWTH IN CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY

Photo 4.

Who are we? What factors contribute to our cultural identity?

CHAPTER ELEVEN MENTORING AND SUPPORTING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING PRACTICES

INTRODUCTION The previous three chapters have taken us on a journey of sorts through the classrooms of three different teachers each of whom is committed to culturally responsive teaching and taking steps to operationalize it. They acknowledge that culturally responsive pedagogy is not a teaching method or a defined set of practices. Yet, their goal is still to teach in culturally responsive ways. Towards this goal, they are attempting to begin with the fundamental principles of learning that are particularly essential for effective teaching. First, understanding that learners arrive at the classroom with prior knowledge and life experiences, these teachers have planned curriculum implementation with learner information in mind. They have selected materials with attention to students’ interests and backgrounds, keeping in mind students’ cultural perspectives along with the local culture when choosing a lens for filtering the content. Learner background information has informed teachers’ decisions about the classroom organization and environment. Each classroom is organized to support a community of learning that allows for quiet independent learning, small-group interactions, and whole class discussions. Second, a strength of each teacher is their ability to select and use organizational structures to present content and to support students’ application of the content in meaningful ways. From advance organizers to story maps to think-pair-share and beyond, each teacher provided multiple supports to help students use knowledge conceptually in order to apply it and make sense of it in the classroom and beyond the classroom. Third, the teachers’ instructional strategies and adaptations reveal an understanding 189

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that learning is more effective for learners when they understand how they learn and how to manage their own learning across different content areas. Integrated in the 3rd grade classroom organization and climate is the need for students to make choices, be involved learners, and make decisions that are positive for their learning experiences and the learning of their peers. Additionally, the 3rd grade teacher presented her class with different formats for the story map allowing students to select the format and visual organizer they preferred. In the 5th grade math class, the teacher anticipated students’ learning preferences when planning for them to produce written responses. Reflecting on the three scenarios, we return to the principles and definition of culturally responsive pedagogy. Bearing in mind that it is not a simple set of practices or materials to be secured and implemented, we revisit Gay’s (2010b) definition that culturally responsive pedagogy is ‘‘using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of culturally diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them’’ (p. 31). Those teachers who gather students’ information and use it to engage learners as they deliver instruction, can effectively support the learners’ grasp of new concepts and content in ways to ensure real learning. Understanding that culturally responsive pedagogy is a contextual and situational process for both learners and teachers, we reflect on the ways these three classroom teachers recognized, acknowledged, and built on students’ background knowledge, skills, and life experiences. What did the teachers consider as they planned instruction and selected materials? What steps did they take to make the classroom a validating learning community for all students, and specifically, students whose backgrounds and life experiences were incongruent with their own? How did they monitor their personal tendency to gravitate towards familiar frames of reference when selecting content materials, visual displays, reading texts, learning strategies, and literature? What did they do to ensure authenticity and accuracy when selecting cultural frames of reference and multicultural materials? Reflecting on the work of these three teachers as revealed through the scenarios offers valuable insights. In the following section, we use the organizational framework that evolved out of our work with classroom teachers committed to implementing culturally responsive pedagogy as a structure for reflecting on the ways the teachers attempted to help students find relevance in the curriculum, content, and learning experiences at school. In Chapter Six, we provided a detailed description of the 12 components included in the organizational framework. In Chapter Eleven we provide a brief overview of the components included in the Organizational Framework (See Table 11.1), followed by a series of learning experiences to assist readers’ reflection and analysis of the three scenarios (starting on page 194).

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Table 11.1. Organizational Framework: A Lens for Reflecting on Classrooms and Instruction for a Culturally Responsive Perspective. Components Learner Considerations

Description Who is the learner?  Name, age, gender, grade  Native language, primary culture, family members at home, home context  Previous experience with school, literacy and learning, academic success  Self esteem, attitudes towards reading and school, preferences for learning  Background knowledge, broad cultural background, lived experiences

Environment/Environmental Print

How has the teacher used the environment to create a context that signals a valuing of diverse cultures and perspectives; a commitment to equity; and a community of learners?  Learners thrive in a safe, supportive classroom environment.  Students need to know that they are welcome and safe from negative repercussions in the classroom.  Students will thrive when their attributes, strengths, cultures, languages, abilities, and experiences are recognized, viewed as resources, and used as a foundation for future learning. (Bridges, 1995)

Curriculum Considerations

How can the teacher implement the curriculum in a way that is meaningful to this group of learners?  Content standards and benchmarks  Potential links to learners’ perspectives or cultural lens of students in class  Potential links to students’ reality/local culture  Potential links to cultural legacies and/or contributions of individuals who share primary culture of students in class

Language Objective

What language forms and functions are characteristic of specific academic disciplines?  Content vocabulary  Language forms characteristic of a certain academic discipline  Language functions characteristic of a certain academic discipline

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Table 11.1. (Continued ) Components Social Context/Grouping Strategies

Description What consideration does the teacher give to designing the opportunity for learners to interact, talk, and confer?  Social interaction fosters development of language and thought  Learners’ interactions with more capable peers supports learning  Exposure to English increases in structured interactions

Content/Instructional Materials

From what cultural lens or perspective can the content be presented in order to enhance a meaningful learning experience?  Selection of content in alignment with students’ prior knowledge and cultural perspectives  Consider materials that build on students’ background knowledge and expand their frames of reference  Consider instructional materials that are ageappropriate and support students’ preferred learning strategies  Consider instructional materials that support ELL students’ use of listening, speaking, reading, and writing

Scaffolding/Instructional Adaptations In what ways is the teacher helping to make the content accessible to learners so that they can develop understandings they could not develop independently?  Determine students’ preferred learning strategies  Determine students’ strengths and needs  Consider and select adaptations or supports that will allow student to engage in the content or learning experience Distribution of Attention

What are the strategies the teacher uses to attend to each student in ways that are equitable and respectful of students’ cultural background and needs?  Learn about the background and personality of each learner  Gather information about cultural norms for interactions, communication, and adult-student norms

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Table 11.1. (Continued ) Components

Description

Checking for Understanding/Evidence What are the strategies the teacher uses to ascertain if of Student Understanding students understand the content and learning task?  Learn about the background, personality, learning needs, and preferred modes of learning of each learner  Allow learners to use preferred modes of learning to show their understandings Classroom Behavior/Managing the Classroom

What are the strategies the teacher uses to structure the classroom for learners to engage as in a community of learning where teaching can be effective?  Learn about the background, personality, learning needs, and preferred modes of learning of each learner  Gather information about cultural norms for interactions, communication, and adult-student norms  Anticipate and plan for students to be active learners in a learning community

Connecting with Family, Community, What strategies does the teacher uses to build rapport and Local Culture with students’ families and learn about their local community culture?  Learn about the background and family of each learner  Gather information about the local community (if teacher does not reside there) and plan for ways to use this information meaningfully integrated into lessons  Complete a community/neighborhood walk or drive where the school is located and/or where the students live  Periodically frequent community/local establishments where students and their families participate Teacher’s Personal/Professional Growth

What steps does the teacher take to continue learning and growing as a cultural being? What opportunities does the teacher take (or make) for professional development?  Deepen understandings of cultural features and perspectives  Continue learning about the cultural backgrounds represented in the diverse student population  Set professional goal and locate related professional development opportunity

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USING THE ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK TO REFLECT ON THE CLASSROOM Given that culturally responsive teaching is not a set of practices or prescribed curriculum, we offer readers the opportunity to reflect on the work of the three teachers highlighted in the recent scenarios. We encourage the reader to step back and reflect on each scenario holistically using the organizational framework for the purpose of contemplating the teachers’ decisions, intentions, and logistics made towards their goal of culturally responsive teaching. As you revisit excerpts from each of the scenarios, take time to respond to the questions noted below the excerpt.

REFLECTING ON THE LITERACY SCENARIO

EXCERPT #1 FROM LITERACY SCENARIO Approaching the classroom, you can see that the creative quilt does, in fact, cover the entire door. Composed of individual student quilt pieces united to form a bold numeral 3, the quilt tells the story of students’ families, favorite foods, hobbies, and interests. Book covers of multicultural children’s literature border the quilt display. Some of the book titles include: Dia’s Story Cloth (Cha, 1994) and Whispering Cloth (Deitz Shea, 1996) (both texts are about story-telling quilts from the Hmong culture); Shota Star Quilt (the power of quilting and community activism as told by a young Lakota girl); Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Hopkinson, 2003) (quilts used as maps to guide African American slaves to the Underground Railroad); and The Keeping Quilt (Polacco, 2001) (a Russian family’s quilt used for the Sabbath table cloth, a wedding canopy, and a baby blanket). During the initial lesson used to launch this unit, students were welcomed by the numeral 3 shape on the classroom door with the colorful border consisting of book covers. Students then created and contributed individual squares to complete the classroom quilt. Ms. Ruı´ z rooted the individual quilt-making in a language/literacy experience that students to inquire, discuss, write, and share about

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aspects of their family history, cultural history, life experiences, and personal attributes (see Fig. 8.2). Moreover, the teacher used the artand literacy-based sharing experience to gain valuable knowledge about the students, their cultural backgrounds, and their families.

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Ms. Ruı´ z’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Ms. Ruı´ z attended to? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Ms. Ruı´ z. Why? 5. How do you use the classroom environment and environmental print to support students’ attributes, strengths, cultures, etc.?

EXCERPT #2 FROM LITERACY SCENARIO As we continue to maneuver through Ms. Ruı´ z’s classroom, we look to the left side of the room where we see centered above the windows that run along the side of the room a sign that says, ‘‘Friends look for all kinds of ways to be kind to each other’’ and a poster with the word ‘‘Friends’’ translated in a variety of languages representative of the school community. Along each side of the sign, you see a creative display of self-portraits of classroom friends with student-generated descriptions responding to ‘‘Who am I today?’’ This description will be revisited and revised at key times throughout the year so that students can update ‘‘Who they are’’ to support the notion that we all change as does our cultural identity.

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Ms. Ruı´ z’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Ms. Ruı´ z attended to in this excerpt? Why? How?

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3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Ms. Ruı´ z. Why? 5. How do you integrate the learner information and cultures in the classroom context?

EXCERPT #3 FROM LITERACY SCENARIO ‘‘Readers and Writers, could I please have your attention? Before each reporter shares their group’s responses, I’d like them to select the type of follow-up feedback they are seeking from the other class members.’’ The teacher then motioned to the poster labeled, ‘‘Options for Providing Feedback’’ that displayed three symbols with an accompanying word and explanation (see Fig. 8.1). Each group selected their feedback choice and the sharing began. After each group had verbally shared, Ms. Ruı´ z told students to use their writing journal and proceed with their written response. ‘‘Remember students, the purpose of this part of the lesson is for each of you to create a character map and sentence describing 4 to 5 descriptors about your own character, that means YOU! Remember, you have now discussed and described several characters from stories we’ve read and you have a list of descriptors as well as strategies that can help you. You are welcome to refer to the character maps that your group created as well as the descriptor lists. If you are unsure about getting started, please see me and we will talk about a character pyramid that you could use in your writing journal (see Fig. 8.7). Last, please remember that after you have completed your journal, include feedback about your level of understanding (an up arrow for ‘I get it,’ a down arrow down for ‘I’m confused,’ and a question mark for ‘I think I understand, but I still have questions’)’’ (see Fig. 8.8).

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Ms. Ruı´ z’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Ms. Ruı´ z attended to in this excerpt? Why? How?

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3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Ms. Ruı´ z. Why? 5. How do you scaffold to maximize students’ access to content and adapt instruction in the classroom context?

REFLECTING ON THE MATH SCENARIO

EXCERPT #1 FROM MATH SCENARIO Scanning the room, your eyes are drawn to the brightly colored ‘‘Math Central’’ area that fills most of the sidewall. As depicted in Fig. 9.1, a series of posters border the Math Central area. On the left, the top poster describes steps for problem-solving, another displays visual illustrations of fractions, and a third poster shows common measurements. A teacher-made poster focused on ‘‘place value’’ (i.e., the value of a digit as determined by its position in a number) is displayed in the center of the visual, along with a set of 12 color-coded homework folders. To the right, Ms. Jennings has posted a large probability chart. A number line runs the length of the wall and a bulletin board displays student work samples that have incorporated writing into math story problems. A rolling cart filled with multisensory materials is positioned in the Math Central area. On the far wall that houses the Math Central materials, an observer will see a bulletin board with the title, ‘‘MY COMMUNITY IS FILLED WITH MATHEMATICS.’’ An array of color photographs of the local community (e.g., street signs, an arch over the door of a bakery, the roman numerals on a building of worship, equipment at a park) are displayed each within a creative geometrically designed border made of construction paper. To the left of the bulletin board hangs a teacher-made poster entitled, ‘‘Meet women mathematicians who overcame great odds’’ (see Fig. 9.2).

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1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Ms. Jenning’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Ms. Jennings attended to? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Ms. Jennings. Why? 5. How do you use the classroom environment and environmental print to support students’ attributes, strengths, cultures, etc.?

EXCERPT #2 FROM MATH SCENARIO During today’s lesson, Ms. Jennings conducted a math review lesson based on students’ performance on yesterday’s homework. After modeling the steps to solving a fractions problem, the teacher informed the students that they were to move to cooperative learning groups to work on a fractions word problem. Ms. Jennings clarified, ‘‘Imagine you have just eaten pizza at Antonio’s (here she moves to the color photograph of a local pizzeria). You are to work together to solve the problem: Five friends are eating personal pan pizzas. Juan has 3/5 left, Jack has 1/3 left, Danielle has 4/5 left, Maddie has 2/3 left, and Coleman has 2/5 left. Rank order who ate the most pizza. From a decorated coffee can, the teacher began to pull popsicle sticks on which students’ names were written, in order to determine the composition of the heterogeneous teams. Each of the five teams was provided with a clear overhead transparency and a colored marker. Next, Ms. Jennings stated, ‘‘Okay mathematicians, today you are to participate in a Think-Pair-Share session. You must work together to figure out how to solve the problem with words, pictures, or symbols. You are all responsible for learning the strategy that your group selects for solving this problem, a spokesperson from your group needs to be ready to present to the entire class. In front of you, you will each find a different colored circle. Who can tell me in your own words the first three things your group needs to do?’’

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1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Ms. Jennings’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Ms. Jennings attended to in this excerpt? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Ms. Jennings. Why? 5. How do you integrate the learner information, cultures, and community in the classroom context?

EXCERPT #3 FROM MATH SCENARIO Two students paraphrase the directions provided in the following way: one repeats them in English, and another student paraphrases the directions in his native language and gestures to key areas around the room so that several speakers of the same native language integrated around the room benefit from his explanation. Then, Ms. Jennings continues: ‘‘Once each group has solved the problem, I’ll use my spinner to determine which group presents in what sequence. If you are selected to come to the overhead projector, your team members are welcomed to join you so that if you get stuck, you can ask a peer. Remember, though, that everyone in your group must understand the strategy and be able to demonstrate their understanding verbally or visually.’’

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Ms. Jennings’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Ms. Jennings attended to in this excerpt? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Ms. Jennings. Why? 5. How do you scaffold to maximize students’ access to content and adapt instruction in the classroom context?

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REFLECTING ON THE SCIENCE SCENARIO

EXCERPT #1 FROM SCIENCE SCENARIO Entering the classroom, one’s gaze is drawn to a large science vocabulary word wall where arrays of individual index cards are positioned around colorful pictures of beakers and microscopes. Each card highlights one word with an accompanying definition in English and Spanish translations. Latin and Greek scientific terms (e.g., photosynthesis) are broken into words students understand to aid them in making connections. Behind his desk is a ‘‘Meet Mr. Avery’’ bulletin board displaying photographs of his family, his travels, favorite quotes and comic strips, and cards from current and former students. Near his desk, Mr. Avery has a posted schedule of his availability to meet with students and a poster articulating beginning and end of class procedures. Other age-appropriate, colorful, sciencerelated posters are displayed about the room. In the front of the classroom, a chart labeled, Writing Tips provides guidelines for summarizing and editing. Five large rectangular shaped tables are arranged in the center of the room, six computers line the back wall of the classroom, a table for lab demonstration purposes is positioned in the front of the room and multiple built-in cabinets store texts with audio-recorded read-along books, science equipment, and supplies.

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Mr. Avery attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Mr. Avery attended to? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Mr. Avery. Why? 5. How do you use the classroom environment and environmental print to support students’ attributes, strengths, cultures, etc.?

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EXCERPT #2 FROM SCIENCE SCENARIO Mr. Avery explains that the periodic table of elements is an important tool used in the science of chemistry and that today’s lesson will provide them with an introduction to its contents and organization. Distributing one language poster to each of the five table groups he explains, ‘‘Today we are going to discuss five elements. I want your group to use your assigned vocabulary poster to guide the discussion of your element. You will find the element name, its definition, an example of how the word could be used in a sentence, and a representation of the item. Discuss the card at your table. Share examples of where you see that element or how that element is used.’’ Each of the selected elements: aluminum, gold, silver, helium, and carbon was presented with an accompanying item(s) that the student could see and touch. For example, a piece of foil was affixed to the aluminum card; a souvenir nugget of gold, a Mexican peso coin for silver, a balloon for helium, and a piece of charcoal for carbon. Following the small-group team discussions, Mr. Avery had one member designated as the ‘‘reporter’’ verbally summarize the conversation at the table.

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Mr. Avery’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Mr. Avery attended to in this excerpt? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Mr. Avery. Why? 5. How do you integrate the learner information, cultures, and community in the classroom context?

EXCERPT #3 FROM SCIENCE SCENARIO As you can see, there are multiple ways for a periodic table to be organized. I’d like all of you to work together to create your own

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organizational plan for a periodic table. After my directions, I want the materials manager to come up here and grab one of these baggies for their team.’’ Holding up a baggie, he continues ‘‘In each of the bags you will find 92 different colored and sized pieces. These are actually paint sample cards that I was given at the hardware store on Elmhurst Street. Teams are to determine how these paint samples can be organized. The ‘builder’ in your team should be sorting and positioning the pieces. The ‘facilitator’ needs to keep everyone on track to ensure that all team member voices are heard. The ‘timekeeper’ needs to keep things moving as you have only 20 minutes to create your team plan. The ‘note-taker’ needs to observe and record key comments, questions or points of clarification that members are discussing so the ‘reporter’ will be ready to verbally synthesize the information to the whole class. Following those report-outs, each of you will use your science notebooks to summarize your plan. Please refer to the Steps to Summarizing chart on the wall to ensure that you adequately express the message of your team. I want to encourage you to refer to the summarizing scoring rubric to ensure you have a complete response.’’ Mr. Avery moves to the summary chart and reviews the key summarizing components that have been taught in students’ language arts classes and that are reinforced in all content classes: telling, describing, explaining, instructing, persuading, and recounting. ‘‘Alright, before the ‘materials managers’ begin to move, turn to your neighbor on your right and review the directions I’ve just given for this activity.’’

1. In what ways does this lesson excerpt reflect Mr. Avery’s attempt to operationalize culturally responsive pedagogy? 2. Using the organizational framework, what components do you think Mr. Avery attended to in this excerpt? Why? How? 3. Consider the logistics of implementing this lesson; what informationgathering, planning, and materials preparation may have occurred beforehand? 4. Consider what you would do differently from Mr. Avery. Why? 5. How do you scaffold to maximize students’ access to content and adapt instruction in the classroom context? A daily aim for every teacher is to establish and maintain a learning environment that fosters both effective and efficient instruction while

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maintaining and nurturing a positive social culture for students. Yes, it’s a juggling act as every minute of every hour teachers are faced with splitsecond decisions about what to say and do depending on what students are or are not doing. Throughout this book we have discussed the dimensions of classroom life as they are directly influenced by the social and cultural background of students. Our discussion of the varied components of culturally responsive pedagogy and accompanying exemplars is provided as a guide to illuminate recommended practices. Nonetheless, while our individual components are examined separately, there is significant overlap of the application of strategies in real classroom settings. We provide three additional forms as tools designed to scaffold further examination of the components by the reader (see Appendix A for Forms A, B, and C). For example, in the science lesson, Mr. Avery knew his learners and that knowledge helped him decide on grouping arrangements where he was then able to personalized the group roles in ways that allowed him to take full advantage of his students’ strengths and focus on their needs. While each of the components can be analyzed separately, a holistic scrutiny of how they overlap and complement each other is recommended. Forms A, B, and C are provided to aid teachers, staff developers, and administrators to more critically analyze the scenarios using the organizational framework of 12 components.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS IN THEIR JOURNEY TOWARDS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY Focused educational observation and mentoring of teachers’ professional development serve to promote excellence in instruction for all learners. Such support is essential if schools are to gain headway in preparing a predominantly monolingual European American teaching force to teach diverse student populations. With an emphasis on the collaborative nature of this direction of professional development, our hope is that teachers, teacher educators, and school administrators can come to understand that culturally responsive pedagogy is ‘‘at once a routine and a radical proposal’’ (Gay, 2010b, p. 26). Gay explains that it is routine in that it filters curriculum content and teaching strategies through the cultural frames of all students in order to make content meaningful for all students, not just European American middle-class students. Such has been the practice historically relevant to curriculum and content used with middle-class

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European Americans. It is long overdue for this routine to be in place for all learners in U.S. schools. Gay contends that culturally responsive pedagogy is radical because it moves from implicit to explicit the pivotal role of culture in teaching and learning, thereby placing full responsibility on educational institutions to accept the viability of ethnic-group cultures in improving student achievement and learning outcomes. Objective, differentiated observation instruments that can be used to guide and support teachers towards culturally responsive teaching are needed. In our work with teachers and school districts, we were called on to develop a customized guide focused on observing, supporting, and mentoring teachers’ professional activities towards addressing the needs of a diverse student population. After reviewing various observations tools, we developed an observation tool with the goal of operationalizing a school district’s diversity teaching standard (e.g., in statements such as: The teacher shall demonstrate competency in valuing and promoting understanding of diversity). Our collaboration resulted in the district administration adopting the observation tool which was piloted with district principals and teachers (Sobel, Taylor, & Anderson, 2003). Since then we adapted the tool and reported on a reliability study (Taylor & Sobel, 2007). Recently adapted once again to reflect a more complete perspective of culturally responsive pedagogy, we provide the Culturally Responsive Mentoring and Coaching Tool here with guidelines for ways teachers, teacher educators, and school administrators can use it to support teachers’ understandings and implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy (see Appendix B, Form D). Good teaching is responsive instruction in which teachers provide instructional strategies and curriculum consistent with students’ life experiences, prior knowledge, and frames of reference and filtered through students’ cultural lens. Effective teachers are effective for a variety of reasons. The Culturally Responsive Mentoring and Coaching Tool illustrates a variety of key elements of culturally responsive pedagogy, and supports discussion about:  preparations and information-gathering prior to planning and instruction;  decisions about curriculum, content, and selection of materials;  planning and rationale for defining language objectives and setting up the environment in the classroom;  providing social contexts for learning and language use, including grouping strategies;

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 using student information in the process of planning for scaffolding and instructional adaptations;  strategies for distributing the teachers’ attention equitably to all students;  checking students’ understandings and planning learning experiences that provide evidence of student understanding;  strategies for setting up classroom patterns and routines that support positive classroom management;  innovative and culturally responsive ways to connect with families, local culture, and the students’ community; and  continued personal and professional growth in the area of cultural awareness and culturally responsive pedagogy.

The Culturally Responsive Mentoring and Coaching Tool is not intended to be used in one setting but to be distributed across multiple settings. Ideally, each of the three parts is to be used as a stand-alone application, discussion, or coaching tool. For that matter, any individual item in the tool can be highlighted and serve as the focus for reflection and discussion. If the teacher is working with a mentor/coach, the pair ought to collaboratively determine which part(s) of the tool to use in one setting. In perusing the tool (see Appendix B, Form D), notice that Part 1 serves as a guide for the preliminary information-gathering and planning that occurs prior to a teacher’s planning and implementing a lesson. Elements of Part 1 include: gathering learner data, establishing the environment and environmental print in the classroom, curriculum considerations, and determining language objectives. Each of these four items can be discussed individually or collectively. We recommend starting with the individual learners and learner information as this data will significantly influence the teacher’s plans and decisions relevant to environment, curriculum implementation, and the language objective. Part 2 of Form D spans two pages and includes eleven items that highlight areas of the classroom environment, instruction, and classroom interactions. While Part 1 addresses environment from the planning perspective, Part 2 prompts observation and reflection of the realized environment as it functions to support teaching and learning. Discussion prompts also turn the teacher’s and mentor/coach’s attention to the ways social context and grouping strategies have been put in place to support students’ opportunities to interact, talk and confer. Teachers are encouraged to reflect on the extent to which the context supports interactions among heterogeneous groupings (students of different cultures mixed, students of different language abilities

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mixed, students of difference ability levels mixed, etc.). Other areas addressed in Part 2 include:  how content and/or instructional materials are presented from a cultural lens, perspective, or frame of reference that is relevant to the learners;  the ways content is made accessible to learners so that they can develop understandings they could not do independently;  strategies the teacher uses to distribute her/his attention equitably to all students;  the established routines or standards the teacher has for engaging students in a community of learning in positive and respectful ways; and,  the variety of ways and communication modes the teacher uses to interact with students; Part 3 of Form D provides four prompts to guide a conversation between mentor/coach and teacher. Question prompts address structures or activities the teacher currently has in place to encourage interactions across diverse cultural, language, or gender groups in the classroom. Many times students will need structures to support interactions across cultural or language groups. Knowing the strong indicator that parent involvement has on student achievement and successful experience in school, teachers are asked to reflect on their efforts to welcome parents and community members into the classroom, including building rapport with parents and families of the students in their classroom. Many urban schools and communities are often viewed from deficit perspectives, created by stereotypical images of students, their families and communities. Therefore, understanding the connections that the community has to the schools gives a teacher a more holistic view of students, their cultures, and the knowledge they bring to the classroom (Sleeter, 2001). Maximizing the community provides opportunities for teachers to examine the student’s world outside the context of the classroom, giving teachers the opportunity to discover and explore the cultural assets that exist within their students’ local communities. Understanding that culturally responsive pedagogy is a philosophy grounding one’s approach to teaching, we encourage teachers and mentor/coaches to discuss the activities, learning experiences, professional development or readings that have peaked the teacher’s interest and knowledge of principles of equity. An especially valuable discussion will be how these experiences have increased the participants’ understandings about their attitudes and beliefs regarding culturally responsive planning for student achievement. As a final important point, we strongly encourage the teacher and mentor/coach to reflect on and articulate the explicit goals and

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plans which they both have for advancing their personal and professional growth in the area of culturally responsive pedagogy.

CONCLUSION Teachers who are knowledgeable about the ways behavior, language, learning and teaching are culturally bound, gain insights and question how and why their own cultural frames of reference might contribute towards them misinterpreting students’ interactions, communications and expectations. They come to understand that when teachers and students bring differing, sometimes conflicting, cultural experiences into the classroom, there is the possibility of cultural incongruence. When teachers recognize the ways culture influences how one thinks, believes and behaves, they begin to understand how culture affects their own teaching and learning as well as their expectations about teaching, learning and classroom interactions. Culture is at the center of all we do in education. Understanding how culture can manifest itself in the classroom context is an important step for educators to take towards comprehending the ways cultural incongruence can influence a learner’s academic achievement. As we bring closure to this journey, we are challenged to look critically at what we are doing relevant to culturally responsive pedagogy—in our own teaching as well as our work in teacher education. We call on you to access the professional development resources provided in this text towards the goal of teaching in ways that genuinely reflect that your students’ lives matter. Each of us must be a part of making a difference. A caring, competent, and qualified teacher for every child is the most important ingredient in education reform. — National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (1996)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 1. Work your way through using the Organizational Framework (Chapters Six and Eleven) by selecting one or two components on which to focus. Using information from a selected classroom, examine the ways and the extent to which the teacher has organized classroom instruction and the environment to support pedagogy that is culturally responsive.

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2. Using Form A, provided in the Appendix A, revisit one of the three scenarios provided in Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten. Examine the scenario using the Organizational Framework, and reflect on the ways in which and the extent to which each component was implemented by the classroom teacher. Then place a ‘‘X’’ in the cell of the component implemented in the focus scenario. 3. Using Form B, compare and contrast your responses with the authors’ responses. What are one or two examples of ways the teacher has implemented each component? Take time to discuss these examples along with any discrepancies between your responses and those of the authors. 4. Using Form C, focus on one scenario and review the exemplars noted for the implementation of each component. To what extent do you agree that the exemplars identified in Form C illustrate an application of the components articulated in the Organizational Framework? What additional exemplars of the components did you notice being implemented in the scenario? 5. What ideas do you have for extending any one of the three scenarios and enhancing the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy in the lesson? 6. Examine the Culturally Responsive Mentoring and Coaching Tool (Form D, Appendix B). Understand that the authors’ intent for the tool has multiple applications. Review Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the form, and select one part that is a relevant area of focus for your current context and needs. Taking the perspective of a teacher, gather information and articulate a response relevant to the teacher’s classroom context. Taking the perspective of an administrator or staff developer, identify specific items and consider options for supporting teachers understanding and growth around culturally responsive pedagogy.

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APPENDICES

Photo 5.

A street sign welcoming all who enter.

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APPENDIX A. FORM A. IDENTIFYING EXEMPLARS OF COMPONENTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK Directions: Place an ‘‘X’’ in the column of the classroom teaching scenario indicating a corresponding example of a component that was used.

Components 1. Learner considerations 2. Environment and environmental print 3. Curriculum considerations 4. Language objective 5. Social context for learning/grouping strategies 6. Content/instructional materials 7. Scaffolding/instructional adaptations 8. Distribution of attention 9. Checking for understanding/ evidence of student understanding 10. Classroom behavior/managing the classroom 11. Connecting with family, community, local culture 12. Teacher’s personal/professional growth

Literacy Mathematics Science

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APPENDIX A. FORM B. EXEMPLARS OF COMPONENTS PRESENT IN CLASSROOM TEACHING SCENARIOS Authors’ responses to corresponding examples of components addressed in the organizational framework that were used in the classroom teaching scenarios.

Components

Literacy Mathematics Science

1. Learner considerations

X

X

X

2. Environment and environmental print 3. Curriculum considerations

X X

X X

X X

4. Language objective 5. Social context for learning/grouping strategies

X X

X

6. Content/instructional materials 7. Scaffolding/instructional adaptations

X

X X

X X

X

X X

8. Distribution of attention 9. Checking for understanding/evidence of student understanding 10. Classroom behavior/managing the classroom 11. Connecting with family, community, local culture 12. Teacher’s personal/professional growth

X X

X X

X

X

X

 MVP award activity  Summarizing chart   Content read-aloud activities profiling scientists from diverse backgrounds 

 ‘‘Math Central’’  Photographs of math in the community    

 Use of name sticks to determine heterogeneous teams    Commercially purchased and teacher-made resources—international currency, flash cards with translated directions 

 Class quilt  Class chant  Friendship activities 

 Multicultural children’s literature  Story map elements 

 Posted and aligned with lesson standard



  

2. Environment and environmental print

3. Curriculum considerations

4. Language objective

5. Social context for learning/ grouping strategies

6. Content/instructional materials

 Language cards augmented by real objects  Varied examples of periodic tables   

 Strategically assigned cooperative learning roles maximize student strengths and needs 

 Profile of class 

Science

 Profile of class 

Mathematics

 Profile of class

Literacy

1. Learner considerations

Components

APPENDIX A. FORM C. SAMPLING OF EXEMPLARS IMPLEMENTED IN CLASSROOM SCENARIOS 228 TEACHING LIKE OUR STUDENTS’ LIVES MATTER

 Differentiated, folders holding problems of varied difficulty matched to students’ ability levels  Transparency, sentence starter, and writing prompts posters to support written responses     Explain personal strategy using a community example  Self-assessment  Student conference  

 Photographs of the local community   Reflects on the mismatch of hers and student’s background  

 Listening center  Questioning and wait-time provided to individuals.



 Options for student feedback  Completion of story map and personal descriptors 

 Clear expectations for center work  Options for other work if time allows 

 ‘‘Exploring our own cultures, families, and stories’’ activity 

 Reflect on the language, customs, and cultural frames of references of her students 

7. Scaffolding/instructional adaptations

8. Distribution of attention

9. Checking for understanding/ evidence of student understanding

10. Classroom behavior/ managing the classroom

11. Connecting with family, community, local culture

12. Teacher’s personal/ professional growth

 Reflects on learning a new language  

 Paint sample cards from a local store 

 Cooperative learning roles embedded in activity expectations 

 Written responses  Turn-to-a-partner  Rubrics  

 Strategic questions 

 Use of the ‘‘back story’’ technique

Appendices 229

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APPENDIX B. FORM D. OBSERVATION TOOL TO MENTOR/SUPPORT CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE MENTORING AND COACHING TOOL Guidelines for using this tool: The authors intend for this comprehensive tool be used in multiple applications. Any of the three parts can be used for a stand-alone discussion or coaching interaction. Together, the mentor/coach and the teacher collaboratively determine which part(s) of the tool to use in one setting. Part 1 serves as a guide for preliminary information-gathering and planning that occurs prior to planning and implementing the lesson. Elements included in Part 1 can be discussed collectively or individually. We recommend starting with the learners and learner information as this will significantly influence plans and decisions relevant to environment, curriculum implementation, and the language objective. Part 2 highlights classroom environment, instruction, and interactions (items #5 to 16) Part 3 provides four items to guide conversations between mentor/coach and teacher.

Appendices

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PART 1: THE LEARNER, ENVIRONMENT, CURRICULUM, AND LANGUAGE

1. Identify the following background information for each student: a. Name, age, gender, grade, family members at home, home context b. Native language, primary culture, racial/ethnic background c. Previous experience with school, literacy and learning, academic success d. Self-esteem, attitudes towards reading and school, preferences for learning e. Background knowledge, broad cultural background, lived experiences f. Prioritized language objective(s), academic and/or behavior objective(s) 2. Consider ways to design the environment in order to create a context that signals a valuing of diverse cultures and perspectives; a commitment to equity; and a community of learners. Consider ways to utilize the environment and environmental print as an additional teacher to reinforce student learning in active ways. 3. Consider ways to implement the curriculum in a way that is meaningful to the current learners; present content through their cultural filter, life experiences, local culture, cultural legacies, and/or contributions of individuals from students’ primary cultures. 4. What language forms and functions are characteristic of the particular subject content or integrated in the upcoming learning experience?

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PART 2: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION 5. Describe the classroom environment and/or environmental print displayed about the room. How does the environment create a context that signals a valuing of a community of learners; diverse cultures, perspectives, and needs; a commitment to equity? How does the environment serve as an additional ‘‘teacher’’ to reinforce student learning in active ways? 6. Use this graphic as an example of a way to sketch the room with attention to the environment, design of groupings, arrangements to support social contexts for student learning and interactions (on a larger paper if necessary).

BACK OF ROOM

What conclusions would you draw from this arrangement?

FRONT OF ROOM

7. Describe the social context for learning and grouping strategies that support students’ opportunities to interact, talk, and confer. To what extent to does the context support interactions among heterogeneous groupings (students of different cultures mixed, students of different language abilities mixed, students of difference ability levels mixed, etc.). 8. Describe specific content and/or instructional materials that are presented from a cultural lens, perspective or frame of reference that is relevant to the learners and illustrates a valuing and promoting of cultural responsiveness (i.e., multicultural literature, realia, manipulatives). 9. What are ways the teacher is making content accessible to learners so that they can develop understandings they could not do independently? Integrating students’ preferred learning strategies? Building instruction on specific strengths or needs of particular students? Adapting the lesson for individual students?

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Appendices

Student

Explicit examples of scaffolding or adaptation

Rate items #10 to 14 on a scale of 1 to 3 using the scale noted below. 1=little evidence observed; 2=some evidence observed; 3=strong evidence observed 10. Teacher distributes his/her attention to all students.

1

2

3

Comments:

11. Teacher attends to students in a manner that demonstrates respect for students’ diverse abilities and experiences.

1

2

3

Comments:

12. Teacher checks understanding of each student to demonstrate understanding of given concept or to carry out expected task (using formative assessment, observation, checklist, etc.).

1

2

3

Comments:

13. Teacher makes instructional content relevant, to students’ prior knowledge or life experiences or cultural lens.

1

2

3

Comments:

14. Teacher has established routines or standards for students engage in a community of learning in positive and respectful ways.

1

2

3

Comments:

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15. Teacher interacts with students in a variety of ways and communication modes. Highlight one to three students and record the number and types of interactions the teacher has with each student. Tally the specific teacher comments and interactions directed towards each student.

Praise

Question

Feedback

Direction Giving

Redirection

Other

Teacher interaction Student name 1. 2. 3.

16. Focus on a small grouping of students or those students clustered at a center. Describe the types of student to student and student to teacher interactions you observe during a 5- to 10-minute time period.

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PART 3: CONVERSATION PROMPTS 17. Describe specific structures or activities in place to encourage interactions across diverse cultural, language, or gender groups in the classroom. 18. What are concrete examples of efforts you have used to illustrate ways you have welcomed parents and community members into the classroom, and built rapport with parents and families of the students in your classroom? Which efforts have brought you the results you were hoping for? Why? 19. What are examples of ways you have engaged in activities, learning experiences, professional development, readings, or other that demonstrates your interest and commitment to principles of equity? How have these experiences increased your understandings regarding the teacher attitude and beliefs about culturally responsive planning for student achievement? 20. What are explicit goals and plans you have for advancing your personal and professional growth in the area of culturally responsive pedagogy?

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APPENDIX C. COMPILED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION Chapters

Questions for Reflection

Foreword

NONE

One Current Challenges and Frameworks

1. Select a school district and one school within the district as your focus. Locate and examine demographic data for the student population in the district. To what extent do the student demographics reflect the larger community demographics where the district is located? 2. Locate and examine demographic data for the student population at one school of interest. Compare and contrast the district demographics with the demographics of the school’s student population. What trends do you observe? To what extent does the school demographic data match the district demographic data? Which demographic data are similar between the district and school, and which are different? Develop a rationale for why the similarities and differences between district demographics and the school demographics may exist. 3. Consider teacher demographics at the school context. Which demographic factors do the teachers share in common with the students in that school? Which factors contrast between teachers and students? 4. Reflect on and list the funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 1994) that students in this classroom bring with them to the school context. Consider students’ life experiences and practices, areas of resilience, strengths, and broad abilities as you develop this list. In what ways might students’ personal and cultural resources—in essence their funds of knowledge—connect to curricular concepts and

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Appendices

Chapters

Questions for Reflection provide real-world examples of curricular concepts applied within their daily life? 5. Consider the behavioral and communication practices expected of students attending this school of interest. How are students expected to enter the building? The classroom? How are students expected to pass from class to class? What are the expectations around communication and interpersonal interaction between students and teacher? How are students expected to ask questions, relay personal connections with content, and demonstrate their understandings in class? To what extent do these school and classroom expectations reveal students’ strengths, broad abilities, and funds of knowledge experienced in their home and daily lives?

Two Theoretical Frameworks and Research

1. As you reflect on the various conceptualizations of culture presented in Chapter Two, select the descriptors and features of culture that resonate with your view of culture. 2. What is your definition of culture? Develop a preliminary draft of your own definition of culture and discuss it with a friend or colleague. Describe the process you went through to determine the features of culture included in the definition. 3. Explain the ways culture influences your perspective on family, learning, teaching, schooling, and success. 4. Compare and contract your definition and view on culture with the broad values, beliefs, behaviors and norms recognized as central to the societal dominant ‘‘mainstream’’ culture.

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Questions for Reflection 5. Examine and discuss the underlying assumptions presented in Chapter Two. Construct your own set of assumptions about culture, learning, the learner, language, literacy, education, and equity.

Three Contextualizing Student Achievement and Teacher Education

1. Collect the most recent available data on students’ reading achievement scores distributed across racial/ethnic groups and for English language learners at the school of interest. Examine these data for distinguishing features and trends. 2. Collect the most recent available data on students’ mathematics achievement scores distributed across racial/ethnic groups and for English language learners at the school of interest. Examine these data for distinguishing features and trends. 3. With respect to English language learners’ data, inquire about the type, amount, and duration of ESL services these students receive. For those students no longer receiving ESL services, investigate when ELL students were transitioned out of ESL support services. Compare and contrast these findings with trends you noted in students’ reading and mathematics achievement scores. 4. What type of teacher education program are you affiliated with, or did you experience in your teacher preparation? Describe the coursework, readings, and learning experiences used by this program to prepare teachers for a diverse student population, in particular English language learners. To what extent and in what areas did these experiences prepare you to teach a diverse student population?

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Chapters

Questions for Reflection 5. What do you know about the cultures represented in the student population at the school of interest? Identify the cultural knowledge you have about the three to four predominant racial/ethnic/cultural groups represented in the school of interest. List the values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms held by each of these groups. 6. Consider and articulate what you know or can learn about the cultures’ patterns of communication and interactions including how questions are asked and answered. Discuss and reflect on your findings relevant to the possible ways these students’ cultures may influence their learning experiences at the school of interest.

Four Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: The Stance from Professional Organizations

1. What professional development resources would you suggest be used to support all teachers in working with students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire? 2. What supports will school administrators and staff developers need to enhance professional development processes to improve instruction for students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire? 3. Administer a tool such as Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment Guide for Culturally Responsive Practice. What do the results of such a self-assessment reveal about your schools’ ability to ensure equitable access to and meaningful participation in quality educational opportunities for individuals with exceptionalities?

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Chapters Five Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: National and State-Levels

Questions for Reflection 1. What financial incentives are available or already exist within your educational community (state level, district level) to support the development of innovative programs that enhance the knowledge base about evidencebased practices, and scale up those practices to improve the achievement for students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire? 2. What supports will school administrators and staff developers need to implement evaluation processes (e.g., daily progress monitoring, running records, etc.) that improve student instruction? 3. How might the increased interest and mandates to use formative and summative student achievement data inform the realities of the teacher workday? How will insights from collaborative data meetings inform teachers planning? How might meetings be structured? How might teacher evaluation processes be tied to teachers analyzing and using student data? 4. What recruitment strategies does your educational community use to secure highly qualified teachers of students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and ELL learners? 5. What instructional strategies would you suggest be used to support all teachers (across content and grade levels) who have English language learners in their classrooms?

Six

1. What reasons led you to choose education as your profession? What interests and life experiences influenced your choice of an area of

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Chapters Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Effective Teaching

Questions for Reflection specialization and the age group of learners you currently teach? What are your goals and commitments towards each student’s future? 2. Consider the racial/ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, socioeconomic factors—to mention a few—that have significantly influenced the groups with whom you identify. What practices and values of each of these groups influence your perspectives on life and your cultural identity? 3. Using Howard’s (2006) overview on stages of racial identity development that is grounded in Helm’s (1994) approach, study each of the six stages then examine your own life experiences and racial development. Prepare a written narrative regarding your journey and reflections as you determined your stage of development according to Helm’s framework. 4. As you focus on a school context of interest, focus on a group of students in one classroom. Consider and list the life experiences, abilities, and funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 1994) that these students bring to the school context, especially students from diverse backgrounds, students with diverse needs, and students adding English to their linguistic repertoire. What are students’ interests and after school activities? In what contexts or activities are students’ abilities and strengths revealed? In what ways do students apply their interests and life experiences to concepts taught in the school curriculum? In what ways could curricular concepts be linked with students’ interests, life experiences, and cultural heritage? 5. Consider students in this classroom, who come to school with a repertoire of languages or

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Chapters

Questions for Reflection language variations. What are the students’ abilities in their native language and in English, if their native language is different from English? To what extent are the students bilingual and biliterate? In what ways and in which contexts do students use their linguistic repertoire in school and outside of the school context? What types of structures could be employed in the classroom to support a social context that fosters students’ development of language and thought through dyad, small group, and whole group interactions? 6. Reflect on the classroom of interest, what aspects of the classroom environment and displays signal a valuing of diverse perspectives, a variety of cultures, and a community of learners? In what ways does the classroom environment function as an additional ‘‘teacher’’ or reinforcement of student learning?

Seven Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: District and School Levels

1. Collect/review similar demographic and program data focused on ‘‘broad cultural diversity’’ of students, families, and faculty/staff that we have presented in this chapter. What are the current demographics and context of your school and district? 2. Examine your district and school mission statements. How do those missions complement each other? How do they differ? Identify examples of how those missions regarding broad cultural diversity are realized in your school. 3. Consider the ways that academic supports vary across school districts and individual schools. How do support programs and interventions in academic courses vary among K-12 schools in your area?

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Questions for Reflection 4. Identify three to five ways that you communicate with parents and families. Which of your practices have been most effective especially with family members whose native language is different from the language spoken at school? What are ways to enhance your communications with parents and families? 5. Look closely at possible examples of access inequities. How do you help families access school and district resources when they do not have computer or Internet access?

Eight Grade 3 Literacy Lesson with a Culturally Responsive Focus

1. What are examples of literature that you are or can incorporate into a lesson that supports students in understanding the pluralism of today’s world, respect the diversity of today’s society, and see themselves in a positive light? 2. Building on the ‘‘Friendship’’ activities that Ms. Ruı´ z incorporates into her classroom, what sorts of things do you do to encourages learners to find value in looking for their commonalities and differences? 3. How is attention distributed in your classroom? How do you refer to the students in your classroom? Are first names, last names, or nicknames used, how often? Are whole group references to ‘‘ladies and gentleman’’ or ‘‘third graders’’ or ‘‘readers and writers’’ used? Taperecord a typical lesson, then play back that tape and tally who was called on, for what, and in what way. What does that distribution of attention reveal and what will you do differently based on those results? 4. As a youth, were there students from a range of cultural, racial/ethnic, or religious backgrounds, or students learning a second language or

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Chapters

Questions for Reflection students with special needs in your classroom? How were those students treated? In what ways did those students see themselves reflected in the literature used in the classroom?

Nine Grade 5 Mathematics Lesson with a Culturally Responsive Focus

1. As a youth, what were your educational experiences in a math class? What were some of your most positive learning experiences in a math class and what were some of your most challenging learning experiences? 2. Do you have a favorite teacher from your early years in school? If so, what was it about that teacher that attached you to him/her? How has knowing that individual affected you? 3. What is an example of a lesson in which you used the student’s family culture to differentiate for that student? 4. What is one of your most successful math lessons? What could be done to enhance the lesson making it more responsive to your students’ broad cultural backgrounds? 5. Technological advances have changed learning in many of today’s classrooms. With Ms. Jennings’s classroom in mind, imagine that 12 of those 29 students have home computers. How would you plan for parent/family communication and homework expectations? 6. How do you plan using cooperative learning arrangements? Consider how you might enhance your practices with specific recommended resources from The Essential Elements of Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (ERIC Digest, http:// www.eric.edu.gov/PDFS/ED370881.pdf).

Ten

1. Consider how Mr. Avery checks for students’ understanding. How is the use of checks for

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Chapters Grade 9 Science Lesson with a Culturally Responsive Focus

Questions for Reflection understanding reflected in your current teaching practices? 2. Describe a teacher that you most highly admire. Describe the things he/she does that are culturally responsive. 3. Consider how you build relationships and a sense of community in the classroom. How do you show your students that their abilities, interests, and cultures are valued? 4. Consider how issues of positive behavior supports are managed in your selected school. Begin by identifying a classroom rule or procedure that truly benefits students as opposed to one that is primarily reflective of the teacher’s historical practices. What are different ways classroom freedom is encouraged without infringing on the rights of other students? What is an example of a specific intervention that has helped the student learn better, as opposed to just eliminating the disruptive behavior?

Eleven Mentoring and Supporting Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices

1. Work your way through using the Organizational Framework (Chapters Six and Eleven) by selecting one or two components on which to focus. Using information from a selected classroom, examine the ways and the extent to which the teacher has organized classroom instruction and the environment to support pedagogy that is culturally responsive. 2. Using Form A provided in the Appendix A, revisit one of the three scenarios provided in Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten. Examine the scenario using the Organizational Framework, and reflect on the ways and the extent to which each component was implemented by the classroom teacher, and place a ‘‘X’’ in the cell of the component implemented in the focus scenario.

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Questions for Reflection 3. Using Form B, compare and contrast your responses with the authors’ responses. What are 1 to 2 examples of ways the teacher has implemented each component? Take time to discuss these examples along with any discrepancies between your responses and those of the authors. 4. Using Form C, focus on one scenario and review the exemplars noted for the implementation of each component. To what extent do you agree with these exemplars matching with the components? What additional exemplars did you notice having been implemented in the scenario? 5. What ideas do you have for extending any one of the three scenarios and enhancing the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy in the lesson? 6. Examine the Culturally Responsive Mentoring and Coaching Tool (Form D in Appendix B). Understand that the authors intent for the tool has multiple applications. Review parts 1, 2, and 3 and select one part that is a relevant area of focus for your current context and needs. From the perspective of a teacher gather information and articulate a response relevant to the teacher’s classroom context. From the perspective of an administrator or staff developer, identify specific items, and consider options for supporting teachers understanding and growth around culturally responsive pedagogy.